In keeping with GRM tradition, I am writing this before I've actually taken possession of the car. Or sat in it. Or seen it in person... I've already purchased it though 
Like every car purchase there's a bit of a story behind it. After many years of excellent service, my Celica has finally accumulated enough small issues to justify replacement. It still runs drives and stops. But there is an evap code that comes and goes, the front brakes will need replacement soon, it burns some oil, the AC doesn't blow very cold, I can feel the engine moving around a little every time I shift, etc. Most of all, there is rust on both rockers. While it's hidden by the side-skirts, it would be a very involved repair. So I've decided to part with the car and hopefully someone else will either decide to fix it (unlikely) or the parts will live on in their project.
Also, I no longer really need a small two-door car as my daily. At the time I purchased my Celica my Rx7 was living on jack-stands in my garage. I needed to scratch that itch somehow while fixing my Rx7. These days my Rx7 is my most reliable car.
So with the decision made, I set out to find the replacement car. There were a few candidates but I eventually decided on a Gen 3 Mazda 3 Hatch for the following reasons:
- I like Mazdas, and I think this generation of 3 has aged really well
- Still somewhat sporty with multi-link rear suspension (driving my mum's NC Miata has spoiled me)
- Off the shelf trailer hitches available (for my bike rack)
I was, however, disappointed to find that almost all of the more affordable examples already had rust issues. I know that's how it is with Mazdas, but it's always easier to prevent rust than to remediate. Twice I went to look at cars that were nice in the pictures but then had panel rust when I saw them in person. A third time I went to a dealer with 6+ Gen 3 hatches, all of them rusty. These excursions did present me with the opportunity to test drive differently optioned cars, and I further narrowed down which options I cared about:
- 2.5L is fine with either automatic or manual, but 2.0L would have to be manual to be tolerable for me
- Sunroof was almost a must-have
- Needed the infotainment system with a touch-screen (the other one is not easily upgradeable)
After spending some time on this I realized that I would need to raise my budget a bit to get a clean example, so I did. Even then it was tough to find a clean one that didn't sell quickly (missed out on one by only a business day).
This past Tuesday I saw a Kijiji ad from a smaller dealer advertising a 2014 GT. It was posted that morning and had no photos attached at all, nor any details other than that it only had 130,000km and was an optioned-out 2.5 automatic (I think GT always comes optioned-out but the trim levels on this car confuse me). I called the dealership on my lunch break and the salesperson was kind enough to send me some photos of the chassis:
These are actually photos my dad would take later, as the ones the salesperson sent me were compressed when sent by SMS. But I got plenty of photos and saw nothing concerning in any of them
Minty-fresh. I figured this was an opportunity I had to jump on quickly, but I obviously couldn't leave work in the middle of the day to go look at a car. Conveniently my parents were going to be in the area of the dealership. I asked my dad to inspect the car for any issues and let me know what he found, and if he found the chassis was rust-free then to negotiate on my behalf (and to go up to asking price if necessary). I'd already test-driven an identically specced car (one of the rusty ones I saw) so I knew that I liked the car, plus my dad knows what he's looking for so I trusted him to find any issues.
Turns out the car was as clean as it appeared and I e-signed the purchase agreement from work. The car comes certified and the dealer has excellent reviews, plus both of my parents had a very positive opinion of everyone they dealt with there. They wouldn't budge on price, but I'm very happy with what I get for the price I paid. This car had the one biggest factor I cared most about (a clean chassis) and as a bonus came with the following configuration:
- 2.5L (auto with paddles)
- Sunroof
- Leather seats
- Factory window tint
- Dual zone climate control
- Backup camera
- Heated seats
- Factory weather mats and trunk liner
- Fully optioned infotainment system with nav
- Heads-up display
- Even came with a trailer hitch, exactly as I wanted
I only will probably only ever use about three of those features (sunroof, infotainment, trailer hitch) but getting all of those others is a welcome bonus. And maybe I'm getting old, but while manuals are more fun, I don't mind a decent automatic for my daily. Plus it's easier on my left knee (which all medical professionals seem to agree is in perfect health but continues to have random aches and pains).
Also, jumping on this car quickly was a good idea as my dad saw another salesperson pulling up the car's info for a customer when they were leaving the dealership (only a few minutes after I signed).
This car will remain stock, so the only posts I'll make about it will probably be maintenance. I intend to install my dash-cam and at some point do the Android Auto upgrade, but otherwise it will remain materially unchanged. Updates to come once I pick it up
Best looking Mazda 3 gen, imo. Nice find!
No Rx7 updates today; just some more Mazda 3 information and my overall thoughts on the car as a whole.
My Celica sold tonight, which is convenient because between me and the family we were up to 8 cars in the driveway. 7 is about the maximum that we can feasibly shuffle around before things start to get really tight. Despite the fact that I bought the Celica as a daily driver and didn't really do much other than maintain it, I was admittedly a little bit sad to see it drive away. The new owners knew their way around cars, so I'm hoping they get many more years of enjoyment from it.
