I have owned two VW Golfs (Golf III VR6, and Golf IV GTI GLX VR6), and I could tell you that the Mazda3 is a hatchback to keep. The Mazda3 hatchback may not be as good as the Golf IV GLX in a few department, but it certainly is a better hatchback to keep since VW's reliability really really sucks.

The Mazda3 hatchback comes with a 2.3L aluminium engine. If you've already experience the unreliable VW VR6 2.8L engine, you can guess than an aluminium 4 cylinder is much more simpler to keep and to maintained. However, for a 2.3L engine, you may not expect such lethargic acceleration. Even a 2.0L Mitsubishi feels much quicker. But do not worry. It's the way Mazda has setup the accelerator pedal behavior in the automatic transmission. From 1000 rpm to 2000 rpm, the car feels to be in extreme saving mode. Mid 2000 rpm to about 4000 rpm, the car seems to be in regular mode. If you want to push the car and keep up with the crowd, you'll have to step in the accelerator real good in the 5000 rpm range. Of course, for those who are used to aggressive driving, a la GTI, may not be used to it since they are used to quicker power delivery at a much lower range. But for older crowd who will less likely go up that extreme, you are opt to saving in gas, and chill to less speed. Yet, if you really want to take advantage of the 160hp out of the 2.3L aluminium block, the potential is in the manual mode of the automatic transmission.

Furthermore, the Mazda3 steering response and feel is not up to VW's hatchback feel. After making a turn, the driver will actually have to rectify the steering straight. In the VW's Golf, it's not as obvious, and feel safer with some assistance from the steering system. On top of it, the steering is a bit heavy, and need to be thicker.

The seats are comfortable, but it lacks VW's comfort. Storage underneath the driver and the front passenger's seats are not existent, and should have been standard in this age.

Besides those flaws, the rest of the Mazda3 is a better hatchback than any other hatchback offers in the US. It has dusk sensing lights with front Xenon manual leveling as optional, front rain sensing wipers, Bose system, and a well organize trunk/cargo. What's missing in this class are the side autodimming, heated, power retractable, and integrated side turning signals side mirrors, an essential tool in the winter city.

Ride. The SP23 equipped with 17 inch is adequate. The ride is smooth in the low speed, but does have the bumps as in any other 17 inch setup. As I recall, it comes with 205 in width and 50 in height, not as bad as it would be if you go aftermarket with 40 in height. Yet, I believe that the car deserves wider tires. Based on my experience, the tire setup should be alright (i.e. don't mess with it since I've done so in my previous cars from 15, 16, to 17").

Drive. Attacking the corner is a bit tricky with the automatic. If you want the car to stick in the corner, you'll need to keep the car within the powerband, I believe 4k rpm and higher, and to be locked at the proper gear. Also, you'll need to remember to turn the steering wheel back straight. In VW's GTI, the steering wheel is a little bit assisted, and will tend to go back straight after a turn for a more secure driving.
The problem lies within the automatic mode: 4 gears only. You may find yourself cruising as low as 30 mph, and still be in the 4th gear.
The manual mode (M) on the automatic transmission is easier to use than it would appear to be. To put one gear lower (i.e. lower gear), you'll have to push up. To put one gear higher (higher gear), you'll have to pull down. It may not be logic when you think about it, but in practicality, it all make sense. When you retrograde (i.e downgrade to a lower gear) with a manual stick shift, you want to slow the car down with the engine. The physical feeling reaction is a little push forward during the retrogradation, that's why you have to push the stick forward (i.e. up) to go down to a lower gear. By using the manual mode in the automatic transmission, you actually feel like driving a manual stick shift but through electronic execution. When you push up or pull down the stick, you get a little notchy or mechanical feel, like in a real manual stick shift. And when swaping back to auto mode, you'll get a secure clunk or locking sound that informs you that you are in auto without looking at the display near the speedometer: to go back to the automatic mode from the manual mode, you'll actually push the stick to the right.
The manual mode is so far great for retrogradation, but it's not perfect. When the car is still moving but the driver needs to make a quick manoeuver for a lane change, such as making a quick pass to another lane, 2nd and 3rd gear have a reverse feeling most of the time, depending on which gear you are in, compared to a manual stick shift. Most of the time, the automatic transmission on D mode will be on the 4th or 3rd gear, even at 30 mph. To suddenly have a surge of power to go on the 2nd gear from D mode, you will have to push the stick up at least once since on D mode the driver will more than likely be on 4th or 3rd gear. 2nd gear in a manual stick shift, the driver pull down to get to that gear. From 2nd gear to 3rd gear on M mode, you'll pull down. On a manual stick shift, you push up for 3rd gear. If you are used to driving a manual stick shift transmission, this can be really annoying. But you always have the option to go back to full automatic, D mode, to get rid of this annoyance.
(New Update 5/24/05): Interestingly enough, the gear resets itself in (M) Manual mode (i.e. back to 1st gear) on a complete stop only. Some vehicles stay locked in the selected gear, such as the first Mercedes A Class in Europe.


