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You would need the car to be cooler because of the large glass area, and opening and closing of your doors.
Normally on a longer trip a lower AC setting would be adequate. But if you’re making frequent stops you’re constantly opening the entire thing up. Plus you have the sun directly (from the windows) heating your seating surfaces, so you get the effect of the AC freezing your face while your back is sweaty. And of course you’re hotter from being out side, so it’ll take a while for you to cool down.
I notice in our other vehicle with climate control; if I put the settings to 70F and take a half our trip it’ll turn the fan lower fairly quickly, but if I’m making shorter trips it’s on high for much longer.
I think the big thing is the tint, though I have yet to get mine done.
I find with the AC on recirc that the air is as cold as any other vehicle I’ve owned, but when the sun hits the drivers side window, I immediately notice that side of the car (and myself) getting hotter, to the point where I can’t get enough air to that side of the car.
Just drive with your windows rolled down for 5 MINUTES and then turn the AC on FRESH air for 2 MINUTES then roll up the windows and drive for 3 minutes then hit the RECIRC button - drive for another 10 minutes and the car is almost cooled off - why would anyone complain about that?
I don't know if tint will do this much - but for $200 or so - it can't hurt - and I am starting to think it may even look kind of "cool".
Just got the new issue of Motor Trend - they have 2 articles about the Mazda3 - rated it #1 (sedan ) in a comparison with the Corolla, Spectra, Focus and Cobalt (in that order BTW)
Also have a very positive review on the HB - the said they will be taking the car to Florida - I wonder if they will notice the defective AC system?
Did they leave the Civic out of the comparison? That seems kind of odd to include the Corolla but not the Civic. What is their reasoning for the cars they chose to compare?
I don't know about you guys, but their website is reaaalllllyyyyy slllooowwww for me. I guess I'll just stop by the store on the way home today and pick up a copy. Thanks for the heads up Bill!
Meade
As an example... I had a '98 CR-V.. although it is sort of an SUV, it didn't come with the tinted glass from the rear seat windows on back.... If you were traveling, or it sat out in the sun, it would get very hot... and hard to cool, even though the air conditioner worked fairly well...
Now, I have an '02 CR-V... and on the EX models, it comes with the factory tinted glass from the rear seat on back.... Even though my current car is black with black/gray interior, it stays much cooler...
I'm not a big fan of aftermarket tint, though I'm sure it is much more popular in Texas.... and might even be considered necessary..
regards,
kyfdx
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Motor Trend statement "It's worth noting that Honda will introduce a 200 horse, naturally aspirated Civic Si sedan for 2007. Until then, the Civic is outclassed here."
I guess 127 HP (EX) just doesn't make the cut anymore!
I thought the Si was coming out in 2006? Maybe thats only the coupe.
Problem is Honda will not have an auto tranny to go with it - my wife + the crummy traffic makes the auto a must. Honda should just put the 2.4 L + 5 speed auto from the Accord into the new Civic. That would be sweet - plus Honda AC actually blows cold air!
Honda is always late to the party - that will catch up to them someday.
Mazda3 auto could actually use a 5th gear. Corolla already has a 6 speed manual.
kyfdx,
Factory tint is much better - I see so many cars with large bubbles in the (after market) tint - looks real bad. I agree - don't want to go to dark - also not sure if I want the "mirror" look - it looks good on some cars -
Does the Mazda3 have any any factory tint - its been over a week since I saw mine - I really don't remember!
If these guys scratched wheels regularly, they would be out of business in no time...
So, ask your friends.... find out where the pimp-mobiles go... and you can find a good one..
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My car goes to the Meade's Driveway car wash. There he (the car, that is) gets a bath with nothing but the best towels and hand-chosen soaps. After drying, he gets vacuumed with TLC and has his windows washed with car window cleaner. And every few months he gets hand-waxed with nothing but Meguiar's Gold Class. (OK, I'm stretching it there since I've only owned the car 2-1/2 months -- I haven't waxed this car yet -- but I was applying my experiences with my old Protege to this car. I do want to wax him soon though.)
