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By William Bonds

Mazda Demio Sport

A worthy cousin to the Atenza and RX8, this roomy sedan is happy around town and in the country

Twenty-one years ago, I bought a brand new Mazda 929. It was, I thought, a very cool and high-tech car. So I was surprised when I came to Japan for a vacation in 1984. I expected to see the streets full of 929s, yet it was hard to find any.

A couple of months ago, I went to England for a vacation and was surprised again—loads of Mazdas, mainly 6-Series sedans that looked very cool on the streets of London. When I returned to Tokyo, perhaps my eyes were a little more focused, because I realized that Mazdas are now very noticeable on the streets of Japan as well. The 6-Series (sold here as the Atenza) is a good-looking car, and the RX8 is probably the best buy in Japan. And they are out there and spreading.

The revised Demio (known as the 2-Series overseas) is aimed at getting even more Mazdas on the streets. While the Atenza and RX8 set their sites on the flashier side of life, the Demio targets the practical side of things—you can get versions with a wheelchair ramp and swivel seats in the front. This car will not get you from 0-100kph in 6 seconds. It will, however, happily cruise along the expressway at a good clip, carry four decent-sized adults, and even squeeze in their golf clubs.

The roof of the Demio is high and provides heaps of headroom to the driver and passengers. As this height continues all the way back to the tailgate, it also provides a lot of vertical space behind the rear seats for luggage. Even if you do have four adults on board, there’s still plenty of storage in the back. With only three passengers, you can fold down one of the back seats for additional luggage room. While the Demio is not a particularly wide car, its spacious interior makes it appear bigger than it is.

The front seats are broad and comfortable and easily adjustable, but the same can’t be said for those in the rear, which look more like they’ve just been stuck in to make up the numbers. They are not uncomfortable, but I wouldn’t want to sit in them for more than an hour or two.

From a driver’s point of view, the Demio’s layout is excellent. The dials are spread logically across another sensible Mazda dashboard, although some of them have black writing on silver plastic that’s hard to make out. The big front and rear windows give plenty of visibility, but due to the height of the roof, the rear view mirror is a little high. There’s plenty of room around the pedals, and the shifting is very smooth (automatic is also available). It’s a big little car that has no problem cruising through the narrow lanes of the Izu Peninsula as well as Tokyo’s tight streets. The sport version is fitted with 16-inch wheels, which, in combination with the responsive power-assisted steering, make cornering almost too easy.

That said, our test car, dubbed the Demio Sport, isn’t about to be mistaken for a sports car. Despite being a fan of Mazda’s styling in recent years (the new trimmed-up Demio Sport is certainly a good-looker), their engines have sometimes been disappointingly underpowered. Now, if they put their 2.3-liter power plant into this baby, things would really start to happen. With the 1.5-liter unit, the car moves sprightly with a manual gearbox, providing you keep the revs well up (4,000 or above). If you mistakenly try to shift at low revs—especially when the air conditioner’s on—you could find yourself at a virtual standstill. The brakes on the test car weren’t as sharp as they could have been, but on an emergency test they proved to be fine. Like the accelerator, maybe they just need a heavy foot.

Of course, reviewing the Demio as a sports car would be missing the point; this model is about convenience and economy. Options range from a 1.3-liter manual (¥1.1 million), three four-wheel-drive versions (including a 1.3-liter for ¥1.4 million and a 1.5-liter for ¥1.6 million) up to the 1.5-liter Sport (manual, ¥1.5 million; automatic, ¥1.6 million). All models offer good fuel efficiency and exceed Japan’s 2010 mileage standards by 5 percent. In terms of ecology, they’ve been certified as Super Ultra-Low Emission Vehicles (SU-LEV), which means they meet the highest targets of the country’s green tax scheme, which knocks ¥32,000 off the vehicle tax.

These points could persuade buyers to opt for Mazda. The Demio is an excellent all-rounder, and the Sport version also has the looks to attract customers at a reasonable price. The problem is the competition: There’s lots of it. But while Toyota and Nissan have eligible candidates for your money and have taken the lion’s share of the market, they are not invulnerable, and the stylists at Mazda have shown they have the vision to be players in that market.

Would you like to comment on this article? Send a letter to the editor at letters@metropolis.co.jp.

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