The Mazda3s have been popping up around Toronto lately like some sort of mass marketing curse aimed just at me. I was planning on driving my 2000 Protege for 100,000 more kms but I can see myself breaking down and getting a Mazda3 Sport soon. All you guys who already have one are sooo lucky!!!!
Today I had an Accord coupe tailgating me for about a mile. It pulled up next to me at a stop light and when the light turned green we both took off - the Mazda 3 kept up nose to nose until we hit 80 MPH - then the Accord started pulling ahead - so I backed off - that is when I saw the V6 emblem on the back of the Accord!
We hit the next red light and when it turned green the guy in the Accord took off and was giving it everything he had - I could tell he was manually changing gears with his automatic. The result was the same - at about 80 MPH the Accord started to pull away.
No doubt the V6 Accord is faster than a 2.3L 4 cylinder Mazda 3, but not by much - I would have thought the V6 with its 240 HP would have blown my doors off.
If memory serves, the new Accord V6 sedan can do 0-60 no quicker than 7.0s. Compare that with 7.4s for the 3 HB and what I would estimate to be 7.3s with the 3s.
Oh yah baby, the 3s can hold it's own against many 6-cylinders. Just don't play with them on the highway.
The 0-60 times achieved by C&D are deceptive. they are achieved by beating the hell out of the car. You are probably looking at dropping the clutch from about 4000 rpm and a hard 1-2 shift. a better indication is the street start (5-60 mph) in 8.6 seconds. The Accord's numbers are for a automatic, the six speed version has a street start (5-60)time of about 6.5 seconds if memory serves. This is all to say that an Accord will cream a 3, especially since the automatic in the sedan requires little more than the ability to fully depress one pedal to achieve a quick run. Either Z71bill was racing someone with abysmal reaction time and he has little qualms about abusing his clutch and tranny, or the accord was having serious traction issues. I know the MZ3 is quick, and in its class probably unmatched, but against a V6 accord...To paraphrase Roberto Duran, No Mas
Why did you elect to drag a 6-speed V6 coupe into a discussion about the 3? There's no reason to discuss this any further. Who cares who won the race and if and why and how?
terribly sorry for wasting your valuable time. in the future I shall attempt to steer my discussion in a direction more to your liking. please enlighten me as to what that might be.
Once an elder guy was bragging about that, on up hills, his big V8 begins to pass others that were passing him earlier on the leveled road.
So I bragged about when going down hill on Crenshaw Blvd from Palos Verdes, other cars were passing me, but I passed them when the down hill turned into curves.
While at a red light this morning two guys in a G35 Coupe next to me were staring like my car was on fire - then I realize a Silver Mazda 3 is right behind me at the light.
I can only guess - but the driver must have been thinking something like - I could have had both of those cars for the price of my G35!
But we should get use to seeing more 3's on the road - This story was reported in the financial press yesterday "Mazda has zoomed past its rivals in the tough European market, where it is now the fastest-growing brand. Its success there is set to continue in coming quarters following the launch last October of the hot-selling Mazda3/Axela sports compact"
Perhaps I was unclear. My earlier post was expressing skepticism at the showing of a 3, in a race versus an Accord. I agree the two do not compare regardless of the transmission/body style in question. You will also note, should you deign to read the entire post, that I believe the Mazda 3 will never be embarrassed in its class. My car has finally crossed the 1000km mark, and in celebration I attempted to race a kid in a hopped up civic this morning. I knew he wanted my lane to get to the highway on-ramp and had no intention of pulling in behind me. Unfortunately I have yet to get a good feel for the optimum clutch slip/rev/release point for a quick take-off, and suffered humiliating defeat in a blaze of wheel spin. DOH, I'll blame it on those darn Blizzacs. happy motoring.
It seems to me to be pointless and slightly paranoid when somebody blurs their license plate on posted photos of their car. It's not like your plate number is a well kept secret. IT'S ON YOUR REAR BUMPER! It's probably exposed to more people during one day of driving than it is to people on this message board in a year.
There are 75 Mazda3's coming into this country in late Feb. 60 are sold !! I have been quoted $ 16,800 for a fully equipped [All Options ] Hatchback all taxes and registration included !! Should I accept the offer ??
