I'm back to Mazda and love it! I used to own a 1998 626 with a V6 and loved that car even though it needed so many cosmetic repairs in the interior and spent many days in the salvage yard finding stuff I made it look pretty good and fixed the headliner. Bought it with 64k in 2005 but only lasted 3 years. After the calipers froze on the front brakes and other costs started coming in all the sudden like the struts and leaking radiator I sold it. Not to mention the worst part was the trunk that leaked water into it. I used to belong to the 626 forum and no one could figure out why water was coming into the trunk and many had this issue. One other thing I was scared of when I bought this car at the time is they were partly owned by Ford which I was told. I also learned that many with I-4 engines had transmission problems galore. That never happend to me and the V-6 was pretty powerful.

I then bought a VW Jetta which after the air conditioner problems and the headliner started falling apart I still owed a little on the car but couldn't believe how my Jetta when I bought it in 08 (during a bad year for dealers) and was a 07 car was worth.

I looked at the research on the 3 and I actually was interested in it awhile back. I sat in it in a car show but I thought the dash was weird and didn't like the radio at all. So I found out that Mazda redid the 3 in 2010 and it is a night and day difference. I wanted this year because it was all I could afford. I also had to have alloy wheels which didn't have on my Jetta. It was too much money to me to get new rims and lower profile wheels.I couldn't believe Mazda makes cars with steel wheels. Pretty sad for this company. I expect that out of Chevrolet but not Mazda. So getting alloy wheels and having an automatic transmission was very difficult to get in my price range and well under 50k miles but I found one. I actually found two at the same dealer. One was a graphite color one with about the same mileage as the other one which I bought which is silver but the graphite one had too many scratches and a poor attempt on the front bumper using touch up paint.

Not too much to complain about. I don't like how the bumper on the top part is plastic. Find that cheap and unnecessary. Really that's it.

The good stuff is where to start. The acceleration and turning circle of this car is amazing and is so fun to drive. I didn't really have this experience with my last car but did with the 626. This car is a little demanding for the driver and is seems to want to go and go and go...hard to explain but I still love it. I love the headliner that isn't made in Mexico. I love the dash, the seats are comfy and the ride is smooth. I have seen on reviews this car has alot of road noise. I don't see it. I also like the fact this car is stable in high winds which my Jetta did not like.


To the audio. While I was skeptical about the Bose system in this because the one in my 626 was garbage and had to gut it out and get a system in it I love the sound in this. Also it would be unwise to take out the unit as the display and steering wheel controls for audio would be lost. I do have a Alpine sub I want to put in the car. I don't know about going to take out the unit to put a line in convertor. I would also like to add a eq which is the only other thing wrong.