Short Version: Lots of car for the price, very good motor, handles a lot better than it looks. If the 1.8T GTI had a bigger brother, this is it. Made the salesman piss his pants, blew chunks after the drive.

Detailed Version: My friend wanted a new car to top mine in a FWD platform with turbo so we both went to the dealership to test one out. Reggie (the salesman), someone in his mid-40's was more than enthusiastic to let us take it for a spin but we wanted to see what it can really do outside of a leisure drive. After getting permission, we took it west along the H1 (since traffic is just absurd the other way) all the way to the Campbell Industrial exit.

The first thing I noticed was the shifter, so cheap feeling compared to the S2000. The pedals were setup a little strange but manageable. Just driving 50 feet showed just how stiff this car was setup from the factory, lots of road noise and lots of bouncing around on little stuff on the road.

The engine is the car's main strongpoint, no noticeable turbo lag above 2k just like a 1.8T GTI and the torque felt similar to my IS300. In regards to pure engine power, I know that my car's no match as the power delivery on the 3 was very linear. The odd thing is in the first 2 gears, when the throttle's fully depressed, it feels like the power's being held back like you're not really at WOT... I was wondering if this was Mazda's solution towards controlling FWD torque steer, which it still had some but nothing excessive.

Now comes my favorite, the brakes. Reggie said that the car had incredible ABS braking so we did a few runs around the industrial area to test things out. From 70mph I stood on the brakes fully engaging the ABS while the stock tires struggled to keep from breaking free on the long straight. Then I wanted to feel the turn-in response from 40mph going into a right handed corner trimming speed down to 25mph then fully accelerating in 2nd with boost keeping it real until the next turn came up which was another right. I have to say that the brakes do feel very good but not better than my S2000 but very much on par. The stiff suspension kept things controlled in the turn but understeer was present, most likely due to the stock tires, but it handled very good for a FWD. This is where Reggie asked me to stop the car, then got out to blow a couple of chunks on the grass.

My friend is really excited about this car and I can't blame him, Mazda outdid themselves with this car IMO. The weakness of the car is the suspension for comfort, it's great for hard cornering but lacking in absorbing the minor stuff making the ride a bit teeth grinding for me. I think it needs better damping for the little stuff, other than that it's a great setup.

I've always been a GTI person before I went with my current. The GTI was IMO one of the best FWD hatchbacks I've driven as long as we're not discussing the quality/workmanship of the car, but the GTI lacked compact power and the VR6 was never a great solution to the problem. The 1.8T is strong but lacks robustness in the lower ranges and I think the Mazdaspeed 3 is the car the 1.8T should have been. This is a lot of car for the price.

 

great write up. sounds like fun, i can't say I've ever made a salesman sick, but I have had them ask "do you always drive like this" and I got one "OHHHH SHIT!" lol

 

i think i might have made a few salespeople soil their shorts. but i've never made one blow chunks.

 

so whats blow chunks?

 

The dude popped (a.k.a. threw up)

 

cool! i think i would take the new turbo mini though. we dyno'd my friends one and it made 200tq which on the street means byebye s2000 until vtec. which was already proven from previous driving.

 

I feel sorry for the person who buys that car after what you did to it.

 

Awesome review..dude.

Nice way to break in the car for eventual owner!

 

Hehe, I didn't do anything out of the ordinary, all of the hard braking was done with the wheels pointed straight and was completed before entering any turn (no fancy trailbraking).

The car was a demo model with 6k+ miles on it already and I was told the salesguys took turns taking it home to get to know it better. I know all the braking and accelerating we did wasn't nice to Reggie's stomach, lol.

 

I know this is off topic, but I didn't think there would be any VW people on this site.


I have to disagree with you just a little bit. I had a 24V VR6 and it never seemed to be lacking power at all. Traction maybe, but not power.