2012 Mazda 2

VEHICLE HIGHLIGHTS

Mazda 2 safety rating

Mazda 2

Mazda’s 2 hatch sits right in the crosshairs of urbanites and budget-conscious first-timers who want a bit more than the generic commuter box. You’re looking at it alongside the Yaris, Polo Vivo, and Baleno — all slugging it out for hard-earned cash in the B-segment trenches. Powertrain choices here run the gamut: petrol and diesel, with everything from manuals to automatics and the odd CVT or semi-auto thrown in. The pool’s shallow — just 20 live listings from R134,900 up to a punchy R405,700, but the median is a telling R200,000. That’s where the action is: used, mid-life Mazdas, usually Dynamic trim, filling Gauteng parking lots and Cape Town driveways. If you’re after the sweet spot, the 1.5 Dynamic 5-door is it — eight of the 20 cars, with prices stretching from R149,900 to R247,900, depending on spec and how optimistic the seller is. Active Edition FWDs are pricier, R239,900 to R312,500, but there’s only one automatic Dynamic at R229,900, which says a lot about buyer habits here. The 1.3 Active at R134,900 opens the door for those battered by new-car inflation, and that matters, because suddenly the Mazda2 is a contender for folks who’d otherwise default to a decade-old Polo. Most examples clock just over 80,000 km, spanning 2011 to 2026, so they’re far from relics. What you’re actually getting over a Polo Vivo is a better-finished interior and steering that feels alive — on paper at least — and that’s the point. Only two new ones exist if you must have box-fresh, but for the rest of us, this is a used-car conversation all day.