This is my second time driving the Mazda 3. I really wanted to drive this car again after getting a more in-depth feel for the Civic. I definitely spent more time with this car than I did last time I drove it, and my opinions on certain things have definitely changed compared to the first time I got behind the wheel of one of these.
One thing I didn’t really go too in depth in my previous review is what the Mazda 3 is like to sit in. This car has a very unique presence to it when you sit behind the wheel. The seat feels really low, but it’s done in such a way where you can still easily see over the steering wheel. It definitely gives off a nice enclosed and sporty vibe right off the bat. Right away I feel like I’m sitting in a car that has a more expensive and upscale vibe compared to many other compact cars. The front hood looks pretty long and bulbous from the driver’s seat, so I will say that you don’t get quite the same crystal clear view of the road in front of you that you would get in the MK6 Jetta or the current Civic. You’re kind of always looking over that hood when you’re driving, and the windshield is positioned further away from you. It all seems to make the 3 feel unexpectedly bigger out on the road compared to how it looks on the outside. I personally think that it gives this car a more premium and substantial character, but I have to say that I preferred the open and airy sight lines in the MK6 Jetta. Both the Civic and the Jetta will feel smaller in their dimensions from behind the wheel compared to the Mazda 3.
I generally found that this car was somewhat lacking in outward visibility. The B pillar between the front and rear windows is way too big. There were several occasions where I couldn’t really see adjacent traffic very well when I was trying to pull out onto a roadway. Checking your blindspot requires you to crane your neck around the thick B pillar. It really reduces you confidence in a lot of situations. I also found that the A pillars were slightly too thick, and the rear passenger windows are very narrow which also makes checking your blind spot or backing out of a parking space a pain at times. The rear deck is also somewhat high, limiting rearward visibility as well.
The seats, however, feel more comfortable and supportive than every other compact car that I’ve driven. They have really good bolstering, and the leather in the Touring trim level is plush and smooth. The seats do a great job at hugging you in place and making you feel safe when you drive this car.
When you first put the 3 in drive and exit your parking spot, you’re greeted with a very smooth and nicely weighted steering response. It definitely makes a positive first impression. The steering has “just enough” resistance to give you that feeling of sportiness that this car is known for. It’s a fairly premium steering dynamic that is sure to impress just about anybody who drives this car, and the Mazda 3 maneuvers itself in smooth and composed motions. The on-center feel is nice and sturdy, and the steering wheel has a smooth and effortless return to center. However, I have to say that the Jetta and the Civic have a quicker initial turn in. The Mazda’s steering turns in nice and sharp, but I just felt like I was maneuvering a slightly bigger and heavier car compared to the Jetta that I drove. The Civic’s steering overall feels weightier and sharper in my opinion, although I will say that the Mazda’s steering has a certain feeling of substance and elegance about it that the Civic and the Jetta didn’t quite have. I think the small diameter wheel, along with the silky smooth leather helps the steering in this car feel more expensive as well. The Mazda’s steering response feels more unique and a little different from most compact cars out there.
I was a little disappointed that there just wasn’t much road feel or communication through the steering, though. The Mazda 3’s steering is nicely weighted and it turns in smoothly, but that’s about all it really does. You feel some inertia through the wheel, but not really enough for me to consider the steering as “sporty” or outright engaging. For the Mazda 3 being one of the top dog in the compact class in terms of handling and driving dynamics, I felt that the steering was still just a little too isolated. I think if a driving enthusiast who knew absolutely nothing about the Mazda 3 drove one, they would probably say “it’s pretty good”, rather than “wow, this car feels so sharp and precise!”. The Mazda 3 is definitely a compact car before anything else, so if you’re looking for more of a budget sport sedan, I would feel more tempted to go for a Civic SI or a Jetta GLI. This car came out during a time when the Civic was still a dull Corolla competitor with a sluggish CVT and the Jetta was had a lousy torsion beam suspension, and I think it definitely shows in some aspects. The third generation 3 was good for its time, but it definitely shows its age compared to some of the newer and sportier offerings.
