Mazda Mazda3

Carrying The Banner For Internal Combustion Forget the Mazda CX-5. The Mazda 3 carries the sales gravitas that the CX-5 aspires to, but for now, the C-segment sedan and hatchback that has provided eight years of sales bedrock is still the most important Mazda model. That's why, after making hay with the debut of the CX-5 and its innovative Skyactiv ...

Last summer, our man Damon Lavrinc drove the then-brand-new 2010 Mazdaspeed3 around California's legendary Laguna Seca Raceway and then Caramel Valley's world-class back roads. And he loved it. I mention this because we're sure that under similar, near-ideal conditions, I would have been nearly as smitten. But reality has a funny way of tossing monkey ...

The Nissan Sentra has long been the bridesmaid of America's C-segment. Few consider it to be best-in-class, yet it would be a stretch to call Nissan's second-smallest sedan the category's cellar dweller. In the past, the Sentra hasn't been the fastest, it hasn't been the prettiest and it certainly hasn't offered the best interior, but the affordable sedan ...

We can't talk about the new Mazda3 without lovingly gushing over the old Mazda3. Introduced in 2003 and produced until this year, the first generation was a segment buster. For about the same coin as its competitors, the Mazda3 gave you more: More sportiness, more refinement, more space and, being a Mazda, more reliability. The Mazda3 was just a better ...

Easy-Access Zoom-Zoom So here you are, fresh out of college and it's Year 1 of your very first, real job. You're on the bus. Summer's just around the corner, but you're already having a tantrum controlling the beads of sweat rolling down your face. As you pass by familiar restaurants and supermarkets, you reminisce, "Ah, the good 'ol days of waiting ...