2019 Mazda 3 vs Mazda CX-5

What's the difference?

If you will indulge me, I'd like you to cast your mind back to the mid-90s. If you're too young, ask your parents or Google to do the same.

Have a peek at the pretty but not especially amazing 323 Astina. Some folks call it a four-door coupe, but it's a sedan. It was not nearly as attractive as the more adventurous hatchback.

The 323 went dull for almost a decade and then when the 3 arrived, it was the sedan that I thought was the looker. Sure, they weren't completely different like the old days, but the proportions were nicer and it was just a better thing to look at.

Then along came the most recent fourth-generation 3, the BP. The hatch, I think, is the gorgeous one while the sedan is a more sober. And while still made of lovely proportions, it seems to have been... flattened a bit.

Thorough as we are here at CarsGuide, I spent a week with the new sedan to ponder not only its looks, but whether it's much different to the hatch.

Never judge an engineering book by its marketing jargon cover. Take Mazda's 'Skyactiv' program, for example. Talk about head in the clouds, and seriously, where's the e?

But over the better part of this decade Mazda has focused its engine and aero efficiency developments, as well as weight reduction and chassis improvements under the Skyactiv umbrella, with spectacular results.

The Japanese brand has been wringing everything it can from the internal combustion engine, conspicuously avoiding turbocharging its mainstream petrol units until long after key competitors had gone down the forced-induction route.

And it's a tribute to Mazda's determination that when it finally dropped the 2.5-litre turbo-petrol 'Skyactiv-G' engine into the CX-9 and Mazda 6, you knew it was going to be a thoroughly developed response to ever-tightening emissions restrictions rather than a quick-fix.

Now that engine has found its way under the bonnet of the country's best-selling SUV, the CX-5, and we've driven the top-spec Akera to see how the new drivetrain matches the mid-size five-seater.