Mazda 3 gets new diesel engine

What Car?'s favourite version of the Mazda 3 will have a new engine from January. The revised 1.6-litre turbodiesel unit is both more powerful and more economical than the engine it replaces.

With 113bhp up from the current 1.6-litre unit's 107bhp the engine meets Euro V emissions regulations and comes with a six-speed manual transmission.

Its average economy of 64.2mpg and CO2 emissions of 117g/km represent improvements of 1.4mpg and 2g/km compared with the previous model. The new figures don't change the car's company car tax liability, because it remains in the lowest tax band for diesel-engined cars (13%) and incurs zero road tax for the first year after registration.

There's no change in price, with 1.6D-engined cars costing from 16,505 in TS trim. The TS2-trimmed car is expected to be the biggest seller and costs 17,705. As a result, monthly company car tax bills for a basic-rate taxpayer will be 36 on the TS model and 38 on TS2 cars.

The new models will be available from January.