Enough already! Updates on the redesigned Toyota Corolla, Mazda 3 and Hyundai i30 - and why Kia may save the day for buyers of affordable quality small cars

Where exactly are the redesigned Toyota Corolla, Mazda 3 and Hyundai i30 hatch?

As we enter 2025, carmakers appear to be dragging their feet on properly updating – let alone totally redesigning and re-engineering replacements – for these historically popular models.

It’s as if consumers of affordable small cars are no longer being seen. The Corolla and Mazda3 were once Australia’s best selling cars, period, permanently dethroning the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon from the top spots.

The fact is, it’s not a great time to love C-segment small cars, and it seems their manufacturers aren’t playing fair.

The current-generation i30 hatch, Corolla and Mazda3 could all be bought for around $25,000 when they were launched way back in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively. Today, the Hyundai kicks off from $36,000, Toyota from $29,610 and Mazda from $30,470 – and all before on-road costs. Surely, even with improved specification over the years, their development costs have been amortised by now, so why the price hikes on what’s essentially the same old car underneath?

It’s complicated.

During the early 2020s, when it seemed certain that electric vehicles (EVs) would take over, and internal combustion engine (ICE) development had all but halted in the mad rush to electrification, there seemed a logic in not investing hundreds of millions of dollars developing a traditional small-car successor.

Basically, carmakers stopped evolving the small car.

Which, of course, augers badly for their future, especially when everybody apparently wants SUVs and nothing else matters. That’s what the manufacturers keep telling us when asked where their ageing small cars replacements are.

Except… does every small-car owner really want to switch to an SUV? Or is there still healthy demand? The evidence seems to point to the latter.

In 2023, Toyota sold over one million Corollas alone worldwide. Nissan and Honda shifted around half a million of their respective Sylphy/Sentra (not sold here) and Civic respectively, while even the bestselling BYD last year was a C-segment small car called the Qin.

In Australia, year-to-date small-car sales in 2024 are actually up (albeit slightly). It’s easy to see why. Compared to most SUVs of broadly similar sizing, they cost less to buy and run. In many cases, considerably so.

And then there’s this. The cost of living crisis continues to cut deep, and EV sales are generally either flatlining or falling depending on where you live. Suddenly, nobody wants to spend $45,000 on an electric hatch, meaning a $30K ICE hatch is starting to look very sensible in these tough economic times.

China’s MG proved that when it slashed over 20 per cent off the price of the base MG 4 EV, to $31,000 drive-away (and even less according to the classifieds), and sales skyrocketed. That discounting also created history as Australia’s first EV to achieve true price parity with rival ICE-powered small cars.

Hmm… small cars don’t have to cost as much as they do, after all!

Now, the good news for buyers is that those long-time coming replacements for some of our more-popular small cars are finally coming.

The redesigned Corolla with some anticipated mind-blowing hybrid economy, for example, is expected to be unveiled over the next 12 months or so. Similarly, the Mazda3 will also undergo a rebody, also for a 2026 arrival in Australia, following an expected reveal later next year. About time!

These models are fortunate because their architectures are still comparatively fresh, having debuted within the last 10 years. It’s why their makers can rely on a “top hat” restyle, using much of the existing platform and associated technologies underneath.

Subaru did a similar thing recently when it released the ‘new look’ Impreza in Australia earlier this year, based on the preceding model that surfaced in 2016. And while no-longer as affordable as they were, the same happened when Honda rolled out its excellent, premium-class straddling, 11^th-generation Civic range in 2022, which also had roots stretching back to eight years ago.

Suddenly, the facelifted MY25 Civic Hybrid’s $49,990-driveaway pricing doesn’t seem so steep, and may really give what some critics believe is the world’s leading C-segment hatch a real boost in Australia.

Sadly, Hyundai seems set to eventually abandon the C-segment ICE hatch segment once the 2017-vintage PD i30 eventually peters out. The Venue and Kona small SUVs do all the heavy lifting volume-wise nowadays in that space. And the over-styled, US-market focused i30/Elantra sedan is practically medium-sized.

But it seems business as usual over at Kia, with its transformative design elements, even though it’s about to discontinue the long-running Cerato small-car name for the far-more-modish ‘K4’ moniker.

To be sourced from Mexico (as part of Australia’s North American free-trade agreement), the K4 already looks like it’s from the second-half of this decade, with rakish styling that evokes both the beloved Stinger GT liftback and the brand’s acclaimed EVs. We’re talking a breath of fresh air here.

Due out within a matter of weeks if not a few months, we reckon if Kia can price and position the K4 right, it stands a good chance of lording it over the ageing Corolla, Mazda3, i30 and others.

Do you agree? Let us know in the comments below.