Wanna ride shotgun with GRM?
Welcome to this week’s test vehicle, a 2024 Mazda3 2.5T Premium Plus Sedan.
The Premium Plus is the–you guessed it–most premium option in the Mazda3 lineup, powered by a turbocharged, 2.5-liter inline-four. (Mazda offers lower trims that come with a naturally aspirated inline-four as standard.)
Mazda says the turbo-four is good for 250 horsepower and 320 lb.-ft. of …
On paper, there’s so much here to like here:
It’s the right size.
It has all-wheel drive.
Turbo power!
Analog gauges plus a traditional shifter.
Smart styling inside and out.
A usable trunk.
Knobs for HVAC and audio volume.
Fairly luxurious touch points.
A long, deep motorsports heritage.
Comfortable, supportive seats.
Communicative steering.
It’s not an SUV (#sorrynotsorry)
It’s like a modern, grown-up version of the Mazda3 and 323 GTX, two legends in our world.
But riddle me this: Why is this Mazda3 turbo just so bloody boring? There’s no snap, no urgency. It’s barely even fun to drive.
For $37,065, there are just too many other options these days. It’s a fine people-mover, but it’s lacks the spark of, say, a GTI, Elantra N or Civic Si.
I had this car for a day or two after it arrived, and I remember very little about those two days aside from driving around with my wife in her Ioniq 5, which is actually fun and interesting.
And it's a bummer, because this 3 has so many ingredients—on paper at least—which should add up to a cool car. But instead they turn it into middle school pizza. It has all the stuff that should combine for a cool, fun ride like a turbo, AWD, a nice wheelbase/length ratio for performance work, and make something that resembles pizza, but tastes more like cardboard.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I had to check the thread title again, $37K for a Mazda 3? WTF??
JG Pasterjak said:And it's a bummer, because this 3 has so many ingredients—on paper at least—which should add up to a cool car.
I recall driving a 2.5-liter turbo model a few years ago and felt the same way. It should be way fun to drive, but, somehow, it's not–not bad to drive, because it was pretty comfortable, but just not fun like you think it would be.
In reply to 06HHR (Forum Supporter) :
It makes any difference, the sedan actually starts at $24,170 for the most base model. The cheapest you can the turbo engine is $31,750.
I loved my 2008 Mazda3. It was fully loaded and had a stick. Because of the latter, I got nearly $10K off the sticker price.
To me, the new Mazda3 seems bigger on the outside but smaller on the inside. I'm not sure how they achieved that. It's got a more grown-up look, but with it did it lose some of the fun factor?
J.A. Ackley said:It's got a more grown-up look, but with it did it lose some of the fun factor?
I look in the mirror and ask myself that question every day.
In reply to Colin Wood :
In my mind I keep associating Mazda 3 with an econobox but i'm coming to the realization that Mazda ain't that kind of car company anymore. We live in a world with $40K Civics and Corollas, why shouldn't this thing cost $37k? 
In reply to Colin Wood :
Colin, you’re still fun. :)
And I’ll have the Mazda3 in Orlando later this evening so look for me among the chaos that is I-4.
Our CX-5 has weirdly heavy controls. The steering is very heavy and the ratio is slow, and the brake pedal requires a lot of effort - way more than is appropriate for a CUV. Does the 3 have the same thing?
Can it be fixed by the aftermarket? A transmission tune and some shocks and bars and springs? I will to replace my MS3 soon- but this is not it.
Gratuitous pic of the Mazda 3 TCR. Would have loved a Mazdaspeed 3 version of that. Oh well. As a long-time Mazda owner (B2000, 323, Miata, Millenia, previous gen 3) I hope the little company finds large profits making "nice" cars for other people.
I have said it a hundred times on here. I think Mazda switched plots with this gen 3. It went from wannabe BMW to wannabe Audi. Except I just realized BMWs are boring now too, so it actually makes total sense! 
Lambin_Lionout said:Can it be fixed by the aftermarket? A transmission tune and some shocks and bars and springs? I will to replace my MS3 soon- but this is not it.
