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Hi

I just bought a 2005 Mazda Axela (Mazda3) hatch 1.5L (50000km) to replace my old 2002 Nissan Primera Sedan 2.0L (150000+km).

We wanted to save on the petrol cost and the Nissan was giving us a few problems and gearbox is going.

The issue is after using the Mazda for a month, the mileage I got from it was averaging 9.07L/100km. The Nissan was giving me an average of 10L/100km. I would have thought the difference will be much bigger than this as the NIssan is bigger and heavier and has a 2.0L engine. Is there something wrong with my Mazda?

There is nothing wrong with your Mazda. It is a common misconseption that going down slightly in engine capacity will result in dramatic savings, but the reality is that's not usually the case. A saving of around 10% is about what we'd expect, and that's roughly what you're getting.
City running, traffic cues, short trips with a cold engine and driving style are all factors in fuel usage. I suspect you would get better consumption on a trip, but that would have applied to your Primera too.
On a positive note, a 2005 Mazda3 has a great reputaion for reliability, where the Primera has a poor reputation for the transmission and it's an expensive job to repair it.
So ultimately, a 50,000km Mazda3 is a much better proposition than a 150,000km Primera.

Also something I have noticed is that people go from a larger engined car to a smaller one, but then drive the smaller engined car harder to get the same performance the larger one gave them!

I notice that there are a lot of 1.5 Corollas and Mazda 3s being imported from Japan. The 3 especially seems quite a heavy car to run a 1.5 motor. Are you better off buying the 2L version of the 3 for Waikato roads?

A 1.5L and a 2.0L naturally aspirated engines have obvious differences. The 2.0 litre motor will have more power and torque available which translates into less force required on the throttle pedal when going up inclines in the road and therefore less fuel usage. However, in town driving the opposite will happen, in stop-start traffic the 1.5 litre engine should work out more economical. The differences won’t be huge but worth considering when buying a vehicle.