Fans across the country absolutely love its basic yet sleek design inside and out. Sales figures show a growing interest in the upcoming 2012 MAZDA2 – but will the love last?

Power for the upcoming 2012 variant is supplied by a 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine, producing 100 horsepower and 98 lb-ft of torque. This powerplant is matted to either a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission (for an extra $800).

Another plus driving shoppers towards MAZDA is the 2′s available, customizable color schemes: “Brilliant Black Clearcoat, Liquid Silver, True Red, Crystal White Pearl, Aquatic Blue and Spirited Green.”

The best attention grabber from this front-wheel-drive vehicle is its superb MPG rating: 29 City, 35 Highway.

So, just how well is the new MAZDA2 doing? Let’s look at sales figures from just after the car’s release:

Jan 2011: 479 – Feb 2011: 870 – March 2011: 2,500!

As you can see, many youthful and cost-conscious shoppers are being won over by this small Mazda car. We expect to see many more driving off dealership lots in a “2″ very soon.

Source: Mazda247 & LeftLaneNews

Mazda, the Japanese auto maker known for bringing Los Angeles, Denver, and even Richmond, VA the Mazda MX-5 to dealer lots, is borrowing a Porsche design.

The MX-5 Spyder is a specialized MX-5 “Miata” (remember that name?) – sans the convertible roof, which is replaced by “a single panel grenadine-red soft-top made by Haartz Corporation.” The “fastback” design is another look that follows in Porsche’s Spyder footsteps.

Under its hood, Mazda includes a MZR 2.0-liter engine, which runs on BP’s isobutanol biofuel. It is produced similarly to ethanol, and is a separate concept Mazda is playing with to coincide with their “Sustainable Zoom-Zoom” slogan.

Whether or not Mazda will actually put this concept into production is unknown, as many SEMA show cars never make it to dealer lots. But we’ll keep checking back, and hoping.

Source: CNET

First spied at auto shows earlier this year, the 2013 MAZDA CX-5 could very well mark the next step towards this company’s future.

Lending itself to a more creative body design, CX-5 will continue the bodywork of it’s larger, older siblings – CX-7 and CX-9. Like those vehicles, it follows a new look that all of the company products will hold – including a large front grille and fresh light set up.

CX-5 will be offered with a Skyactiv-G 2.0-liter gasoline engine. Skyactiv-G will also be installed in 2012′s Mazda 3, which produces 155 horsepower and 148 lb-ft of torque. The US may also receive a diesel option in 2012. When it arrives next year, we’ll keep you posted.

Source: Car & Driver

You’ve probably noticed a wide range of colors of the MAZDA3 on your daily commute. With Mazda Motors reporting their 3 millionth ’3′ produced, chances are you’ll see more in the future. What’s so amazing about the MAZDA3 story (yes that is the correct way to write ‘Mazda 3′ according to the auto maker) is the fact that 3 is only 8 years old.

Mazda had to severely cut back on production after the intense earthquake that struck Japan in March. Still, only a few weeks past their initial deadline, the company celebrated the 3 million Mazda.

Mazda Motor Co. says the 3 millionth MAZDA3 was a “Japanese-specification Axela, as it is known in Japan, five-door hatchback with the company’s 2.0-liter MZR four-cylinder engine and i-Stop, the automaker’s start/stop system.”

Source: Leftlanenews

The New York Times adds to this, and Mazda’s next direction:

A similar contrast is at the root of Kodo, which is intended to embody the tension of power and speed caught in motion. The word means “soul of motion.” The Mazda 2 offers its own mix of elements. Mr. Maeda says the design is “a rhythmic interplay between soft surfaces and sharp contours,” or between the organic and the mechanical.

It also reflects an effort to appeal to multiple audiences. Because the Mazda 2 was sold first in Japan, where it was intended to appeal to women who drive in restricted urban areas, the design emphasized the car’s compact size with short overhangs and a rear roof pillar that angles forward.

The Kodo-style grille is angular like a five-pointed shield, said Derek Jenkins, Mazda’s North American design manager, with a stronger, more aggressive look. “Kodo gives us a more assertive and provocative presence,” he said.

That 15% raise in fuel efficiency brings the upcoming MAZDA3 to 31 miles per gallon city, and 38 MPG highway. This also brings MAZDA3 closer to the competition’s range.

According to auto blog Kicking Tires, “Mazda has also toned down the smiley face look of the Mazda3 with a more angular grille.” We have to admit, we’ll miss all the “Why So SRS?!” jokes made around Mazdapedia’s office.

The Japanese auto maker expects to have the 3 on Mazda dealership lots by late 2011, which will help introduce this new engine to fans across the nation – even the globe.

Source: Kicking Tires

The car just entered a production phase overseas, and its likability will be tested in the form of a leasing program available to residents of the country. Electric2 is just the beginning of a huge electric car fleet Mazda hopes to bring to us by 2014.

