2023 Mazda 2 facelift revealed, Australian deliveries start in July

The Mazda 2 is close to a decade old but there’s no sign of a replacement, with the Japanese brand instead giving the light car another facelift.

It will go on sale in Australia in June 2023, with deliveries beginning in July.

Pricing will be announced closer to launch, but Mazda says the local 2 range will continue to comprise Pure, Pure SP, Evolve and GT variants. Currently, the GT is the only trim to still offer the choice of a sedan.

The update is mostly cosmetic, with tweaks both inside and out.

Most notable are the revised grilles. There’s a more traditional honeycomb-patterned grille, plus a new, mostly closed-off body-colour grille area. Both feature a single coloured accent on one side, an asymmetrical look first seen on the updated CX-5 Touring Active.

There’s also an asymmetrically placed colour accent on the rear bumper, while hatchback and GT sedan models get a redesigned rear bumper. Mazda says the colourful accents “[enhance] the car’s youthful spirit”.

The GT gets a new aero-inspired multi-spoke alloy wheel design, as well as dual exhaust outlets. It’s unclear if other variants will get new wheel designs, of which there appear to be a couple of others in Japan.

All bar the Pure also get a streamlined shark fin antenna, while Aero Grey and Airstream Blue metallic finishes join the nine-strong colour palette. The Pure SP gains a black film cover for the roof.

Inside, Pure and Pure SP models get new coloured dash trim pieces. These trim pieces are finished in either Pure White, Mirror Black or Mint depending on the exterior finish chosen.

The mid-range Evolve gets a black interior with red highlights, including on the seat stitching and air vent surrounds, while the GT builds on that with a red and black dash and partial leather upholstery.

Mazda says the tweaks to the Evolve and GT are intended to take cues from the old Mazda 2 Genki.

No note has been made of mechanical changes. The Mazda 2 is currently offered in Australia exclusively with front-wheel drive and a naturally aspirated 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine with 82kW of power and 144Nm of torque, and either six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmissions.

It’s unclear how much longer the current Mazda 2 will be around for.

While it was first launched in 2014, it’s not the oldest member of the Mazda line-up. That would be the current Mazda 6, launched locally in late 2012.

The Mazda 2 received a facelift for 2020, with the company trimming the line-up and adding more safety equipment and a commensurately higher base price.

The current car has already been replaced in Europe by a rebadged version of the Toyota Yaris. Amusingly, the inverse was done in North America, with Toyota briefly offering a lightly restyled Mazda 2 there as the Scion iA and later Toyota Yaris iA.

Last year, the Mazda 2 was the third best-selling light car in Australia with 5146 sales. That put it narrowly ahead of the Kia Rio (4576) and Suzuki Swift (4405), but behind the discontinued Suzuki Baleno (6124) and the indefatigable MG 3 (16,168).

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