2020 Mazda 2 vs 2019

What's the difference?

The Mazda2 sure ain't cheap to buy, but neither is its spec list stingy. While the GT is taking the Mick a little bit at $26,000, it does have a lot of stuff, yet none of it is really a must have. With an alright engine bolted into a really good chassis, the 2 is the kind of fun small cars haven't been for a while. 

The bottom line is, any Mazda2 is a good choice - the depth of engineering is part of the reason it costs so much, and the ownership proposition is good with a long warranty. It's also very well-built, feels substantial despite being light and is packed with safety gear. And you can still get the entry-level Pure in manual...

My advice is this: If you love the Mazda2 aesthetically, which is totally understandable, spend the extra money on a Maxx.

The Neo might have the Mazda hallmarks - a decent engine, good handling, killer looks and standard safety gear - but it's the extra multimedia and better-quality trim in the Maxx that make it more sense for your dollar.

If you're aiming for under $20,000, also consider a Suzuki Swift GL Navi, which can be optioned with better safety or a Hyundai Accent, which has a bigger boot.

The 2 has been a funky car from the very beginning, after its name change from being the Mazda 121. They've looked pretty much the same for well over a decade, but there's no shame in that. The 2 is also proof of just how elastic the Kodo design language is, starting here in the small-car size and stretching happily to the massive CX-9 I had last week.

For 2020, the 2 has a new grille with the "wing" running along under the tweaked headlights to widen its stance. The fog lights are now integrated with the headlights and various small changes are alleged by Mazda to make the car look a bit more premium. I'm an unabashed fan of Mazda styling, so I'm onboard with these changes. Apart from the new alloys, which look a bit old-personish.

The cabin is largely untouched, apart from some new materials, including the oddly executed mix of blue-grey leather and a synthetic suede. The back seats, in particular, look like you've sat on them straight out of the bath. They're not bad, just odd. The lovely Mazda steering wheel, wrapped in leather, takes centre stage and the minimalist design of its bigger siblings has long since filtered down to the 2, and works a treat. Most of the materials feel nice and help justify the price, too.

What draws most people to the Mazda2 in the first place is its great looks. Mazda don't patronize entry-level buyers with a sub-par econobox that doesn't reflect the rest of its range. It shares all the 'Kodo' design language that has become so prevalent on Australia's roads.

That consists of a tastefully executed exterior, with a sophisticated grille, classy chrome touches and strategically placed smatterings of black plastic. Around the side, there's the brand's signature swooping lines, making for a sporty silhouette, toward a slick and resolved rear end. Few cars in this segment or price point can compete. Too bad about those steel wheels.

Inside, the design is just as good, but it's the materials which unfortunately take a dive. Good stuff includes the multi-textured surfaces, with tastefully applied contrast surfaces of chrome and carbon texture.

The dot-matrix multimedia control panel is a bit of a sore spot and is hardly ergonomic to reach across and use.

There's great switchgear, with a tasteful but simple dash cluster. The wheel is one of the better ones in this class in terms of its look, but the acrylic finish is truly nasty. The same goes for the functional but sub-par touchpoints across the doors and rear seats. A centre-console box for resting your elbow on is a $479.35 option.

One personal gripe, which I've heard from other folks in the office as well as private Mazda2 owners, is the odd placement of the wing-mirrors. They're too close to the driver and seem to give a narrow angle of view, leading to a significant blind spot.

Well, look, it's not massive, this thing. At barely more than four metres long, you can't really expect too much from the tiny 2. Boot space starts at 250 litres and Mazda doesn't supply a seats-down figure, but trust me, a trip to Ikea for a Billy bookshelf is not on the menu.

Front-seat passengers score two cupholders and a phone-friendly tray forward of the shifter. Behind the slightly awkwardly placed cupholders is a square tray with a removable divider. In the back it's, uh, tumbleweeds - no cupholders, bottle holders or even an armrest.

