Faults:

Nothing to date as of yet, except I have noticed the paint is rather weak. Already appears to be rusting around the tail light on the trunk lid.

General Comments:

Coming from a 2000 VW Passat turbocharged, in terms of reliability, this car blows that one out of the water. Every other day I was having something new go wrong with the Passat.

I have only had my 3 for a few months, but like many people have said, it is a mini BMW 3 series at a fraction of the cost. It looks amazing (my favorite features are the body kit and clear euro lights on the end).

The steering wheel mounted controls are a nice touch, although they take some getting used to (the volume and seek buttons should be flipped), and the sunroof is great, although noisy at high speeds.

The shiftronic/tiptronic trans is great (had it on my VW Passat too), but it is a little disappointing that the car is only a 4 speed auto; a 5 speed would be ideal for highway driving (I believe they changed that in the newer model years?)

I also seem to be getting more brake dust than ever before, but I think it is because the previous owner just threw a new (cheap quality) pad on (squeaks like no other).

But I tinted the windows, and that... mixed with the silver metallic paint makes the car look great. Every day I seem to get compliments on it. The dash is also neat too with the red light going through the stereo, and the odometer and speedometer are nice looking too. I love the ambient lighting in the gauges, and my cup holders too, certainly a nice little touch.

My only complaints are (besides the trans being a 4 speed), it shifts kind of goofy from 1st to 2nd at times (told this was typical -- goes down after the car is warmed up for a while), and the front passenger window sounds like it is cracking when going down.

Also, the gas mileage is pretty good too (around 26.7 MPG highway going 80-85 MPH... about 22/23 city with a lead foot).

Faults:

EGR valve plugged up causing a rough idle.

Front wheel driver side bearing went.

Very weak A/C and heating.

Rust on rear wheel well.

General Comments:

First the good: the overall driving experience on this car was good. I loved the handling, and loved the 5 speed. There was more than enough power to get around, but fuel economy is not up to par with others in its class.

The interior was well designed. I never had anything go wrong with interior trim pieces or rattles.

Now the bad: this was my wife's car, and I owned a Civic, so that is my benchmark.

We live in Canada so it gets cold in the winter, and can get hot in the summer. In winter, compared with my Civic, which blows out hot air, this Mazda blew out lukewarm air. This was okay most of the time, but under -25c we would have to blast the heat full blast to keep the interior warm. In the summer the a/c was very lackluster. I'm not sure if there was something wrong with the car, but it would not blow out cold air constantly.

Warm summer days sucked driving this car.