2021 Mazda CX-3 vs 2020

What's the difference?

The Mazda CX-3 Maxx Sport FWD is an excellent car for the city, thanks to its small size, ease of driving and safety tech. New additions for the 2021 update, such as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, will also help drivers keep their eyes on the road and hands off their phones.

The petrol engine is thirsty and in 2021 it’s disappointing that there isn’t a hybrid or EV version of the CX-3.

Other downsides include limited interior space and a small boot.

The Mazda CX-3 Maxx Sport is an excellent choice for an urban car because it’s small size makes it easy to park and maneuver in tight spaces. It’s fun to drive, with an engine that’s got plenty of oomph for around town or even on the open road, and its safety tech is excellent for the city. But you’ll have to make a few compromises. The CX-3’s boot is small, the rear seats have limited legroom, and you might find it will use more fuel than you’d expect from a little car.

So, as a daily driver and as an urban car the CX-3 Maxx Sport scores well.

Is the Mazda CX-3 Maxx Sport the best car for the city, or is there better? Tell us what you think in the comments.

The CX-3 is smaller than small, it’s tiny or ‘light’ as it’s officially categorised by the car industry. This could be ideal if you live in the city and need a car that will fit into tight spaces and be easy to pilot around car parks and narrow streets.

I know it seems like an obvious thing to say, but keep in mind that tiny cars tend to have not much space inside – you can read about that in the practicality section below.

For now, let’s look at the dimensions. The CX-3 is 4275mm long, 1765mm wide and 1535mm tall. 

So, we’ve established that the CX-3 is little, but it doesn’t look cheap or flimsy. If anything, the CX-3, as with all Mazdas, looks well-made and has a premium feel to its styling inside and out.

There’s the long bonnet, which stretches down to meet the wide Mazda grille, while in profile the CX-3 looks sporty and coupe-like, particularly the way the window line lifts as though being pushed upwards by the rear wheel arches, which gives it athletic haunches.

The back of the CX-3 ends as abruptly as it starts – compact, cute, and refined.

Refined is the word. The exterior looks classy and so does the interior, even in this Maxx Sport, which sits just above the entry-grade Neo Sport (so it’s still quite low in the CX-3 range).

Really the only way to tell the difference between the Maxx Sport and Neo Sport is the wheels. The Maxx Sport has alloys while the Neo Sport has steel wheels with hub caps. It’s not until you climb to the midpoint of the range; the S Touring, that chrome-looking trims are added to the side sills, but hey, you could put some on yourself if you’re that keen.

The cabin is stylish and simply laid out, with dark and high-quality materials, such as the leather wrapped steering wheel, contributing to a premium look and feel.

This CX-3 is more comfy to sit in than the previous one, and that’s because, as part of the January 2021 update, new seats have been fitted. They look a tad too large for the tiny interior but, as you’ll see in the practicality section, I don’t have a problem with that.

The Mazda CX-3’s name could trick you into thinking it was the same size as a Mazda3 hatch, but it’s a lot smaller and really the SUV version of the tiny Mazda2 and shares that car’s platform.

It’s longer than the Mazda2 and being an SUV you sit higher and have more ground clearance, as well.

The dimensions show the CX-3 to be 4275mm long, 1765mm wide and 1535mm tall.  

That makes it easy to park, but it could be too small for you inside. You can read about the practicality below.

Mazda knows how to make a good-looking car regardless of its size and the little CX-3 has a similar face with the long nose and broad grille, along with the flowing lines and curves of the rest of the Mazda family.

You can pick a Maxx Sport from the higher grades because it doesn’t get small garnishes such the silver trim along the side skirts in the STouring, and it has smaller 16-inch alloy wheels, but at least it doesn’t have hub caps like base grade.

The black plastic side skirts might not have silver linings, but they’re chunky enough to stop other car doors from dinging your doors, and those wheel guards are made of the same stuff. So, if you nudge a wall it’s not going to be an expensive-to-fix metal-on-concrete scrape or start to rust if you leave it.

It’s just hard-wearing, rubbery plastic and so is the front lip, which often bumps into gutters. That dodgem car style of protection is great for the city.

Mazda is probably the best of the affordable brands at making an interior look and feel premium. Even though there are fabric seats, they don’t feel cheap and neither does anything else in there, from the air vents to the steering wheel, it’s a stylish cabin with a great fit and finish.

Oh, it’s small inside. I mean, up front is fine, even for me at 191cm tall and a two-metre wingspan, and the new seats, which are bigger and wider, are so much better than the narrower ones in the previous version.

But think of the CX-3 as a two seater with three seats in the back for a rainy day – literally a rainy day, when it’s pouring so hard that you can’t let your friends walk home. Also, if you’re thinking about buying the CX-3 as an Uber I’m warning you now, I will cancel the trip before you arrive because sitting in the back for me is painful, given the limited rear legroom and my almost unlimited legs.

