2014 Mazda3 review: Best tech compact is also the best-handling ...

Posted: 03 Jul 2014 06:00 AM PDT

Mazda's 2014 Mazda3 scores on all four cylinders: great tech, excellent driving, a reasonable price, and efficiency. Mazda has extended big car features such as adaptive cruise control and a head-up display down to the compact car class. With SkyActiv engine technology, it's improving fuel economy up to 41 mpg and cutting emissions, and breaking new ground with capacitor-based brake regeneration.

No one forces all the Mazda tech on you. It's there if you want it, for instance if you're moving down from a bigger car and still want the driver assists, or if you've seen the lifesaving benefits of Smart City Brake Support (Mazda) or City Safety (Volvo). The combination of tech, performance and space efficiency earns the 2013 Mazda3 our Editors' Choice as best mainstream compact car.

Big step up for 2014

The 2014 Mazda3 is a new model and a significant improvement over the 2010-2013 second generation Mazda3. It's offered as a four-door sedan at 180 inches or five-door hatchback that's five inches shorter but has more cargo-hauling capacity. An entry sedan goes for $17,000 while a loaded five-door with the larger four-cylinder engine and tech package comes in at $30,000.

The exterior and interior designs flow better in 2014. The tiny, smartphone-size navigation screen is gone, replaced by a 7-inch LCD that sits atop the dash. Critics say it looks tacked on while fans say the design evokes a flat panel TV on a platform and note the same look is popular on high end German cars, so why is everybody picking on Mazda. A simplified cockpit controller (compared to BMW iDrive) on the console makes selections on the LCD display.

The tech want you (and maybe need)

Every Mazda3 has a USB jack, most cars have Bluetooth, and blind spot detection and rear cross traffic alert are readily available beyond the entry trim lines. To simplify matters for Mazda and dealers (fewer variants to stock), most of the advanced tech is in a single $2600 technology package at the upper end: adaptive cruise control (radar cruise control in Mazda lingo), lane departure warning, automatic high beams, forward obstruction warning, Smart City Brake Support, active grille shutters to cut wind resistance, and brake regeneration (i-ELOOP). What's not in the tech package is also impressive: no moonroof, no anthracite headliner, no body side moulding.

Forward obstruction warning uses the ACC radar and warns if you about to rear-end the car ahead when you're traveling 10 mph or faster. Smart City Brake Support uses a windshield-embedded laser to detect objects when you're moving 3-19 mph (4-30 kph). You're warned, the brakes are pre-charged, and if you're still unresponsive (say, texting), the car brakes for you. It may stop in time and at least it will mitigate the collision.

i-ELOOP regeneration

The coolest and most unique Mazda technology is the one that sounds like a breakfast cereal at the Apple Labs cafeteria: i-ELOOP. That's "intelligent energy loop." When you slow or brake, the alternator turns kinetic energy into electricity and stores it not in a battery but capacitors. Mazda says it can be used to power the headlamps, climate control, and the audio system, with enough energy savings to bump up fuel efficiency by as much as 10%, according to Mazda. Even 5% would be impressive.

Head-up Active Driving Display

Mazda offers its own version of the head-up display on the Mazda3: the Active Driving Display. It's a clear panel that pops up from dash above the instrument panel and shows the most important driver information, such as speed and navigation directions. When the car is off, the display slides back out of view.

Most HUDs use a silvered transflective film (it reflects light but you can also see through it). The advantage or disadvantage of Mazda's ADD system is that it's clear your car has an extra display. With a traditional HUD, no one knows you have it.

Next page: One the road with the Mazda3…

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Citroen C4 Cactus BlueHDi 100 Flair UK first drive Review | Autocar

Posted: 02 Jul 2014 04:01 PM PDT

What is it?

The new C4 Cactus five-door hatchback may be the future of the Citroën brand, but it's also a car with unmistakable historical resonance. Though its recent past may not be peppered with examples, the French car-maker has got notable older precedent when it comes to launching cars like this.

The Cactus comes from a place of rational pragmatism, fused with the kind imaginative freedom that only the double chevron seems to know. It is right-sized, lightweight, modestly endowed, cleverly packaged (stop me if you can tell where I'm going with this…) comfort-orientated, bargain-priced, bold and innovative-looking yet conventional under the skin.

Citroën would never saddle a new car with the kind of pressure that such an association would endow, but we're certainly free enough to observe that the French firm has given us the closest thing to a 2CV here since, well, the 2CV.

But is the Cactus's execution as inspired as its conception? A few weeks ago, our first drive in the car made promising reading. In the weeks to come, a full road test will complete the pronouncement. But here and now is our chance for some first impressions of the car on British roads, and with the steering wheel on the correct side of the cabin.

What is it like?

Even in dark grey, about as stealthy as a ground-level flying saucer. It's a curious-looking thing at first, but you warm to its quirky features as you learn about the function behind their form.

The 'Airbump' plastic cladding on the bumpers and doors is there to prevent scratches and dings in the bodywork, for example. It works too – although not extending it to the trailing edge of the rear passenger doors seems a bit of a shame.

The interior is certainly spacious, and a good deal more than you'd expect when told that this car is built on PSA's supermini platform. The wheelbase is the same as a normal C4's, so legroom is quite respectable. Headroom in the front is excellent, in the rear not so great. But then when was the last time you needed to seat a tall adult in the back of your five-door hatchback? In the Cactus's pragmatic world, taller occupants sit up front – simple as that.

Pity, then, that if the driver happens to be tall, he'll find the Cactus's pedals a little too close for comfort and the steering column bereft of reach adjustment. And yet he'll still appreciate a cabin packaged very cleverly indeed, with a low scuttle and fascia, big storage cubbies, a good-sized digital speedometer and broad, comfortable seats.

To drive, the Cactus doesn't have the sparkling character that its styling expresses. Knowing that the supermini underpinnings wouldn't be clever enough to handle two conflicting briefs simultaneously, Citroën has plumped for a soft, loping chassis tune that means that the Cactus is ever-comfortable.

That the ride regularly sends thumps, pings and so much surface roar up into the cabin is a bit disappointing in light of the comfort brief. However, the Cactus's tidy, grippy handling is largely uncompromised by the soft suspension. And it may turn out to have better rolling refinement on smaller wheels than the 17-inchers this range-topping Flair-spec test car came on.

The engine of our 99bhp turbodiesel, meanwhile, seemed fairly quiet and, even driving through fairly distantly space gear ratios, just about powerful enough. It won't rival PSA's new e-THP turbo three-pot on all-round appeal for low-mileage motorists, but it is frugal, returning almost 60mpg in the mixed conditions of our test.

Should I buy one?

If you like good value packaged with a bit of flamboyance and imagination, fill your boots. The Cactus may be no dynamic miracle, but it's more pleasant to drive than any current Dacia, and several times as charming as a Skoda Rapid Spaceback. Its real achievement would be to effortlessly cover your everyday motoring needs without ever feeling worthy, basic or dour in the slightest.

You'll have to like it, mind. The Cactus won't be to everyone's tastes, but it's the kind of car that you can easily imagine littering Parisian streets a decade or so from now. If that happens, it will thoroughly deserve its popularity.

Citroën C4 Cactus BlueHDi 100 Flair

Price £15,900 0-62mph 10.7sec Top speed 114mph Economy 83.1mpg CO2 87g/km Kerb weight 1225kg Engine 4 cyls, 1560cc, turbodiesel Power 99bhp at 3750rpm Torque 187lb ft at 1750rpm Gearbox 5-spd manual

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Saturday 5 July 2014