Mazda Mazda2 Beige

Mazda petrol engines have always loved to rev, which is great in the MX-5 sports car, but rather less enjoyable in a small city car. You either have to keep revs above 3,000rpm to enjoy acceleration, which means it’s noisy and a bit fraught, or stay below 2,000rpm with absolutely no pick-up whatsoever. We tested the mid-range 90 horsepower (there are 75 and 115 horsepower versions also), all versions with the manual gearbox like ours including so-called hybrids now branded as e-Skyactiv G. We appreciate that Mazda has made the engines even less polluting, with CO2 emissions dropping by 13 per cent, but one still has to get from A to B, and we couldn’t do that by venturing much beyond fourth gear, even on motorways. We’d suggest you go for the 115 horsepower version, unless you rarely venture beyond urban 30mph limits.