Is the Mazda 3 a good car?

Question

Im car shopping and the Mazda 3 has caught my eye. Are they pretty good cars?

Answer 1

I bought a 2006 Mazda 3 four-door sedan in August. It was very reasonably priced and so far I haven't had any problems with it. Its fun to drive and gets great gas mileage.

Answer 2

I checked out the several different small cars before deciding on the Scion tc and xD. The tc is fun to drive and looks good inside and out, has a great sound system, dual sunroofs, nice wheels. I've never been a fan of Mazda's and the 3 doesn't have much leg room in the back, but it wasn't a bad car. Toyota does have a better resale value. You might want to check out the Scion xD also, it gets better gas mileage than the tc and is fun to drive for a 4 door car.

Answer 3

Well they are ok overall. I have friends who work at the Ford co. and they say that the tolerances for Mazda are much stricter than the Fords. In translation; they make them better, with a better fit between parts, better quality than the Fords. The only problem I have with the Mazda's are that they are overpriced and being better than the Fords ain't saying too much. When I drove one it was very tight and handled well. However, I've not heard of any of the cheaper Mazdas lasting hundreds of thousands of miles. And also I'm laughing at the guy who said to buy a Rabbit, sheeesh, talk about OVERPRICED. Volkswagon are nice but WAY too much, especially in their intro level cars. Volkswagon needs to buy a clue or a plant in USA to make them cheaper....ahem, see: Nissan.

From personal experience if you're looking for a great small car why not a Honda Civic or a Saturn Ion? Great on gas, not too expensive, great warranty....and they last. I had a little civic and 2 saturns. When I sold the civic, it had over 100,000 miles on it and still ran perfectly. Nothing more than routine maintance and no big issues. Can't say that about ANY Ford owned product I've ever had, nor anybody I know. Ford= Found On Road Dead. For the money you're going to spend on the 3, I think you'd be better off with the Honda Civic, Saturn Ion (dirt cheap with GM discount). All the GM 2007's have a 5 year 100,000 mile warranty.

Remember a car is cute but if you don't take care of it it'll die and you'll be stuck with the note. Fluid change is essential. I take great care in my cars and they have lasted, and still look good too. Many Honda dealer's will extend your warranty out to 100,000 miles if you do the maintance with them, and they'll send you reminders in the mail. It is cheap insurance and I did it with my Civic. I had all the service records printed out so I got TOP dollar when I sold it. On top of that, Honda fixed some things for free where I've fought with other companies to get them to fix faulty products (cough cough Pontiac, Ford). If you're set on the Mazda read through what they offer for a standard warranty. See if it compares. Consider that I only spent routine maintenance to get my warranty extended, I didn't have to pay 1000's for an extended warranty.

My last suggestion is to check out Consumer's Reports at the library or look up online customer reviews, on say, Yahoo Cars or Kbb.com. Now, the 3 is a newer model, but Consumer Reports year end car edition will have the older Mazdas in there and you can track the problems they've had with their intro cars. Other than the Millenia I don't think it's good, especially with transmissions, if I remember right. It's not a perfect science, but if you see a pattern of consistently the same complaints (or black marks in Consumers) then I'd beware.

Take Care,
Brian

Answer 4

I can't speak specifically for the Mazda 3, but I have owned two Mazdas (currently drive one) and have been, overall, pretty happy with them. The only reason I got rid of my last one was that it got totalled in a wreck when some bone head ran a red light and t-boned me pretty hard.
However, I have to ask, do you live in mostly flat or hilly terrain? I have driven Mazdas in both, and do find that the Mazdas I drove (both Protege's) don't seem to 'like' hills (automatic or standard transmissions). I mean, they can take hills, but they do wind up just a bit when you hit even moderate hills.

Answer 5

Yes, they are excellent in my opinion.

You will have a hard time finding a more fun-to-drive sporty sedan for the same money.

They are reliable and relatively safe and quite a bargain if you stick to the base model 3i version and don't load it up with gadgets. The bigger 2.3 engine has only marginally more power and isn't worth the extra money in my opinion. It's not that much faster and the 2.0 has plenty of pep. A Mazda 3i 2.0 sedan is a fantastic deal, well under $20,000 and feels like a much more expensive car. Go test drive one and you'll see.

Answer 6

they are decent. mazda is a pain to work with and give you the same answer everytime you take your car in to have worked on and they cant fix it. i have exhaust issues with it smelling like sulfur and have taken it to the m atleast 3 if not 4 times and all they are saying is "it is normal for the car to smell like that" and it only has 13,000 miles. i have had about 3 other problems. so in my opinon i would save up some more cash and get a subaru, but also the mazda is WAY better than a ford.

Answer 7

I have not heard anything bad about Mazda 3s. They hold their value better than alot of comparable vehicles. You don't see too many used ones on lots, meaning people hold onto them forever.
They are expensive for the size of them.
Honestly if you are looking at the mazda 3 five door, you should also look into the VW Rabbit.

Answer 8

its a great car for its value. My brother recently bought the mazda 3 2007 model. its got great options and good fuel consumption.Inetrior is fab!.

Answer 9

I had one as a rental car and it drove fine. A coworker of mine just bought one and my sister is going to as well...so since they did their research and both decided on that car I would think it would be a good one to get!

Answer 10

yes a very good car. i work on them as a mazda mechnic and they r very good