Its a pity Smart stopped production of the low slung sports cars they made.

I loved mine, fantastic fun.

From HJ's reviews, the Mazda2 is sharper handling than the Fiesta, but less refined - I quite often see reports of a firm ride, which is important if the roads you drive on are poorly-surfaced. Japanese cars often are designed for the smooth roads of the home market (my Mazda3 mk1 is, though the mk2 is better) and have firm rides.

On running costs, Mazda dealerships are reasonably priced, especially if you factor in the general reliability of their cars (minus the RX8 and PSA-sourced diesels with DPF/DMF issues). HJ recommends the 1.3 TS2 model as the best all-rounder.

Generally, small cars are better at the shorter journeys - if you do a lot of long-distance driving, then go for a larger car which will be more comfortable.

Ken.

I am on my second Mazda 2, my first being a TS2 and my current one a Takuya. I am not going to ramble on about how it might be the best supermini around blah! blah! because it has been around a while and it probably isn't. However, with that in mind, I still bought another about 12 months ago.

For me, the attractions of the 2 are its styling, which is still up there with the best, especially in 5 door form. The interior is good and Mazda have not tried to pander to the Playstation generation which I think looks tacky. The car is a real drivers car and the handling is spot on. Equipment levels are good and finally, they are still a lot less common than most of the rivals.

The car is sometimes slated for rear/boot space, rear visibility and for having a harsh ride. For two of us, space is more than enough and I have had four big adults in it without any problem. Reduced rearward visibilty is one of the drawbacks of such styling but I have never found it a problem. The ride however can be quite harsh, it certainly communicates a lot about the road back to you and I quite like a hardish ride. However, this is something to be considered if buying one. This has been improved a bit on the facelift model.

Now the engine. The car only weighs a ton so it does not need megawatts to give a nippy car and my old TS2 with 86BHP was a zippy little car that had just the right amount of power to be enjoyable to drive whilst being economical. The gearbox was also a peach. However, for the facelift, to get into the lower road tax bracket and to improve economy, Mazda have slightly reduced the engine power (84BHP) but critically have changed the gearing. This has blunted the performance of the car a bit and especially with two up, you do find yourself doing a bit more gear twiddling, even on motorways. However, with one person, it is not too bad.

I do quite high mileages in what is basically a town/city car (14k in the past 12 months). I also now have the added requirement to transport a small grandchild and infirm Mothers/In Law around. With hindsight, had I still wanted to go the Mazda 2 route, I may have been better getting the 1.5 Sport or the 1.6 Diesel. However, the Sport is that bit more expensive to run and the Diesel is quite a bit more to buy.

However, all that said, I still love the car and will be sorry the day we part. Unfortunately its replacement is going to have to be something a little bit bigger and I am now considering something like a Hyundai ix20 for the future.