As for handling, the Mazda 3 does pretty well for just normal, around town driving. I was able to take corners pretty quickly, and the car had a good amount of grip for a compact sedan. It definitely feels right on par with the Civic and the Jetta in terms of actual grip and handling capabilities. That said, the Mazda 3 still feels like a bigger and heavier compact sedan. I was definitely feeling body lean, weight shift, and wheel hop when going around corners a little too quick. As I mentioned in my previous review, the Mazda 3 won’t quite give you that flat, BMW-like handling that most automotive publications would lead you to believe that it has. This car definitely has limitations, and it lets you know it has limitations pretty quickly. The Mazda 3 will protest and fight back if you start driving it like an M3. Not much of a surprise there, as this is a FWD compact sedan, but my expectations were still set pretty high. The Mazda 3’s level of agility didn’t really impress me that much. It just feels a little too heavy out on the road, and the dimensions somewhat hamper the experience. If the Mazda 3 felt a little bit lighter and not quite as big on the road, it would probably be significantly more fun to drive, and not so much like an economy sedan that just has a slight edge in cornering.
Where the Mazda 3 really excels, in my opinion, is just the overall feel of the car. Much like the CX-5 I drove, it feels good when you’re driving it normally or even somewhat quickly on regular suburban streets. It’s not by any means an autocross or a track car…just a car that feels “good” when making your daily errand runs. The Mazda 3 has a very solid and premium undertone to the driving experience. It doesn’t feel like a boring “step on the gas and go” type of compact sedan. The car feels maneuverable and buttoned down. The steering feels smooth and well weighted. All your main touch points are great, and the interior of this car is probably my favorite in the compact class as well. The brown leather surfaces, as well as the buttons and infotainment screen graphics look great in person. It’s a strong departure from those chintzy Mazda interiors from the 2000s. The ride quality is very smooth, and this car glides down the road with an effortless feeling of composure and serenity. Mazda really did their homework at making this car feel like an expensive and substantial compact sedan, and that was probably my favorite part about the driving experience this time around. It’s not so much the actual grip and raw handling capabilities that this car excels at, but it’s more the general aura of the car itself. The chassis isn’t particularly light and airy feeling like the Jetta, but I think the Mazda 3 feels firmer and more concrete in its overall chassis dynamic compared to most offerings. It reminds me a great deal of the Impreza. The Impreza didn’t feel necessarily at the top of its class in terms of raw handling, but the “feel” of the steering, accelerator, and braking response was just more premium, and it had a better “feel” to the driver. The Mazda 3 is the same way.
The 184 horsepower/185 lb.ft. torque 2.5 liter 4 cylinder in the Mazda 3 is a good engine. It definitely sounds a little more agricultural compared to other 4 cylinders in this segment, but the initial off-the-line response provides you with decent torque, and the power band is smooth and linear all the way into the higher revs. This engine doesn’t mind being revved out, and you have enough power to merge and pull out into traffic at a relatively quick pace. It’s a very adequate amount of power for everyday commuting, and while you won’t be starting drag races in this car, the Mazda 3 never feels particularly slow or unwilling. I do wish the engine had a bit more character to it, as it definitely comes secondary to things like the steering and accelerator response. I also think that the engine feels a little gutless and slow to rev off the line, maybe to improve smoothness and refinement under acceleration, but I think it could stand to be a little quicker during that initial start up. I do appreciate the engine’s quick-to-rev nature past 2,500 rpm and its linear torque band, though.
The 6-speed automatic gives you very smooth and refined shifts as well. For a mainstream automatic, I’d say it’s pretty good. Definitely not as refined as a BMW or an Audi automatic transmission, but for an economy car I’d say it’s better than most. It keeps up nicely when you want to drive in a more spirited fashion. It seems to bang out the right gears most of the time and it doesn’t feel overly focused on fuel economy. The 6-speed has some hiccups, like hitting it’s top gear a little early and shuttering when you let off the gas in certain scenarios. I also wasn’t really a fan of how the transmission behaved when requesting a passing gear. It would always take a solid half second to recognize what I was doing before delivering that downshift. Kind of annoying when I needed to quickly merge over into a faster lane. There was one point where I was changing lanes, and I needed to floor the gas just for the transmission to downshift and get me up to speed in the lane I had merged into. I definitely felt like I had to plant my foot down a little more than usual just to get the transmission out of that top gear whenever I wanted to accelerate just a little bit harder, which is odd because most people say this transmission is intuitive when requesting passing power. My experience with it was very different, though.
Another thing that I missed from my previous review of this car, is that the 1-2 shift feels a bit laggy. The power band just halts for a second or two, and it takes a split second longer for that second gear to engage itself than I remember. You only really notice it when you accelerate harder, though. I also feel that the gearing during off-the-line acceleration could have been more eager.