This evening I took a few minutes to really inspect my new Mazda (what I can see from above anyways) and see if anything needed my attention. To start with, coming from a 39 year old Rx7 and a 20 year old Celica, the features on this car are crazy. The coolest thing is that the steering wheel adjusts in and out instead of just tilt.
Something I find disconcerting is the lack of gauges:
Sure, it has everything you need (one can argue you don't even really need a tach). But the old car driver in me always likes to keep an eye on the coolant gauge and oil pressure. Range is nice I suppose, but I've never understood why the external temperature matters. By the time you get to the car you already know the external temperature, right? Plus I don't know anyone who checks the external temp and then changes in their car. I just don't really see a use-case for that readout.
The little heads-up display is neat. My brother test drove the car and found it distracting, but I kind of like that I don't need to avert my eyes from the road to see my speed. Plus it shows the cruise-control target when active.
One other weird feature is that the engine coolant warning light illuminates in blue when the car is cold. So blue tells you the car is not yet warmed up, then it goes off when the car is warm, and it turns red if the car is getting too hot. Kind of an odd choice to warn you when the car is cold but I guess with no actual gauge they needed some way to indicate that you shouldn't be thrashing the engine.
Factory weather mats front and rear are a nice touch:
The car was detailed before I got it, but as usual "detailed" is synonymous with "Armor-all on everything". So I'm going to gently clean all the plastics and use 303 instead (since it doesn't leave the oily residue). The seats are also genuine leather (at least I think they are) and Armor-all is shiny but not really the right thing to condition them with. See this picture for the shininess:
Even after cleaning with leather cleaner you can see the shininess in the creases:
So it's going to get a few more passes with the cleaner and I'll probably condition it this weekend.
Interestingly the door cards seem to be pleather:
It feels perfectly fine, just something I noticed.
The AC and climate controls work great. Full-auto is kind of neat, although I do miss the simplicity of having three dials for temperature, fan, and vent direction respectively.
The passenger airbag warning light is very distracting. I'm not sure why they feel the need to have that illuminate when nobody is seated in the passenger seat.
The center screen is working fine, although I did notice a slight bloom:
These screens are easily swappable but it doesn't bother me enough to do anything about it.
Moonroof is working well:
Weirdly the moonroof opens with one-touch, but then requires you to manually hold the switch in the close direction until it completely closes. A strange cost-cutting choice.
The center console is sized perfectly for CDs (which I still use on occasion):
This is convenient because the door-cards don't have slots for the CDs. Instead they have this large cupholder type pocket, except angled instead of upright. The rear doors are the same. This is a weird choice since the center console has two cupholders, and there are two in the rear fold-down armrest. Add in the doors (which can really only hold a sealed type of bottle due to the angle, not a fountain drink) and that's 8 total cupholders. I suspect this was done because they couldn't fit a larger pocket with the Bose door speakers. I can still use those pockets for storage, it's just a little odd they chose to do it that way.
Speaking of odd, the center console comes with this little insert:
It slides forward and back so you can access the CDs, or lifts out entirely. It has a little pass-through for a cable, which I assume is to leave a phone charging inside of it. But then why is the pass through on the side of the phone instead of the bottom?
I found some space in the spare tire to fit my emergency supplies. Jumper cables and ratchet straps are usually my go-to. I used to keep a tire-slime kit and a rubber traction grip, but couldn't find a convenient place for them. I've never used them before anyways.
While in there I noticed a small crack in the plastic inside of the hatch:
Not something I'm going to worry about. If I hear anything rattling I'll remove the plastic and JB Weld the back of it, but everything seems pretty secure so I'd rather not risk damaging it further for no reason.
Here's the one dent in the rear bumper (disclosed by the dealer and photographed for me before I purchased):
3 stage paint never looks right with a touch-up pen, so I'm leaving it as-is. It's not very noticeable.
Speaking of touch-up pens, I did find a tiny tiny spot of rust that my dad missed, right at the driver's door sill trim:
Fortunately it's still very small. I'll strip that back and treat it sometime soon.
One thing I like about this car is that it handles really well. The electric power steer is pretty communicative (although not as much as a hydraulic rack), and the multi-link rear suspension really keeps this car planted. My brother has a 2nd gen Mazda 3 with the trailing arm rear, and it doesn't feel quite as confident through the corners. It came with Pirelli P-Zero, about which I have a pretty positive opinion so far:
And other than adding my Parks Canada pass to the rear-view mirror, that was it for the night:
In the next couple weeks (particularly once the warranty from the dealer is up) I want to start systematically checking every area. I have no maintenance records in the glovebox, so I don't know when any of the fluids were last done (other than oil at the dealer) nor the spark plugs. The serpentine belt has been changed but everything else will be thoroughly inspected, documented, and then dealt with one-by-one. There are no symptoms of anything amiss, it's mostly just for peace of mind.
Until next time
