#01#The Mazda2, the smallest car in the Mazda range, has been facelifted for 2006. The main changes relate to new lights front and rear, a newer design alloy and some new colours. Inside, there are new fabrics for the seats and door trims, and improved steering wheel controls for the stereo. And finally ABS, EBD (Electronic Brake force Distribution) and EBA (Electronic Brake Assist) are all standard. We hadn't tested the Mazda2 before, so took the opportunity of the update to check out the smallest member of the "Zoom Zoom" family.

Our test car came with the middle of the three-strong range of petrol engines (the 1.4-litre) and the middle trim level, Antares. Our Mazda2 1.4 Antares costs £9,200 on-the-road, against the cheapest Mazda2 at £8,700 (the 1.25 S) and the most expensive petrol model at £10,600 (the 1.6 Capella). The Mazda2 also comes with a 1.4-litre diesel option ranging from £9,730 to £10,630.

For all the updates, the basic body and the mechanical parts have remained the same. The five-door hatchback looks deceptively small from the outside, although it's almost four metres long. Inside it's like boarding the tardis, with plenty of space both for the front and rear passengers and a boot area that must be twice that of some of its competitors. No problem doing the weekly shop here, that's for sure. #p##02# Inside, the Mazda2 looks stylish. Mazda says that the black cloth interior is of higher quality than of the outgoing model and it certainly looks to be of good quality. There is titanium-effect trim on the dashboard that adds to the ambience and breaks up any image of blackness to good effect. Finally, the top of the dashboard is patterned so it almost resembled carbon fibre; very smart in my opinion.

The Mazda2 may be massive inside, but one area I was not so sure about. The pedals appeared to be offset too far to the left, presumably to clear the front wheel, but this meant there was no room for a left foot rest, nor was there room to take your left foot past the clutch pedal when you were not changing gear - it seemed to involve a convoluted movement of pulling your leg backwards, rotating the left foot to clear behind the pedal, and then stretching back forwards again to place your foot under the clutch pedal. Round town I found this quite uncomfortable which was a shame as the rest of the driving position was good. All the controls are nice and light, but evenly weighted and obviously on motorway trips this wasn't an issue at all.

The 1.4-litre engine develops 79bhp at 5700rpm and 91lb.ft of torque at 3500rpm. Although a fairly willing engine (it revved easily enough) there wasn't too much 'Zoom-Zoom' about the Mazda2's performance, as the 0-62mph time of 13.4 seconds and a top speed of 102mph might suggest. Up hills or in the higher gears the Mazda2 positively struggled. Another shame really, because despite the tall boxy body shape, the Mazda2 does live up to the Zoom-Zoom image in terms of its handling. It's much more entertaining around corners and big roundabouts that you might expect.

Fuel economy is only par for the course, the official Combined Cycle figure is 42.8mpg, in line with the sort of figures we were achieving on test, but no better than most similar size cars we have drivem. Antares barely differs from the lesser 'S' trim level, the main differences outside being body coloured door mirrors and handles as against black. Inside is where the extra money goes with the Antares trim bringing in air conditioning, electric windows, a couple of extra speakers for the CD-tuner and a front passenger seat that can fold flat for even greater luggage carrying versatility.

Versatility; that's something the Mazda2 majors on. The rear seats fold 60/40 and with the front seat also folded there is simply a massive and flat loading space available to the solo driver; space to load very long items indeed. In other seat combinations, any loading space is still flat. #p##03# All in all, the Mazda2 is not so much about Zoom-Zoom as being about being a more practical alternative to some of the smaller cars available on the market, while looking less like a miniature MPV.

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Mazda2 UK range overview

- Mazda2 1.25 S: £8,700
- Mazda2 1.4 S Auto Shift Manual: £9,600
- Mazda2 1.4 Antares: £9,200
- Mazda2 1.4 Capella: £10,100
- Mazda2 1.4 Capella Auto Shift Manual: £10,600
- Mazda2 1.6 Capella: £10,600
- Mazda2 1.4 S Diesel: £9,730
- Mazda2 1.4 Antares Diesel: £9,730
- Mazda2 1.4 Capella Diesel: £10,630