SEVEN months after launching its new ‘‘3’’ small car in Australia, Mazda has finally signed off on its family of sedans and hatchbacks by adding a final variant, the Astina XD diesel hatchback.
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With the top-selling Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla pair separated by a mere 32 units at the top of the national sales charts to the end of July, the latest addition to Mazda’s range could well be all that is needed to push the car maker across the line come the end of the year.
‘‘We think the car will account for about 1per cent of Mazda3 sales,’’ Mazda Australia managing director Martin Benders said, ‘‘which will mean about 300 Mazda3 Diesel sales from now until the end of the year.’’
To the end of July Mazda, third behind Toyota and Holden in the national sales charts, sold 59,958 vehicles with Mazda3 accounting for 25,945 units.
In an unusual move Mazda is pushing its newest arrival, with 129kilowatts of power and 420Newtonmetres of torque, as a performance car and is aiming it at a rival group that includes some serious heavyweights such as Subaru’s WRX, Renault’s Megane GT 220, Volkswagen’s Golf GTI, Audi’s A3 and Mercedes-Benz’s A200.
To help transition it into the performance hatchback class Mazda is loading it with as much standard equipment as possible.
This includes a full suite of safety features and chassis electronics to satellite navigation and a head-up information display reflecting into the windscreen in front of the driver.
And for the first time Mazda3 diesel will be available with an automatic transmission option which adds $2000 to the car’s $40,230 start-up price.
Read more on the new Mazda on Saturday Motoring in H2