2004 Mazda 3 S review from North America

Wind slammed my drivers door shut HARD and subsequently caused the door switch to become inop; in short: the car thinks the drivers door is always open. NOT a fault of the manufacturer.

Absolutely amazing car. Purchased in May 2006 for $12,000 with 55,000 miles on it. Perfect purchase! Has every factory option (including HIDs) except for power seats and navigation. Who cares! Experiencing that power seats always break in the worst positions, manual seats are fine. As for the nav, I bought a Tom-Tom instead which means that I get a nice cell phone cradle where the OEM nav controls would be.

I really don't know where to begin on this car. It is simply awesome.

Performance:

-Quick acceleration.

-Superb amount of power left in reserve when driving on the highway; this lets you get around that 18 wheeler without any problems.

-I added an aftermarket cold air intake which allows for an increased amount of acceleration (gives that extra boost others have written about, although the stock acceleration didn't disappoint me too much), and an increase in gas mileage! (35+ hwy)

Handling and ride:

-Handles like a sports car should, but allows for enjoyable driving.

-Crisp handling on turns lets the driver enjoy twisting roads, yet the car allows enough give for comfortable city driving.

-Overall ride comfort is about a 7/10, can be rough/noisy, but it mostly depends on the tires. The car is built fairly tight so there is very little noise inside the cabin (again, tires can play a part in this).

Exterior:

-Overall slick design with a wide opening rear hatch.

-I changed out the stock radio antenna for a short stubby one, still get crystal clear reception.

-The stock 17-inch alloys are are very nice feature on this car.

-Stock HIDs do a great job of lighting the way home.

Interior:

-Leather seats are very nice and VERY durable, they can be a bit firm on longer trips (5+ hours).

-CAVERNOUS glove box!!! You can fit another car in there almost! More than ample room for anything you would ever need to put in there.

-Four cup holders in the front (two in the center console one in each door), and two in each rear door are nice for drinks and storage.

-Dual stage center console storage is nice to keep your nicknacks, and the lower level is fairly cavernous as well.

-The change dish area was the perfect place for me to install an XM Commander. The door can be shut when I'm out of the car so it can't be seen.

-The radio has a great "smart" system that adjusts volume for speed, and has a really neat lighting effect.

-In dash 6 disc changer is great instead of having one under the seat somewhere.

-Rear center seatbelt is an ingenious "stowaway" design. Works well when you need it and is out of the way when you don't!

-Cargo area has an independent light operated by the hatch position, but can be manually overridden which is nice for a drive in movie!

Cargo area can swallow just about anything you can throw at it, especially if you lay the rear seats down! The mat is nice when you are storing things with the rear seats up.

-Under the cargo area is a storage area for misc. maintenance items (I keep cleaning items there) and below that is the spare tire which will scream SPARE with a very loud voice if you ever need to use it haha.

-On either side of the cargo area there are access panels that allow access to the tail lights for SUPER EASY replacement, the jack is also located in the left panel. These access panels are also on the inside of the hatch for access to the reverse lights.

-The only drawback is the amount of space for the rear seat passengers. They can be cramped if the frontseaters are scooted too far back.

Economy:

-Car gets great gas mileage

-As mentioned before, the aftermarket cold air intake allows for a 35+/mpg on the highway, and an impressive ~28/mpg in the city. The mileage was very respectable before the intake though.

It seems like this car was truly built around the driver. I have no true complaints about this car. After a year and a half and 35,000 miles (done very economically may I add) I still love my quick little car. As you can see, no one else has given it a bad review on this site, and I guarantee there is reason enough!