Just bought a new 3 Hatch and the dealer is offering to apply a $300 undercoating as a sound proofing measure.
Has anyone had any experience with this? I wonder just how well it works?

 

It's good for padding the profit of the dealership, good for unpadding your wallet, and not much else.

 

You can do DIY for like $70

 

What do ya'all think about Dynamatting?

 

A DIY kit is $25, the question is, "Why?" I mean, it isn't as if your 2010 Mazda3 is a gonzo noisy SOB.

 

Shipo,
I'm not sure where you live, but the roads around here are VERY rough. I was hoping that by getting the hatch -the trim would be upgraded and I would experience less road noise than I did with the 2007 I touring - but that doesn't seem to be the case. It's damn loud!!

The Mazda3 is a great product - otherwise I wouldn't have bought another one. My feeling is that it rates right up there with $30 - $40K cars such as BMW's. However, one of the only differences is the quiet ride. If I can spend another $1K and turn a $21K into a $35K car I'm gonna do it.

Now - tell me where I can buy enough Dynamat material to do my entire car for $25?

 

I live in New England and we have plenty of rough roads around here. Based upon my "Ear Dyno", the new 2010 Mazda3 4-door that I drove is considerably quieter than my 2009 Mazda3 I Touring, however, I've heard from a few sources that the 5-Door isn't as quiet. Even still, I wouldn't call any of the Mazda3s "damn loud". Louder inside than pretty much any car I've owned since my 1985 Dodge Daytona? Yes. Damn loud? No.

When I posted this morning I did a quick query on the Dynamat product line and saw a number of sites that came up with kits "starting at $25". I didn’t drill much further.

As for Mazdas being up there with BMWs and such, I would argue that they don't even come close. I've heard more than one person refer to his or her Mazda as a "poor man's BMW", however, as a former BMW driver who is now poor, I can tell you that even my long gone (and now 12 model year old) 3-Series would absolutely blow the doors off of a new Mazda3 (a somewhat reasonable comparison given that the two cars are roughly the same size) in virtually every metric (regardless of whether you're talking about fit and finish, reliability, interior appointments or the whole driving experience thing); the lone exception being fuel economy (and even then it's pretty darn close, close as in ~27 for the BMW and ~29 for the Mazda).

 

I have driven my 2010 Mazda 3 4-door for 2 months and more than 2K miles now. I have also ride in my sister 07 Mazda 3 4-door a few times as well. I have to say the noise level is about the same. Of course it also depends on what kind of road you drive on and what kind of tires you have. Drive on any concrete paved road...brand new or old...is guarentee to be loud even in a quiet luxury car. Drive on a brand new smooth asphalt road, even a loud car noise level is reduced. For me, I just turn on my favorite music a little louder and that seems to help a lot in masking away all the road noise for me. I think that is a better alternative than spending money on something that may or may not work in reducing road noise.

 

I'll do some investigating and let ya'all know what I find out.

 

I laid down Dynamat and some other material in the trunk area, on the rear wheel wells, and on the front strut towers in the engine bay. I can say now that it was all a waste. It wasn't enough, if any, difference to warrant spending the money and time on doing it. I suppose if you pulled all of the trim panels out and laid down some really thick good stuff it might but, that is a LOT of work.