New Cars: Mazda 2

Mazda clearly wants to start moving away from the chiseled look of its current 3,6, RX-8 (etc.) models towards something more swoopy, or "flowing" in Mazda-lingo. The Mazda2 is the first car to be designed in line with this brief, and while it's a good-looking car it's only a partial success.

Somehow, this car looks worse than the sum of its parts. The front is nice, if not groundbreaking, and looks like a more rounded version of the 5's snoop. But the profile seems to borrow a lot from the Toyota Yaris, but the extreme rising line on the side makes the car seem like it "sat" on the rear axis, Citroen DS-style. The Peugeot 206-esque back is also nice enough, but the same idea was executed better still on the new Stilo.

Having said that, even though the design is not the revolution I might have hoped for, the 2 is still a great-looking car, and I am sure it'll find more success than its boxy predecessor. It should also drive well, thanks to a platform it shares with the next-gen Ford Fiesta.