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

But if you’re in Australia, be sure to test drive a BT-50 Freestyle.

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

Reports from Japan reveal that Mazda Motors is planning on launching small SUVs in the next couple of years, with much speculation surrounded names and powertrains for each. Rumors online suggest this Mazda mini-SUV could be dubbed CX-3. This SUV will reportedly use a version of the MAZDA3 undercarriage, and also contain the Japanese auto maker’s all-new, highly advanced Sky-D and Sky-G engines.

Mazda already has fans of smaller car lovers in their grasp, with vehicles like the hit CX-7 and their newly introduced in the United States MAZDA2 hatchback. And even while sales of larger vehicles continues to fall in the US, Mazda’s larger CX-9 is still recording record figures for a vehicle in that class.

Mazda’s compact SUV will make an appearance soon, with sales expected to begin sometime in 2012.

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 Motor Corp is ready to pump a huge load of money into their R&D funding – the Japanese auto maker wants to becoming a largely hybrid / green car maker by 2015. This will raise their ratio from above 20% in 2010 to about 40% by 2015.

According to news reporting agency Reuters: “In the current fiscal year, the carmaker earmarked 100 billion yen for group R&D spending, up 15 billion yen from fiscal 2009, of which slightly more than 20 percent will go toward developing green cars, the paper said.”

“Mazda is expected to spend an average of 100 billion yen on R&D each year through fiscal 2015, and will increasingly push more of the pie toward eco-friendly vehicles, the daily said.”

Mazda intends on stepping up efforts to improve energy efficiency for gasoline-powered vehicles, including combining compact SUV’s with a new engine, which is 10% more efficient than those existing today.

A capital boost of 100 billion yen, which was conducted last autumn, has made it possible for the firm to move “full-speed ahead” in the green car field.

Mazda has already joined forces with various auto makers in order to develop hybrid system, new technology and advanced car design. 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 – Mazda Executive Vice President Masaharu Yamaki stated; “We want to develop a hybrid car quickly.”

Mazda plans to start heavy manufacturing and selling a hybrid vehicle as early as 2013.

After 12 years at the top of the charts, Civic is about to lose its thrown spot. So far this year, sales of the Mazda3 are tracking ahead of the ubiquitous Civic. True, it’s a slim margin – Mazda leads by just a hair more than 100 cars so far – but if growth trends continue, Mazda could overtake Honda as the best-selling car in this country in 2010. The Mazda3 has seen its sales grow roughly 15 per cent year-to-date, while the Civic’s sales are down 1 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Dennis DesRosiers, the industry analyst who compiled the numbers, said “You can’t avoid getting one year older every year. When products get long in the tooth like the Civic, and you have a competitor that’s better priced and better equipped, then you have a hard time competing.”

The best-selling brands – Toyota, Honda and Mazda – have reliability in common, Mr. DesRosiers said. They can differentiate themselves by lowering prices, offering more features in a package, and updating the engineering. Honda has been unwilling to compromise on pricing and equipment levels; the Mazda model has the advantage of engineering that is four years newer than the Civic’s.

“The Mazda3 is just phenomenal. Every day we have a few dozen people coming in, and they just want to drive it,” said Alexandre Saillant, the general manager and co-owner of Laurier Mazda in Sainte-Foy, Que. A former Pontiac dealership, in the months since they began selling Mazdas Mr. Saillant said he’s seen a difference in how customers approach the car. “They’re not buying it because it’s the cheapest car around. They’re buying it because they desire it, they want to drive it,” he said.

America is known for some of the more stringent emissions requirements for engines throughout the world. The one place with even harder emissions ratings – Europe – which is where they’ve killed Mazda’s RX-8 The new rotory engine which powers RX-8 does not meet those tough European regulations.

According to Top Speed, “The car’s Wankel engine did not meet the necessary requirements of the EuroV emission regulations that came into force last September, so the Japanese company decided that instead of developing the current engine in the RX-8 at a substantial cost, the current generation will be axed.”

The current RX-8 is powered by a compact 13B twin rotor Renesis engine making 232 HP at a screaming 8,200 RPM and 155 lb-ft of torque. This allows the RX-8 to accelerate from 0 to 60 MPH in just 6.4 seconds and reach a top speed of 145 MPH.