Change! It was the hottest thing last year, and anyone selling it did good business in a soft market. Sure, the new Mazda 3 has more emotion, more refinement, and a bit more power, but otherwise it’s basically the same thrifty little corner darter as before. Summon the firing squad. Hey, you said you want change. Cheat-grass-fueled flying landaulets—that’s change, brother. And while you’re waiting for the real change, watch as Mazda dares you to love nuanced change, change by inches.

Here are a couple of rules sane people live by. First, never eat a stick of butter in less than a minute, even if there’s money involved. And second, never buy a V-6 family sedan. We’ve been tempted by the butter thing, but what about that second one?

In 2007, the Mazdaspeed3 was the most powerful front-driver under $25,000. Yet, it was the deft combination of power and utility that made the hatchback irresistible. The 2010 Mazdaspeed3, fortunately, relies on much of the previous generation's hardware -- engine included -- but gains Mazda's smiley-face aesthetics, an updated suspension and driveline, and reworked electronics to improve upon an already stout platform.

We've already told you all about the second-generation Infiniti FX series as well as how its burlier big brother, the 390-hp, 5.0L V-8-powered Infiniti FX50, performs at the track. Now it's time to see what the kid brother FX35 can do when fired down the dragstrip and through our radar beam.

Not too long ago, senior editor Ed Loh spent a day driving each variant of Mazda's all-new 2009 Mazda6 -- the Japanese automaker's midsize-sedan segment contender. His biggest gripe? That Mazda didn't get the car to market soon enough to be included in our recent four-banger family sedan shootout, a comparison test that Loh speculates the Mazda6 might have won.

Typically, when a car goes under the knife for updates, it ends up growing in size, gaining a few hundred pounds, and in some cases, losing a bit of performance along the way. We worried about the new Mazda3 for precisely these reasons. Not too long ago, in a four-way comparison, we crowned the 3 as the best in class, ahead of the Toyota Corolla, Subaru Impreza, and, the assumed benchmark, Honda Civic. Suffice it to say, we really like the outgoing Mazda3.

The new rip-roaring Infiniti FX50 is a fine sporty crossover SUV, but with 390 horsepower, it’s a bit over the top. For starters, who really needs one of these tall wagons to run 0 to 60 mph in 5.0 seconds, as the FX50 does? Second, it rides so stiff-leggedly that it threatens to shake loose the fillings in your teeth. And finally, EPA projections of 14 mpg in the city and 20 mpg on the highway are disheartening at a time when gas just blew past $4 a gallon.

We've always liked the Mazda3. It's a vehicle that's done well in just about every head-to-head road test we've ever conducted. And now that we've driven and received the full download on the new Mazda3, we don't see anything about our original assessment that needs changing. But is it really "all new"?