Meade
P.S. There is a "Mazda3: Care and Maintenance" discussion. If this thread continues we may want to move it there ... :shades:
But, since their prices are probably way out of my budget, I'll just keep using the Rainbow car wash.. :P
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I'm free!
(Well, for certain vehicles.)
Meade
This one just came out in France ... and looky where Mazda is!
http://www.jdpower.com/presspass/pr/images/2005083a.gif
Meade
http://www.jdpa.com/presspass/pr/images/2004056a.gif
The UK?
http://www.jdpa.com/presspass/pr/images/2004034a.gif
I just don't get it. They're the same cars over there, the only difference being engines -- but those engines are produced by Mazda just like ours are, and their cars were built in Hiroshima just like ours were. I'm starting to think it's not the cars -- it's Americans who are just too damned picky!
Meade
I am just tickled beyond pink with my 3S. I had a 2001 protege es that i loved so much, sold it and was driving my roomies b2300 truck for 2 years. Then love struck when I saw the new 3 and special ordered me one for my 40th b-day this year. End of story!
But I could not help notice Mdaffron's comment about other car lines and although I agree with "anyone" can produce a lemon, I felt compelled to comment about what he said about the Scion Forum...."honeymoon is over?".
When you look at the majority of posts on there compared to here in Mazda Forums, the complaints about Scion do not hold a candle to the mess of stuff in this forum about the 3. I own a Scion now,,,,,and I can tell you that Mazda should wish they were as good. Not one problem in 6 months of ownership....Not one. No rattles, No creaks, No bad door panels, No bad window switches, No bad struts, No bad brakes or brake calipers, No bad drive shaft bolts, No bad clutches, No bad a/c, No bad transmission and on and on....Nothing! My Good ol' XB?...100% trouble free and a awesome driver in town and on the interstate as well! If my Mazda3 had been just "half" this good, I may have kept it. And a Customer Support Center that constantly monitors the owners with mailings checking to make sure everything is ok and if "you ever need us, contact us and we will make it right"...Mazda never did that for me in the 11 months of "h..." that I went through. "Oh" and the A/C on the XB?....Freeze ya' right on outta there...yes sir! I even have to turn the temperature to a warmer setting almost all of the time and even when I was on vacation in Orlando last week in very hot temps and humidity?,,,I had to make it warmer,,,,it works that well "all" the time. So even though I respect the fact that there are those who "always" have an opinion on here and tell it, you need to compare facts correctly,, This statement about the Scion forum (when a whole lot of the posts in there are not even about Scion) was weak. I am sure Scion has had its bad seeds too (everyone does..and I actually know 1 person now with a 3 who has "not" had troubles and I know someone with a XB with a radio problem and it is getting fixed no question) but when you do the comparisons,,,,it is not near the amount of troubles that the Mazda3 has reared. Oh and even though I dont care for Nissan Sentras because of their styling,,,it is unfair to say they are bad cars. 3 buddies with 3 Sentras with a total of (170K + 207K + 232K = 609 K miles) have had little or no trouble out of their Sentras. The one with 232k had to replace his alternator last week...that is it! Look, all this does not mean that all Mazda's or Scion's or Nissan's are all bad or all good, it just simply means that anything can happen to anyone, but..... "numbers" do not lie (and these numbers seem really really high now for Mazda) and there are inconsistencies in customer service.
Dear host "Karen", forgive me for trying to set the record straight. You will not hear from me again. I guess I am tired of those who always feel they are always right on here when they are not. There is too much personal horn tooting on here to where people are just going to not read what they have to say anymore. I am done with these forums because of it and because....I now have a great car! I am "comfortable" with my XB, and I am now glad to hear that there are some who are "comfortable" with their decision to buy a 3. Case closed.
Interesting! I had a 2000 Protege, and traded it for a Mazda3 not one month after turning 40 this year!
Hmmm ... maybe this IS a mid-life crisis car!
Meade
Hi Meade,
One way one could explain the discrepancy in ratings is the European taste for small cars. In other words, I would not be surprised if more Americans bought Mazda6 than most Europeans. The Mazda6 is not built in Hiroshima but rather in the US. Consumer Reports recommends the Mazda3 but not the Mazda6.
