I hate to get all on you Freudian here, but I’m going to.
When it comes to the 2012 Mazda 3, this thing is more at home on a chaise lounge than on the mountain roads I just plummeted through. It’s deliciously psychoanalytic.
The pleasure principle, described by Sigmund Freud, maximizes immediate gratifiaction while minimizing pain — or something. (I only had a couple of semesters of psychology in school, so the details are lost in a haze of electives.) Its counterpart, the reality principal, underscores the need for delayed gratification, even at the cost of pain.
The superseding argument here is the Mazda 3 is both delayed and instant gratification, and is clearly enough to write Freud a new prescription to visit a talking doctor in 2012.
Let me back off the psychoanalytic cliff for a moment.
The Mazda 3 is a head-trip in its elemental idea: How can one make a car that conforms to new fuel-regulations without mimicking the effects of a heavy dose of Valium? The resulting script is a light, nimble chassis, frugal engine and computer controls that wring mileage returns from every nut and bolt like Johnny 5 meets Warren Buffet.
Mazda brought its SkyActiv technology stateside in May to meet head-on increased demand and regulatory persuasion for fuel-efficient sedans. Carmakers split into camps when it all came down, hybrid vs. non-hybrid, like the sea parted by Moses himself. Mazda heeded the non-electron calling, knowing well that its Mazda 3 provided an athletic chassis for them to draw a new future for the mass-consumption automaker.
To start, the Mazda 3 was an ideal first patient. The exterior features and styling were still popular even after nearly a decade of being on the market. The Mazda 3’s body style was among the first to roll out with a high trunk line, aggressive belt line and a low nose that made the car look like a dart plunging in and out of corners.
I liked the Mazda 3 so much that I had one — for a short time — and the car straddled well the line of looking contemporary without being painfully vanguard. That car drew comparisons to a small BMW, which at the time, was high-praise for a car that cost nearly one-third less to buy.
Perhaps that’s why the exterior of the 2012 Mazda 3 is instantly recognizable to anyone who has seen a Mazda in the last decade. The nose has changed slightly since 2003, albeit to the dissatisfaction to some, and the rest of the body has evolved more as a “knife cutting through air” rather than a “Silly Putty ball plummeting down the road.” Points there.
A quick aside about that nose: When Mazda unveiled the second- generation Mazda 3 in 2009, many people said the front looked too much like a face, smiling down the road. Those grille and intake port features have been toned down in 2012. Freud may call that “personification,” but I call it “market research.”
The news here though isn’t really about what’s on the outside though. New for 2012, the Mazda 3 is the benefactor of the aforementioned SkyActiv technology. What that means for the powertrain is a direct-injection 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and a new automatic transmission with retuned torque converter to increase fuel efficiency and maximize dorkiness when you’re describing it to your in-laws.
The whole engine itself is only 4.5 lbs. lighter than the outgoing engine, but the changes to it can best be classified as “a ton.” The new engine features multi-hole injectors to move gas and air into redesigned piston cavities that combust fuel quicker and more efficiently. If you’re really a glutton for punishment, you can even read encyclopedia-sized volumes on the Mazda 3’s new sequential valve timing too.
What all those changes under the hood net are a 5 percent increase in power and a 10 percent boost in torque, 148 and 135 respectively.
But those numbers matter little when compared to two other numbers that Mazda would like you to remember: 28/40. That’s the EPA rating for city/highway driving that the new engine returns in the real world.
So how does it feel? Well, that’s subjective in a way that even Freud couldn’t comprehend.
The Mazda 3 feels light and agile in beat ‘em up driving routines. And even though the car has been preprogrammed like a Terminator to destroy mileage expectations, the Mazda 3 is wildly fun to drive.
Our test car, equipped with the SkyActiv engine and six-speed automatic transmission, feels firmly planted to the road in every
respect.
One of the car’s most attractive features in 2003 was its drivability, which thankfully remained in tact. The car accelerates from 0-60 mph in a peppy 9 seconds, and hammering both gas and brake pedals returns a solid feel from both. Twisting around sharp corners and down city streets, the car is immediately satisfying to drive.
The delayed gratification, of course, comes from passing gas pumps thanks to the car’s 14.5-gallon gas tank and 500+ range on a full tank.
Let’s face it; the Mazda 3 should boost any buyer’s id, ego and everything else.
Aaron Cole is managing editor. Reach him at acole@aurorasentinel.com