24 Mazda 3: Subtle facelift improves familiar model

Here's another Mazda that pops back into the plastic surgeon more often than the late, great Joan Rivers and yet we never seem to notice.

The 3 has been just recently updated again, and yet you’ll need a magnifying glass and a degree in anorak wearing to spot the visual changes. Mazda’s torque-sensing G-Vectoring Control, which makes subtle interventions to grant the 3 sharper handling, and systems to make the diesel engines more quiet will need a Haynes’s guide to fully decode.

None of that matters. What matters is that the 3 was and is a really impressive family hatchback, one that combines the quality of the Golf with the reliability of a Toyota Auris and the sharp chassis of the Focus. The 1.5 diesel is a peach of an engine, with equal amounts thrust and silence and it’s pretty handsome (albeit a bit pricey too) for a family car.

Price range: €22,995 to €31,465

Co2 emissions: 99 to 127g/km

Which one? 1.5 diesel is the one to have, although 2.2 diesel is seriously torquey.

PCP: from €249 per month