Mazdaspeed3

Mazdaspeed3 - The new 2007 Mazdaspeed3 is $30,995, and all you choose is colour. Spending $31K sounds like a lot when you look at the starting price of the Mazda3, $16,795. The deal is more convincing when you see that the cheap car has 148 hp and 135 lb.-ft. of torque and the Mazdaspeed3 has 263 hp and a whopping 280 lb.-ft. of torque. It uses the same 2.3-litre, turbocharged, intercooled engine as the Mazdaspeed6 and the CX-7, both much bigger vehicles. It is a Viking war-hammer of an engine for a car of this size and price.

The transmission is a six-speed manual that doesn't mind being thrown from gear to gear. So when you make your shifts, keep your right foot on the throttle a little so you don't lose too many pesky revs. Then you can ride the turbo all the way to speeds at which you will need a very good excuse if you want to keep your licence.

Some American magazines are measuring 0-60 m.p.h. times of six seconds, but it is the execution and delivery of the power that make this such a fun car. Precise and almost overly snappy steering, good, pred-ictable brakes and a tight chassis mean it takes only a soft touch to dive into corners and power out of them. Having front-wheel drive, torque steer rears its ugly head, but doesn't take away from the fun.

You get some good visual bits for your money that give the car an aggressive demeanor that separates it from the standard car, but they're not over-the-top. The bits are 18-in. wheels with 215/45 Bridgestone Potenza tires, blacked-out headlights, LED taillights, a low, wide skirt on the front to give it that big, open mouth under the licence plate, a meaty, round exhaust tip that just pokes out of the rear skirt and a kind of shopping-cart-handle spoiler on the top of the tailgate that is just on the verge of being too big, but looks good anyway.

The feature that really makes the car an easy sell is the combination of speed and utility. The rear seats fold almost flat, and with the hatch open, you can move furniture if you need to. It is only a four-banger, but in the city, the numbers say it will get 11.8 L/100 km -- high for a car of this size -- but a more reasonable 7.6 L/100 km on the highway. If you think of it as a performance car, it's pretty hard to get mad at the pumps.

It would be hard to have more fun for 30 grand, which is likely a big factor in its taking the Best New Sports/Performance car award from AJAC for 2007. It beat out the Volkswagen GTI and the Saturn Sky Redline. It deserves the award not just because it is a fast car, but because it is a reasonable car as well.