The space in the back is as tight, as you might expect. When I sit behind my driving position - all not-towering 180cm of me - my knees touch the seatback, but it is soft. My feet go under the front seat, though, so that's fine for short trips. Headroom is surprisingly good, but I pity anyone squeezed between two adults in the centre seat.

The simple fact is, there are far more practical options in this segment. The Mazda2 has a small boot, zero amenities for rear-seat passengers, and limited on-board space.

Front passengers are treated to bottle holders in the doors, a conveniently phone-sized trench under the connectivity ports, a wallet-sized trench next to the analog handbrake and... well that's about it. The seat grants a nice low seating position, but is a bit flimsy, even for this segment.

Back-seat passengers get... not much. The seats have decent contouring to them, but there's only just enough leg and headroom for someone my size (182cm tall). There are no cupholders, no air vents and only a strange square trench atop the transmission tunnel for your loose objects.

Boot space is a rather limited 250-litres in the hatch. It's much smaller than competitors like the Kia Rio and Hyundai Accent, while landing on-par with its arch-nemesis Suzuki Swift.

If you're in love with the 2 and want a larger storage space, you can do so by choosing the sedan at no extra cost. Doing so will grant 440L of space.

The Mazda2 Neo is incredibly cheap.

Not only is it the cheapest Mazda on sale, but it's also one of the cheapest mainstream cars in this class. Arriving at $17,320 (MSRP) for the auto as tested here it seems to be a pretty good value proposition, no matter which way you cut it.

Only, Thera are a few rather glaring issues. The first is the Neo's media screen. It doesn't have one.

You get this lovely, clearly tacked-on, single-line dot-matrix display, controlled through some clumsy buttons and a single dial.

Obviously, it comes with rudimentary connectivity (forget fancy stuff like Apple CarPlay) and is so difficult to use I actually couldn't figure out how to change the clock when daylight saving ticked over.

You won't get alloy wheels, LED lights, automatic high beams, automatic anything (like folding mirrors or headlamps) or leather-bound anything. The idea is you'll immediately notice a difference jumping into a $20,080 automatic Maxx, with its media screen and much better materials.

Thankfully, the Neo does come with some important quality-of-life items that are missing on some competitors, like cruise control and auto-off lights.

You also get city-speed auto emergency braking, which is an important value add at this price. More on that in the safety section.

The G15 in the name translates to Mazda's 1.5-litre naturally-aspirated SkyActiv four-cylinder. Slightly cheekily, Mazda says it has increased power to 82kW from 79kW, but that's because the old base Neo made do with the lower figure. Since 2017, the 2 has had 81kW and 139Nm and now it has (drumroll please) 82kW and 144Nm.

It's a front-wheel drive, obviously, with a six-speed automatic.

More torque is always welcome and, without giving any details, Mazda says the revisions have also reduced harmful emissions.

Powering the Mazda2 is just one engine, a 1.5-litre non-turbo four cylinder, although the Neo is the only one in the range with the lower-compression de-specified version. It produces 79kW/139Nm.

These power figures are on-par with much of the competition, but in reality (and perhaps as a sad testament to many of the cars in this segment) it feels relatively good.

Part of this is thanks to the six-speed automatic transmission, which is better than a CVT or four-speed auto.

The official fuel figure of 5.3L/100km is good, but you're not going to get that around town. By the time my week was done, I had a 7.9L/100km indicated figure, which is a solid miss, but no surprise given you need to give it a bit of welly to get it going.

Mazda's claimed combined fuel usage figure for the Neo hatch is 7.2L/100km,and I recorded around 7.6L/100km over a week of testing. That's not far off the claimed figure, but it's a high number to begin with, many larger, turbocharged engines in heavier cars will produce better, or even lower figures.

The 2 drinks standard 91 RON unleaded fuel and has a 44-litre tank.

