The Mazda MX-30 is a good looking car.
It’s good looking, not merely in relation to other small crossovers, but good looking full stop. It transcends segment stodginess and the cannibalistic homogeny that is small crossover design.
The MX-30 exudes a confidence from its design, and a following through of brave design concepts. Its clean front end, high cheekbones and bonnet, abrupt nose and small headlights almost give it an angular whiff of pony car. If the bonnet was a little longer, the whole car sat a little lower, it really would look like a reinvention of a small muscle car, from the front at least. And then the addition of suicide rear doors and tidy rear end, complimented by small lights, completes the aesthetic.
And, like all good-looking cars, practicality has, in some way, been compromised for vanity’s fleeting sake. The interior isn’t as large as it could be, and I suppose those suicide doors are never as cool as they seem, but still.
The first time I saw an MX-30 on the road, I stood transfixed; my mental car rolodex desperately scrabbling for a result as to what this car was, whirrrr click, Hyundai? No, whirrrr, click, Honda? Wrong again.
It genuinely confused me, and left a lasting impression.
Later I discovered it was a Mazda and now whenever I see one, I’ll admit, I get a little giddy.
But Mazda must build on this design direction. All they need to do is create a rear-drive coupe with the same design language, sell it in Europe and send it to the US to compete against the new Nissan Z-car, and we’re off to the races.
Kerbside 