Mazda 3 Evolution

The Mazda 3 is the firm's smaller mainline car that often gets favorable reviews from the automobile buff press.

Its fourth generation has been on the American road for about a year now, so I decided that it was past time for a look at the model's styling evolution.

The images below are marketing photos showing three perspectives: side, front quarter and rear quarter.  Within each group, they are arranged by launch model year: 2004, 2010, 2014 and 2019.

Gallery

Side views

The 2004 and 2010 Mazda 3s had the same wheelbase and the windshield and door cut lines on the fender are essentially the same, so it's possible that the 2010 design was not quite totally new.  (Let me know if this conjecture is wrong.)

The 2014 model had a slightly longer wheelbase and the body strikes me as being totally new.  That said, the lower side sculpting theme is retained, perhaps for brand identity reasons.

One trend is the shrinking height of the side windows.  This view of a 2019 Mazda 3 shows that the rear is built up and more rounded, making the car a borderline crossover SUV akin to the Subaru Crosstrek, though on a smaller platform.  This notion is reinforced by the darkened glass on the aft side windows that offers some visual protection for objects inside.

Front quarter views

The converging hood/grille theme of 2004 morphed to a peculiar "smile" for the car's face in 2010.

The "smile" reverted to a convergent theme for 2014.  Variations of this can be seen on some current Mazda models.

For 2019 the grille abandoned the convergent theme for more of a seven-sided affair.  This view also shows the rounded rear quarter of the body.

Rear quarter views

The 2004 design was conventional, generally tidy.

Oddly, the 2010 back window shape seems to preview that of the 2014 grill opening.

For 2014, aft styling becomes cluttered with no clear theme, much like is found for some other Japanese brands.

The bulged rear of the 2019 design is evident in this view.  Part of this new theme is the elimination of sharp character line creases on the sides and fussy rear end detailing.  This roundedness is counteracted to some degree by the side window profile.

Another 2019 side view

I include this image because it has fewer distracting reflections than the 2019 side view above.