2020 Mazda 3 review: G25 Astina hatch

Spending more than $40,000 drive-away on a new Mazda 3 once meant you were jumping into an MPS hot-hatch variant. Since 2014, that kind of money has instead got you into an Astina-badged flagship model aiming to showcase the Japanese small car at its most sophisticated. Aside from the exclusive diesel power offered in the XD Astina, the extra sophistication then chiefly concerned the model’s extra safety technology over models below it.