Bold and Beautiful

What we like:

Feature-packed

great looking and a joy to drive. This feels like a complete choice in the compact hatch segment.

What we dislike:

It's relatively expensive to the competition and even compared to its siblings

but otherwise

very little. Rear seat space is a little small

and factory leather seats only come in white which is easily stained. But this is nitpicking.

At $103,000 after all discounts and rebates (correct until 4 March 2015, 12pm), the Mazda’s price does seem a little too close for comfort to its larger sibling, the Mazda 3, which can be had for only $5,000 more (albeit a base model). The Deluxe model goes for $108,000, which is exactly the same as the base Mazda 3.

That said, the Mazda 2 feels like an immensely complete car, a thoroughly engineered effort. We’d go for the Deluxe model, which gives you all of the toys and also basic upgrades like 4 more airbags. Bold and beautiful, the Mazda 2 is worth the asking price.

Credits: Story and photos by Wong C W