A test that almost broke both my will to live was a trip to the Royal Easter Show with my wife, our six year old and my parents. No, we didn’t all try to fit into the CX-3, that would have been be silly. Instead, we did something else silly and took two cars, with me picking up my parents in the CX-3. Thing is, Dad had to sit in the front because he’s fallen off too many motorbikes, so Mum sat in the back behind me, but her ancestors were Vikings, so she’s tall, with red hair, and yells a lot.

Anyway, with her sitting behind me her knees were in my back. It wasn’t pleasant, I felt like we were in a clown car and we spent most of the time in traffic at a standstill, complaining.  

So, if you’re going to be using the CX-3 regularly with adults in the back or tall kids, then it’s not going to work out well. Or just don’t go to the Easter Show. Ok, enough over-sharing.

Still there are two cupholders up front and a clever centre-console storage bin, which isn’t completely covered, great door pockets in the front and decent-sized ones in the rear.

There’s no wireless phone charging and one USB port in the dash.

The CX-3’s boot cargo capacity is small for the class, at 264 litres. That’s not big enough to fit the CarsGuide pram or my mother, but the large suitcase we use for testing will go in. If you have kids, and I know from experience, you’ll be asking too much from the CX-3’s boot to fit all of their stuff all of the time. So, if you will be using the boot to carry a lot, then the slightly larger Mazda CX-30 is a better choice.   

I live in the city, or eight kilometres from the CBD, and I can tell you that urban folk have kids and heaps of stuff, too. The CX-3 seems to be designed for people without kids or stuff.

Okay, I reckon the editor of CarsGuide enjoys seeing me test little cars because I’m built like Big Bird and I’m kind of the worst case scenario test for cabin space, you know – if I fit into it, then pretty much anyone will.

Well, even though I’m 1.9m (6'3") tall, with a 2.0m wingspan,  and the CX-3 is only just over 1.7m wide it doesn’t feel like I’m sitting in one of those rides outside a shopping centre when I’m driving. Nope, up front the space is good, with plenty of elbow-, leg-, and headroom.

It’s the back seats which are tight. I can’t sit behind my driving position. And to prove it’s not just because I have 110cm long legs (yes, I measured them), my wife had to move her front passenger seat all the way forward to accommodate my five-year-old son in his car seat behind her.

Okay, he’s pretty lanky, too. But trust me, the CX-3 is much better suited to somebody who’s not going to have people in the back all the time.

If you’re thinking about using the CX-3 as an Uber or a ride share car you’ll be unlikely to get many five-star ratings from your cramped clients.

They’ll also have to leave their luggage at home because the boot is tiny at 264 litres. I tried to fit the CarsGuide pram in, but I almost had to tie a red rag to it because it was hanging out the back - take a look at the images.

On the bright side, the CX-3 is a hatch and that means you can fold those rear seats down, take out the cargo cover and you’ve got way more cargo capacity.

Still we managed to fit our week’s shopping in there and it was just big enough to get our scooters in for trips to the park.

Cabin storage is good, though, with four cupholders (two in the rear and two up front), decent-sized bottle holders in the doors, a map pocket on the back of the front passenger seat and a hidey hole in front of the shifter.

The centre console storage area has a clever design that lets you change the space inside, although, because it’s not fully covered I was a bit hesitant to leave valuables in there. Living in the city, cars are broken into if you leave a $2 coin in plain view.

Back seat passengers will feel like they’ve been forgotten again, with the lack of air vents there, and they won’t find a USB port either (the only USB port is in the front).

Urban folks like me who want wireless charging will be disappointed. The USB ports aren’t the new Type C ones either, and that meant I had to hunt around for an old cable to plug in my iPhone 11.

There are five grades in the Mazda CX-3 range and the Maxx Sport sits a rung above the entry-point into that line-up with a list price of $24,650. That’s for the front-wheel drive version with an automatic transmission, so if you want all-wheel drive you’ll pay another $4K.

If your CX-3 is going to spend the vast majority of its time performing urban duties, the front-wheel drive version (as tested) is the way to go. 

The Maxx Sport doesn’t sit very high in the range, but don’t worry, it has plenty of features. Besides, by stepping up to higher grade you’ll start paying quite a lot of money for pretty much the same car and get stuff you really don’t need.

If you’re going to spend $5K more, you may as well buy the larger CX-30 SUV and get more car for your money.

Coming standard are auto headlights, rain sensing wipers, a leather steering wheel and gear knob, climate control, sat nav, Bluetooth connectivity, a 7.0-inch touch screen, a digital radio, a six-speaker stereo and fabric seats. There’s also some great advanced safety tech you can read about below.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are missing here, but you can expect them to be added to the CX-3 in late 2020.

If you’re looking for a model comparison, also check out the Honda HR-V VTi and the Hyundai Kona Go, for about the same money.

The same 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine is in all CX-3s and it makes 110kW/195Nm.

It’s a pretty big engine for a tiny car and those output figures are nothing to laugh at. I’ve driven larger SUVs with less grunt.

