2010 Mazda3 Revealed Through EU’s Official Trademark Office?

Although these pictures appear to be depicting an unfinished toy model, fact is that the designs you’re looking at were filed by Mazda at OHIM, which is the official European agency responsible for registering trademarks and designs valid in all 27 countries of the EU. As you can see in the snapshots after the jump, the designs were registered by Mazda Motor Corp. at OHIM on July 22, 2008. The designers responsible for the car’s styling are Kunihiko Kurisu, Akira Tamatani, Yuji Ishimoto, Masahiro Kagekata, Tetsuji Kawakami, Masanori Ito and Kenichi Tsushima.

It is more than apparent that the 5-door hatchback seen in these pictures is related to the Mazda3. However, while retaining the basic shape of the current model, the compact hatch borrows plenty of styling cues from Mazda’s latest production and concept cars like the bulgy front wheel arches and the large RX-8-style grille that’s incorporated in the front bumper. At the rear-end we find a pair of Mazda6-inspired tail lamps along with a more concave shaped bumper and a steeper rear-window. -Continued

Despite the fact that we don’t like jumping to any hasty conclusions, we must admit that the designs look eerily close to what we’ve seen in spy photos of the upcoming Mazda3. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long to find out if these designs are based on the actual production model as the sedan version of the 2010 Mazda3 is expected to make its global debut at the LA Show in November with the 5-door hatchback following in December at the Bologna Motor Show in Italy.

Current Mazda3

New Mazda3 to be Revealed in L.A. this November

A report from British magazine Autocar citing company insiders in Japan supports that the all-new Mazda3 will make its world premiere in sedan form at the Los Angeles Motor Show in November, while the five-door hatchback 3 will be launched at the Bologna Show in Italy in December. This means the Mazda’s new sporty compact car should arrive in European and Japanese dealerships in the first quarter of 2009, with the U.S. and other international markets following shortly after. -Continued

The highly anticipated 2010 Mazda3 will borrow design elements from both the Mazda2 hatch and Mazda6 sedan, meaning that it will be more distinct and sportier than the current model (see more renderings here). As with all new Mazda models, the “3” is almost certain to lose a few pounds compared to its predecessor.

Info: Autocar , Image via: Render

2010 Mazda3 Renderings Italian Style

From what we gathered by looking around the net, the forthcoming 2010 Mazda3 is one of the most highly anticipated future vehicles. That was more than evident with the supposedly official Mazda3 Concept pictures (see here) that managed to create quite a hype on the internet. Unfortunately for some, these new renderings come from the Italian website “Infomotori”.

The designer of these new chops took a different approach, applying elements from the Nagare, Ryuga, Hakaze, Taiki and Furai concept cars to a an enlarged version of the Mazda2. Not bad but we would have definetely preferred a different styling for the front-end. –More pics after the jump

Via: Infomotori

2010 Mazda3 Concept: Nope, It’s Not Official, It’s Photoshop...

Some of you may have wondered why we didn’t post anything on the Mazda3 Concept images that took the web by surprise yesterday. To be frank, we had discovered these images during the weekend but we were 99% sure they weren’t official. The only problem was we didn’t know where they came from. Of course, we could have created a nice story hiding the real-facts, but that’s not our style.

Today our hunt down finally paid off as we managed to discover the “culprit”. Turns out that these, rather convincing, pictures of a Mazda3 Concept are the work of "Grif-1", a member of the Russian design site, "Render". If anything else, we’ll give our kudos to Grif-1 for doing a wonderful and quite detailed work on the Mazda3 Concept. Hopefully we’ll hear from him again in the near future. -Continued

Link: Render

2010 Mazda3 Rendering Speculation

This artist’s rendering featuring a Mazda6-inspired design for the successor to the Mazda3 sedan (called Axela in Japan) was shown on Japan’s “My Car” automotive magazine. There’s no way of telling how close the artist’s rendering will be to the actual model that’s expected to be introduced in 2009 as a MY2010, but we must admit that it looks pretty neat overall.

Via: WindingRoad

2009 Mazda3 / Axela Facelift Debuts In Japan

The Mazda Axela, or as Europeans, Americans and others now it, the Mazda3, has been subtlety (we're talking about really subtlety…) updated for the Japanese market. Exterior design modifications include chrome door handles, a new roof spoiler, expanded use of black mouldings on the rear bumper and new alloy-wheel options.

Inside, Mazda has enhanced the interior quality with the addition of piano black parts on the centre panel, power window switch bezels and other areas, and chrome parts for some levers and buttons, while reduced cabin noise and higher comfort levels have been achieved through the increased use of sound absorbent materials. -Continued after the jump

The Japanese carmaker also presented two new special edition versions of the Axela Sport, the 23HS and 20HS. Both come with extended sports equipment including 17-inch reflective aluminum wheels, aluminum pedals, a larger rear roof spoiler and a BOSE sound system. These models also come with black Alcantara and leather combination seat covers and Alcantara door trim.

2018 Mazda3: Winning LA Show Concept Complete

These are the first photos of the winning 2018 Mazda3 Concept that was sculpted into a full-scale model, live, at the LA Auto show. We remind you that the “Mazda Design Challenge” contest hosted on Facebook was won by Mallory McMorrow of South Bend, Ind., a 21-year-old Industrial Design major at the University of Notre Dame (see details here). We definitely like McMorrow’s design proposition and we can’t see any reason why Mazda shouldn’t take it in consideration when they design the next generation Mazda3. -More images after the jump

2018 Mazda3 Concept Taking Shape At The LA Show

As Mazda promised us, Mallory McMorrow's rendering that won the “2018 Mazda3 Design Challenge” is taking shape in the form of a life-size clay model at the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show. According to Mazda, the clay model will be finished by the time the auto show comes to a close, on Sunday, November 25. We’ll have the full story as soon as the Japanese carmaker releases pictures of the finished vehicle later on this week, but in the meantime, follow the jump and check out our image gallery of the clay model being meticulously scraped into shape by the Mazda folks. -Continued after the jump