I also find the 2.3 5sp engine to be easy to spin front wheels on take-off... This is where traction control or some sort of similar system could help. In my first few weeks it happened to me, not trying to race off the gate though, but on normal starts from a green light. The weight distribution may also be a factor. Perhaps we are not as nose-heavy as we could, but it's probably a good thing to have an equal weight distribution to keep the rear-end where it should stay, behind you.
Does anyone have a clue why Mazda came up with such uninspired names for its two new NA models? Mazda3 and Mazda6! What's wrong with Axela or Sportif or any other reasonable name? Anyone know?
Well, if it's anything like some of the more upscale brands, they want to you remember "Mazda" and not some other model name. Like when Acura moved away from Legend, Vigor, Integra, etc. By and large, Lexus, Infiniti, MB, BMW and so on don't use "names"...
"Unfortunately I have yet to get a good feel for the optimum clutch slip/rev/release point for a quick take-off, and suffered humiliating defeat in a blaze of wheel spin."
"I also find the 2.3 5sp engine to be easy to spin front wheels on take-off... This is where traction control or some sort of similar system could help."
As the torque curve in #5995 shows, the 2.3 has an abrupt increase from the weak(2.0-like) 1500 rpm to the way-stronger 2000 rpm. That sure breaks the traction easily!
Some tester, either Edmund or someone else, complained about having not-so-easy smooth progressive launch from stop.
z71bill Jan 30, 2004 9:59am "...Its success there is set to continue in coming quarters following the launch last October of the hot-selling Mazda3/Axela sports compact"
Why is Mazda penetrating the Europeans the way Honda/Toyota can't? By using Euro dynamic technology combining w/ Japanese reliability.
In Japan, the Class 3 (also called C-segment) cars are cars with a width of 1799mm (or it might be 1699mm, can't quite recall) or wider and engine of 1999cc or larger. The Mazda Axela/3 was designed for this market. Hence the name Mazda 3, even though we don't have such a named class in North America. Well, that's what I think anyway.
While on a (Honda) test drive the salesman ask me what other cars I was considering - I told him the Mazda 3 was on my short list - he said that Mazda picked the name to play off of the BMW 3 series.
I do not know / or care if this is true - but last Sunday while making the weekly donut run I thought a saw a Mazda 3 pull into the donut shop parking lot ahead of me - it was in fact a BMW 325i. The body style, shape & size are similar - even the stock BMW wheels are the same 5 spoke design. The BMW was on my list of cars to test - and within my price range - until I started adding the "must have" options. Then it quickly went over $30K.
I guess technically it's a Mazda Mazda3, but that seems pretty cumbersome. I think I'll stick to Mazda 3 regardless of what the marketing guru's prefer. I love the overall design of my SportGT, but now that I've lived with it for awhile, I'm starting to find the badge on the nose a little gaudy. I think the Protege had a much more tasteful rendition, which seemed to be half the size. Might not bug me if it were actually chrome, but a big plastic emblem like that sort of screams "look at me, only not too closely". It would have also been nice to have headlight washers, even as an option. Especially in this country where salt and road grit are prevalent for almost half the year, I would have gladly paid extra. As with everything, I wouldn't be surprised to see the next generation add features like that as well as side airbags, traction control, etc... Wasn't all that long ago that 4 wheel disc brakes/ABS and leather would have been unthinkable in an economy car. Progress is good
But like the 3-series, I see an insufficiently wide rear glass from the inside rear-view mirror for lane-change/passing efficiency. & that's why it annoys me so much I lost interest getting these 2 favorite cars of mine.
The 3-series coupe has a barely-wide-enough rear glass, but it has the uncomfortable lowered sport suspension standard. Arrrg! Besides, I find the coupe ugly.