These are fairly minor hiccups in an otherwise well-performing automatic transmission. When you’re just accelerating normally from a green light, the transmission does a good job and hitting the right gears and getting you up and moving at a smooth and streamlined pace. Aside from the 1-2 shift, the shifts feel decently quick, although not dual-clutch quick. The revs hang out for a bit after you let off the accelerator if the car senses that you’re driving more spiritedly, which I like. The shift quality for upshifts is very smooth as well. This transmission isn’t going to feel as fun as Volkswagen’s DSG, but it’s definitely snappier compared to the Civic’s continuously-variable automatic. In terms of actual predictability and smoothness, I have to give it to the MK6 Jetta’s 6-speed automatic, though. The Mazda 3’s automatic transmission is still very good, but you still have occasional scenarios where it feels like it’s operating in too high of a gear. The shift programming, while it is precise, is till not as precise or as eager to get you up and moving as the Jetta’s automatic.
It should be noted that sport mode definitely livens up the car a good amount. The transmission really maximizes the engine’s power band, the shifts feel a little more snappy and consistent, Even the throttle response seems to kick in a little sharper, and the sport mode makes this car really kind of take off when you want it to. Take the Mazda 3 out of sport mode, and things definitely tailor back, but you can still have a decent amount of fun with this car when it’s in normal mode.
The throttle response in the Mazda 3 feels nice and predictable. It is a floor hinged accelerator and has somewhat of a lighter resistance to it, which I don’t really mind. The throttle is a little bit soft for the first half inch of the pedal travel, but then it kicks in nicely and everything feels sharp and predictable. The accelerator feels solid and very easy to modulate.
Braking response is another strong point of the Mazda 3. You can tell that the Mazda engineers put a lot of effort into giving this car a smooth and linear braking feel. You don’t have to play with the brake pedal too much to get this car to stop smoothly at a red light; the brakes kind of do all the work for you. It’s a stiff brake pedal with a nice and solid bite. I do think they can feel mushy when slowing down from higher speeds, but for an economy car, the braking feel is pretty solid. One drawback with the brakes, is that the pedal would chatter and the steering wheel would shimmy if I was slowing down from a higher speed. It might only be with the particular Mazda 3 that I drove, but I’ve had this same issue in other Mazda products that I’ve driven.
Road noise is about average for the class. I was definitely hearing some wind noise and some slight tire noise on the interstate, but I wasn’t getting any noises that you would typically associate with cost-cutting. I think this car is just a tick louder compared to the Civic, but I didn’t find myself bothered by it. The solid driving experience, elegant interior, and the comfortable seats make up for whatever you hear in road noise, in my opinion.
Ride quality is impressive. The Mazda 3 has really good shock absorption when you drive over potholes and other road imperfections. You still feel some bumps here and there, but everything is well dampened for the most part. The body remains pretty flat and composed, and I wasn’t really getting as much of a “jittery” sensation that I experienced in the Civic. The tires do track slightly with pavement creases and indents, and the Mazda 3 isn’t going to ride like a luxury sedan, but it’s still a very competitive ride. I think the Jetta has better overall body control, but the 3 rides a little smoother than the Jetta when you’re driving over lousy road surfaces full of potholes.
And that about covers it. The Mazda 3 was kind of a mixed bag for me this time around. I never realized all the visibility issues it has until I drove it for a while longer. The Mazda 3 also feels pretty big and heavy for a compact sedan, and I think there’s a little too much lean and wheel hop in the corners, especially considering it’s renowned reputation for being the “sportiest” offering in the class. The 6-speed automatic is fine when you’re just accelerating normally and working through the gears, but this transmission definitely has some hiccups. There were also some quality issues, like the front hood vibrating at highway speeds and various interior rattles. I was most impressed with the interior, the comfort, the ride quality, steering weight, throttle response, and the features. However, I still thought that the Mazda 3 was just a little bit chintzy, and certain things were not executed very well. I’d still highly recommend this car over a Sentra, Cruze, Elantra, Forte, and Corolla, but compared to the Civic and the MK6 Jetta, both those cars win it for me in the overall feel and handling characteristics. Of course, my opinion doesn’t represent everybody’s opinion, so I would encourage you to test drive the Mazda 3 on your own if you are interested in this car. The Mazda 3 still makes for a really good daily commuter, and I would be completely fine with driving this car daily. However, I just think that some of the newer compact offerings deliver a slightly better driving experience.