2018 Mazda CX-3 vs Mitsubishi ASX

What's the difference?

If you're looking for the genesis of the small SUV apocalypse currently decimating small car sales, look no further than Mazda's CX-3.

Sure, others had done small SUVs earlier (the Kia Soul for one, and there were others), but it wasn't until the launch of Mazda's sleek little CX-3 - though don't let the numbers fool you, it's actually based on the Mazda2 - that the segment really got moving. 

Even now, several years after its launch, the CX-3 sits outright-second on the segment sales charts, a whisker behind the Mitsubishi ASX, and miles clear of its third-place rival. Which would normally be a cause for celebration in the Mazda camp. 

But there's a problem. Last year, the CX-3 was outright first. And so earlier this year, Mazda released a nipped-and-tucked version of its popular micro-SUV, presumably to try and improve its sales position by one.

So, we spent a week behind the wheel of the mid-spec (and most popular) CX-3 Maxx to see what's new.

The Mitsubishi ASX is Australia's best-selling small SUV.

Think about that for a moment. Mitsubishi's smallest SUV is getting on for eight years old now, with only a handful of minor updates and style tweaks to keep it fresh along the way, and it's based on a car (the Lancer) so old that Moses might have sat his P-plate test in one.

And yet it's out-performing a host of newer, smarter options with absolute ease. So we spent a week behind the wheel of the top-spec ASX XLS diesel to figure out why.