Mazda2 GT Sedan – Good things come in small…

– By Rod Fuller – 

The Mazda2 has always been a fun small car to drive. Its’ midlife upgrade will keep the 2 at the forefront of the city car class with its sharp and distinctive styling

Extra safety inclusions for this midlife upgrade include, forward Smart City Brake Support (SCBS) for the Neo model and forward and rear SCBS for all other models (Maxx Genki and GT). Rear cross traffic alerts and bling spot monitoring also feature on the Genki and GT. G-Vectoring (GVC) which controls engine torque in cornering to improve handling and ride quality is featured across the entire Mazda2 range.

I drove the GT sedan which is quite the little luxury car. Leather trim with leather and suede seats. It just exudes a quality finish, almost European in how it feels and certainly feels like it is a much more expensive car than it is.

Although, the plastic rear parcel shelf I kept seeing in the rear view mirror did its best to take the shine off that feeling. The MZD Connect infotainment system features a seven inch colour touchscreen display, so controlling the stereo, DAB radio, sat nav or your phone via the rotary commander dial or voice command feature is simple, easy and safe – helping to keep your eyes on the road.

Its a zippy car to drive about town and no fuss motoring that makes it a pleasure to drive, even just to the shops. The Skyactiv-G 1.5lt, four cylinder 16V DOHC engine produces plenty of power (81kw 141nm) and its combined with a smooth six speed auto transmission that has you zipping through the traffic with ease. As you would expect from a small car, that is also features i-stop, the fuel economy is very good, with an average of 4.9l/100km combined cycle. For the week I had the car, driving around Sydney, I didn’t have to refuel it once.

Its a quiet and comfortable car riding on 16” alloys and 185/60R16 Dunlop tyres. The ride quality the car provides belies its size. But its still a small car and there are reminders of that when driving; like the lack of a centre console bin to hide your keys away or to rest your elbow on when driving; or the leg room for rear seat passengers.

The Mazda2 GT also features a heads up display which is something I like as it helps you keeps your eyes where they should be when driving. What I really like about this heads up display though, is that in combination with the Sat Nav system, it also displays the current speed limit for the road on which you are driving, including school zones!

But what is even better is – its also time accurate! Meaning its takes into account what times of the day school zones operate. Most school zones are 8am to 9.30am and 2.30pm to 4pm on school days. So I tested it all week and without exception, every school zone between those hours 40km/h, but outside those hours, to the minute, the normal speed limit was displayed – Brilliant!

Stylistically the hatchback is probably the choice variant for the Mazda2 GT, but don’t think for a moment that then sedan can’t compete on practicality with the hatch. The boot for a car this size is enormous at 440 litres in capacity. And once you fold own the 60/40 split back seats there is even more room for whatever you have bought at the shopping centre.

Backed with a three year unlimited km warranty as well as 24hr 365 day roadside assist the Mazda2 GT is a fun car to drive about town, that is quiet, luxurious, comfortable and personifies the old adage that, Good things do come in small packages.

What does it look like as a Novated Lease?

This data is from the 2018 Novated Leasing Guide produced by Fleet Auto News.