Mazda2 Sensu makes tempting sense

I remember taking my brand-new Mazda 121 to France with my family just a couple of weeks after we'd bought it, and it turned heads all over the place, writes Brian Byrne.

'Voila la voiture!' was a phrase I got used to hearing as we'd pull up at a traffic lights or into a parking space. And indeed, with its strange for the time curvy shape and little spoiler on the boot lid (it was the high-spec model, which also gave me a 1.3 engine), it was indeed pretty distinctive. Especially since Mazda had a fairly tiny penetration on the European continent at the time.

We gave it a run for our money that trip, and it was never less than reliable and comfortable (except the time we all tried to get a couple of hours' sleep in it after pulling an all-nighter of a drive from Bordeaux to a truck-stop about 50 kilometres from Paris). It left lots of good memories over that trip and the three or four years we subsequently had it.

The Mazda2 is the current successor to that car, and I've recently had the chance to reacquaint with it in the Sensu specification that represents a fair upgrade over the entry Comfort without spending a lot of extra dosh.

To be honest, since the current Mazda2 came along, it and the more recent Hyundai i20 are my acknowledged current favourite superminis. Which had me prepared to squeeze it into an already bulging portfolio of newer cars which I've been booked into. It's the kind of thing that can set one up for disappointment. To think, 'I wish I hadn't done that'. The bright appeal of a brand new model sometimes doesn't last all the way through the first couple of years of its model life.

Anyhow, the Sensu variant still looked the smart part when I picked it up. The Mazda2, Ford Fiesta, and SEAT Ibiza are the three best lookers in the segment at the moment, each with their own distinctive bits but all looking sexy.

Sensu, by the way, is a Japanese term for the folding fan that is part of what all of us in the west understand as being a typical ladies' accessory in that part of the world. In this application, it folds alloy wheels, aircon, extra airbags, steering wheel radio controls and electrically operated mirrors into a longer list of extra goodies. The more powerful 86hp version of the 1.3 petrol engine was part of the review car's package.

Mazda Ireland says the extra specification is worth €3,000. But they're only charging €800 more for it. There are some people would charge you that for the wheels alone, so it does sound like a deal.

The inside is pretty decent, with a smart dashboard treatment. Simple but adequate and clear instrumentation. Plenty of headroom front and rear. Seats in the review car with a bit of pizazz included. A boot that holds as much as would be reasonably required by a crew of three.

When they brought in this generation, Mazda made a strong point that they had saved significant weight in the interests of better fuel economy. That was reflected in my wife's comment during this review that the door was very pleasantly light. "But does that mean it isn't strong?" she wondered.

Nope, at least not as far as the ENCAP crash test programme found, giving the Mazda2 a full five-star report card. Though as I write this, I have just reported that Ford in Ireland will shortly be providing ESP as standard in the Fiesta, which will notionally give the Ford an edge.

The economy of 5.2L/100km (54mpg) is more than acceptable, with the 129g/km CO2 putting the car in the B band for tax purposes. If you opt for the 1.4 diesel option, it'll save you €52 a year in Road Tax, but would you bother at a normal family average annual mileage, when you'd pay an extra grand for the diesel?

I like the 1.3 petrol unit. Along with the light weight, it makes for a peppy small car in the city ruck, with the ability to get a quick sprint going if an opportunity occurs to get across the line ahead of the competition. Out on the open highway, a little road noise from the tyres was the only distraction. Ride on a good surface felt a tad tight, but on the increasingly more common worse ones actually absorbed the holes and cracks well.

There can be no fault ascribed to the operation of the main controls, with a snick-snick (zoom-zoom?) gearshifter and a nice light clutch. My only real gripe was at night, when the orange-red instruments lighting annoyed me and rendered the information fuzzier.

So was it worth squeezing the car in to my schedule? Yep. The possible disappointment didn't happen. At a stage close to halfway through its model life, the Mazda2 is holding its attraction.

Scrappage price starts at €11,435 and makes me regret that my wife's current car is only seven years old. For non-scrappage you can get into a Mazda2 from €14,935. Still tempting.