Mazda3 MPS review
by David Finlay (12 February 2009)
On paper, Mazda has gone straight to the top of the hot hatch market with the introduction of its latest MPS model. For a mid-price £18,995, the hottest car in the Mazda3 range offers five-door practicality and a 256bhp engine which allows for a 0-62mph time of 6.1 seconds. Very unusually for a car in this class, it also requires electronic intervention to restrict the top speed to 155mph.
The strange thing about all this is that the MPS doesn't feel much like a hot hatch at all. From the figures mentioned above it's easy to imagine that it is very quick in a straight line, as indeed it should be. Its 2.3-litre turbocharged direct injection petrol engine is the same one used in the Mazda6 MPS, and that's a pretty rapid car itself.
No wonder the 3 is even more potent. It's smaller and lighter than the 6, and unlike that car it transfers its power to the road through just the front wheels, rather than through all four. But as we've already pointed out, the 6 MPS neither looks nor drives like the performance car it really is.
Much the same applies to the 3. The lowered suspension, the fancy wheels, the spoilers, the raised bonnet line and the rear bumper treatment are visually effective, but they might easily have been applied to a car that was just pretending to be very fast rather than to one that actually is.
None of those features make it stand out particularly, at least to the averagely-alert onlooker. I might be wrong here, but I could imagine that among its apparent target customers there are unlikely to be many who would think it superior to, say, the Vauxhall Astra VXR.
The Astra represents an interesting contrast in other ways. With its 237bhp two-litre turbo engine, it was the most powerful hot hatch available until the Mazda came along, and it is still the one that feels most like a race car. Driving it is a frantic experience, and if that's what you want you won't be impressed by the Mazda, which is much closer to the Ford Focus ST.
Like the Focus, the Mazda seems to have been set up more for comfort than for outright cornering ability. If that was indeed the design brief, a fine job has been done. I have sat in an MPS (I decline to specify which seat I occupied) while it was thundering along a dismally-surfaced single track road at 110mph, and I was amazed at how well the suspension soaked up the bumps it was encountering so often and so violently.
Along with this superb ride quality, the excellent brakes and the very high level of grip the chassis provides can conspire to create a situation that could cause difficulties. It's all too easy to find yourself travelling at least 20mph higher than you think you are, and not realise it until you slow down to the legal limit for a town and village and notice that the car seems to have come to a near-standstill. The interior of the MPS doesn't really smell of burning driving licences, but it's easy to believe that it does.
For all that, though, the MPS is not as satisfying to drive as it might be. The relatively soft suspension has its benefits, but it does mean that the car can't react quickly enough when you start hustling it through bends. And although there isn't a torque steer problem, the front end is not sufficiently controlled to be able to accept more than a small fraction of the engine's power without running wide in mid-corner.
Like the 6 MPS, then, this is a car which has enough grip to carry you through the corners, and enough grunt to transport you between them very rapidly, but not enough poise to let you use the power and the handling at the same time.
In a way, it hardly matters. The MPS is already far faster than it actually needs to be, and its combination of storming acceleration and a smooth ride will probably be enough to satisfy most owners. But if you want a Mazda and you enjoy the process of driving - rather than simply getting your kicks from what the car will do - the MPS will interest you far less than the same company's MX-5 and RX-8 sports cars.
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