Cars.com's Bill Jackson takes a look at the 2011 Mazda2. It competes with the Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit.
Transcript
(rock music) <v Spokesperson>Cars.com auto review. Hi, I'm Bill Jackson with cars.com. And we're here with the 2011 Mazda two. It's a small hatchback.
So it means it competes with a bunch of other new cars, like the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa. It's got a few surprises that set it apart from the field, as well as a few things that you'll need to consider if you're thinking about the Mazda two, the first surprise about the Mazda two is it's ride. It's really very good. It's hard to make any car small or not handle pretty flat as well as not beat you up over the bumps. And the Mazda two does a good job of that. In fact, I think for this small hatchback category, it's probably got the best ride in terms of compromising those two things. One of the other things that really helps too is the steering. It's very light, but still very precise. So if you want to try to go for a spot in traffic or whatever you have the confidence to do that, it was really a nice surprise to see how quick and light this car was. Now the Mazda two comes with the choice of two transmissions. There's the five speed manual which we have here. And a four speed automatic, both are pretty good. I was actually surprised with the automatic because I was worried with a four speed transmission, and a engine that only makes a hundred horsepower. That wouldn't be that great, but it actually moves away from the light pretty well. You lose a little bit of power on the highway, but you should expect that. Still for my money, I would go with the manual transmission. It's just a lot more fun to drive, and it's a lot more direct. Now, like I said, there are a few things to consider. If you're thinking about buying the Mazda two, and one of them is passenger space, especially if you're on the tall side, this is where I have the seat when I'm driving, as you can see, my knees are really jamming up against here, and I really don't have any headroom. So this wouldn't be comfortable for a drive of really any distance. And if you're the type of person with a family and you're looking to haul people, this is definitely something you're going to want to check out before you buy the Mazda two. Now like I said, the rear seats are tight, but this is actually a fair amount of cargo room for such a small hatchback. And I go into the cargo room, and other things like the mileage in my full review on cars.com. So you want to check that out, but if you're looking for a smaller hatchback, and you want something that's fun to drive, and won't break the bank, I think the Mazda two is one you should at least test drive. <v Spokesperson>For more car related news, go to cars.com or our blog kickingtires.net.
