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By Jonathan Crouch

Mazda needed a wider SUV range and this compact CX-30 model broadens it usefully. Jonathan Crouch reports.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 67

Mazda's third compact SUV is this car, the CX-30. It borrows its engineering from the Mazda3 hatch, but clothes it with the trendier SUV body styling that family buyers now increasingly want. Consider it carefully if you're not fussed about having a premium badge, like the idea of eye-catching looks and cutting-edge engineering and find yourself interested in trendy segment contenders like Toyota's C-HR and Ford's Puma.

Backgroundword count: 122

Really, this car ought to be called the 'CX-4'. It does, after all, sit between the CX-3 and the CX-5 in Mazda's SUV line-up. Unfortunately for European zone continuity though, the 'CX-4' badge already exists in the Chinese market, where it's applied to quite a different car, so the model we're going to look at here has adopted a 'CX-30' moniker. Glad we got that cleared up. Basically what we've got here is a Crossover version of the Mazda3 family hatch - no bad thing; that's the sort of product the market wants. It features the second chapter of the brand's 'KODO' design language and a clever Skyactiv-X petrol engine we really liked when we tried it in the Mazda3. Sounds promising.

Driving Experienceword count: 210

Mazda is offering a choice of two engines to CX-30 buyers, both petrol-powered and both borrowed from the Mazda3 hatch. The base unit is a 122PS 2.0-litre Skyactiv-G petrol powerplant (a mild hybrid). We'd suggest though, that you try and stretch to the alternative engine, the brand's more advanced Skyactiv-X Spark Controlled Compression Ignition engine, a 180PS supercharged unit which runs on petrol but uses a combination of spark ignition and compression ignition to deliver, Mazda claims, the driver appeal of a petrol unit along with the fuel efficiency and torque of a diesel. This Skyactiv-X powerplant is able to switch from compression ignition, which best suits day-to-day driving, to a form of spark ignition, generally when the engine is started from cold or the driver demands maximum power at high revs. The 'X' engine comes paired with front wheel drive or four wheel drive and either way, there's the choice of manual or automatic transmission. Mazda isn't bothering to offer the diesel powerplant that's available on this car in other markets. The drive dynamics aren't very different from those of the Mazda3 hatch, which means that they're very good indeed. It also means that this car gets the slickest-shifting manual gearbox you can have in the compact SUV segment.

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