2003 Mazda Protege Dx Sedan 4-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Mazda goes on engineer hiring binge as recovery picks up speed

Japan's larger automakers - companies like Toyota, Honda and Nissan - have tremendous engineering talent at their disposal. That's largely because, selling as many cars as they do, they've got more revenues to tap into. Logic might dictate, then, that smaller automakers like Mazda, which no longer has the deep pockets afforded to it by its former partnership with Ford, might have less of a budget and workforce for engineering. But Mazda has been raking in record profits, and it plans on cashing those revenues in by hiring a substantial new pool of engineers.
According to Automotive News, Mazda is preparing to hire as many as 185 new engineers over the next two years - almost four times as many as the 50 engineers it previously targeted. Many of those engineers will be put to work developing the second-generation, Skyactiv 2 technologies that are on the drawing board while the first round of Skyactiv features are still being rolled out.
The boost in recruitment is enabled by a positive fiscal year that ended last March, marking the first profits Mazda had logged in four years. Sources anticipate that the fiscal year culminating at the end of this month will mark the company's most profitable yet, netting over a billion dollars to eclipse the fiscal year that ended in 2008 when it recorded $872.5 million in profits.

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.

Mazda3 Skyactiv-Hybrid and CNG Concept shown in Japan

Mazda has received a tremendous amount of public and industry praise in the last few years, following up the successful introduction of its Skyactiv technology (powertrain and otherwise), with strong products like CX-5, Mazda6 and most recently, the Mazda3. At the Tokyo Motor Show, Mazda has taken yet another step forward with Skyactiv and the 3, showing the compact (called "Axela" in Japan) with an all-new compressed natural gas engine in the Skyactiv-CNG Concept.
The end result of the Skyactiv-Hybrid is fuel consumption estimated at something like 74 miles per gallon.
Mazda thinks that CNG-powered vehicles are due for an uptick in demand, and the company believes this new powertrain will add valuable breadth to the Mazda3 range. The CNG Concept is actually a duel-fuel vehicle, capable of running on either natural gas or gasoline. In fact, we're told that the high compression ratio (14:1) inherent in Skyactiv-technology gasoline engines makes conversion to CNG particularly simple.