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Our Mazda MX-5 Miata has the best engine bay in the business

One of the things that's really disappointing about modern cars is how they all hide their technology under a proverbial bushel. You pop the hood, and nine times out of 10, you're faced with some amount of black plastic hiding the functional bits. On some cars the plastic covers the bare minimum to have a "presentable" engine. Others have every tank, hose, wire and screw buried under a layer of smooth plastic. Few exemplify this practice better than engine bay of the current Lexus LS 460, seen below. If Lexus was this embarrassed about its engine, maybe it should have simply bolted the hood shut. However, like with weight gain and power creep, our fourth-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata bucks the plastic trend. Lift the aluminum hood of the little roadster, and you travel back in time more than a decade. (See the gallery up top.) Only one bit of decorative plastic is in sight, and it proclaims the car's Skyactiv technology and hides some of the wires leading to the ignition coils. Otherwise, nothing else is obscured. The shock tower braces, manifolds, battery terminals, the whole shebang is all right there for you to see. What's particularly amazing is that it all looks good. Even in some cars that eschew plastic covers, it's no guarantee of an attractive engine bay. We just had a new Honda Civic Sport hatchback (seen immediately above), and while it doesn't sport a plastic engine cover, you can see from the photo that it's not particularly attractive with tubes and cables snaking every which way. But in the Miata, the hoses and wires are kept to a minimum, and the ones that are there are arranged in a way that isn't haphazard or tangled. Then, in the middle, there's the clean, simple aluminum cam cover as the gleaming centerpiece, similar to those of the first- and second-generation cars. As the owner of a '99 Miata, this detail in particular gives me the warm fuzzies. The fully exposed engine bay fits with the Miata's personality. The car is very straightforward, it features just the absolute minimum of style and comfort additions, and is highly accessible. I would say the Miata's engine bay is the window to its soul, if driving it didn't offer a clearer picture. Related Video:

Mazda planning not one but two new crossovers for U.S.

Mazda has already announced plans to unveil a brand new crossover at the Geneva Motor Show, but it turns out there's another one in the pipeline set to satiate the appetites of a crossover-mad U.S. market. Speaking at the Chicago Auto Show, Mazda North America CEO Masahiro Moro told reporters the brand has another model planned for production at the $1.6 billion plant under construction with joint-venture partner Toyota in Huntsville, Ala. It'll be "a new crossover SUV which is exclusively designed for the North American market," Automotive News quoted Moro as saying. While it'll be a different product from the one debuting next month in Geneva, the two vehicles will share some architecture. The company is reportedly still finalizing the concept for it. Currently, Mazda sells three crossovers in the U.S.: the subcompact CX-3, the compact CX-5 and the larger CX-9. Together, the three vehicles, which constitute half of the tiny automaker's vehicle lineup, posted sales of 195,778 for 2018, up 15.8 percent from 2017. They accounted for nearly two-thirds of the brand's total vehicle sales of 300,325. Production is expected to start at the new Alabama plant in mid-2021, Moro said, and add capacity for 150,000 units of crossovers. The plant is expected to employ up to 4,000 workers with a total capacity of 300,000 vehicles a year. Toyota plans to build the Corolla there alongside Mazda's crossovers. Mazda last week released the teaser pic shown above of its forthcoming new crossover headed for Geneva. It could be the next and slightly larger version of the CX-3, which will use the Skyactiv Vehicle Architecture that also supports the new Mazda3. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Mazda3 sedan revealed by Top Gear Russia [w/poll]

Thanks to our comrades at Top Gear Russia, the trickling reveal of the Mazda3 sedan has begun. We saw the hatch in person in New York (and loved it), and we wanted to see if the trunked version could hold onto the same mojo. If you like the Mazda6, then you should like the Mazda3 because it takes just about everything from its toothsome big brother and shrinks it into a compact package.
Top Gear Russia was allowed to share photographs of the Mazda sedan they call "Treshka" (or they leaked them, depending on whom you talk to), but not their drive impressions. The site page says it will come in four trims for the Russian market - Drive, Active, Active+ and Supreme - and offer three engines. Our specifications will certainly differ. Other than that, all we have to go on are the looks, which some may argue are even better than the hatch thanks to a trunk line that provides more balance to that long hood up front.
The Mazda3 will go on sale later this year and US prices should be announced in September. For the time being, content yourself with the gallery of high-res images above.