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I love the looks of this BMW M3 not just because of its big wheels and carbon-fiber spoiler, but also because the flared fenders and squat stance make it look deliberate and purposeful. I love the M3's V-8 engine not simply because it makes 414 hp, but because of the way it furiously races toward its 8400-rpm redline. I love the quad-tip exhaust not simply because it's loud (and it is very loud), but because it snarls and barks and growls like a race car. And I love the dual-clutch transmission not only because I can drop it into automatic mode when creeping around in rush-hour traffic, but because in full-bore mode it shifts with a ferocity and swiftness I could never manage with a manual gearbox.

New York City
Ten years after unveiling the first-generation Mazda3 compact, and with no corporate love lost for its smiley-faced, second-generation model, the small, independent Japanese automaker Wednesday revealed its all-new 2014 Mazda3, which goes on sale in September. The car was also unveiled Wednesday in Melbourne, St. Petersburg, Istanbul, and London in anticipation of a public unveiling Wednesday evening in Manhattan via Xbox Live. The global rollout is apt since Mazda sells the car in more than 130 countries, and the Xbox Live medium is also appropriate given the 3's target demographic. The compact accounts for 40 percent of Mazda's U.S. sales, some 110,000 cars, and 50 percent of its sales in Canada.

This is Automobile Magazine's Family Crossover Comparo, our comparison test of the kind of vehicle that you see during America's summer vacation, the three-row family crossover.