The Mazda3. You know it by now. It's a competent compact car that's handsome, well-appointed, and missing just one thing: Some legitimate speed. Or as Mazda's one to say, "zoom zoom." Luckily, that's all about to change. Mazda just dropped a 13-second teaser that hints at the next powertrain for its small car.
We won't have to wait that long, either. The video teases the date July 8, 2020, which surely marks the day Mazda plans to reveal the latest addition to the 3 family. The Mazda 3 hasn't had a turbocharger bolted to its engine since the 2013 model year—the final year of production for the Mazdaspeed3. Since then the car's stuck to a naturally aspirated engine lineup in the United States.
Mazda has said on many occasions it has no intention of bringing the Mazdaspeed name back, so don't expect the new turbo 3 to appeal to performance junkies. Instead, we'll likely see the turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder of other Mazda products plopped under the hood of the 3. There's no word on how much power it will make, but we speculate output will land somewhere between 230 and 250 hp. That's more than the upcoming Golf GTI's 241 hp and should really put a little pep in the Mazda3's step.
We aren't sure if Mazda plans to pair a manual transmission to the 3's turbocharged engine. That said, we wouldn't bet on it. In fact, it's likely this engine will feature in an automatic-only, top-of-the-range Premium Plus trim.
We're excited by two things here: First, the 3 is finally getting a turbocharged powerplant after several years without one. Second, we're hopeful tuners will have the freedom to further up the Mazda3's power output. With a few mods, consumers may just manage to build the Mazdaspeed3 successor Mazda won't.
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