WHO would have envisaged the lowly (but respected) Mazda 323’s meteoric rise (no pun intended, if you remember the 1982 booted Ford Laser-based Meteor version), when it morphed into the Mazda3 in late 2003? Future historians will recall how this Japanese small car seduced Australian private buyers away from more traditional fare such as the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore, while expertly riding the wave of booming economic times, seismic shifts in consumer buying habits and unprecedented petrol prices. Now a nation awaits the verdict on the same but really quite different next-generation Mazda3.