Super car, I highly recommend to anyone!
No problems, other than regular maintenance.
Solid car, great to drive, loads of features for the money! Handled well, comfortable interior, great service at dealer.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 2nd January, 2011
Great purchase
Small things:
Transmission decal next to stick shifter fell into the console.
Fascia strip down the length of the rear passenger side door started to fall off.
Automatic shifting seems rough.
I'm a "get me from point A to point B" type of guy, and my main concern when purchasing it was reliability - I didn't want a car that broke down or would have annoying little problems (my last car was a Pontiac Grand Am - hence I wanted the "opposite" of a Grand Am).
Second concern was how well it maintained its value - and since it was assembled in Japan, it certainly has.
Only thing that I now wish for is a CVT - after driving another vehicle that had one, I hate the "shift" that happens between gears as it accelerates.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 28th September, 2010
Change the tires!
The Mazda 3 treated me really well for about 2 and a half years. The interior is comfortable - I never got tired of it. However, by the second year, the stock tires were almost completely bald. Under a lease, one would not expect this kind of low quality, which I hadn't.
And then it happened. A light rain began (I may have had 27,000 miles on my car) one night in November when my car suddenly span out on a major highway and went right into a guard rail. Beware of this car, unless you plan on replacing the stock tires after about a year and a half. Mazda royally screwed me with charges when I returned this lease.
Handles very well.
Great car on the inside.
But beware of the stock tires!
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 23rd July, 2010
Did you ever have the tires rotated? This is one of the most commonly forgotten bits of maintenance every car needs. I rotated the stock factory tires on my car and got over 65,000 miles out of them, while a good friend of mine NEVER had them rotated and had to have all 4 replaced at 30,000 miles.
As for spinning out in a light rain, you were obviously going too fast for conditions, and if you knew your tires were nearly bald and still neglected to replace them, you should have seen it coming.
Almost Perfect
Nothing has gone wrong.
I love the way it rides and handles.
Acceleration is good.
The seats are comfortable.
It is fun to drive.
Interior quality is excellent.
Gas mileage is only about 27, but we have winter formula gas in the winter months and very hot weather spring through fall.
And this is the hardest car to get clean and I have to go over it at least 3 times to get the dirt off.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 21st February, 2008
This is one fun car to drive
This car has been mechanically flawless since I purchased it in May 07.
I like the performance. The car has good balance between power, handling and economy however driving on snowy and icy roads is extremely uncomfortable compared to past vehicles. It slides around like a hockey puck, whether braking or accelerating. This may be due to the Goodyear P205/50R17 Eagle RS-A tires it came with.
Interior room is excellent, easily accommodating 4 adults and trunk room is amazing, easily taking lawn chairs and coolers. However on the long haul, seats could be more comfortable.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 24th January, 2008
You are correct, you need to install Winter tires. Once we did on my GF's Mazda 3-GT, that loose, uncomfortable, scary, "sliding hockey puck" like feeling went away and it now 'tracks' on low, medium and deep snow like it does with the factory shoes when on dry pavement. My only drawback is that it is an auto, not a manual. Zoom-Zoom...
2nd Mar 2014, 08:53
Update - Feb 2nd, 2014: Still running fine. I don't believe there have been any problems since this review.