Mazda is bringing comfort to Ford world HQ in Dearborn, Michigan. The Japanese car maker is surging ahead with European sales of 229,113 last year. That's 26 per cent up on 2002.
In some markets, with admittedly smallish bases, the climb was incredibly steep - Greece 95 per cent, Denmark 88 per cent and Hungary 57 per cent. Larger markets also produced big smiles - Spain up 46 per cent, Britain 34 per cent and Italy practically double.
Mazda expects to build 242,000 cars for Europe this year, which is still well short of its heyday in 1991 when 317,000 were produced. Ironically one of Ford's top people, responsible for the renaissance with models such as the 6 and RX8, is now part of Ford's bad news scenario. Martin Leach became Ford's chief in Ford, then resigned. He is now locked in a bitter feud with Ford which prevented him from moving to head up Fiat.
At Mazda the new model momentum is continuing and the 3 that seems set to replicate the much earlier appeal of the 323F, is itself an expanding family. Remarkably, the new 3 sedan bears little or no similarity with the earlier 3 hatchback. In fact, apart from using the same platform, the only common components are door handles, wipers, exterior mirrors and windscreen.
The sedan is already on Irish sale, but still to be seen here, however, is the new 1.6 litre diesel version of the 3 that we tested exclusively last week. It's a Ford and PSA (Peugeot-Citroen) joint venture and a second-generation, common-rail effort that makes for a turbodiesel with 108 bhp at 4,000 rpm and maybe more significantly, 181 lb ft of torque from just 1,750 rpm.
Here's a car that's not out of the ordinary yet it quickly creates awareness of its eagerness and vitality. Is there a downside? Perhaps the fact that there's still quite a bit of diesel clatter around, especially at lower speeds and in lower gears. The official combined fuel figure is 56.5mpg: enthusiasts encouraged by the willing engine will be more likely-or lucky- to achieve around 43 or 44mpg.
Finally, the diesel 3 will not arrive on the Irish market until July, according to David Moran, Mazda's marketing manager.