Five reasons to buy the Mazda CX-30

The Mazda CX-30 may embody the manufacturer’s latest iteration of Kodo styling, but underneath it’s a known quantity for reliable, fuel-efficient and sporty mechanicals. Even the sophisticated new SKYACTIV-X engine – the 2.0-litre petrol engine that operates on the same principles as a diesel – should have any bugs worked out of it long before the CX-30 arrives in Australia early next year. Everything else likely to be powering and driving the CX-30 is well proven and should be utterly bulletproof.

Styling, as we always note, is so subjective. But anyone who argues that the Mazda CX-30 isn’t a handsome machine is bound to be shouted down by a howling mob. Frankly, this is a better looking car than the new Mazda3, and would anyone suggest for a moment that this is not Mazda’s most attractive SUV to date? There’s a little bit of BMW X2 in the roofline and the D pillars perhaps, but the nose of the CX-30 reproduces the style of an Italian SUV way better than the Maserati Levante does. And look for the subtle sculpture lines in the doors, the flanks and even the tailgate. This is an elegant design.

Seated behind the wheel of the Mazda CX-30, you feel like the car is moulded around you. The instrument panel wraps around in a panoramic array, the seat is comfortable and properly shaped and the hip point is really what most soft-road SUV drivers want – even Goldilocks would be satisfied with driving the CX-30. There’s more room in the rear as well, so the CX-30, unlike the CX-3, is a second family car that won’t need to be traded in once the teenagers reach their growth-spurt years. The CX-30 is arguably what its stablemate, the Mazda CX-3 should have been. In terms of footprint and spaciousness it’s Mazda’s rival to the Nissan Qashqai, so it will be easy to manoeuvre in town – easier in fact than the Mazda3, we’re told – without giving anything away for accommodation.

Mazda Australia won’t say much about local pricing for the Mazda CX-30, but there's no indication the company would price the CX-30 out of reach for buyers. The high-spec model on the stand at Geneva may have been loaded with kit, but there will presumably be an entry-level model available which will undercut the larger Mazda CX-5 on price. It’s likely that Australian consumers will be able to choose a CX-30 with 2.0-litre petrol engine and front-wheel drive at the low end of the spectrum, with the options of all-wheel drive, a 1.8-litre diesel, 2.5-litre petrol and 2.0-litre SKYACTIV-X engines also available, hopefully. With that sort of choice there’ll be a CX-30 to suit most buyers in the market.

Mazda regularly hosts engineers from Japan in Australia to assess local conditions – our infamous country roads, for instance – so that their ride comfort and noise-suppression learnings can be applied across the entire Mazda model range. And the CX-30, with the latest g-Vectoring Control Plus system and the usual Mazda attention to vehicle dynamics should handle, steer, brake and accelerate at a standard at least as high as most other small SUVs.