Well, Mazda has decided that the aging (but still great looking) Mazda3 needs a new model. So they leaked out some teaser images. As usual, these teaser images are taken from not-so-revealing angles, so that you don't really get much of an idea of how the car will look in real life.

Unfortunately, this looks like one contrived car, particularly at the rear, which poses the question - why did Mazda decide that two of these three pictures should showcase the back? It's hard to tell what the front looks like at all. The rear tail-lights mimic the new Mazda6, but seem far too big, and wrap around the sides too far, and the car itself generally looks big-bottomed because of the squared off boot, and large bumper - surely you don't need a bumper that sticks out that much? It may be for safety, but it weighs the rear down even more than that squared off boot does - what's it for then, sitting on? The side windows sort of just, finish - without a bit of smoothness, which is odd, considering the rest of the car has been redesigned to look smoother than the previous model.

But enough whinging. The new Mazda3 sedan will be unveiled at the Los Angeles Motor Show on November 19, and will be billed as the "next generation of Zoom-Zoom spirit". Yeah, whatever. No word on when the hatch will be unveiled, though - and I was always a far bigger fan of the hatch too, damn! No really, I was, I'm keep telling my sister to buy one for her first car, I like it that much.

A long search for the hatch yielded only this unverified picture (left), which considering we now know what the sedan looks like, could be almost right: Yes, I know the front doesn't look the same, but I think the general shape is right here. It hopefully won't look quite as conservative as this, but it's an agreeable design nonetheless.

I noticed something though: check out this Peugeot 308 on the right, and then the face of the Mazda3 Sedan at the very top. Now do you understand where you thought you'd seen this face before? It's nearly identical. That's the way the motor industry works, and has for donkey's yonks - everyone copies each other. What a shame Mazda didn't copy something cooler, like it's Furai concept - google it, it's fully sick. Especially with the lights all on!

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