The transmission is a six-speed auto, which is becoming rarer these days as many car makers switch to CVTs or dual-clutch autos. The benefit of a regular auto like the one in the CX-3 is smother low speed driving. The negatives? Slower gear changes and higher fuel economy.

The Maxx Sport I tested was the front-wheel-drive version. There’s an all-wheel drive, too, but it’s not at all vital in the city.

There’s only one engine in the Mazda CX-3 range – the 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol and it makes 110kW/195Nm.

Some bigger cars have engines which make less grunt and the larger Mazda3 has the same 2.0-litre, so for a small car the CX-3 has more than enough mumbo.

The transmission is a six-speed auto, a real automatic, not a CVT or a DSG, so there’s no roll-back on hills and good acceleration without any drone.

The engine/transmission combo in the CX-3 is a great one. The only issue is, you’ll have to shovel it more fuel than you think. Read about that below.

You’d think a tiny car’s fuel economy would be really good, but the CX-3 is thirstier than you might expect.

Mazda says that the CX-3’s mileage on a combination of open and urban roads is 6.3L/100km. City-only driving will use more fuel and Mazda says the urban fuel economy is 7.7L/100km, which is close to the 7.9L/100km the trip computer was reporting back to me after a week together.

Mazda says if you were to stick to just urban driving the front-wheel drive CX-3  should use 7.7L/100km. That’s pretty thirsty for a little car and in my own testing, just driving around town, the trip computer was always hovering around the mid-sevens.

Over a combination of open and urban roads Mazda says fuel economy is better at 6.3L/100km. I did a 25km stint on the motorway after a week of urban driving and that dropped the average fuel consumption from the mid-sevens to 6.0L/100km.

The CX-3 is easy and fun to drive. This is thanks to an engine that has plenty of grunt, a torque-convertor transmission, which sends that drive well to the front wheels, good body control and dynamics, plus a fairly comfy ride.

Yes, the wing mirrors seems to be overly magnified, and the reversing camera’s picture isn’t great, but these are minor issues when weighed up with the upsides to the driving experience.

The CX-3’s tiny size makes it ideal for fitting into parking spots many cars can’t, piloting through laneways and conquering other urban challenges.

People will honk at you. The wing mirrors will take getting used to. There are no front parking sensors and the reversing camera picture isn’t great. But apart from those things, the CX-3 Maxx Sport is great to drive in the city.

Great because the engine is gruntier than it needs to be, and the transmission is smooth in slow traffic, the combination delivering good acceleration when you need to move quickly.

Then there’s the dynamics. The CX-3 is nimble and has good body control, and nobody in my family complained about the ride comfort (and they do, if it’s not good).

Steering is excellent. You’ll feel connected, and the turning circle isn’t bad at 10.6m. Finally, the car's small size makes it easy to park, dodge and weave in the concrete jungle I call home.

Now about the honking. The CX-3 is a little car and it’s odd how other motorists treat small car drivers.

The last time somebody honked at me in the big off-roader I was testing was… never. As for the CX-3, the last time was 10 minutes ago, out the front of my house, while stationery. I kid you not.

The good news is, you’re in an SUV and not something as small as a Mazda2. So, not only does that give you a slightly elevated ride height, but there’s still somebody smaller that you can honk at.

The wing mirrors are a Mazda thing. You’ll notice when you use them that the reflection seems magnified, like Hubble Space telescope magnified. I’m not a fan, but it’s not unsafe and I became more used to it over the week.

The lack of front parking sensors isn’t a biggie with a car this small, but the CX-3 does have quite a long beak and I it was hard sometimes to tell where it ended when parking.

And last, the reversing camera. The picture isn’t great, and I found it almost useless. Luckily, parking sensors are better for maneuvering into a space. Plus, there’s AEB that works while reversing and rear cross traffic alert.

Seriously if you actually reverse into something in the CX-3, you’ve probably achieved the impossible.

The Mazda CX-3 scored the maximum five-star ANCAP rating when it was tested in 2015.

Even the Maxx Sport grade comes equipped with great advanced safety tech. There’s AEB which works forwards at speeds between four-80km/h and in reverse at two-eight km/h car park speeds, blind spot warning, reversing camera, rear parking sensors and rear cross traffic alert.

For child seats there are three top tether points and two ISOFIX points across the second row. 

A space saver spare wheel is under the boot floor.

The CX-3 is covered by Mazda’s five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty. Servicing is recommended annually or every 10,000km, with the first service capped at $331, then $391, then back to $331, alternating like that all the way through to the fifth.

Every new Mazda is also covered by five years roadside assistance if you ever get a flat battery, run out of fuel, get a flat tyre, lock your keys in the car, or accidentally get married. Ok, maybe not the last one.

The CX-3 is covered by Mazda’s five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty.  

Servicing is recommended annually or every 10,000km with the first service capped at $330, then $390, then back to $330, alternating like that all the way through to the fifth.