Congratulations Mazda!!

Shield your eyes everyone, it's the new Mazda3. I nabbed this picture from Road & Track magazine. Wow, I can't think of another car this ugly. It looks like a smiling fish with a giant black retainer on its top teeth. The rest of the sedan and the hatch version look good, but, ugh, that front end! I realize that daring designs need to grow on some people, the Chris Bangle-designed BMW's come to mind, but I don't know about this.

I think this pretty interesting but ,of course, it's outrageously expensive. I love the idea of the sleek sports car with no windshield and the twin roll hoops behind the occupants heads. You also have to wear a full-face helmet because a bug in your teeth at its 217 mph top speed would be devastating. The body is mostly carbon-fiber and all of those expensive materials that weigh like two ounces. A big downside is that it costs over a million dollars, only 75 will be made and you have to live in Europe. Oh, you also have to own another SLR to qualify. I hate that you have to meet certain criteria in order to be able to purchase this car. Ferrari did this with the Enzo. It's so elitist.