2014 Mazda MAZDA3 S Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

2014 Mazda MAZDA3 S Long-Term Road Test

Steering wheel controls in the Edmunds long-term 2014 Mazda 3 S.

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misterfusion

Re your caviar spoon: Maybe she left it on the harpsichord.

marmotking

@misterfusion: I believe the properly prepared harpsichord has the caviar spoons placed between the nut and jack rail. If the cleaning lady is a John Cage fan I'd look there. | Mr. Takahashi, perhaps you could develop and market a thumb extender, somet

stovt001_

Petty as that is, I absolutely agree it would make more sense to group audio controls and keep the info controls separate.

darex

Hyundai/Kia does this right, with nice sprung thumb toggles right where you'd want them:
http://media.caranddriver.com/images/13q1/508290/2014-kia-forte-ex-gdi-sedan-steering-wheel-photo-508325-s-1280x782.jpg

bc1960

I think it makes sense to group the track and volume controls together. I'm guessing the impetus was that it's more logical for info to be an up-down controller because that corresponds to what you see on the screen, while track has historically often been represented horizontally because of its conceptual relationship to physical media. I don't know how to best organize the available space; I've found the little flip toggles used on the Kia to be finicky on some other makes, but that might be because they're trying to do too much--they can be programmed for additional tasks if they're pressed, or pressed/toggled simultaneously.

agentorange

"I'm a compulsive track skipper,..." You must be related in some way to my late wife, AKA Scan Button Girl.

cx7lover

I honestly use info more than the track buttons. I use AUX and those buttons are useless with AUX, most of the time with bluetooth, and I don't do that much skipping. Even then, I like looking directly at the screen so I just use it instead.

cotak

The last generation layout has what you want. The track and volume are up down toggle switches instead of press ones (easier to find and use but also easier to hit accidentally). The info button on my car is separate on the right hand side with the nav controls.

Overall I think buttons and usability has been a Mazda issue. The door lock buttons are not easy to hand on my car. While the big wheel in the middle of the radio everyone thinks is volume when it's actually the skip track/radio scan wheel.