Ettore Bugatti allegedly defended the relaxed braking capacity of his legendary cars by saying: “Bugattis are made to go, not stop.”
Thankfully our Mazda 3 does both effectively, with the latter asset demonstrated in extremis recently. A suicidal muntjac deer decided the shrubbery on the other side of an Oxford forest road was appetising and emergency braking plus instinctive swerving avoided damage to animal and car, if not nerves. A more every day form of evasive action, dodging the rash of post-big freeze potholes, is not always possible, though, and the 3’s smart 17-inch alloy wheels have survived intact with a minimum of jarring, thumping and bumping over corrugated surfaces.
A recent holiday weekend cruise to and from south Wales via a cluttered M4 demonstrated the refined combination of the six-speed gearbox and 2.2-litre, 150hp diesel, but did not nudge the stubborn 45mpg average upwards. One minor irritant, discovered on the Welsh hillsides, was the high-mounted handbrake, which is offset to the passenger’s side.
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