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.