bought her a new Go-Kart
 

so we are giving our 2003 Protege 5 to her 15y.o. son who lives in Kansas, so we needed a new car

the lil pro5 has been to the shop 1x in 108,000 to get a new timing belt, last month, so to say the least we are very happy w/ mazda products, this is my 4th mazda product.

we were going to buy a NICE car, since i was promised a $1 raise above min. wage!!!!

but she drives kinda in the hood and works at a hoodish hosp. so we decided to buy a reasonable car again. pay it off quick, then buy a nice "sunday" car.

2012 Mazdaspeed3
263 hp
280 ft/lbs
3200 lbs

http://i47.tinypic.com/jjv9s7.jpg

http://i47.tinypic.com/1583235.jpg

http://i50.tinypic.com/1erqqs.jpg

5700mi and not even 4 mos old
HIDs
Nav (her SIII has a bigger screen, lol)
Bose
Sirius (4 mos free trial hadn't even been activated yet)
ABS and other elec. stuff
blind-spot detection
all for a little over $20k (a VERY good deal)


has some tq steer, but nothing crazy, broke the tires loose in 1st and 2nd pretty easily. ride is taut but we like it like that! lol

only real downside is mediocre gas mileage on premium gas, we expect mid 20's

hopefully will be a good little car like all our previos mazdas

Fag! I've been eyeballing a Speed3 in silver for my daily driver :skep:



Congrats! :rockwoot:

you'll fit perfectly, it's a girls car! lol

now has 2 big ass Britax car seats in the back, lol

1st mod ceramic tint
2nd mod, tighten the shifter up
3rd, rear engine mount

:lol hey wait :skep:

cant be a total chick car with a manual transmission

Now that you have a Mazda, I can invite you to H2R for the super secret Mazda parties... :lol:

I've had a maz vehicle since like 92

Protege
Miata
Protege5
This one

Nice choice. :dthumb:
I still love driving mine.

:poke:

I got the 2011 mazda3 sedan a couple weeks back and it's treating me well so far. It's got great handling, good mpg and is fun to drive. The speed 3 seems to lose some mpg, but still can't go wrong! It looks like it comes with a good bit of extras as well.

yeah the mpg is kinda weak for such a small car, and its premium too.

we were looking at a 3 grand touring but the price and miles on this one were to much to pass up

right at $20k and 5700mi

sold in 8/28/12 traded in 12/1/12, lol

I'm not sure about now, but when I got mine, the speed3 actually didn't get some of the bells & whistles that the regular 3 Grand Touring had available.
I believe you mentioned HID's... sounds like they may have upgraded the speed3's equipment.

On the highway I can usually get 28-30mpg depending on the roads.
Around town or in traffic, it's 20-24ish... depending on how heavy my foot is. :D

Always liked the Speed3. I was looking for one for awhile when me and the lady were shopping for a new car. We stuck with Hyundai though and traded in her Elantra for a Genesis Coupe

those are nice looking to, esp. the newest body style, but w/ kids its a PITA w/ 2 drs vs 4

Understand that 100%...We figured lets have the fun coupe now while we are kid-less and hopefully It'll be close to paid off when they do come and i can keep it as my weekend car...Driving that thing is a blast.

Plus I have the truck for kid duty if it happens sooner than expected :lol

I looked and test drove a Speed3 two or three times.

They are quick, but the build quality was shit. The interior was chincy, the red star burst pattern on the interior door panel is striaght out of 1993. And it doesn't seem like Mazda can paint a car if their biz model depended on it. Orange peal hell. That is not limited to just the 3 model either.

Otherwise, I like the car, quick, shifted well, decent clutch, and decent styling.

see how opinons work.... i disagree w/ the bolded parts

already ordered a short shift plate and rear engine mount to help shorten and solidify the shifting. can't do alot about the clutch, the letup is short and not alot of feel.

i'll throw any 10 yr old mazda against a similar volvo anyday, and the mazda will be miles ahead while the volvo is in the shop.

So you agree the build quality is shit and the interior is 2 decades behind the times? Congrats on the new 20 year old car. :lol

I said decent.. not good. My volvo has a great shifter and an awesome hydraulic clutch.

was your volvo really nearly $36k?

