Mazda 3 2.0 car review – ‘It’s an actively fun drive’

Cameras are all very well, but it's nice to have the option of using your actual eyes

I t calls itself a family car, the Mazda 3 2.0, and "family" in car speak is a dialectical code for what it's not: it's not a hot hatch or a roadster, it's not an SUV or a saloon, it's a car, it goes, and it fits people in. OK?

The kind of family it would suit is one in which the front two could be any size - plenty of leg and head room - and the back three had short little legs and a high tolerance for engine noise and tyre roar. (It is actually a pre-adolescent standard, to have short legs and like car noises.) I liked all the revving and the way the speed picked up, and the slightly white-knuckle steering: very keen into a corner but not 100% predictable.