If Jalopnik were to start handing out Parent of the Year awards, Seattleites Holly Johnson and her husband would have to be the top choices. They found the solution to distracted driving that we have LITERALLY BEEN PREACHING FOR YEARS — they bought their teenager a car with a stick shift. Huzzah!

Is this the next Mazda 3? Help us figure it out.

We've seen Mazda's Kodo design language in the Mazda6 and the CX-5, and going by this supposedly leaked image it looks like they're going the same route with the Mazda3.

To join the growing club of compact cars that can touch 40 mpg in the U.S. government's highway driving tests, Mazda tweaked the 2012 Mazda3 with aero changes and a new 2-liter engine. The LOLs are still intact.

The 2012 Mazda3 will sport the company's new more efficient SKYACTIV-G engine/transmission combo, which includes direct-injection and other vaguely referenced fuel-saving technology. They've also revised the goofy fascia into a more reserved scowl.

Somewhere around 24" of snow fell over Ramsey, New Jersey during this week's blizzard. But winds whipped the white stuff into drifts of up to 10 feet high, like the pompedour-like topping that nearly crushed one of Ramsey Mazda's Mazda3s.

Not to be outshone by the flood of Scions and Hondas crowding SEMA, Mazda brought a full range of toys, from cosmetically enhanced Mazda2s up to the time-attack Mazda3 sporting 500 hp from a 2.5-liter four banger.

Mazda previews the next-gen Mazda3 decked out in its new Kodo "soul of motion" design language shown on the Shinari concept. If you're going to show pics of a Cheetah, thing better blast some antelope. Just sayin' Mazda.

You'd think a BMW 335i driver lead-footing it on twisty roads would enjoy some friendly company from a trailing MazdaSpeed3. You'd be wrong. This putz comes to a dead stop and lets go with some totally uncalled for road rage.

Everyone talks about how the Ford Fiesta will do against other compact cars. But now that it's been EPA-certified at 29MPG city, 40MPG highway, we're thinking it can take on bigger cars — and kick their asses.