2005 Mazda 3 3s hatchback review from North America

Nothing as of yet.

I traded in a BMW 330i for this. It is a step down yes. Gas mileage is good on the highway. But the same as the BMW in city. I am used to driving a Nissan Maxima 1997 SE 5 speed. That car has the same mileage practivcally as this. This mazda is right in between the handling of those two cars. Nothing is happening below 3000 RPM. Good for tooling in slow and go traffic, but you will have to rev it to get any juice. People who rave about the power - they are kinda on track, but if you are used to gobs of low end torque and chipping the tires in 2nd and 3 rd this mazda aint gonna do it. It is all high end RPM power.

Above 4000 RPM it does move. At 5000 RPM the valves do their timing thing and the exhaust sounds mean and the car does get some serious speed. By that time you are probably going way above legal speeds. But again if they had just made the gear ratio's shorter so it would spool up faster it would have been - well probably too sporty for most. I guess I am just used to quick reving 3.0liter engine cars and this just requires a different way of driving - which is hard. And I don't like to drive crazy.

However the handling is nice. Very tight body structure and it sticks to the road, but you do have to push it a little to realize just how well it does this.

The BMW had this quality at all speeds and even standing still. But the Mazda is half the price loaded and you only lose a little road feel. The beemer was a 10 in driving dynamics. This things an 8 and I can afford to buy a house.

It blows the Maxima away in handling, but then that is a large family sedan and that thing can smoke most cars ont he road and it has 170K and is still going. hope this one holds up as well. Never had a single problem out of the BMW either. However this gets more looks still. The New BMW's are too angled for my taste. The previous models are still light years ahed of other car manufacturers. But this mazda is closing that gap.

The Hatchback on this thing swallows cargo. I can fit matresses, big 92" trellaces for the yard, etc- It has a wide opening that accomodates a lot of stuff. It is so much more funtcional that an SUV - Easy to park, drive and live with. Easy to see out too. No BIG blind spots Plus it still looks cool after 3 years and people are absolutely amazed at what I can fit in it. Very clever engineering for the storage.

Yes- cheap floor mats. Buy yourself some aftermarket floormats and be done with this silly comment.

The other stupid thing I have heard other people say about this car is the there is no trunk release latch internally or on the remote. This is true. There is not.

My question is - If you were able to pop the hatchback, where would you grab to lift it open? It is so contoured the ONLY place to lift is in the center where the latch is. You can't grab it anywhere else and lift it up because it is so smooth. So since you can only grab it in one place to open it, that is where the latch is and popping the trunk then lifting where the latch is would be kind of redundant. It would be like having a button on your remote that popped your driver door open just a crack and then where are you going to reach to pull it open so you can get in? The door handle most likely unless you want to make it difficult and squeeze your fingers inbetween the seam of the car and the door and pry it open.

OK that's enough. I no longer have insomnia.

Good Buy. Good Value.

The car mats are so very flimsy and cheap it will make you laugh outloud and if thats the worst thing about the car then it is a pretty sweet deal.