Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Mazda 3 What are your thoughts

What motor does this have?.. Do you like or not... Just curious..

Chocie of two engines & two body styles Sedan or 5-dr hatchback/wagon

2.0L 148HP 135TQ
2.3L 160hp 150TQ

Wait for the Mazdaspeed or step up to a 6s as a loaded up 3 is near the price of a loaded 6s on discount. For me, the 3 is too small of a car.

I'd hit it.

Better car and more car than a Focus, bigger wheels, more power, better interior, better styling (although I love my roof mounted tail lights), better price. Fully loaded with the 2.3L, leather, moonroof, 17 inch wheels, etc... a 3 will run me about $2K less than I paid for my ZX5 with no moonroof. I did opt for advancetrac though, which tagged almost $2K onto my sticker. Seeing what Ford is doing to the restyled Focus (Hey, lets see what the car looks like if you take away all of it's character!), I'm looking even harder at the 3.

I wish I'd waited 2 years and kept Mean Green, screwed up secondaries and all... My ZX5 has given me 2 years absolutely problem free and I do like it, but the 3 is better.

I think the 3 has a more stylish interior than the 6, so that's a nice thing. The 3s 5-door (especially in red) just hooked me when I saw it in the showroom. Seeing them on the road, I'm not *quite* as into it, especially now that the 5-door 6 is out, but it's entirely possible that the 3s will be my next car.

While buying some shirts at the mall, I saw one of those BMW X3's. It looked almost exactly the same as the new Mazda 3 hatch.

A bit more porky then the protege But with the new engines you get much better acceleration. Protege's with the old 2.0 were around 8-9 secs to 60 where even the base 2.0 is under 8sec the 2.3 I think is closer to 7 sec, maybe even under.
Anyway the interior of the 3 is amazing quite refined, the 5 door has numerous trays in the back for storage. Don't know if a MSP3 will be coming out but look to AWD and maybe a turbo set up. Mazda will fight hard to make the 3 a AutoX king as it's mazda's heritage.
Tough decision between the 6 and the 3, the 3 is nearly as big and has almost a better interior minus heated seats, auto climate control etc.
I personally like the 3, especially the 5door, but as I just got the P5 I'm stuck for a bit.