Lately, there is a report by Edmunds’ Auto Observer from United States of America correctly points out that the rest of the sports car market isn’t faring nearly so well even for the Japanese Line-up. It shows that sports cars like the once hot Nissan GT-R, with only 106 sales in April, are now struggling for sales. Porsche 911 sales are down 18 percent from a poor 2009, only 428 Mazda RX-8s have been sold in 2010 and Nissan failed to sell 1,000 copies of the fun to drive 370Z.

Therefore, let’s share your thoughts and take the poll below.

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Mazda 3 Sport Sedan was launched about a year back with 2 engine variants – the 1.6 litre and the 2.0 litre. The first quater of the year, Bermaz brought in the Mazda 3 Sport hatchback in only 2.0 litre form. We got some news from our internal source Bermaz or Mazda Malaysia will be bringing in the Mazda 3 1.6 Sport Hatchback.

The photo above is a Mazda 3 2010 hatchback with a difference bumper and headlights as we previously report the Mazda 3 Sport 2.0 hatchback here. Malaysian likely seeing their Mazda 3 Sport 1.6 hatchback to look like this. The Mazda 3 Sport 1.6 hatchback is expected to be in our shores in August or September this year.

The Mazda 3 1.6 Sport hatchback front is expected to look the same with the Mazda 3 Sport 1.6 Sedan. Lacking of foglights, a different bumper compare to the Mazda 3 Sport 2.0 and a different headlights. We would expect there won’t be HID lights too.

Click here to read more details on Mazda 3 1.6 Sport Hatchback

The market demand for Small Passenger Car in Sedans are getting very popular in many emerging market especially in South East Asia market like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippine and etc… As a result of that, many automakers from Japan started to come out Small Passengers Car in Sedan that originate from Small Hatchback platform. Like the Honda Jazz to Honda City, Toyota Yaris to Toyota Vios and Mazda2 turn to be a Sedan from a Hatch.

Basically all those cars are entry-level sedan. Therefore, we try to explore the best out of it for your precious hard earn money to be invested into those rides. In this post, we are going to puts Honda City Grade E Versus Mazda2 Sedan R-Spec to our test and comparisons head-to-head.

Honda City Grade E

Value:

- Paddle Shifter for Grade E

- 16-inch alloy in 185/55R16

- Power Steering with Electric Power Assist

- 42 Litres fuel tank.

Inside: It’s slightly longer car than the Mazda with same width. Good passengers and big boot space. 

Engine: 1.5 SOHC i-VTEC engine with 5 Speed Automatic Transmission. Max 120PS @ 6,600rpm with 145Nm of Torque @ 4,800rpm

Safety:

- All wheel Disc Brakes (Front Ventilated, Rear Solid),

- ABS, EBD, BA

- 4-star crash rating

Drivability: Suspension more for comfort than sportiness compared to the Mazda.

Warranty: 3 Years Warranty, only come with 6 months or 10,000km of FREE Service

Price: RM87,982.50 OTR without Insurance or RM90,480 OTR with Insurance (Optional Honda Modulo Aero kit & Wheels)

Mazda2 Sedan R-Spec

Value:  

- 16-inch alloy in 195/45R16 (Odd size tyres)

- Power Steering with Electric Power Assist too

- 42.8 Litres fuel tank (larger by 0.8 litres)

Inside: It’s a shorter car than the Honda, and has a smaller 450L boot and slightly tighter cabin.

Engine: MZR 1.5 DOHC 16-Valves with 4-Speed Automatic Transmission. Max 103PS @ 6,000rpm with 135Nm of Torque @ 4,000rpm. Slightly higher fuel consumption than Honda City.

Safety:

- Front wheel Ventilated Disc Brakes (Rear Drums)

- ABS, EBD, BA

- 5-star crash rating

Drivability: Better steering and handling for R-Spec compare to the Honda.

Warranty: 3 Years Warranty, now entitled to 3 years or 60,000KM of FREE Maintenance

Price: RM83,122 OTR without Insurance (Optional Leather Seat & Aero kit)

Click here to read our verdict and view the gallery of Honda City and Mazda2 Sedan

It’s late night and the vehicle in the opposite direction turned on the high beam headlights for no reason. It is annoying you while you drive and dangerous. What can you do about it now? Yes you could do the high beam back to the opposite direction, or give them a honk.  What about in the morning or evening when the sun is shinning up the sky, yes you can flip down your sun visor or wear your sun glasses but these  doesn’t solve the problem properly as you might need to sacrifice your visibility area.

Soon, you will be able to counter that by using “electrochromic panels”   which will dim the brightness of certain area when voltage is apply to it.