The Acura change from Vigor, Legend to TL, RL was well documented in the 90's. Mind you, the TL is still know as SABER and INSPIRE in some markets. The RL is known as LEGEND as well. As far as the Honda salesguy who said Mazda wants to take on the 3 series, he's a dummy... irrelevant... There are so many numbers to choose between 1 and 8... duh... anyway... moot point. Thanks for mentioning the Vigor, lava... :-)
creakid... you raise another good point with rear visibility and most sedans have tiny rear glass. I hate to bring this AGAIN but the Acura VIGOR has the best looking and functional rear glass I have ever seen. While the car was a close cousin of the 92 Accord, the Vigor got a "sweetly curved at the C pillar" glass panel - a beauty to behold - lots of glass, tons and tons of visibility. The Subaru XT was also pretty good in terms of the rear glass (we had one of those babies too)... but we never had a Pacer... :-)
As I type this I'm watching my 3 in the driveway (I just came back from work) and I can already see the windows fog-up inside... arghhh... gotta figure out how to stop that...
Today I felt my first sense of regret for picking the Mazda 3. I have to say I'm downright cranky at it.
In good weather (even "kinda cold") weather, I'm totally, completely happy with it.
Today there's been a lot of snow, and all week it has been brutally cold (today it warmed up, but not much). We already know the "all season" tires are quite inadequate for snow, so this isn't about that.
I start my car 10 minutes before leaving work, *after* brushing off as much snow as possible, including on the front windshield intake areas. I set the dial on "defrost" and leave it running.
On the drive home:
- got in the car - snow all over the dash. LOTS. Ok, fine. Paseo never did that. Brush it off, hope it doesnt mess up the dash/leather too much. - rear passenger windows: totally fogged - can't see out them. Ok fine. No visibility back there apparently. - my side windows 1/2 fogged, windshield still quite frosty. Keep having to lower them to see oncoming traffic at a turn.
I figure once I start driving it will take care of itself. After a half hour drive (mostly at 80km per hour), the back half of my side windows are still frosty (heat is cranked, fan is cranked, set to defrost, feet, didn't matter - windows stayed frosted). The rears passenger windows did not un-fog at ALL.
I keep coming back to this in my mind: the heater on my 1996 Paseo kicks the CRAP out of what Im getting from the Mazda 3 so far. I can leave the Paseo running 10 minutes and a few minutes into the drive my windows will be totally clear.
Argh. Not a happy camper in that regard.
Im sure I'll be loving the vehicle in spring and summer. But if I could return the vehicle today and try out some other vehicles, I hate to say it but I think I would. Edmonton has pretty harsh winters.
My Mazda6 with the 2.3L doesn't have a very good heater either. It takes a while for it to blow out HOT air, even if the temp guauge says that the car is warmed up, and the fan motor doesn't seem very strong. Then again, it's been pretty cold here in MN lately. -22 this morning. 50 degrees BELOW freezing!! Ish. I envy you folks in warmer climates.
My 2001 Protege and 1992 Integra were better. My 1991 Mustang 5.0L would melt your face off after about 2 minutes of driving, but I never really drove it in the dead of winter.
Sorry to hear about that. The fogging that wouldn't go away probably had to do with the snow that got into the car (melting then evaporating increasing the humidity of the interior air). Did the snow come through the vents or did it come in through the open door? If it came through the vents then that's the second such report that I've read.
On the Mazda Canada website (www.mazda.ca) they have old commercials from the 70s. 80s and 90s, really cool stuff. Look under "fun stuff" and then "multimedia"
There's a 1990 commercial for the 626 where they try to explain "Kansai Engineering." its a very interesting concept. And a really cheesy commercial for the 1978 GLC.
Jarrett, I know exactly what you're talking about with regards to the frost/fog of the Mazda3 windows. I've experienced similar frustrations, perhaps to a lesser degree, but still , I too have to leave with my driver window frosted and roll it down at street corners... In fact, it's downright embarrassing to come next to a supposedly "lesser" car, and their windows are as clear as water and yours look like a blizzard is still happening INSIDE... Ditto for your Paseo, my Vigor never did that to me. I have no regrets about the car, but I am looking for solutions, and now 5 minutes before I arrive at any destination, I shut the heater off, roll down the windows and freeze my butt in order to remove all the humidity and cool the windows!! Ha Ha Ha what a DUMB thing to have to do but it seems to work... sic...
