Mazda moving quickly to ditch old Nagare design language

Well that didn’t take too long. As soon as former Mazda design director Laurens van den Acker left last year to take over as head pen of France’s Renault, it seems the Japanese automaker can’t move fast enough away from its still-born Nagare design language, a look that was created by van den Acker (left), but only seen in production form in the next Mazda5 mini-minivan (right), of all things.

Anyway, Mazda has already previewed its so-called new design language, dubbed "Kodo," in the shape of the Shinari show car (left.) Like last year’s Infiniti Essence concept (right), the Shinari will be the design halo for all future Mazda production cars. And now with the release of a potential Kodo-based compact teaser video, we get a taste of the what the next Mazda3 could look like, due for an all-new platform around 2012-2013.

For me, a new Mazda3 can’t come soon enough. I know. The current car is pushing the Honda Civic as the best selling new car in Canada these days. But the looks? Meh… In fact, I tagged the 3 as one of my Top 10 Worst Redesigns earlier this year.

What do you think?

Do you like the caught-between-Nagare-and-a-hard-place looks of the current 3?

Or can the new Kodo-inspired 3 not come soon enough?

[Source: Mazda]