THE XR6 benchmark car might be the one running on premium 245/40 rubber but, incredibly, the Mazda 3, on its comparatively diminutive 205/55 tyres, gets its nose under the XR6’s in the braking duel from 100. The split is just 0.8 metres, or two percent – but for crash-avoidance context, you might think of it as it twice the width of a runaway pram. The mighty Mazda also nudges XR6 aside in both the max-G test and the slalom – that is, in terms of on-limit performance at conventional urban speeds.

Distil it all down and you get rather a lot of in-built real-world active safety margin in a comfortable package that’s easy on both the eyes and the wallet.



The Mazda 3 also out-hot lapped the XR6, and that has to wound the Falcon’s pride possibly more than all its other insults against XR6’s character combined.
In fact, the Maxx Sport 3 was a front-running place-getter in every dynamic test except overtaking potential, where its peak outputs of 108kW and 182Nm were
wedged behind the eight-ball of its 1264kg kerb mass.

Not a happy combination, frankly – but fair for the price. The overtaking potential of Aurion, Commodore, Territory and Lancer – and XR6, naturally – blew the otherwise mightily composed Mazda away.



A fourth place in reversing vision wasn’t too shabby, either. Our two-dimensional on-test two-year-old’s head disappeared 84cm earlier than it did in the mirror of the rear-vision-winning Astra, with Getz and Yaris also ahead – but almost five metres of additional danger zone existed by the time the rear of the reversing vision field was reached.

The one cloud on the Mazda 3’s otherwise rosy horizon is its space-saver spare tyre, a significant active-safety shortfall discussed in the conclusion. In every other measure, it’s a massively competent crash-avoider.