By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

Looming government mileage standards that have the industry scurrying to adjust their fleet numbers skyward and a stubbornly sluggish economy have combined to fuel the reemergence of the small car in America.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

Sometimes less is more. Take Mazda’s 2010 CX-7 for example.

The compact CX-7 crossover has been on the market since 2007, a stylish entry that fits nicely into the company’s decade-old Zoom-Zoom theme. Since its inception four years ago, the CX-7 has had only one engine option, a turbocharged 4-cylinder that makes 244 horsepower and an impressive 258 pound-feet of torque.

 By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

We were just getting back into our 2010 Mazda Speed3 at a rest stop on Interstate 40 when someone approached us. “Hold on, hold on, I want to ask you something,” came the voice.

Not good. Our first inclination in such circumstances is to quickly fall into the seat, shut and lock the door and carefully but forcefully back out of the parking space not wanting to hear the usual hustle. But, for some reason, we got out of the car and met the man who then asked, “Is that the new Speed3, I just have to take a look if you don’t mind.”

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

The original Honda Odyssey was one of our favorites as far as minivans of the era. It was small and agile, a compact minivan. It could be parked just about anywhere there was a sliver of a space. The third-row seat folded into the floor, an innovation at the time. It could haul six passengers in relative comfort — seven in a pinch — when the back seat was resurrected out of the floor.

By Jim Meachen

WASHINGTON, D.C. — We pulled out of the hotel parking lot, found a hole in heavy D.C. traffic and hit the accelerator. The Mazda CX-7 answered with a startling and almost neck-snapping zoom-zoom.

It didn’t take but a few hundred yards in city traffic to appreciate the exuberance of this all-new crossover SUV (or CUV if you wish) that is energized by astounding low-end torque from a turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, and very effectively lives up to Mazda’s six-year-old zoom-zoom theme.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

We don’t understand why Mazda sells only on average about 100,000 units a year of its Mazda3 sedan and five-door hatchback in North America.

Granted, that’s not an insignificant number. Few nameplates reach six-figure sales. But when the Mazda3 is compared to its top two competitors, the Honda Civic and the Toyota Corolla, it’s a modest number. Both the Civic and Corolla approach and sometimes exceed 300,000 almost every year.