Mazda 3 SP25 Astina sedan 2016 review

If you can spot the changes to the Mazda3's styling you have the eyes of a hawk, or an eagle or a zebra – apparently they are pretty good at seeing things. The grille has changed and the Mazda badge it houses has been moved down more towards the centre. New halogen and LED headlights are also part of the design tweaks at the front, as are the restyled LED foglights.

Interior feel is premium, supported by an extremely high standard of fit and finish.

The hatch is by far the more popular body style, but that's because when most Australians think small car they instantly think hatchback, so there'd be a lot who wouldn't consider the sedan or may not even know it exists. But the sedan looks stunning and is without a doubt better looking that the Corolla sedan. The i30 doesn't come as a sedan but its Elantra sibling is a sedan and also looks beautiful.

Talking of which, the Mazda3 Sedan's dimensions are almost identical to the Elantra's. At 5480mm end-to-end the Mazda3 is only 10mm shorter than the Elantra, 5mm narrower at 1795mm, 5mm shorter at 1450mm tall but has the same 2700mm wheelbase.

The Mazda3's minor design refresh carries over into the cabin with changes to the dashboard and door trims. Interior feel is premium, supported by an extremely high standard of fit and finish.

The Mazda3 hatch and sedan offer identical interior space, including the same 909mm of rear legroom, which sounds enormous, but isn't. I can't sit behind my driving position without my knees hard up against the driver's seat back – I am 191cm though. Headroom is tight in the back seat of the Mazda3 and it's reduced even more by the Astina's standard sunroof.

The sedan's boot capacity is 100 litres more than the hatch's at 408 litres. Sure you can fit more in the Mazda3 sedan's boot, but when you combine a tailgate that opens wide and rear seats which fold flat the hatch is the better cargo carrier if you don't have people to move, too. In comparison the Elantra's boot is 458 litres.

The Mazda3 Astina Sedan has two cup holders up front and two more in the rear fold-down centre armrest, while there are big bottle holders in the doors up front and smaller bottle holders in the back doors.

The Mazda3 SP25 Astina with an automatic transmission costs $35,490, making it the most expensive Mazda3 in a range starting at $20,490. You might also be interested to know the hatch and the sedan share the same price right through the line-up. Each grade offers the choice of manual or auto, the latter adding $2000 to the stick shifter's price tag.

That $35,490 list price is a lot of money for a Mazda3 and it's pricier than rivals such as the Toyota Corolla ZR Sedan, Hyundai Elantra SR Turbo and Honda Civic RS Sedan. But the amount of features that come with this spec beats the quantity of standard kit in a $54,900 BMW 318i.

The driving experience is so good, and better in some ways, than a prestige car worth three times the price.

For your money the SP25 Astina is like a hamburger with the lot – it's not all necessary but it's tasty. Standard equipment includes a seven-inch screen, reversing camera, sat nav, active cruise control, head-up display, paddle shifters, digital radio, Bose nine-speaker stereo,  leather upholstered seats and steering wheel, dual-zone climate control, auto wipers and headlights, proximity locking, power adjustable front seats, plus LED headlights and fog lights.

It is an impressive list; and we haven't even included the advanced safety tech that comes standard, too – see the safety section below.

There are two petrol engines in the Mazda3 line-up and the SP25 Astina gets the more powerful one; a 138kW/250Nm 2.5-litre four-cylinder which delivers 24kW more power and 50Nm more torque than the 2.0-litre found in the Neo, Maxx and Touring grades.

There's a choice of a six-speed manual or smooth shifting six-speed automatic (as fitted to our test car).

Mazda says the SP25 Astina should go through an average of 6.1L/100km of fuel under combined (urban and extra urban) driving conditions. After a stack of thirsty city driving I recorded 11.1L/100km.

The Mazda3 SP25 Astina is covered by Mazda's three-year unlimited kilometre warranty. Servicing is recommended every 12 months or 10,000km and capped at $302 per service for the first five years.