MAZDA’S fourth-generation Mazda2 has arrived in Australia with a mission to become the best-selling light car under $25,000 in 2015.

It’s not an easy task given how fiercely competitive the segment is. Accounting for close to 10 per cent of the passenger car market’s total sales, it is populated by sharply priced vehicles, many of them entry models targeted at younger buyers.

The previous-generation Mazda2 won the light-car sales title in 2011 and 2013, but having launched seven years ago it was long in the tooth and struggling to fight off quality rivals in the form of Toyota’s Yaris and the current market leader – Hyundai’s i20.

So here it is, Mazda’s renewed attack with an all-new car, plus the price has been dropped with the entry level Neo variant starting from $14,990, plus on-road costs for the manual version and $16,990 for the auto.

Above the Neo sits the Maxx and the range topping Genki which were the two cars Mazda gave to us to test drive at the local launch on the Gold Coast recently.

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