"Or would you more likely grow weary of the C30 Polestar, with its daily experiments in turbo'ed torque-steer, its girlie clutch, and its wildly over-assisted steering, as numb as a well-digger's bottom?"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...905734350.html

lol

btw, i really like the look of the c30 t5r (her not so much), but one of our biggest buying factor is reliability, don't care how good or long the warranty is, don't really want to see the dealership. and volvo long term isn't there IMO

2nd since this is primarly a DD, price.....salesman kept asking me, what color? i said CHEAP........lol

Yeah it was... and worth the pennies. Love this car and get compliments daily.

When I went on my many test drives including cars such as the RX-8, Speed 3, Mazda 6, GTI, and the Volvo... I took my brother with me. So I could have a 2nd opinion. We both agreed the Volvo out shined all of them. Hell the speed 3 was way way better than the RX-8, which is sad.

The WSJ article wasn't really bad, so I'm not sure why you state it as a validation to your arguement.

just laughing at their comments

i would take Top Gear assesment more realistically

"The Volvo C30 is a good looking and interesting little Volvo. Strangely lacking in usefulness, yet we like it."

we went from looking at mid-higher priced luxo cars to buying a DD, in about week. she didn't like the corolla or civic, so that leaves mazda, back to reliability again and price. we were going to buy a new '12 maz3 grand touring w/ a stick, till i found this deal.

we'll pay it off in 2-3 yrs and enjoy not having payments ( for that car)and hopefully no maintence, though i think this turbo setup will be more then the lil P5 we just came off of.

kinda hard to compare materials and such on a 36k vs a 25k (or realistically $22k) car.

not sure what your qualifications for build quality are but i'll put a mazda long term vs a volvo long term any day.

Has Volvo gone to shit recently?

I see Volvo's with HUGE mileage all the time. The older models are as solid as older Benz's.

Hell, when we were looking for a family hauler, all the used XC90's were pushing or over 100,000 miles in just a few years. Volvo drivers tend to drive.

Here's a shocker for you, Ed: Not everthing made in Japan is perfect and not everything bought from Europe is for "status".

Yeah I don't get that bad Volvo idea... Most of even the old ones are rolling big mileage.

I would personally put any Volvo up against any Mazda. I was just talking about this debate today with a buddy who works at a Ford / Volvo dealer. He agrees, said Mazda's rattle more than a texas rattler once they pass 15k on the clock.

Which ever... I do understand trying to keep the price point down. Heck maybe even that means you will get some extra rattles and such.

Oh and thanks for not buying a soulless sedan like corolla or civic.

My parents have owned a 2001 V70 T5 from new that has had some fairly significant and expensive issues. The primary annoyance is the front suspension bushings wearing out every 40k miles or so requiring a few days and over a grand to fix each time. That work has been done 3 times by 2 different dealers with each saying that is just how it is with a sport suspension.

Bs, they're bulletproof! Lol

Yes.

Mazda 3's, even the base ones, have always been great buys...... way better than Civics or Fits or Corollas. But I agree about Mazda interiors, they are kind of chintzy and teenager-like, with the ghey red stitching and the over-dramatized "pod" style of the dashboard. But come to think of it, all sub-$30K Asian cars have chintzy interiors IMO, even Honda and Toyota. I rented a 2012 Camry SE recently, and was disappointed in all the hard plastic, the ugly blue info-center, and the road noise. Seems like Japan has definitely stagnated while America has caught up. But of course European interiors have alwasy been on top. A GTI interior is as good as an Audi.

The yen is so strong these days the Japanese have had to cut back to keep margins up. Mazda interiors are much nicer today than they were a few years ago. The 2013s at the auto show were finally about adequate. They've always driven really well (zoom zoom!) but the interiors were always half a step back.

installed Short shift plate, solid shifter bushings and upper front stress bar (weird our old p5 had one, but this "performance car" didn't have one)

shift plate mod is awesome, super short throws now. other stuff, meh.

going to install a Rear motor mount this weekend.

getting ceramic Huper Optik tint on the car