2018 Mazda CX-3 Grand Touring.

Regular TireKicker readers know of our fondness for Mazda...the company that, as we've been saying since our founding in 2008, doesn't build a single bad car.  In fact, it builds all great cars, a secret that needs to spread beyond enthusiasts and automotive journalists.  But despite its excellence, Mazda continues to make yearly improvements to its machines, rather than waiting three years for mid-cycle refreshes.

2018 Mazda CX-3 Grand Touring.

While the '18 CX-3 looks like the '17 ( a very good thing, because it and the one-size-up CX-5 both bear a strong resemblance to the flagship CX-9...both of which occupy space on the TireKicker's Best Cars list on the right side of this page), there have been a lot of changes this year.

Smart City Brake support is standard on all CX-3 models, as is G-Vectoring Control.  Every CX-3 Touring or higher gets automatic on/off headlights, rain-sensing windshield wipers, automatic climate control and blind spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert.

The Grand Touring, the model we drove for a week, benefits from all that plus traffic sign recognition and adaptive front lighting.  All of which makes for a spectacularly well-equipped small crossover.

2018 Mazda CX-3 Grand Touring interior.

The remarkable part is the price. The top-of-the-line Grand Touring starts at $25,165 in its front-wheel-drive configuration with 18-inch wheels, leather with luxury suede sport seats, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, gearshift knob and brake handle, power windows, mirrors and automatic door locks, keyless entry, pushbutton start, paddle shifters, navigation, a seven-speaker Bose audio system with HD Radio, a rearview camera, power moonroof and more.

Even with options (in our case, $325 for a frameless auto-dimming mirror with HomeLink, $100 for a rear bumper guard, $300 for roof rack side rails, $100 for door sill trim plates and $1,435 for the Premium Package including radar cruise control, smart brake support, a six-way power driver's seat with lumbar, heated steering wheel, lane-departure warning, high-beam control, driver's seat memory with two positions ), the bottom line after $940 delivery, processing and handling fee was $28,365.  Well-equipped small crossovers under $30,000 are not all that common.   And none of the competition wring as much fun out of the suspension and the engine (a 2.0-liter Skyactiv four making 146 horsepower) while still returning a solid 29 miles per gallon city and 34 highway.

The CX-3 is as good as they come.

The 2017 Mazda CX-3 Grand Touring FWD.

Apart from electrification and autonomy (both of which are more real and more imminent than a lot of us think), this is what the folks in the know say the future of cars is:  Small crossover SUVs.

That may be the fact, and if it is, they should all be as good and as satisfying as the 2017 Mazda CX-3 Grand Touring.

2017 Mazda CX-3 Grand Touring FWD.

We had our last time in the CX-3 almost a year ago, and found it to be, as all Mazdas are, an immensely fun car to drive.  If you have to have a crossover, why not have one from the folks who make the MX-5 Miata?

2017 Mazda CX-3 interior.

Everything we wrote about the '16 Mazda CX-3 Grand Touring holds true for the '17.  The only real difference between the car we drove last year and the one we drove this year is that this year's was blue, not red, and that it was the front-wheel, not the all-wheel drive version.

That choice saves a bit of weight, a bit of complexity, two miles per gallon on the highway (34 versus 32) and $1,250, bringing the base price to $24,990, which brings with it a remarkable list of standard equipment (Grand Touring being the top of the line).

Our tester had the optional GT i-Activesense package (radar cruise control, smart city brake support variable rain-sensing wipers, lane departure warning, automatic on/off headlamps with automatic highbeam control) for $1,170 plus door sill trim plates and a rear bumper guard, which are $100 each. With $900 delivery, processing and handling fee, the bottom line came to $27,260.

That's below the average price of a new car in the U.S. these days, and for it, you get an excellent compact vehicle capable of carrying more stuff than a compact sedan that's fun to drive.  There are a lot worse ways to spend $27,260 at a car dealership.