The 2 may be short, but its interior does not strike you as one belonging to a particularly compact supermini. There’s as much space in here as you’d find in virtually any other car in the class, four-metre plus rivals like the Clio and Corsa included.
The 2’s is a wide cabin front and rear and if there is a payoff for the decent legroom, it’s that you’re forced to sit slightly more upright than in, say, a Corsa or Clio. There’s a competitively sized 250-litre boot and, although the seats don’t fold completely flat, there is a natty removable, suspended boot floor.
Ergonomically the 2’s cabin design is spot on. The steering wheel adjusts for rake only, mildly disappointingly, but the gearlever sits conveniently high. The seats are large enough to stay comfortable over distances and switches are large, simple and clear.
The 2 is also well specified in Sport trim. Electric windows all round, CD player with MP3 compatibility, six airbags and climate control are all standard.
But if there is an area where you feel Mazda’s weight-saving strategy, it is inside it. There’s nothing wrong with fit and finish; in fact, this feels like one of the best assembled cabins in the class. It’s just that the trim choices themselves owe more to the Japanese school of hard plastics than the European school of soft-feel textures.
Two years ago this wouldn’t have been a problem, but the latest-generation Corsa, Clio and Punto have moved the game so much in this respect that the Mazda doesn’t feel so cosseting. Noise levels reinforce the impression: there’s a more road noise in the Mazda than in its most refined rivals.
There’s also evidence of cost (if not weight) reduction at work when you open the doors, boot or bonnet. The colour of our test car was vibrant, but open one of the body cavities and you’ll see just a basecoat, shorn of final glow and glossy lacquer. On superminis, where margins are so tight, even every gram of paint counts.