I am lucky that I can park my car in an unheated garage, so the overnight frost is not affecting me. However, I will leave it outside one cold night to see the difference. All in all, I too feel the ventilation and heating system has a lot to be discussed (desired?) in terms of cold weather operation.
Other than that, I am still tickled-pink with it, but I know how it feels... waving at your neighbour with your windows rolled down so you can see... from your brand new flashy GT-GFX...
According to the manual, when defrosting, leave the setting in outside air and not recirc otherwise windows will fog up. I have no problems with defogging and heating the car. But then again, the lowest temp it has been here is 20's. Had 4 inches of snow this week. I turned on the car for about 10 minutes (switched on the defrost setting in the dash with the hot air to the glass) and the snow is all melted from the windshield and rear. Of course, I had to help it some by scraping some off.
Comments
We hit the next red light and when it turned green the guy in the Accord took off and was giving it everything he had - I could tell he was manually changing gears with his automatic. The result was the same - at about 80 MPH the Accord started to pull away.
No doubt the V6 Accord is faster than a 2.3L 4 cylinder Mazda 3, but not by much - I would have thought the V6 with its 240 HP would have blown my doors off.
Oh yah baby, the 3s can hold it's own against many 6-cylinders. Just don't play with them on the highway.
Either Z71bill was racing someone with abysmal reaction time and he has little qualms about abusing his clutch and tranny, or the accord was having serious traction issues.
I know the MZ3 is quick, and in its class probably unmatched, but against a V6 accord...To paraphrase Roberto Duran, No Mas
Once an elder guy was bragging about that, on up hills, his big V8 begins to pass others that were passing him earlier on the leveled road.
So I bragged about when going down hill on Crenshaw Blvd from Palos Verdes, other cars were passing me, but I passed them when the down hill turned into curves.
Sure looks cool. My cousin who is planning to get a 325i said that her 6-yr old son should like the Mazda.
I can only guess - but the driver must have been thinking something like - I could have had both of those cars for the price of my G35!
But we should get use to seeing more 3's on the road - This story was reported in the financial press yesterday "Mazda has zoomed past its rivals in the tough European market, where it is now the fastest-growing brand. Its success there is set to continue in coming quarters following the launch last October of the hot-selling Mazda3/Axela sports compact"
My car has finally crossed the 1000km mark, and in celebration I attempted to race a kid in a hopped up civic this morning. I knew he wanted my lane to get to the highway on-ramp and had no intention of pulling in behind me. Unfortunately I have yet to get a good feel for the optimum clutch slip/rev/release point for a quick take-off, and suffered humiliating defeat in a blaze of wheel spin. DOH, I'll blame it on those darn Blizzacs. happy motoring.
Should I accept the offer ??
Pet
This is the output graph for the different engines offered in the Mazda3:
"I also find the 2.3 5sp engine to be easy to spin front wheels on take-off... This is where traction control or some sort of similar system could help."
As the torque curve in #5995 shows, the 2.3 has an abrupt increase from the weak(2.0-like) 1500 rpm to the way-stronger 2000 rpm. That sure breaks the traction easily!
Some tester, either Edmund or someone else, complained about having not-so-easy smooth progressive launch from stop.
"...Its success there is set to continue in coming quarters following the launch last October of the hot-selling Mazda3/Axela sports compact"
Why is Mazda penetrating the Europeans the way Honda/Toyota can't? By using Euro dynamic technology combining w/ Japanese reliability.
I do not know / or care if this is true - but last Sunday while making the weekly donut run I thought a saw a Mazda 3 pull into the donut shop parking lot ahead of me - it was in fact a BMW 325i. The body style, shape & size are similar - even the stock BMW wheels are the same 5 spoke design. The BMW was on my list of cars to test - and within my price range - until I started adding the "must have" options. Then it quickly went over $30K.
I love the overall design of my SportGT, but now that I've lived with it for awhile, I'm starting to find the badge on the nose a little gaudy. I think the Protege had a much more tasteful rendition, which seemed to be half the size. Might not bug me if it were actually chrome, but a big plastic emblem like that sort of screams "look at me, only not too closely".