The concept behind of this is, when the sun is shinning on the window screen the entire windscreen receive the same amount of light, is just that the hot burning ball or at night the high beam of other vehicle’s headlights on the opposite road is annoying you. So instead of dimming the whole windscreen, by using an ultrasonic range finder that could analyze the driver’s driving position and using a webcam to measure the amount of lbrightness that is coming through.

With that a micro controller will analyze and dimming the section that would strain the driver’s eye. The result, much like the Auto-dimming rear view mirror that we can find in most of the continental car on our road but in this case just an area of your windscreen will be darken. Just a tip, Peugeot 308 and Mazda 3 has auto dimming rear view mirror too.

The guys who created this prototype are two students from San Diego, United States. They are hoping the commercialized it, and hoping General Motors would be interested.

Check out the video from the Engadget post.

Source : Engadget.com

About nearly a year ago, we were the 1st to uncover and review the all-new 2010 Mazda 3 -  that was the Mazda 3 2010 Sedan model. The 1st quarter of this year, Bermaz has finally decided to bring in the Mazda 3 hatchback.

Other than the body shape is different as compare to the sedan, the Mazda 3 hatchback has a different set of rear lights and a rear spoiler for the Mazda 3 hatchback. The third brake lights are positioned on the top of rear window, which was something that i hope they did it for the Mazda 3 sedan too.

In the United States, the people prefer the Mazda 3 hatchback model as compare to the sedan. My guess is with 2 main reason -  ONE - The Mazda 3 hatchback can be used to carry goods easily, example furnitures such as a sofas. TWO - the Mazda 3 hatchback is more sporty looking than the sedan. The top of the range Mazda 3 known as Mazdaspeed 3 or Mazda 3 Mps is also available only in hatchback form.

The video shows, how Mazda 3 hatchback has improved aerodynamically as compare to the previous model. The transformation is from the older Mazda 3 redesigned with shapes and components to enhanced the all-new Mazda 3 Aerodynamic.

Click here to Read More about Mazda 3 Hatchback and Photos!

Mazda announced a recall of the Mazda3 / Mazda Axela in its European and Asian markets. The recall is for the oil cooler hose which is located near the radiator shroud. Extended driving on bumpy roads may cause this hose to rub against the radiator’s protective panel. This can cause oil to leak if the hose is worn down. Worst case scenario, Mazda says, is that the car will simply be unable to start. However the new Mazda 3 Sport is not affected in Malaysia as stated from Bermaz – Read On.

Symptoms of the Oil Cooler Hose Leaking

- “Check Engine” light up on the instrument cluster will appear.

- There will be signs of oil leakages where the vehicle is left stationary.

- If the oil leak had occurred when the engine is in off position, the engine will disable itself from starting.

- If the leak occurs when the car on the move, the car will switch to “Safety Mode”, allowing the car to only drive slowly on a single gear.

The authorized distributor of Mazda in Malaysia – Bermaz Motor announced in a statement that the recall only affects units manufactured between January 2006 and March 2009. This means, only the Mazda3 from previous generation is affected and not the latest Mazda 3 Sport that launched in Malaysia back in June 2009.

However other countries such as the United States, both version are affected. Thus, we advice the older and new Mazda 3 owners to be alert of the symptoms, if there’s any similar case please bring back to your service center.

Bermaz have been instructed to do a precautionary check on these cars. The cars involved are Mazda3/ Mazda Axela (previous model) manufactured from January 2006 until March 2009 and the current (new) Mazda3 Sport has no such issue.

If you think your car under recall or might be under recall? Mazda3 owners can contact the Bermaz Hotline at 1-800-22-8080 or send an e-mail to mazda3.enquiry@mazda.com.my.

Mazda 6 Facelift 2010 has quietly launched in Malaysia.  Shown together will other Mazda families members in 1 utama this weekend, Mazda 6 Facelift 2010 Malaysia has some few upgrades but mainly on the 2.0 liter version. Just by looking it , the new Mazda 6 has inherit design from the Mazda 3 2010 or rather from the Mazda Furai fascia designs.

The white new Mazda 6 shown here it’s a 2.5 liter version. The new Mazda 6 2010 receives changes on Foglamp bezel design, Front Grill, new front bumper design and new headlamps design. The Mazda 6 has Bi-Xenon headlamps, but on the new version there’s Bi-Xenon headlamp with swivel AFS ( Adaptive Front-Lighting System). Which means the front headlamps will swivel to left and right as you change your direction.

The all-new Mazda 6 2.5 also receive new wheels design. These rims design gives me a more “moving” feeling.

From the rear, the Mazda 6 2.5 receive new rear lights design. While the information we received, it says to be the rear bumper design has been update but we couldn’t really notice it. Attached photo below it’s the Pre-facelift Mazda 6 2.5.

You can notice the rear lights it’s different where by the middle part it’s more “redish” and you can compare the rims design too.

