MAZDA has enhanced its small car offering, the Mazda3. Not that it needed to. At the time of writing, it was sitting pretty on the small-car sales podium holding a bronze medal, with the Toyota Corolla grabbing gold and the Hyundai i30 silver.

Unlike the other two, this classy little Mazda does not rely on headline-grabbing discount deals, fleet sales or rental business. The vast majority of its throughput is ordinary Australians handing over their hard-earned to buy a car for personal use.

We always considered the up-spec Mazda3s good enough to justify Euro money for a Japanese car, and Mazda has now boosted technology and lowered the price on the top-shelf SP25 Astina variant tested here.

Private buyers love their added extras, so we lived with this fully loaded Mazda3 for a week to find out if the updates will keep customers flowing through showroom doors.

Click here for the full review...