BTW, I noticed the European numbers are for 2004 and the US survey was for 2005.
p.s. have fun driving the Blue Ridge, it sounds like a spectacular trip!
I think we're both learning that there are discussions on Edmunds that attract the people who are having problems, and we've been reading those discussions -- but real-world experiences vary. My Mazda experiences have been much different from yours, and I'm sorry you had such a rotten car. But truly, I do not believe your experiences (or Bill's) are the norm. If that were the case, I wouldn't see this car beating everything out there and lauded around the world as much as it is.
Meade
Thanks, my friend, I will! Me and my quiet, ice-cold, extremely fun, reliable and problem-free Mazda3!
Meade
The car is literally perfect from a build quality perspective. Everything is straight and fastened properly the car had no squeaks or rattles at all. Everything works as I expect it to.
When comparing it to my previous auto, a 03 Accord I4 5spd, this car is vastly superior. My Accord was a first year model, and I had more problems than the ones listed here for the 3. For my Accord, my first oil change I had about 12 items for the mechanics to review; some turned out to be “that’s just the way it is” some items required a fix.
The 3’s chassis is more stable and composed over bumps (construction going on) and the AC works BETTER. My 03 Accord would make a clunk (yes it almost sounded like somebody under the hood said clunk) when I would turn on the AC and it would jerk the car slightly.
My 3 is serving a different role than the Accord did but if interior size is not a high priority I’d say there is nothing about the Accord that I would choose over the 3.
I'm so confused! :confuse: Which pattern is the right one for my Mz3? The answer will determine how many jack stands I buy at sears... :P
If we were in a mid life crisis we would have waited for the Speed Version. As this is the problem solution forum.. The problem will be as we get closer to it's release, I will start having a midlife crisis. The solution - get the Speed Version :P
do what i did pay $40.00 at goodyear, and they will rotate balance the tires for as long as you own the car. If you do it yourself, I had an uncle that worked on cars for a living and he always criss crossed the tires...
check it out!
I wash mine once a week!
I live in apartments, so I take it down the road to the gas station for spray wash...then drive it back to my place and dry it - clean the wheels, apply wax and BLING!
My brother drives m3 Hb up in Canada and its so much harder to maintain - the weather takes it toll, you have to wash and Wax it often to keep the salt off.
After returning home from lunch yesterday it seemed like the AC was REALLY weak - even for a Mazda - so I decided to leave the car running in my driveway and go get my thermometer
I have a similar problem. I noticed today that the A/C regulator is going on and off in the city driving. I was at the dealer last weekend and the checked the A/C and the temperature was within spec. Mind you, it was also quite cool in the Vancouver area last week.
Does anyone know if there is a bulletin regarding this regulator issue? :confuse:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=43
I could not find a good location on the front of the Mazda3 to put jack stands. So I just used them on the rear - then jacked up the front one side at a time.
One thing that may be confusing - some tires are designed to only turn one way - they must be kept on the same side of the car for the life of the tire - they will have an arrow on the side that shows which way they should turn while the car is going forward. Some tires will have "this side out" stamped on the sidewall they can go on either side of the car - but when they are put on the wheel that side must face out. The Goodyear RS-A on the Mazda3 have are this type & can be crossed - side to side. On a front wheel drive car the front tires go to the rear on the same side - the rear wheels go to the front - but change sides.
BTW the Mazda3 owners manual just says to rotate front to back / back to front without changing sides.
Good luck getting the wheels off - don't knock it off the jack stands!
Move to Alaska or anywhere above the Arctic Circle, you'll get plenty of icy cold winds.
If you aren't opening the windows to let the heat and humidity OUT first, no wonder it takes a long time to cool it down. There are no backseat or underseat ducts to disperse cold air quickly. Your only choice is to set the Fan at 4 and Recirculate for faster cooldown.
fowler3
How do people on the coasts find their cars age? I have heard, for example, on the Canadian eastern coast in cities like St. Johns, Newfoundland (aka God's little acre) and in Halifax, Nova Scotia (aka God's eastern retreat) and on the western coast in Vancouver (aka God's western retreat) suffer from the salt in the rain/mist.