As for the Interior of Mazda 6 2.5, there’s no changes that we are aware of, but what we would like to mention is the Mazda 6 2.5 version has push-start button, BOSE audio system and also a sun roof shown below as compare to the latest Mazda 6 2.0 version.

As for Mazda 6 2010 Malaysia new facelift 2.0 version please continue reading below.

Immediately, we can see the Mazda 6 2010 2.0 version has lack of foglamps, a different front grill design as compare to the Mazda 6 2.5 version. If you are able to notice, the Mazda 6 2.0 version has also a different design of front headlights.

For those who are interested with Mazda 6 2.0 – do not need to be disappointed, the all-new Mazda 6 2.0 facelift Malaysia version has added quite a few goodies. For example, the headlights are now with ( HID ) High-intensity discharge headlamps. Check out the video above to have a quick walk through of the new Mazda 6 2.0 facelift.

Click here to Read more about Mazda 6 2010 Malaysia facelift details with Photos!

Mazda 2 Sedan or 4 Door version is  available now in Malaysia. While still waiting for the official launch, the car is actually in most of the Mazda showrooms. Mazda 2 sedan it’s only available in few country such as China,Thailand and Malaysia and others. If i am not wrong, even in Japan there’s only Mazda 2 Hatchback known as Mazda Demio over there.

Mazda 2 Sedan share the same front fascia as the Mazda 2 Hatchback. China was the 1st market that has the Mazda 2 sedan model. That was my 1st time to see Mazda 2 on the road when i went to Guang Zhou last year and it was the pre-facelift version. The New Mazda 2 Sedan we are having here is a facelifted version built in Thailand.

The car model we are reviewing here it’s a Mazda 2 sedan R-Spec ( High Spec) with Sparkling Gold Mica as colour.

Note: If you are looking for Review on Mazda 2 Hatchback Malaysia, Click here.

The most significant difference when you compare a Mazda 2 Hatchback and Mazda 2 sedan is of course the rear of the car. From the  rear we can see Mazda 2 sedan has inherited designs from his closest sibling – The Mazda 3 Sedan. With the 3rd brake light position on the top center of the boot and the similar shape of the tail lights.

Click here to Read more full review of New Mazda 2 sedan in Malaysia with Details and 68 photos! and brochure with pricelist

Voted as World Car of the Year 2008 – Mazda 2 has finally arrived to Malaysia. The Mazda 2 2010 which is already in local Mazda showrooms it’s a face lifted model. So we assume it suppose to be better than the World Car of the Year 2008. The car we will be talking about here it’s close to a R-Spec ( High Spec) Mazda 2 Hatchback which will be called as Mazda 2 Sport by Bermaz. This unit here it’s a demo unit with Thailand spec that has keyless entry and wrap with leather seat and other upgraded details.

The facelift version we are getting as Malaysia’s Mazda 2 has inherit the smiley front fascia of it’s zoom-zoom brothers, mazda 3,mazda 6, or mazda rx-8 and etc. The Mazda 2 front headlamp has been redesign with black background. Foglights are available in the Mazda 2 R-Spec models but not available in V-Spec Mazda 2.

Note : iF you are looking Mazda 2 Sedan Malaysia . Click Here

From the rear we can see Mazda has redesign the rear lights for the new facelift Mazda 2. If you are interested how does the old Mazda 2 look like you can check out our post here as we posted some comparison photos for your viewing earlier. All Mazda 2 models in Malaysia will be imported from Thailand(CBU).

Malaysia Mazda 2 is powered by MZR 1.5 inline,4-cylinder,DOHC 16 valve engine which  produces 103hp at 6000 rpm and 135Nm of torque at 4000 rpm. This engine key features the Sequential valve timing (S-VT ) system, a Tumble Swirl Control Valves(TSVs) in the manifold and a drive by wire electronic control throttle for better response.

Click here to Read more full review of New Mazda 2 Hatch in Malaysia with Details and 73 photos! and brochure with pricelist

We Have Review the Mazda 2 Hatchback in Malaysia. Click here to Check it out !!

The award winning Mazda 2 is coming to Malaysia in next year March according to edmunds.com as an imported model from Thailand. It was last thursday that the news was annouced in the Thailand media. The model of the car will be based on the new facelift of Mazda 2 which inherited Mazda’s Smiley face. The production has started and it will go one sale first in Thailand in November. Followed by Indonesia and Philippines end of the year. AutoAlliance Thailand Company will be the manufacturer for the Mazda 2. The company is a Ford/Mazda joint venture company. The plant which is situated in Rayong,Thailand and will be the base for Mazda and Ford cars in this region.

The New Mazda 2 Front View

I’ve mirrored the above image of the pre-facelifted Mazda 2 to the same angle as above for your comparison.

The New Mazda 2 Rear View

The Old Mazda 2 Rear View

Click here to view more news and gallery of the all-new Mazda 2