Auto Reviews

"Hatchback" is not a dirty word.

There's an unnatural aversion to these super functional compact cars in the American automotive business. It's as if saying the word aloud creates an evil incantation where Bruce Campbell drives up in an AMC Pacer, or more appropriately, a Gremlin.

Ford Motor Co. turned away from hatchbacks when it redesigned the Focus. Honda Motor Co. offers a hatchback Civic in Europe, but not in the U.S. Toyota Motor Corp. uses the Matrix as a Corolla wagon and General Motors Corp. uses its Pontiac Vibe (the Matrix's twin) as its Cobalt wagon. Not a hatch in the bunch. The odd part is nearly every crossover and SUV available is a giant hatchback.

Just don't say it out loud. It'll cause marketing teams around the country to shiver with fear.

But Mazda Motor Co. isn't scared to build a car people can load their dog into. (Try putting a German shepherd in a trunk.) The redesigned Mazda3 comes in both sedan and hatchback body styles, though Mazda refers to the hatchback as a five-door car. (Lots of companies do this to avoid that incantation -- but that big hatch on the back is not a door.)

Better yet, the redesigned 2010 Mazda3 is a really good car: A more complete compact as compared to the original Mazda3, which arrived five years ago. Since then, it has become the company's bread and butter -- making up one-third of the company's global sales.

No wonder Mazda jazzed up the exterior, taking a few cues from the sultry Mazda6 and RX-8. Of course, it's not too difficult to stand out among other small cars, which typically have the personality of unsalted butter. Most of the top sellers look like they were cut in clay with spoons. The Mazda3 has a few sharp edges.

The exaggerated grille looms almost too large on the front of the 3. It swallows most of the front end, including the bumper. If you look closely, there's a little radiator showing. The bejeweled headlamps push back to a point (that's one of the Mazda6 cues) onto the edge of the flared front fenders (that's the RX-8 part).

There are lots of deep lines on this car. The creased hood and pronounced A line along the car's side and a similar line above the door's rockers. There's symmetry to the design as everything flows from rear to front.

While the sedan has a nicely curved roofline, which points to the Mazda6, the hatchback has a much more distinct look -- and space. The roof pushes down toward the back but the curve is slight and gentle and the spoiler on the roof adds to the car's looks.

Mazda created a few illusions with its design. The beltline (that spot where the window touches the door) is higher in the back than the front and the blacked out pillars on the door frames make the window space look larger. All of this gives both models a wedge-like stance as if they are ready to pounce.

Extra horses ease climbs

They pounce like pumas, albeit slightly underpowered, adolescent pumas. There are two engine choices for the Mazda3, a 148-horsepower 2-liter four-cylinder and a 167-horsepower 2.5-liter engine. The 2-liter engine was great around town but seemed a little overwhelmed when taking it through the mountains around Laguna Beach, Calif. It was fine on the downhills, but when it had a speedy climb, it huffed and puffed toward the top.

The 2.5-liter, with just 19 more horses under its hood, performed much better at higher speeds and altitudes.

Both cars offered an excellent sporty suspension. The ride is firm, but not overbearing, and kept the Mazda3 well planted through corners, on the highway and everywhere in between. The new Mazda is three inches longer than its predecessor but rides on the same 103-inch wheelbase.

Engineers gave the Mazda3 a much stiffer body and tweaked the suspension. They also enhanced the new model's electro-hydraulic steering to make it feel even more exact. The Mazda3 turns into a corner with the best of them and better than the top selling compacts.

Engineers also improved the car's braking abilities and made electronic stability control standard on all models. The hatchback, three inches shorter in overall length, never has a problem and feels just as stable on the road as the lower-slung sedan.

While I prefer the six-speed manual transmission, which has nice short throws and lets you play a little more on twisty roads, the five-speed automatic with manual override provides nearly as much fun. For most people, I imagine, the Mazda3 is the daily driver, in part, because of its good gas mileage.

The 2-liter models (with an automatic that commuters can appreciate) can achieve 33 miles per gallon on the highway and 24 mpg in the city. The 2.5 auto hits 22 mpg in the city and 29 mpg on the highway. It's a 10 percent jump in fuel economy overall.

Some of those improvements come from the car's aerodynamics, which Mazda says has significantly improved. This helps in a lot of areas, such as cutting down wind noise and making the car even quieter on the road. Along the highway, some road noise snuck into the cabin, but overall, it was remarkably quiet.

Interior tweaks more subtle

While the new exterior has more sharper edges, the interior has taken on a much calmer approach.

There are lots of delicate sweeping curves. From the side, the dash and center console look almost like a wave along the ocean.

The same dash also includes two analogue gauges canted inward so they're easier to see through the steering wheel, and well-appointed silver trim around the car's air vents. The single piece of soft plastic that makes up the dash helps add a more sophisticated look than most compacts possess.

Mounted at the top of the dashboard in the center are two little screens that can display the navigation system and instrument readouts. The navigation system is a high quality color map but the screen is very small. The red LED-type lighting in the other screen feels dated.

Both rows offer plenty of room and there's no difference in legroom between models. But the hatchback offers six more cubic feet of space in the back, while the sedan offers a cramped 11.8 cubic feet in the trunk.

The real versatility of the hatchback is folding down the 60/40 split second row and having a cavernous amount of space. There's just more Room-Room. Hatchbacks are easier to load than sedans and have fewer limits on the size of stuff that can be loaded.

There is the drawback that people can see what's in your car as opposed to not being able to see what in your trunk, and in many places this is legitimate. However, the Mazda3, much like many hatchbacks includes a simple cover that can be pulled over the exposed area. Blankets do the same thing.

All things considered equal, and in this case, most things between the sedan and the hatchback are, I'd pick the five-door every time.

The slightly boxy hatchback denotes a lifestyle more than any run-of-the-mill sedan. It says you're ready to take life on and load it all up into the back. Go on, say it, "hatchbacks." "Hatchbacks are good."

sburgess@detnews.com (313) 223-3217