Roads here get treated from December to early April with a salt-sand combination. Many drivers preserve their cars for decades by having them undersprayed.
I had already followed the keep on same side pattern for the first two rotations and since it looks like I will only need to rotate them one more time before they are worn out - I am just going to keep the front to back pattern, But if you do the research crossing is the best method - no doubt about it this is just a fact.
I don't have my car - still in the shop - so I can't look in the manual - maybe someone could check this out - I could have this "directional tire" thing mixed up with another car.
BTW - as a certified maintenance freak I can tell you that one side of the front wears out a little bit faster then the other - the rears wear evenly - (I assume one front gets most of the power in normal driving conditions) the reason I know this is because I measure the tread. So after about 14K miles - and two rotations the tires on one side have about 1/32 of an inch less tread. I know that 1/32 doesn't sound like much - but since these tires only have 9/32 usable tread when they are new (11-2 = 9) then that is over 11% of the tread. If I say they have 11% less tread after 14,000 miles that sounds almost significant - even if you are not a maintenance freak.
After I get new tires I will start to use the crossing pattern which will solve this uneven wear pattern.
If AC is important - like in the top 50 things you consider when buying a new car then you should at least pay very special attention when you test drive the Mazda3 - because - accept it or not - believe it or not - be stubborn about it if you must - the Mazda3 has a very weak AC system.
Or not
On my FWD, the right front wears faster than the left front... It could be due to the same thing... or, it might be that I take left hand corners faster than right hand corners.... putting more weight and stress on the outside tire...
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I guess this would be the 8765 time we have heard this.....I guess there is somebody on the planet who hasnt heard it.
Obviously the product development staff at Mazda does not get it yet - it looks like they are producing the 2005 model with the same weak AC system. I also have not heard of any upgrade for 2006 - this seems kind of crummy if you ask me - they could at least fix the problem in the next model year.
Heater is also weak - just ask the Mazda3 owners that live in Canada. They notice very weak defroster performance - the windows fog over - it takes a long time for the engine to warm up - which for some reason is true for many 4 bangers.
audia8q - care to guess how many of my prior cars had heaters that were better than the Mazda3? I bet you can get it in one try. But I really don't care about heater performance - I have even considered putting an H valve on the Mazda3 so I can shut off the flow of hot coolant that goes to the heater core. That way the AC system will not have to overcome the heat that bleeds over from the heater core. I know some GM cars / Trucks from the 1980's that had this problem - this was one fix used to cure the weak AC systems.
I guess when Mazda designed the HVAC system for the Mazda3 they must have used the design from a 1980 Chevette. I would laugh but it hurts too much.
LOL, bill remember the "ice cream truck" comments? All we need is taylor3's Scion with the arctic blast AC + some graphics on the Scion box = ice cream truck!
They replaced my fuel pump & some parts in the front end - also made some "adjustments" to my AC - what ever that means - my car is waiting to have the windows tinted - 10:00 AM tomorrow. I should be able to pick it up around noon.
Hope the tint helps - I may need to pack the back seat with frozen treats!
Try looking under "EZ Lug" and you should get several hits.
Here is the info on the fuel pump defect.
http://web2.iadfw.net/theman/protegefaq/tsb/mt000004287.html
and
http://web2.iadfw.net/theman/protegefaq/tsb/01-013-05.html
If your fuel pump is bad it will sometimes stall out - with mine the engine would start but only run for a second then stall - then I would need to crank it over for a LONG time before it would start.
what are solar panels, and where do you get them?
Got my Mazda3 back today - the window tint looks real nice - didn't have much chance to drive it - leave for Orlando tomorrow so we have been busy - but I think it will make up for some of the weakness in the Mazda3 AC - every little bit helps.
The mount rubber replacement made a BIG difference. The thud - thump - clunk - thud - thump - clunk - sounds are all GONE - it feels like a new car should.