Mazda3 drives 15,000km
Navigating Siberia and Mongolia is usually the reserve of heavy-duty 4WDs, but a Mazda3?Before the Mazda3 arrives in Australia in February 2014, it's undergoing a gruelling 15,000km endurance drive from Japan to Germany, as it prepares to makes its Frankfurt motor show debut.
The highly-anticipated small car will be the star attraction on the Mazda stand at the Frankfurt motor show, which kicks off on Tuesday September 10, as the convoy of eight Mazda3 hatchbacks drive the (very) long way from Hiroshima via Russia to Germany.
Mazda says the idea behind the exhaustive drive, dubbed the 2013 Mazda3 Hiroshima to Frankfurt Challenger Tour, across some of the world's most poorly-maintained roads is to test the durability and drivability of the new model.
Across the mammoth 30 day journey, the eight Mazda3s are piloted by journalists from all over the world, and motoring.com.au will get its turn on the final leg, spending five days in the saddle to see how the new Mazda3 fares as a long-distance tourer.
The 2456km final leg is the second longest of the drive of the month-long event. It starts in Moscow, heads to Belarus via Minsk, then through the heart of Poland through Warsaw, finally wending its way south west to Germany.
The drive route has also crossed Mongolia and Siberia, which saw "terrain that was similar to that of Middle Earth in the Lord of the Rings trilogy," says Mazda, as temperatures dropped to 20 degrees Celsius below zero and flooding was widespread.
Undertaking the cross continental journey are the SKYACTIV-G petrol models, powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine producing 114kW/200Nm. That particular Mazda3 model is tipped to be one of the most efficient petrol small cars available when in arrives in Australia early next year, with fuel consumption figures claimed to be 5.7L/100km. A higher power 2.5-litre engine will be also be offered, generating 138kW/250Nm.
Pricing for the new model, which was Australia's best-selling car two years running in 2011 and 2012, dethroning the Holden Commodore, is yet to be announced. Mazda is not expected to reveal the price of the new car until early in 2014.
Australia is a unique market for the Mazda, having sold around 366,000 Mazda3 since 2003, accounting for 10 per cent of the small car's global sales.
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