We had teaser pictures for the sedan - and now we have the hatch. And the pictures are even less revealing. Basically, other than the rear hatchback, it is identical to the sedan, which is interesting, because the previous generation hatch and sedan were similar looking, but not at all the same. I suppose it makes better business sense for Mazda this way - I guess it's not really that much of a big deal. The bumper sticks out heaps, like the sedan, but this could just be a product of the angles these pictures were taken on - I now have new, better pictures of the Mazda3 sedan which indicate that it's a better proportioned car than I had originally anticipated.
I now also know that the red hatch I showed you in the previous Mazda3 story was an absolute crock - it looks nothing like the real thing.

I maintain that the bonnet and grille still look like a Peugeot 308 (sadly this face, which has been previewed on some of Mazda's concepts, will become the face of all in the Mazda family), but I'm sure that the next generation Mazda3 will be far more stylish than it's predecessor, which was hardly dorky. I have also now have pictures of the interior, seen here in what I assume is SP25 guise (the 2.3 litre engine will be upgraded to a 2.5 like the Mazda6) and the general layout looks just like the Mazda6 really. Sadly, no RX-8 style wheel this time. But this car does seem to have more steering wheel buttons than I have ever seen in my life, which begs the question: what are they all for? And more importantly, aren't we all going to be spending heaps of time looking for which button to press (and averting our eyes from the road)? I thought steering wheel controls where meant to remove distraction. Can't see what I'm talking about? Click on the interior picture for the larger image.

NEWS: Mazda3 2010 update

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!

NEWS: Mazda 3 2010 Teaser Photos