Auto123 testimonials the 2021 Mazda CX-3.

It’s not each day you start out out producing a car or truck assessment and conclude up producing a eulogy. Very well, a partial eulogy, anyway. If at any time there was these a detail.

However nowadays, that is what I’m doing since as I produce this and by the time you go through it, you may perhaps have viewed the announcement that the Mazda CX-3 will be discontinued in the US just after the 2021 product year. It will however soldier on in Canada, however, despite the fact that if you want a single you could want to shift on that before long, since who knows how very long it will be ahead of our market place falls into line with our neighbours down south. And just after driving it for a week (in addition to various other chances in excess of the many years), I would say you could pretty properly want a single.

Mazda pulling the plug on the minimal CX-3 in the US comes as minimal surprise. It’s the fate that befell the CX-seven a quick time just after the CX-five arrived (and promptly became the brand’s bestseller in Canada). So as before long as the new – and pretty very good – CX-30 arrived, the CX-3’s times became numbered. And but, it is proving unkillable in Canada in the quick time period! Recall that the car or truck with which the CX-3 shared lots of of its elements, the Mazda2, disappeared from Canada in 2015, and but the CX-3 survived that. And so it does now, even however it is a goner down south. For that, you can thank the model’s healthy product sales performance in the Good White North.

Drive a single and its hardiness is easier to have an understanding of.

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2021 Mazda CX-3, profile

The Mazda2 was a fun, very affordable and affable minimal pocket rocket and that DNA was transferred to the CX-3, except the CX-3 acquired the benefit of AWD – which, as it comes about, can be had for a paltry $27,881 in Canada for the GS AWD. The CX-3 starts at $23,531 in base GX FWD sort my tester is the top rated-spec GT AWD, which comes typical with AWD and will run you $33,331. That receives you niceties like Bose top quality audio, 18-inch wheels, leather upholstery, navigation, 10-way ability driver’s seat and Sirius satellite radio.

How they managed to jam all that AWD operating equipment into these a modest blueprint is a testament to good packaging, specially when you look at that the entrance seating space is high-quality even for taller people like me. On the other hand, the back seat is cramped and in the cargo area you will not in good shape substantially extra than a hockey bag (and probably not even if you’re a goalie).

But this is a subcompact crossover and you are not buying a single if you plan on hauling a household of four on the common. Instead, you’re buying a single if you need to have a feisty minimal runabout about town during the week, and a responsible companion if the streets get a minimal rougher in excess of the class of the weekend.

Which is since the CX-3 takes advantage of a correct, predictive AWD system. Due to the fact there’s constantly a minimal little bit of ability remaining despatched to the rear wheels, they are completely ready to phase in in an fast to get motorists out of slippery (or sticky) scenarios. It’s a high-quality piece if engineering that showed the CX-3 was not just a little bit player in the subcompact AWD entire world when it debuted for the 2016 product year.

2021 Mazda CX-3, front

It looked very good previously back then, but back then they did not offer you this paint job, and it is a very good a single so the CX-3 looks truly good. The colour is known as “Polymetal Grey Metallic” and although I have no concept what a “polymetal” is, it does not truly subject since darned if it does not glance a piece right here, specially when paired with two-tone multi-spoke wheel and twin tailpipes. This infant is a looker – fantastic stance, too – even however it has not truly been altered all that substantially in the stylistic sense considering that its debut.

Which is high-quality, but the detail is, the CX-3 has not altered substantially – properly, at all – in the mechanical sense possibly. For 2021, it however tends to make use of the same 2.0L four-cylinder it constantly has and however tends to make 148 hp and 146 lb-ft of torque. These figures are rather substantially the same as what they’ve constantly been, give or get a single or two ponies.

This is not a no huge detail, necessarily, contemplating that the CX-3 only weighs 1,355 kg in AWD sort (there’s an FWD offered as properly). That means that even with all those modest ability figures, the 6-speed automatic (with paddle shifters!) and the motor operate properly in sync collectively, metering out the ability properly and acquiring it to the wheels and the street in a relatively brisk fashion. The car or truck even appears a minimal intense when you truly get on it, which caught me by surprise even however I’d pushed the product ahead of.

The detail about the CX-3 is that like so lots of other Mazdas, it is not truly about the ability. Right after all, this is a manufacturer that however builds a little rear-wheel-push roadster the likes of which we truly do not see from any other manufacturer, everywhere. That car’s not that potent, possibly – tends to make rarely any extra torque than does the CX-3, since it truly does not need to have to – but the crucial factors are the managing, precision steering and chassis fidelity.

You come across some of all those characteristics when you push the CX-3 as properly. It’s a nimble handler with fantastic steering experience and response, system roll is held to a minimum amount thanks to some good suspension tuning and it is commonly a pleasure – and rewarding – to pilot this cutest of ‘utes.

2021 Mazda CX-3, three-quarters rear

2021 Mazda CX-3, a few-quarters rear

On the other hand, it does present its age in places. For occasion: there’s no auto climate regulate, just a row of large, ungainly analogue knobs the heads-up display screen is reflected off a panel that looks constructed from plexiglass and sits perched atop the gauge hood and the infotainment system is a rather lo-fi affair with tame graphics and the way your scroll as a result of every thing is not that intuitive. Head you, virtually each Mazda in Canada receives that system, with just the Mazda3 and – you guessed it – the CX-30 now acquiring a newer established-up in our market place.

There is however wi-fi Apple CarPlay, however, which is where I finished up expending most of my time and the way you can keep all your favorite radio stations – no subject the band – in a single menu, accessed by a single button, is a aspect that I’d like to see in extra cars nowadays.

To be trustworthy, there are a stunning quantity of matters the CX-3 does properly that I’d like to see on extra cars nowadays – its steering, its looks, and just the way it manages to faucet in to a variety of intangibility that indicates you’re driving a car or truck that is extra than the sum of its elements, nonetheless previous stated elements may perhaps be.

So get ‘em although they’re hot!

2021 Mazda CX-3, interior

2021 Mazda CX-3, inside

We like

Enjoyment-to-push component
Able AWD
Appears to be like
    
We like a lot less

Aged infotainment
Restricted rear seat, modest cargo space
    
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2021 Mazda CX-3, rear

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