I think that would make for an interesting project car (just in case anyone with the means is listening).
I haven't looked into the aftermarket support for this generation, but there is a guy in my zip code (I see him on the road fairly often) who has a modified 3 hatch, lowered, wheels, wrapped in a nice shade of yellow, and it looks GREAT. I'd love to know what he's done with it.
Thought about following him once just to talk to him but that's a good way to shot these days. Perhaps risk vs reward plays out in my head too much sometimes.
EDIT: swear to whatever holy, I was curious and simply put "yellow Mazda 3 Austin Texas" in Google, and the car showed up.
Rode in a friend of mine's on the street and for a couple laps of an autocross course (We were doing course design and needed to test run it, and it's not the car he was racing, so it was fair game). I will say, that motor absolutely shoves that thing down the road. And even on stock tires, it was fairly competent on an autocross course.
David S. Wallens said:On paper, there’s so much here to like here:
It’s the right size.
It has all-wheel drive.
Turbo power!
Analog gauges plus a traditional shifter.
Smart styling inside and out.
A usable trunk.
Knobs for HVAC and audio volume.
Fairly luxurious touch points.
A long, deep motorsports heritage.
Comfortable, supportive seats.
Communicative steering.
It’s not an SUV (#sorrynotsorry)
It’s like a modern, grown-up version of the Mazda3 and 323 GTX, two legends in our world.
Funny, it's my words but I don't remember writing them...
Colin Wood said:JG Pasterjak said:And it's a bummer, because this 3 has so many ingredients—on paper at least—which should add up to a cool car.
I recall driving a 2.5-liter turbo model a few years ago and felt the same way. It should be way fun to drive, but, somehow, it's not–not bad to drive, because it was pretty comfortable, but just not fun like you think it would be.
I was considering this the other day. Practically all new cars are "boring". I think the reason is that they are too well engineered.
Read a road test from the 70s or 80s and you read about the character of the powerband, the stiff shifter, the forgiveness or usually lack thereof of the handling... Cars had character not because of their strengths, but because of their weaknesses.
Modern cars have all of their weaknesses smoothed over like someone went to a big chassis tuning table and hit the Smoothing function five or six times. There's no valleys, no peaks, just a solid bland functionality.
We've improved mightily but this improvement meant that we had to lose something along the way.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I 100% agree with your sentiment. I agree that a lot of the "character" we associate with older cars are often flaws or quirks that we've eliminated from modern cars.
Is the solution to make cars more flawed? I'm not sure...
Mazda is killing it with their paint quality though. Just beautiful. Now if they would just offer some actual colors on the Miata like British racing green or reissue Mariner blue and sunburst yellow.
Timely. I just looked at a couple of these this morning, killing time at the local dealership while they replaced a tire on the 5. I'm out of the loop on new cars and didn't even know they offered a turbo and/or AWD variants. Neat looking thing, but that sticker price was a bit of a shocker.
Do they still come with a manual or are they AT only from here on out?
In reply to WonkoTheSane :
You can still get a manual, but it's only offered on the hatchback and only on one specific trim: The non-turbo, front-wheel-drive-only 2.5 S Premium.
I've said it before: the current Mazda3 is a disappointment for me. I test drove a manual N/A hatch when I was looking to replace my old 2012 Mazda3, and it was as if Mazda threw a wet blanket over the whole thing. It looked good, interior was fantastic, but it was excruciatingly boring to drive. My 2012 with the 2.5 MZR was engaging, snappy, and fun. The new 3 was like someone hit the mute button on all of that. 250hp might fix a lot of that, and on the pre-owned market, I'm seeing CPO examples in the mid-$20k range, which is a lot more reasonable than almost $40k, and that leaves some meat on the bone for a few mods. There are so many better cars at the full price that outclass this thing.
All that said, I love this drivetrain in our CX-50. It's powerful enough to make that thing entertaining when you want it to be, and in Sport Mode, it tightens everything up, holds gears to redline, etc. But it's best for occasional fun.
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