The new nothing too special car

I spent a couple of months looking on the web at new cars to replace my not terribly old car. I thought I would buy a hybrid car. EV would be good, but I can't charge one at home, so that was a no.

What I discovered during the search, what I already knew really, is that the latest model Mazda is not so different to my old car. Same body shape and exterior, with the interior being very similar. There has been some refinements to various features. 

But I wasn't looking to replace my car with the same newer model. I used the web browser Duck Duck Go, which ensured I didn't get a gazillion new car emails, FaceBook, YouTube, and Google ads. DDG doesn't track your activity and is not connected to the big tech companies. 

I looked at so many hybrid cars, their features and prices. Even a hybrid Lexus costing $10,000 more but couldn't match the power and features of my old car, let alone the current model Mazda. 

Decision time was coming, for no real reason other than I was now convinced a new Mazda of the same model was what I wanted. I was surprised, in spite of the body scratches, that the trade in value of my old car was much better than I anticipated.

If you want to look at the finer detail, the car is a Mazda CX30 G25 Skyactive petrol Astina front wheel drive 2.5 litre.

Exterior photos of the new non binary Perl, as against the old girl Pearl.

Perl is certainly not going to turn heads on the street, but it is attractive enough.

It doesn't look like it but the new car, second photo has a bigger screen than the old.

The centres look identical, don't they. The old...

The new.

The Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC) controls are ever so slightly different, with the on/off button moved, but I would have to look closely at the two photos to see what is where it was. 

In the top photo of the old car, in front of the gear stick is a flap to press to open up the coffee cup holders and in front of that is a tray to keep keys, that is car remote, parking bollard remote and garage door remote. The new car uses the the key area as a phone charging pad and there isn't a lid on the coffee cup holders, so the remotes can easily be dumped in there. In the console with its lift up lid, not in photos, Pearl had a USBA port, an SD slot for the navigation system card and a cigarette lighter socket. Perl has two USBC ports but I am not sure about the cigarette lighter socket.

But really, to you, it will all look the same.

The dashboard display looks the same, but there are some subtle differences. Some of the buttons on the right down below are different. 

So what does Perl have that Pearl didn't? An electric sunroof, more attractive wheels, a larger display screen, a larger engine, USBC ports, a better mapping system, but also instant connectivity to Google maps from your phone, a phone charging pad. In general all the tech has been upgraded and is better, yet as my preference, most controls are still manually operated, rather than by distracting touch screens which seem to have gone a bit too far, and are a serious driver distraction. 

It is quieter than the old Pearl, but not much. There is still work to be done there with road noise. With a larger engine, it is slightly less economical. Time will tell with my own driving but the difference is supposed to be less than 1 litre per 100km. As I've said, I would have liked a hybrid but one would only halve the petrol bill, at best. Besides, Phyllis and Kosov pay for the petrol now.

The questions are am I happy with buying a new car and am I happy with the new car, and obviously the answers are yes and yes.