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Hatchbacks Mazda3 Mazda3 Sedan
9235 messages, Last post on Apr 08, 2009 at 6:02 AM
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Replying to: smallcar1 (Jul 04, 2007 7:27 am) If MP3 capability matters, that is only available if you choose the 6-CD changer option. I didn't bother to learn that until after I bought mine. Not a huge issue, but worth mentioning. Have you considered expanding your search beyond your immmediate area? Also, have you considered both body styles (sedan and 5-door)? When I bought my '06, I couldn't find an s Touring 4-door manual in Titanium Gray anywhere in the Southeast. I found a few Touring 5-doors with those specs and I bought one. Initially, the 5-door wasn't even a consideration but I fell in love with it very quickly. Transmission- if you do a lot of stop-go driving, do yourself a HUGE favor and get the automatic. I got the manual because I lived two miles from my job at the time, but changed jobs a few months later and had a daily 56-mile commute in crawling interstate traffic (Atlanta). I have a friend with the automatic who gets better MPG than my manual in similar driving conditions. I have averaged 23.5 over the 35k miles I've owned the car and his shows 25.0 over the course of 22k miles. The automatic is a great unit and the car is still very fun to drive with it. Edmunds has reviewed the automatic Mazda3 a few times as well as Motor Trend and Car and Driver. Look up those reviews if you have a chance. They all speak favorably of the automatics performance and it's manual control functionality. I love my manual and luckily I recently had the chance to move to an area with much less traffic and live only a few miles from work. Life is good. Good luck with your purchase. If you have any other questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
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Replying to: smallcar1 (Jul 04, 2007 7:27 am) Dealer suggestions would be Wayne Mazda (Wayne, NJ) and Rt 1 Sansone Mazda (Avenel, NJ). Honestly, both don't have great service but you'll definitely find a GT Manual there. Wayne has the largest inventory. Sansone has what I want (5dr GT 5M with Bose/Moonroof). Aurora Blue is really hard to find. This is the best selling color variant of the 3. When I was looking for my 3, I found some on the city dealers (Manhattan and Koeppel in Woodside), but they only have the Sport models in automatic. If it was a GT Auto or Manual or if the Sport was in manual, I might have considered it. I got the Silver 5dr GT 5M. If you want good customer service, try Maxon Mazda (Union, NJ) or Ramsey Mazda (Ramsey, NJ) or Mazda of Lodi (Lodi, NJ). I had great experiences with those but they just don't have what I want. I don't have an experience with an automatic so I couldn't give my opinion on that one. With a mix (let's say around 40/60, 50/50/, 60/40) city/highway (NYC Traffic), you'll average around 26-29 MPG. I suggest putting in premium, you'll enjoy the sound of the S models with premium gasoline. If you'll drive mostly in NYC traffic, depending on how you accelerate, you'll average in the low 20's. With NYC traffic, the manual is fine. It's really not that hard to drive it in NYC traffic. It's actually a breeze. Of course, an auto is still better in NYC stop-and-go traffic, the 3's manual is still very easy to operate. Overall, even though I wasn't able to get the color that I want, I've actually gotten every other thing that I wanted in this car, with a few extras. Loving every minute driving it!  
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Replying to: igozoomzoom (Jul 09, 2007 10:50 pm) |
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Replying to: igozoomzoom (Jul 09, 2007 11:09 pm) I test drove both and the difference between the 2 engines was not that great on the street but I did not go on the highway. The temp was in the mid 90s and the car was sitting in the sun. It was on for ten minutes before the dealer found a license plate and the test drive was 15 minutes and the car was still too warm although the air coming out of the A/C vents felt cold. How is your A/C? I really only care about heated leater seats aand an upgraded stereo but the salesman told me that to upgrade an i would cost almost the same as an S. I really didn't care for the base stereo, I thought the Bose was better but still not that great, the stock stereo in my 96 Altima sounds much better than the base 3 stereo and only a bit worse than the Bose. It does seem that more people report much worse mpg w/ the S model although the EPA difference is small. |
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Replying to: zzoomp09 (Jul 13, 2007 11:11 pm) How is your A/C? As I posted above the car idled for 10 minues w/ the A/C on and I drove it for 15 minutes and although the air from the vents was cold the car was still too warm.
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Replying to: smallcar1 (Jul 15, 2007 6:47 pm) We've had days here in the NY Metro Area where it was in the mid-90's with high humidity abaout a week ago and it never failed me. What I always do is idling the engine or drive it for a few minutes without turning the AC on, until the engine's temp is about the middle of the temp gauge. Then blast the AC on to the coldest temp setting. Since I have a GT, I put it at 60F, then turning the fan on to at least the 5 fan-speed setting (GT has 7 fan-speed settings). Then, just lower it down as it gets colder and colder. That's what I always do and always works for me. It just never gets warm and most of the time when get off the car, my eyeglasses are fogging out.
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Noticed yesterday that the a/c was set on speed 3 and was coming out pretty cold but the car still felt hot. It's got to be all that black inside the car that makes it so hot. True the car had sat in the sun for about 35 minutes or so and the air coming out was cold. But all that black made it feel really hot. Too bad Mazda didn't decide to use a grayish dash or some other lighter color to help with the heat build up. My Civic's gray dash seems much cooler than the 3's black and the interior cools down pretty quick. The car's still a blast to drive and we're going to get nitrogen put in the tires tomorrow courtesy of a free coupon from the dealer we got last week. Can anyone tell me if there really is a difference between that and regular air? The Sandman
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Replying to: tomkozski (May 07, 2007 10:43 am) Thanks for your reply but do you know if it can be done to a Mazda3 sedan? I don't have a Mazda3i but would really like to have cruise control. thanks bobh
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Replying to: bob01420 (Jul 17, 2007 12:13 pm) Any Mazda3 (sedan and hatchback) sold in North America w/out cruise control can have it added because they are all drive-by-wire. All you need to do is change the brake switch and have someone install the switches on the steering wheel (you can do it yourself, but it requires taking the airbag off), as the software and wiring is already pre-installed. Many dealers don't know about this, but trust me, it works. I did this to my car and everything works fine.
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Replying to: sandman46 (Jul 16, 2007 5:34 pm) My understanding is that nitrogen is more stable than air which means you don't need to worry about the tires losing air pressure. However, if you ever did need to add/replace the nitrogen I don't know what that involves. |
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