Mazda 3 diesel: Discontinued or can you still buy them?

The Mazda3 diesel is dead, buried, gone in Australia. And it's never coming back.

To be fair, while the passenger-car diesel engine isn’t quite dead around the world, it’s certainly on life-support. Mazda, it seems, was just ahead of the curve.

The reasons are many; diesel bans have already begun in earnest in cities across Europe, and there are more to come, while chasing ever-stricter emissions targets is costing car companies billions - and the ones caught fudging the figures end up paying even more.  

But in Australia? Well, our reasons for ditching diesels are a little more straightforward; we just don't really like them. In Italy or France, for example, some 65 per cent of new cars sold are fitted with a diesel engine. In Australia, those numbers are reversed, with some 75 per cent of cars sold in 2017 powered by petrol.

Weirdly, our taste for the technology is actually on the rise slightly, but our passenger-car diesel take-up is still minuscule compared to sales in Europe. 

And so it was with the ever-popular Mazda3. Back in 2016, the Japanese brand axed its 2.2-litre SKYACTIV-D from its range in Australia. Just one per cent of buyers opted for the oil burner, so its days had been well and truly numbered for some time.

Interestingly, those figures weren't replicated in Mazda's Japanese home market, where some 40 per cent of its Mazda3 sales were powered by a diesel engine. Still, the axing seems an almost prophetic move now, what with brands around the world clambering to catch up.

Updated in 2015, the 2.2-litre, four-cylinder, turbocharged diesel in the range-topping XD Astina was pitched as a sporty halo model for the 3 range, with a price tag that tickled the heels of the premium German brands. Around a year later, it was gone. And it's unlikely to ever come back, what with diesel now so on-the-nose around the world.

Instead, expect the petrol-powered SkyActiv-X unit, unveiled at the LA Auto Show last year and expected to arrive in Australia in 2019, to fill its place. The new petrol engine features Mazda's cutting-edge 'Spark Controlled Compression Ignition' (SCCI).

The brand says the technology will deliver up to 30 per cent better fuel economy than a standard petrol engine, and 30 per cent more torque. Or to put that another way, it will act just like a diesel engine.

So the Mazda3 diesel is dead, and the chances of resurrection are looking very slim indeed. But if you're desperately keen for one, a small (and we mean small; remember, only one per cent of new cars sold were diesel-powered) used market does exist. 

Or as the kids might say, you could get with the times, man.

Are you disappointed by Mazda's choice to remove the 3 diesel from Australia? Let us know in the comments.