By EWAN KENNEDY
17 July 2006

Mazda has pushed further forward in the safety field with the introduction of a mid-life update of its popular Mazda3 sedan and hatch. At the same time it has listened to earlier criticisms on noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) and has made significant changes to improve these important factors.

But first let's look at the most important feature of all in the success of the Mazda3 in Australia – its styling. The looks of the ‘3 are sensationally right so the stylists have wisely been wary of making too many changes in this mid-life facelift.

Indeed, only experts on the car are likely to notice the revisions to the shape of the bumpers and the radiator grille. The taillights on the complete range now share the same black-out treatment we first saw on the sporting SP23.

There are different designs of wheels or wheel covers. The choice of colours has also been revised, call into your local Mazda dealer to have a look at the bright new range.

Inside, there are greater changes, with changes to the trim style and colour. The most noticeable difference is the use of white faces on the instruments instead of the black on the first model Mazda3.

Mazda Australia has been at the forefront of a push to safety for some time now. In the first series cars it installed ABS either as standard on the more expensive variants, or as an extra cost option on all other models. Now it has fitted ABS to all cars in the ‘3 range irrespective of price.

Pushing the safety story further, an advanced electronic stability program, Mazda calls its system DSC, is now installed on the topline model, the Mazda3 SP23 Luxury and is a $1000 option on Maxx, Maxx Sport and the standard SP23. Note that on the lowest-cost model, the Mazda3 Neo, there’s an optional safety pack consisting of side airbags and DSC for $1830.

To reduce NVH, the body of the Mazda3 has been made more rigid in selected areas; there are also changes to the suspension settings, the tyre design as well as the fitment of additional under-bonnet and under-roof sound-deadening materials.

The result is that the new Mazda3 is noticeably improved on the road. Mazda Australia invited us to the press launch out of Melbourne. It set a drive program that involved quite a few rough roads of the type that could have created noise and vibration hassles on the original ‘3. The new car is noticeably quieter and rides well in a smooth and sophisticated manner.

On-road handling has benefited from the added rigidity and the small Mazda corners with a minimum of body roll, yet absorbs bumps and dips nicely. Coarse-chip surfaces no longer create the racket that plagued the earlier models at times.

Incidentally, Mazda says that fitting the new tyres to one of the original Mazda3s will result is slightly less road-roar but that the differences are hard to quantify.

Changes to the engine have lowered the fuel consumption without any obvious changes to the way they perform. Both the 2.0 and 2.3-litre unit we tested were smooth and responsive and happy to rev to the upper reaches of the tachometer.

Mazda has had global sales success with the Mazda3 virtually since day one and it’s the cornerstone of the company’s position as number-one importer to Australia. Having seen the attention paid to improving the car for the second phase of its career it’s not hard to see from where that global success has come.

The 2006 Mazda3 range with prices (excluding on-road costs) is:

Neo: $20,990 (manual), $22,990 (automatic)

Maxx: $25,500 (manual), $27,500 (automatic)

Maxx Sport: $26,500(manual), $28,500 (automatic)

SP23: $29,600(manual), $31,860 (automatic)