Mazda 2 review

The range kicks off at just under £16.5k for an SE-L, which isn’t a very base-trim sorta name. It’s not a very base-trim sorta kit list either, with climate control, automatic headlights and wipers and parking sensors out back as standard. 

For just shy of two grand more, at £18,225, you get the Sport, which adds 16” alloys, plus the real boon in smartphone mirroring and lane-keep / lane-departure assistants. GT Sport is £19,225 and adds colour head-up display, reversing camera, heated front seats and a heated steering wheel, handy over the colder months. 

Top of the line is GT Sport Tech, which starts at a reasonable £20,845. The big draw here is the 113bhp engine, exclusively available in this trim level. Worth nothing that the 74bhp and 89bhp engines aren’t available with this trim, either – you’re solely limited to the upper variant. Additional equipment includes adaptive LED headlights, blind spot monitoring, rear smart city brake support and a 360-degree camera.

Monthly payments in base-spec SE-L trim start at around £185, rising to £200 in SE-L Nav, £215 in GT-Sport, or £230 in top-of-the-range GT Sport Tech trim, on a three-year agreement with a six-month initial payment.  

Our choice? If you’re looking to buy on budget then SE-L trim is well-specced enough to keep you happy, but otherwise we’d suggest going for the GT Sport Tech trim, as the higher-powered engine has big appeal and, at around £50 more/month, you’ll be glad you spent the extra cash. The additional luxuries will merely be a plus.

Real-world economy is around 45mpg – Mazda claims around 59mpg and CO2 emissions of 108g/km for 2s with the 15-inch rims, rising to 56.5mpg and 113g/km with the 16s and larger engine. In reality, you’ll likely not notice much difference.