There are 3 readings in the tachometer. The one on the left is the rpm; the one in the middle is the speedometer; finally, the one on the right is the fuel, temperature, an mileage meters. During days, the tachometers are plain and solid red: this is very helpul for reading in days. At night, red is still present but is a lower level with some blue contouring lights. At first, it's annoying, but after a while, you'll find out that red light is the best setup during the day where there are a lot of sunlight. Audi is using red illumination, so it must really means something. Focusing on the middle reading, you'll find information about the mode that you've selected in the automatic transmission, such as Parking, Reverse, or D mode. That display is presented vertically, and on the right side of the speedometer. At the bottom of the speedometer, you'll see a solid of the gear that the transmission is in. The gearing display is big and bold enough, and has a more solid red light to highlight the reading. When using the manual mode, you'll find out that the reading of the mode, gears, and speed that you are in are wonderfully presented to you right in the middle of the tachometers. :)

The automatic stick is small yet ergonomic. It's unlike regular car such as Chevy's Malibu or a Mitsubishi Lancer automatic stick shift where the stick is big, and where you'll have to press a button with your thumb or index finger to switch from Parking to Drive mode. In fact, the driver doesn't have to press any button on the Mazda3. In general, the size of the stick on the Mazda3 is too small. Yet, the size is perfect when you use it on Manual mode in the automatic transmission. It's so small that you can hold the stick in your palm completely. And that's good when you start pushing it back and forth like a real manual.

Handling. It feels the car has 16 inch, due to the 50 height in the tire, but it's compliant. You are in between the zone of 16" and real 17" with 40 in height. It works in the Chicago city so far. I thought that it would be worse, but even underconstruction roads are no problems. Besides some harder bump feels, the suspensions and tires take them (potholes and uneven surface) very well, better than a regular floaty Lancer, and possibly better than a Golf IV GTI. Hence ride is in the firm side, do not expect Camry ride.

Wind and road noise are existent, but not annoying. Afterall, you have the Bose system that keeps you company, somewhat interesting layout inside, and the HID to keep you conscious of your driving.

Road visibility is impressive, except that you don't really feel where the front hood really stop, like in a Golf. That is not so bad since the front hood is not that long, so your guessing of the front distance is appropriate. Same applies in the back. You feel that the car is longer than it is, but it's not. You'll need to get use to it. Side mirrors are very well placed, a lot better than the Golf. It's nearer to the driver's side and passenger side, though at first you might not get use to it because the side mirrors seem to be smaller than most car. The rear mirror is a lot smaller than ordinary car, yet it's tailored to the back of the window size! What's really missing in the mirrors are autodimming, like VW's Golf (i.e. tinted). Side views are much better than it would suggest, in fact a lot better than a GTI GLX. What really helps the side views when passing lanes are the rear passenger windows, on the back doors and on the back side of the car.

Visibility is a good point of the car. However, the feel of the size of the car will need some practice to get use to it. The feel of the perimeter of the car is not as razor sharp as a Golf. When I drive the car, I feel that I'm taking more space on my lane that I should be. I have not checked the width of the car, but the car seems wider than it should be.

Lighting. How good are the HIDs? Don't expect much, or major improvements from regular car lighting. Most road lights are yellow, so you will not see the white light output covering yellow lights on the roads. Secondly, the HIDs on the Mazda is no Benz's HID. Why? There are two levels of HIDs. One using 12 volt, and the other one using 24 volt. The Mazda, I'm sure of it, is using 12 volt.

The interior space is adequate. Don't expect to have 5 adults 6 feet talls in it. I think it should be decent for 5 ordinary adults with 5 feet and few inches tall. I expect to use this car daily, and I have 1 wife, 2 smalls kids, and 1 brother to carry. It's a sufficient car for daily city use in tight parking space, and some minor weekend shopping in the suburb. Ashtray in the back is optional. Exterior temperature is also optional, and is integrated in the rear view mirror.

The BOSE audio system is nice and clean, though I think that the Lancer or the Golf's audio system is more exciting. The Bose system is more setup out of the box to be listened with all windows down and the sunroof opened. It has true potential, but you'll have to tailor the audio system to your listening with all windows closed. High, mid, and low frequencies are present and clear, but the power level out from the front channels, especially the tweeters, are simply too loud with all windows up. The front tweeters are simply too close to the front driver's ears = too much high frequencies in a very short distance when listening out loud. To fix the problem, you'll have to route more power to the rear, less bass and more treble to equalize the setting.