There is just one annoying thing about the Mazda2 driving experience; the fact that it's a bit slow on the uptake. Well, not necessarily slow, but the transmission and throttle take their sweet time sorting themselves out, especially when you want to get out of a corner. Being a naturally aspirated engine, you have to rev the 2 to get some go, which explains the solid miss in the fuel-economy figures.

The last 2 I drove was manual, and it felt a lot more peppy and easier to get going quickly if I needed it to. 

Hitting the Sport switch improves the throttle response but the transmission just gets dumber, sadly. 

The rest of it, though, is mint. The inclusion of the clever G-Vectoring system on the smallest Mazda was something I liked in 2017, and still do. Along with a firm-but-compliant suspension setup, the 2 has lovely pointy steering. The way it responds to a turn of the wheel is enthusiastic, without being worrisome.

The G-Vectoring Plus system mimics a tiny lift of the throttle by reducing torque to the front wheels and shifting the weight forward to the front tyres. This makes the car quite chuckable, almost reaching the warm-hatch territory occupied by GT-Line branded Euros from Renault and Peugeot. The Plus bit means that the brake-based torque vectoring has been added to the 2 for better performance out of corners.

The ride is perhaps a little firmer than you might expect from a small hatch - even taking into account a short wheelbase and relatively high-profile tyres - but that does translate into the 2 being good to drive if you're not an enthusiast, and fun to drive if you are.

The Mazda2's more traditional engine and transmission, combined with its small footprint and lightweight body, give it a spritely and agile feel on the road.

For better or worse, it's very mechanical, you still feel each gear change, and you're fairly connected to the road.

It beats most competitor set-ups in terms of feel and real-world power application, and has fast, accurate steering, making it easy to dart down alleyways, and park in tight spots in congested cities.

It does so in decent comfort, but this is one noisy little car. Road noise and engine roar (from as little as 2500rpm) reach the cabin easily, and its lightweight bodywork gives it a bit of a tinny feeling.

The 2 is fun to drive, thanks to a low seating position and a suspension setup lets you feel closer to the road than something like a Kia Rio or Toyota Yaris, but the stiffness of the ride can also cause it to become unsettled over bumps.

As a driver's car, it's one of the better ones in this segment, alongside the Suzuki Swift. You're left with few options, though – given the Yaris, Rio and Accent are all more comfortable, but feel rather lethargic in comparison.

It's really up to personal taste whether you prefer refinement over fun, as you'll have to spend much more to get both.

One big drawcard of the Mazda2 is its inclusion of city-speed auto emergency braking (AEB) across the range, even here in the Neo.

Few competitors bother to pack this one key active safety item into their kit.

Regular safety refinements on the 2 include six airbags and the standard suite of electronic stability controls. There are two ISOFIX child seat mounting points on the rear outer seats. Sorry, long-range drivers, a space-saver spare resides under the boot floor.

All variants of the 2 carry a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating since 2015.

The Mazda2 is facing increasingly stiff competition on this front from the Suzuki Swift, which now comes with a suite of active safety items on the GL Navi with safety pack ($18,990). For only $1670 more than the Neo, you'll get freeway-speed AEB, active cruise control, lane-departure warning (LDW), and lane-keep assist. Not bad.

Mazda owners score a five year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, along with five years of roadside assist, which replaced the previous paid scheme in 2019.

The company does persist with the annoying 12 months/10,000km servicing regime. It's probably less annoying for an obvious city car, but it's worth knowing. Service prices are capped for the first five services and are either $300 (first and third) or $330, with extras listed on the website, such as brake fluid and a cabin filter.

Mazda offers a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty across its range, which is on par for most manufacturers. The Kia Rio leads this segment with its seven-year, unlimited kilometre promise.

Mazda matches its five-year warranty with five years of capped price servicing. Service intervals occur at 10,000km or 12 months, whichever occurs first. The program has a not-unreasonable average yearly cost of $305.60 and has reasonably priced extras like brake fluid and cabin air filters.