Electric2 is expected to have a max range of 124 miles per charge, and will first be leased in limited numbers to government entities and fleet buyers.

Mazda will use the program to develop its electric vehicle technologies. The company still claims its allegiance to the internal-combustion engine – they’ve made it clear it will continue to focus on developing fuel-saving technologies for its engines. For now, trials are limited to the Japanese market, serving mostly as a research project. Expect more information as the spring of 2012 launch date approaches.

Source: Mazda Electric2

The official announcement is a “15 percent better gas mileage than the existing model.” The Demio, better known as MAZDA2 in North America, goes on sale in Japan in the first half of 2011, though the US will not receive this upgraded version for a couple of years, seeing as the latest MAZDA2 just dropped over here. Its fuel economy numbers are 28 mpg city, 35 highway.

Mazda hopes to achieve this 15 percent raise through a wide-reaching technology reboot: engines, transmissions, vehicle bodies and chassis. This all goes under the label Skyactiv – Mazda’s catchy marketing name for these developments.

“Mazda is renewing its entire powertrain and platform lineup at the same time as revolutionizing every manufacturing process from R.&D. through to mass production,” said Takashi Yamanouchi, Mazda’s president and chief executive. “There have been no compromises in addressing conflicting goals. Instead, we have implemented a ‘breakthrough’ approach to technical innovation in all areas that has produced incredible, unexpected results.”

Source: The New York Times

Mazda plans to combine Toyota’s hybrid system with its new technology and car design, in hopes to produce their very own gas / electric vehicle by 2013. For now, a Mazda hybrid will only be available in Japan – as no word has been said on whether they’ll sell outside a home market.

Mazda has lagged these past few years in producing their very own hybrid technology. Upon signing the Toyota agreement, Mazda Executive Vice President Masaharu Yamaki stated; “We want to develop a hybrid car quickly.”

Toyota does not solely share hybrid components with Mazda. On the contrary; Ford, Subaru and Nissan have all been in partnerships with Toyota for sharing of hybrid research, production and design.

Gas prices in the United States may be lower then just a year or two ago, but hybrids are still in demand. Toyota alone manufactured 655,180 vehicles in February globally, up 83% from 358,573 vehicles in the same month last year.

Mr. Yamaki added his insight on the growing demand for hybrids in Japan, sparked by government buying incentives as well as Toyota’s Prius model.

Sources: WSJ | Mazdapedia.org

The auto maker showed off a few of their upgrades at the Philadelphia Show Mazda booth, but it all comes out in Geneva. Our pals over at Car & Driver talked to Robert Davis, Mazda North America’s senior VP of quality and R&D, in Geneva. Davis dropped some very interesting news on their i-stop power train, hydrogen power and other fun developments at Mazda:

i-stop

This is what Mazda calls its engine stop/start system, which kills the engine at stops and already is available on the Mazda 3 in Europe. Rather than using the electric starter to re-fire the engine, as in other manufacturers’ versions of the technology, Mazda instead stops one of the cylinders at an advantageous point near the top of its stroke and fires that cylinder to get the engine restarted once the driver steps off the brake. The reason we haven’t yet seen i-stop—or most other companies’ versions—on U.S.-market cars is that the tech simply doesn’t have enough effect on EPA fuel-economy ratings.

Hybrids

Mazda is toying with the idea of hybridizing more of its lineup beyond the slow-selling Tribute hybrid, which is a clone of the Ford Escape hybrid, but Davis didn’t seem particularly bullish on the idea. As mentioned, weight is a concern—as is overall performance—and since Mazda is confident that it can reach looming federal efficiency requirements with some or all of the measures discussed here, it’s not convinced that more widespread hybridization is the way to go. We think part of the brand’s hesitancy to go hybrid could be pinned on financials; it costs a lot to develop your own hybrid powertrain, and licensing one from another company wouldn’t be cheap, either. When/if Mazda decides to more fully hybridize, we were told not to expect anything for at least ten years.

Diesel & Hydrogen

As we said, the plans will include diesel, too, if not in America then certainly in Europe, where Mazda already sells oil-burners. We had a chance to drive a CX-7 with a 2.2-liter diesel engine while we were in Geneva, and came away fairly impressed. (Again. Check out our initial drive of the vehicle for a more in-depth look.) A fair amount of turbo lag was our only real complaint. But we won’t see that engine in the U.S. market, should we actually get diesel Mazdas. The company would wait until the SKY-D engine is ready, and it is said to be a lot more drivable—i.e. less laggy.

We didn’t discuss this with Davis in Geneva, but hydrogen seems to be where Mazda’s sliding a decent chunk of its chips. Witness the rotary-engined, hydrogen-fueled RX-8s and 5s that have gone on lease in Norway and Japan in the past year or so. But given the current lack of meaningful hydrogen infrastructure in the U.S., they won’t come here anytime soon.

The Source: Car & Driver