The climate control is very straight forward. No automatic AC system. And I believe you don't need an automatic system. My last automatic AC system was in the Golf GTI GLX, and it was not pretty. The system in the VW had many electronic problem, so I prefer manual system. The manual system in the Lancer was very mediocre. In the Mazda3, you have more option to tune the flow of the fan. For instance, instead of having to pick just the top vents or top vents and bottom vents, you can pick to have more flows to go on the top vents than the bottom (i.e. foot) vents. Furthermore, the Mazda3 has pollen filter.

Cargo space is as good as a Golf. The only problem that I've found is that the front passenger seat doesn't fold flat. You might find it useful if you need to put something real long and high. The cargo area is well organized. You have two lid underneath the cargo to put some stuff. One of the underneath storage, I put my winter gloves and hat, raining hat, and US map. The second storage, you can put some emergency kits stuffs, and etc... So what do I say that the cargo space is well organized? Well, you can use the biggest lid to seperate the cargo into two storage space. Once you have the biggest lid separating the cargo in to two space, you'll also have some plastic protection underneath to protect water to spread around your cargo. If you don't use that option, you can select to have the optional cargo net that will tie down most of the thing on the floor. Hooks and everything else are all setup in the cargo neatly. If somehow you don't use the cargo net, you can put the cargo net in one of the storage underneath the cargo. In addition to it, there's light in the cargo compartment. Not only that, you have a button to select either you want the light to be on whenever you open the hatch, or off all the time. So how big is the cargo? I would say enough to put two big regular traveling case. At least you have the height to work with, unlike regular sedan's trunk.

The quality of the material is not up to VW's level yet. I believe that VW's Golf GTI GLX feels much nicer, and much smoother. The leather that comes standard in the SP23 seems to be too dry, too rough. VW's leather is much smoother, and softer. The speedometer and tachometer have some plastic that cover them on the side to protect from the sunlight. That's the good part. The bad part is that when it comes to cleaning: well good luck. The front dashboard seems to catch a lot of dust, and because of its design, again cleaning doesn't seem to be a real joy. The glove compartment is awesome. It's huge, and I mean real huge. When you open the compartment, you can put things in the front door, but you also have an interior storage! Check it out.

Windows and wipers. In raining condition, front wipers are not up to the car class. It seems that the wipers and the front windshield are of the $10k class. In all Mazda3 windows, you'll see that they are of class E6. Toyota's Corolla and Mitsubishi Lancer have class E6 windows. The Golf has class E1!!!
The front wipers doesn't wipe clear enough the windshield to have a commanding feel in the rain compared to my old Golf IV. Even with medium temperature directed to the front windshield with an exterior temperature around 60 degree, the front windshield is kind of blurr (windshield seems to be too thin= E6). But the car is still adequate in raining situation with the 17" alloy rims that doesn't block all the water of the roads (i.e. space in the rims to let water pass through = less resistance), and the disc brakes and all season tires that permit you to stop or go on time (adherence).

(Updated 5/30/05)
Sunroof. The controls are flimsy. There are two buttons near the front map light on the roof: slide and tilt. When you press on either one of the button to open the sunroof, it fully open on its mode on one press(i.e. tilt or slide). When you want to close it, you'll have to press and hold the very SAME button the opposite way. Unlike VW's system on the 4th generation, you simply twist a knob for a quicker and more precise position and command. Furthermore, if you want to switch from a fully slided sunroof on the Mazda3 to tilt, you will actually have to press and hold your finger on the button to slide the sunroof until it's fully closed and then press the tilt button to tilt the sunroof. That means that you cannot just press from slided position to an immediate tilt position. Mazda should have thought more about that. It's quite problematic when you really use the sunroof in the tilt position to suck air out of the car, and in the slided position to suck air in the car oftenly.

Cruise controls. They are integrated in the steering wheel on the right side. Fairly easy to use. Altough it doesn't say it in the steering wheel, the closest 2 buttons to the right hand are the + and - mph adjustment (the top button for being the + of course).

The honk sound is mediocre. It sounds shy and unauthoritative. In a VW's Golf, it's loud. In a Mitsubishi, the honk sound sounds like a Mercedes Benz with a nice, classy, yet authoritative tone. How can I describe the sound of the Mazda3 honk more? It's more like a shy Civic honking! That's not good when you try to honk while driving 70mph in the highway. Of course, you honk only when it's necessary to avoid danger.

Mileage. The car average about 21 mpg in city driving. The engine runs at 3500rpm at 75 mph. At 75 mph, the car feels more like 55 mph, so watch out for your speed.

In conclusion, this hatchback seems to be a better hatchback to keep in the garage than any VW's Golf for its better reliability. An aluminium engine 4 cylinder is far more simpler and reliable than a compact 6 cylinder engine with all the sensors needed to get the hp and torque in the low revs.
Amount Paid (US$): 22000
Condition: New
Model Year: 2005
Model and Options: SP23 Hatchback