For years Mazda has given us pint-sized cars with enough room for four people. Remember the RX-3? Or the GLC? Or, more recently, the Mazda2?
Mazda’s smallest sedan these days is the Mazda3, and it has also grown in terms of both style and stature. And it’s grown in importance, too, as today it’s Mazda’s most popular model.
The Mazda3 …
I dig the appearance package. It makes me desire to see it hammered to the ground on huge touring car wheels.
Kinda wish you could take the cx3 awd and graft it. Then You’d have a subie competitor.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
“The wagon?” I’m confused.
poopshovel again said:In reply to David S. Wallens :
“The wagon?” I’m confused.
The five-door version.
Funny 0-60 gets left out of a review for a performance car magazine.
According to Car and Driver, 0-60 is about 6.8-6.9 in the 2.5 with the auto trans, a bit more in the manual (not sure if it's because the auto shifts faster or because of the ratios).
I just spent a month driving my dad's around. It's an auto 2015 Grand Touring sedan, and I absolutely loved it (although I haven't driven most of the latest DCT cars except an E90 M3 which felt terrible). The trans uses a torque converter with a lock-up clutch. It's definitely tuned for economy in the Normal drive mode, but a click of the Sport button changes all that. It feels more direct than any other auto trans I've driven. Also, I loved how I could downshift with the paddle shifters even in Drive. It allowed me to control exactly when I downshifted when approaching a hill or when I wanted to pass. Lastly, it will hold a gear even at redline.
Power in the 2.5 felt nice, not crazy fast, but definitely enough to have fun and had a nice torque curve. Chassis felt great. Definitely understeery on the meh OE Dunlops, but it seemed like the rear might come around if you gave it the right inputs, not sure though as this was all street driving.
Knocked down 33mpg in mixed use driving. Pretty cool.
My only complaint, I sometimes had a hard time get comfortable in the seat, it felt a little hard on my butt and I couldn't decide if it was better to sit with the pelvis in anterior rotation, or posterior (laid back). My wife had no issues though.
In reply to CyberEric :
My wife's DD is about the exact same car except a manual. I have the exact same problem with the bottom seat cushion not working with my butt. Replacing the OE Dunlops with some Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ woke up the feel of the car a bit as well.
Hmmmm, maybe it's time to turn in the CX-7. We don't usually go for all the bells and whistles, but need a proper suspension. I passed on a Rav-4 7 years ago, because the base vehicle was too plush, and we had to pay several grand more for the sport version.
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