2014 Mazda 3 five door gets Skyactiv, hatch hotness

If you love hot hatches (and I do), then feast your eyes on the all-new 2014 Mazda 3 five door. Unveiled today before a group of journalists in New York City, this sporty subcompact is packed with Mazda’s signature KODO design, meaning ‘Soul of Motion’.

What others are saying about the 2014 Mazda 3 5-door:

Cars.com Kicking Tires Blog’s Jennifer Geiger

“The new hatchback rides on standard 16-inch wheels or optional 18-inch aluminum alloys and is a good mash-up of the CX-5 and Mazda6 styling. The wide-smile grille with angular fog lights, sweeping headlights and crisp body lines are evocative of both vehicles. Mazda says it offers improved visibility, pushing the base of the A-pillars rearward by 3.9 inches and altering the position of the side mirrors.”

USA Today’s Jim Healey

“The car, of course, has Mazda’s Skyactiv treatment. It’s a suite of features and technologies designed to boost mileage and power via engine enhancements, mainly a design that results in unusually high compression ratio that doesn’t require premium fuel.”

“Skyactiv chassis features include lightweight components and construction techniques, while still tailoring for Mazda’s signature sporty feel (sometimes referred to as “zoom, zoom” after the tagline in an ad campaign).”

Autoweek’s Jonathan Wong

“Visually, the new 3 wears Mazda’s Kodo design language with the signature five-point grille, meaning the smiling front end is gone. The fresh sheetmetal also helps the 3 achieve best-in-class coefficient of drag of 0.275 on the five-door and 0.255 for the sedan when outfitted with the active grille shutter and i-Eloop brake energy regeneration system.”

These are great initial reactions, but after seeing the pictures, what do YOU think?

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