If you thought Mazda's RX-7 replacement was dead, think again. A source based in Hiroshima confirms that the company is testing an RX-7 prototype and that one mule is powered by a bi-fuel rotary which can run on either gas or diesel. Mazda's evaluation department has reportedly invited several external drivers and racers to test the mules, while the design team has sought feedback on ideas from potential buyers at top secret customer clinics.

For the past couple of years, we've been sharing everything we've uncovered about the next-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata. We've told you that in 2013, Mazda plans to return to the car's original 1989 roots by making it lighter, more fuel-efficient, and cleaner. We've also shown you a couple of artist's impressions of the new model.

Kodo Red: Mazda's New Design, Tech In-Depth

Mazda gave itself a tough act to follow. The original Mazda 3 that launched in 2004 was an exceptional small car that delivered good fuel economy without sacrificing driving dynamics. That first-generation 3 didn’t skimp on refinement or interior quality, either. Rich plastics, unique design, and a luxurious array of optional equipment made the 3 a luxury sport sedan in a class full of mundane transportation devices. Now with the launch of the next-generation 3, would Mazda keep these attributes for its replacement?
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Small cars no longer have to be cheap cars and, as the excellent Honda Fit and other top sellers in the increasingly competitive small-car segment are proving, even affordable small cars don’t have to be cheap any more. From the look of it, the Mazda 2 adds “genuinely attractive” to the list of newly discovered small-car attributes. We’ll get to see for ourselves when it goes on sale in the U.S. in July.

Around the world, automakers are grappling with the changes necessary to meet escalating fuel-economy regulations. To this end, Mazda is launching a new family of four-cylinder engines—fours power the vast majority of Mazda’s cars—called Sky-G (gasoline) and Sky-D (diesel). We drove both in prototypes of the next-gen Mazda 6 and, thankfully, either engine can be paired with the latest version of Mazda’s snick-snick six-speed manual.

Let’s not beat around the bush here: Morgan has many of the qualities you’d expect to find in a good, old-fashioned cult. Seen from a safe distance, the English sports-car manufacturer seems deliberately eccentric—it still regards lumber as an appropriate material for use in a vehicle’s body—with its followers tending to demonstrate the sort of glassy-eyed devotion you’d expect from the freshly mind-laundered.

California's Highway 198 is a true test of any enthusiast car. It's got a little bit of everything — significant elevation gain, differing surfaces, jumps and a big enough variety of turns to satisfy any driving geek. We drove Highway 198 in the 2007 Mazdaspeed 3, a car that brings the road to life in an entirely new way.

The call of the third-row seat is pretty strong. Strong enough for a long list of crossover SUVs to have sprouted tiny, tacked-on, kids-only third rows that eat up any hope of carrying decent cargo. Minivans seat seven of course, but bottom out your cool factor faster than a Members Only jacket. So what's a guy to do?

You might have thought, as we did, that the world's most perfect, tidy, eminently usable folding soft top didn't need to be replaced by a power-operated folding hardtop. Particularly in a simple, elemental car like the Mazda MX-5 Miata, the inevitable added weight and complexity could dull its reflexes and blur its focus.

Last fall, a 2006 Mazda MX-5 Miata beat a Pontiac Solstice in a comparison test. In all of a week, the roadsters breezed down the California coast, sprinted through inland canyons and sweated it out on a steamy Central Valley road course. And the redesigned Miata came away with an easy win. Now we're going to find out how it would have gone down if the test had lasted a year.

Mazda isn't really comfortable with the C-word. Oh sure, the company refers to the all-new 2007 Mazda CX-7 as a "crossover" all the time in public. But it doesn't really think the term is entirely appropriate. Crossing between what and what else, one might ask? Instead it boldly proclaims that the CX-7 is an SUV with the "soul of a sports car." Uh-huh.

Grown-ups no longer need to be embarrassed by the wing on their Mitsubishi Evolution. Instead of wheels that scream "boy racer," Mazda is offering adults a less conspicuous way to express their need for speed with the new all-wheel-drive 2006 Mazdaspeed 6 sedan.

The rollout of the new 2006 Mazda MX-5 represents what is nominally the Miata's third generation, but it's actually the first total rework of everyone's darling roadster. And that makes it a high-stakes gamble. Confronting a new-generation Mazda Miata is charming and bubbly, yet at the same time scary and momentous, because so much could go wrong.

Mazda’s little compact car showed up to the 2011 New York Auto Show with a midcycle refresh that not only provides a refined exterior and interior, but also dishes out a new engine that utilizes Mazda’s innovative SKYACTIV fuel-saving and performance-oriented technologies.

It is just as easy to get a speeding ticket in this Mazdaspeed3 as it was in the last one, as evidenced by the, uh, paperwork handed over to some staff members in the last few months. But stints in traffic school took the violations off the books, and all was good again.