Been anywhere interesting?
Sadly the 2 hasn't; it has been spending a lot of time sitting in car parks while I fly out on press trips. It's become my regular airport cab though, making the drive there fun, especially if it involves an early morning traffic-free cross-country run to Stansted. That and the 2 has been taking me to the golf course at weekends when I've got some down time.
Anything stand out...?
The more I drive it the more I like it. The driving position is pretty spot-on, the high dash-mounted gearshift perfectly positioned to snap through the quick five-speeder. The all-round visibility is excellent and the steering is nicely weighted and responsive. It all makes throwing the 2 around Milton Keynes on my commute to the office a bit of a giggle. The chassis exhibits excellent poise on all those roundabouts, the DSC (Dynamic Stability Control) rarely flashing its little light, and when it does intervene it does so unobtrusively. I'm seeing more and more 2s on the road now, and as much as I like the steely metallic grey shade of my car I'm rather fond of some of Mazda's more daring colours. Particularly the green metallic that I've dubbed ‘psychedelic-metallic Kermit' – the marketing people are likely to have a more suitable name.
The air conditioning is a boon for the short time it looked like it was going to get warm, while the aux-in socket is used almost continuously, or at least when I'm outside the two Chris's (Moyles and Evans) radio shows on the way to and from work. That's been quite a lot recently, very early starts seemingly the order of the day to get to another airport.
...and for the wrong reasons?
The boot isn't exactly that big, especially as I tend to leave my golf clubs in there. It highlights though just how much crash protection there is at the back of a modern supermini, as I can easily get all those clubs - while still attached to a trolley - into my old Peugeot 205 GTI. I know which one I'd rather put my friends and family in the back seat of though. The Mazda is still not delivering great economy, but I reckon that's more about my inability to drive it slowly as I enjoy the chassis so much. So I'm filling it up a fair bit at the moment, more so than I really should, the 2 annoyingly registering as full at the pumps only to have the digital read out say there's a bar left of space in the tank. I've taken to rocking the car gently as I fill it to alleviate this, so if you see someone looking ridiculous rocking a little Mazda on the fuel forecourt it's only me trying to fill it to the brim.
Where next?
More of the same really, so the 2 will be winding on miles to and from airports, taking the odd trip to the golf course and being thrown around roundabouts enthusiastically on my daily commute.
