Mazda3 MPS review
by David Finlay (2 April 2010)
I had to chuckle when the guys who delivered the Mazda3 MPS to CARkeys Towers told me about the conversation they had just been having. "Why are we even giving David this car?" one had said to the other. "He hates it!"
It's true that I have never been a fan, either of the original model or of the revised version which was introduced last year. This stance has puzzled several people who believe the MPS to be a thing of wonder, either because they just assume it is without having been anywhere near it, or because they have driven one and love it.
Brief but careful questioning usually reveals the reason for their opinion. It's the fact that the MPS has a 2.3-litre turbo petrol engine which produces a maximum of 256bhp - more or less the highest output of any hot hatch until the Ford Focus RS came along - and provides formidable performance. In a straight line, this is a very quick car.
I don't have any problem with this. Indeed, I would go further. I greatly admire this engine, not merely because of its great power but because it is so flexible. It does useful work at as little as 1000rpm, a speed which would bring even the best turbo diesel to its knees and require you to change down a gear or two. Such a spread of ability is remarkable, and Mazda should be acclaimed for it.
If the suspension set-up were even half as good, the MPS would be one of the finest hot hatches on the market. But it isn't. I found, when shortly after I said my farewells to the delivery guys - as I had found in the past - that even when driving through town at 20mph the rest of the car is unsure of how to deal with the weight of the engine and gearbox. At higher speeds, their momentum seems to have nearly as much bearing on what the car will do as anything you do with the steering wheel.
There is a huge amount of grip, so you are unlikely to get yourself into serious trouble unless you are seriously stupid, but you are always having to compensate for the car when you should be directing it. It is no fun to drive at all (except when you're accelerating flat-out in a straight line, of course), and if a car like this is no fun to drive, what is the point of it?
If you drove this car and no other Mazda, you might think that the company has absolutely no idea about how to set up a car. This, however, is completely untrue and easily disproved. Ten miles at the wheel of an MX-5, or even the amazingly capable CX-7, will easily demonstrate that there are chassis engineers at Mazda whose ability is at a level close to genius. So what the hell went wrong with the MPS?
Bizarrely, the MPS is at its most impressive on a long motorway cruise. I did two of these and was perfectly happy with it. Burbling along in sixth gear it felt very relaxed, and the ride quality is certainly impressive.
Fuel economy isn't too bad, either - the delivery guys were astonished to see, when they got the car back, that the trip computer (which I had re-set after driving the car more vigorously) was reading 37mpg, which may just be a record for a journalist not involved in an economy run, though the fact that the MPS requires super unleaded petrol meant that the trips were still very expensive.
And if you're going to spend most of your time with a Mazda3 on motorways, you might as well buy one of the diesel models, which would be much more economical still, considerably more comfortable and undoubtedly cheaper to buy.
Any Mazda employee reading the latest in what is now a long series of articles criticising the MPS will probably be overjoyed to hear that during this test I was forced (because a hotel had had its doors locked by the time I got there) to sleep in it while parked in a lay-by on the A43. That wasn't my most restful night of the year so far, but as a temporary bedroom the MPS wasn't as ineffective as you might think. I could - and have - chosen worse.
So you see, I'm prepared to give the car credit where it's deserved. I just wish it were deserved more comprehensively.
Add new comment