It would have also been nice to have headlight washers, even as an option. Especially in this country where salt and road grit are prevalent for almost half the year, I would have gladly paid extra.
As with everything, I wouldn't be surprised to see the next generation add features like that as well as side airbags, traction control, etc...
Wasn't all that long ago that 4 wheel disc brakes/ABS and leather would have been unthinkable in an economy car.
Progress is good
But like the 3-series, I see an insufficiently wide rear glass from the inside rear-view mirror for lane-change/passing efficiency. & that's why it annoys me so much I lost interest getting these 2 favorite cars of mine.
The 3-series coupe has a barely-wide-enough rear glass, but it has the uncomfortable lowered sport suspension standard. Arrrg! Besides, I find the coupe ugly.
creakid... you raise another good point with rear visibility and most sedans have tiny rear glass. I hate to bring this AGAIN but the Acura VIGOR has the best looking and functional rear glass I have ever seen. While the car was a close cousin of the 92 Accord, the Vigor got a "sweetly curved at the C pillar" glass panel - a beauty to behold - lots of glass, tons and tons of visibility. The Subaru XT was also pretty good in terms of the rear glass (we had one of those babies too)... but we never had a Pacer... :-)
As I type this I'm watching my 3 in the driveway (I just came back from work) and I can already see the windows fog-up inside... arghhh... gotta figure out how to stop that...
Pet
same goes for Mazda 6 and the 626
the fact that BMW and Mazda use the number 3 to identify its compact car lines is purely coincidental... maybe...
Are they on the same platform? The Accord had a transversely mounted engine and the Vigor's engine was in there longitudinally.
It's Mazda6 not Mazda 6.
In good weather (even "kinda cold") weather, I'm totally, completely happy with it.
Today there's been a lot of snow, and all week it has been brutally cold (today it warmed up, but not much). We already know the "all season" tires are quite inadequate for snow, so this isn't about that.
I start my car 10 minutes before leaving work, *after* brushing off as much snow as possible, including on the front windshield intake areas. I set the dial on "defrost" and leave it running.
On the drive home:
- got in the car - snow all over the dash. LOTS. Ok, fine. Paseo never did that. Brush it off, hope it doesnt mess up the dash/leather too much.
- rear passenger windows: totally fogged - can't see out them. Ok fine. No visibility back there apparently.
- my side windows 1/2 fogged, windshield still quite frosty. Keep having to lower them to see oncoming traffic at a turn.
I figure once I start driving it will take care of itself. After a half hour drive (mostly at 80km per hour), the back half of my side windows are still frosty (heat is cranked, fan is cranked, set to defrost, feet, didn't matter - windows stayed frosted). The rears passenger windows did not un-fog at ALL.
I keep coming back to this in my mind: the heater on my 1996 Paseo kicks the CRAP out of what Im getting from the Mazda 3 so far. I can leave the Paseo running 10 minutes and a few minutes into the drive my windows will be totally clear.
Argh. Not a happy camper in that regard.
Im sure I'll be loving the vehicle in spring and summer. But if I could return the vehicle today and try out some other vehicles, I hate to say it but I think I would. Edmonton has pretty harsh winters.
Jarrett
My 2001 Protege and 1992 Integra were better. My 1991 Mustang 5.0L would melt your face off after about 2 minutes of driving, but I never really drove it in the dead of winter.
Oh sorry, don't want to get technical or anything...don't think that leaving the space in is RELEVANT for discussion purposes...
There's a 1990 commercial for the 626 where they try to explain "Kansai Engineering." its a very interesting concept.
And a really cheesy commercial for the 1978 GLC.
I am lucky that I can park my car in an unheated garage, so the overnight frost is not affecting me. However, I will leave it outside one cold night to see the difference. All in all, I too feel the ventilation and heating system has a lot to be discussed (desired?) in terms of cold weather operation.
Other than that, I am still tickled-pink with it, but I know how it feels... waving at your neighbour with your windows rolled down so you can see... from your brand new flashy GT-GFX...
Pet
Of course, I had to help it some by scraping some off.
1davao
Yep, that's what I'm doing. not using recirc setting (ever).
1davao