The Mazda 2 is not a new car. It was first introduced in 2014, available in both sedan and hatchback format to compete against the Toyota Vios, Toyota Yaris, Honda City, Honda Jazz, and now the Honda City Hatchback, not forgetting the Nissan Almera.

While Toyota and Honda, even Nissan have moved on with successive generation models, the Mazda 2 is still putting up the fight with more or less the same armor and weaponry, albeit with new software (GVC Plus) and styling updates.

Compared to the trio of Big-3 Japanese car manufacturers, Mazda is only a fraction of their size, making just slightly a 1 million cars a year - that’s just 10 percent of Toyota makes a year, 25 percent of Honda, and 30 percent of Nissan.

This also means that Mazda cannot amortize its investment on new models as fast as other higher volume manufacturers, which also means that Mazda models, especially the slower selling non-SUVs, need to stay on the market longer.

But Mazda has also one of the best styling departments in the business and the proof of that is how the little nips and tucks and new colour options have kept the Mazda 6 looking prettier than many of its younger rivals.

The latest updates 2023 Mazda 2 have succeeded in repeating the same and consumers are responding well to it, at least in Thailand.

Five days after the new 2023 Mazda 2 Hatchback and Sedan was launched, Mazda Thailand says it has already collected 1,500 bookings. Yes, the figure is not going to worry Honda or Toyota, but 1,500 bookings in 5 days is not a small sum either.

Bookings were quite evenly split between the two body styles. The flushed grille New Wave Design variant, one of two designs available, contributed the bulk of the bookings.

The other design available is the black mesh grille Sport Design variant.

Mazda Thailand says the new Mazda 2’s wide variety of colour and design combinations won it many new fans, especially among Gen Z buyers.

The Thailand market Mazda 2 is locally produced at the Ford-Mazda co-owned AAT plant in Rayong.

Powertrain is retained, a 1.3-litre SkyActiv-G naturally aspirated petrol and a 1.5-litre SkyActiv-D diesel. This is different from our local market 1.5-litre SkyActiv-G petrol-only Mazda 2, which is imported (CBU) from Thailand.

In Malaysia, the outgoing Mazda 2 is priced from RM 103,000, for both the Hatchback and Sedan.