The lovely Mazda Kai appears to have made production

It’s not often the whole Top Gear office agrees on something, but when it comes to Mazda, we really do. Mazda is the only mainstream carmaker whose entire range is good looking.

There’s the odd supercar maker that achieves the same feat, but no one else who makes regular cars that us normal folk buy. Even Mazda’s de rigueur family crossover – the CX-5 – is a sharply styled thing.

The next Mazda 3 hatchback has a fair bit to live up to, then, but this first glimpse of its design suggests it’s another cracker. And pleasingly faithful to the Mazda Kai concept that previewed it back in 2017.

All Mazdas are good to drive, too, and this one will apparently be better than ever. “The arrival of all-new Mazda 3 marks the beginning of a whole new generation of Mazda cars that will deliver new dimensions of driving joy to customers around the world,” is the rather lovely company line.

That’ll be partly achieved by new chassis and engine tech under Mazda’s ‘Skyactiv’ tag, which uses lightness and simplicity to achieve unfathomable fuel economy for cars the eschew the turbocharged downsizing trend.

We’ll see the full thing – and presumably learn performance figures and suchlike – at the Los Angeles motor show on November 28.