2008 Mazda 3 Tamura from UK and Ireland - Comments

My brother has got one of these at the moment from National Car Hire whilst his car is being repaired. Even though I am a Citroen fan, I will say it's a lovely car and has some great features like the multi CD player, the MP3 player socket and 4 rear windows.

My brother is liking it a lot.

But I myself do have one problem with it. The power is awful. Considering it's a 1.6i it really feels slow compare to my old Citroen C3 1.6i 16v Exclusive Sensodrive, and my new C2 1.6i 16v VTR Sensodrive.

When you drop down a gear in TipTronic mode, you just don't feel the power as you should. Even my sisters Renault Megane Scenic 1.4i 16v has more go in it.

That's the only thing that lets it down for me.

It won't break down like crappy citroens and renaults though!

Hi, I've been driving a Mazda3 1.6 L A (tiptronic) (singapore), manufactured in 2004 for close to 4 years now. As U would have guessed, I like the car a lot! It's a car that U will fall in love over time. When I first got it, I thought this car is all about speed. I was temporarily disappointed when the fact that U pointed out regarding the pick up was "true" at that time. I dreaded having to shift manually to a lower gear each time I want to go from 60-100km/h fast, and pick up from 0km/h seemed to stall at around 40km/h. M3 drivers who r dissapointed by this will often go through the following phases:

1) Driving persistently in Tiptronic manual mode

Adv- can accelerate fast. 1st gear 0-60 km/h, 2nd gear 60-110km/h, all within 8-10 seconds, Exhilarating!! and whats more exciting is that handling during this acceleration is not compromised. U can shift in and out traffic with great precision.

Disadv - U loose a lot of fuel! FC drops to 8.5-9 km/l, And U feel tired. Reason - driving like this will attract boy racers like Subaru 1.6TS, Lancer 1.6 M and a very few modified Toyota Vios and corolla drivers who didn't realise that their car's suspension is not meant for sporty drivin. And to race them all off, you need to be 100% alert and aircon needs to be off.

2} Soon U will feel that life is more than just speeding on the road. U will start to realise that U value your life and whats more important to some is to lower FC so U pocket won't be burnt to emptiness. Most M3 drivers will then resort to going for cheapest fuel and driving wvery slowly using tiptronic starting with gear 2 to avoid friction and then changing to auto only after 60km/h.

Adv - FC can go up to 13km/l

disadv - but most drivers will get sooooo bored as this car will feel extra heavy when driven slowly. And upon reaching destination, most drivers will feel that they have saved some fuel and thus no sin if the sped up a bit to overtake that boring corolla in front, forgetting that this sudden race uses up so much fuel!!

FC may thus be up and down and up and down averaging about 10-11 kn/l.

3) M3 drivers will then enter the maturity phase when they feel that Mazda3 won't come with the Auto gearbox if its not meant to be driven in auto. So they will drive fully in auto BUT with a difference that they dare to press the accelerator pedal from standstill. The 1st gear will get them decently to 30-40km/h, 2nd gear 40-60, 3rd gear is the deciding gear since if you don't depress the pedal a bit at this stage, 4th gear will set in seamlessly and u'l be trapped at 60 km/h. Wherealse my style of driving, I will depress at 60km/h gear 3 to get it to 70km/h then ease off as the 4th gear and invisible overdrive takes over.

This in the long run gives a decent FC of 11-13km/l.

In conclusion M# is not such a bad vehicle when it comes to power and acceleration, There's more than enough power as shown by Manual tiptronic acc figures, But you have to know when to acceleartae and when to use the tiptronic to ensure optimal FC.

Realistic figures would be

FC 11-12km/l

0-100km/h 13sec, I mean most people just need 0-70km/h in about 9-10 seconds for daily non highway driving at least in Singapore

Use tiptronic only for overtaking in non highway situations when your travelling speed is 50-60km/h and u're already in 4 th gear, drop it to gear 2 instead of 3 as gear 3 will not have the pulling power unless the speed is at 80km/h or above.

Higway cruising is a skill, M3 is most comfortable with 80km/h (2100rpm)

90km/h needs more work at 2500 rpm

and oce you get to 100km/h, you can never go below 3000rpm

Having said that if you really want to let ur hair down occasionally, you can drive very very comfortably and stabily at 160km/h (if you don't get coaught)

Remember when Mazda makes this car, its meant to be driven enthusiastically. That's why the horses do not kick in until the rev is at 3500rpm and above. Sometime you need to drive hard sometimes you don't and when you don't, as a rule, keep the revs less than 2500.

AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL - VALUE LIFE YOURS and OTHER ROAD USERS. THINK TWICE BEFORE ENGAGING IN A RACE AND DRIVE SAFELY!!

ALL THE BEST! I'm sure u'll grow to love that masterpiece!!

Like I have said before the Power in Both Automatic Tip Tronic Mode it feels gutless compare to the Citroen. I was side by side with my brother him in the Mazda and me in the Citroen and I bomb passed him. Mazda really should have givin it a 1.8i instead like the Vauxhall Astra.

I guess people like me whom buy the 1.6L version do so because

1) this car is so aesthetically pleasing esp in bright red. This is 60% of the reason why I bought this car. Love at first sight!

2) the suspension and steering are so great that going round a bend (at an 80km/h speed limit) at 140km/h is a breeze and a sharp corner at 50 km/h with Tiptronic forced at gear 1 is very precise.

3) Compared to boring cars like Corolla, Sentra, some versions of Civic and older Lancer, this car exudes personality.

To be fair I'm not a fan of Citroen, but how's the suspension and steering precision like? And is the car good looking?

If someone asks my humble opinion - would I exchange this car for a BMW 3 series? - I would, then I would sell it off to buy a MAZDA3 2.0L + a MAZDASPEED 3, with $100,000 spare to spend! That's how much of a MAZDA fan I am.

To The Person who said about the Citroens Breaking down in the 3 years I had my C3 nothing went wrong and the 4 years My Sister had her Saxo and had done 80,000 miles nothing went wrong with that either.

The Mazda 3 is a nice car Im not disputing that and I give it to Mazda they are generous with equipment as I was really shocked to see a CD Player with a 6 CD Changer Built in and the MP3 AUX socket and Alarm where as the C3 Exclusive doesn't have a CD Changer and Citroen has cut back on some goodies on the New C3 Exclusive so I will give Mazda 10/10 for their spec.

I think if Mazda gave the 1.6i Auto 110BHP instead of 105BHP Maybe there would be more power like.

The Ride was smooth very good Suspension.

The 1.6L engine is perfect for turbocharging. They make just about 300ps without changing anything inside the engine. That engine just LOVES turbo.

I love how you guys get stuck with a crappy 1.6 while us Americans get a 2.3L 160 HP engine that goes like you won't believe, but then again it is supposedly our Euro Ford Focus, because our American Ford Focus is cheap econo-crap.

I had the Mazda 3 1.6 L for almost 3 years now with 40,000 KM, and I have not noticed any mean bad point compared with other cars in this category it’s perfect so far..

I have a Mazda Speed 3 5 speed stick and your Citroen or Renault won't even come close as far as power. Plus they only last for 3 years. I've had my car for 3 years and I never had a breakdown problems. I just the occasional oil & filter change and the recommended maintenance. :-)

Yeah, the standard engine stock in the US is 2.0L-2.3L not 1.6L. I mean the auto tiptronic is not as good of a torque converter, but the manual transmission you can feel the power on the engine. The stock Mazda 3 2.0L is not really for racing or performance, but design as an everyday car. The Mazda 3 is a well built car though and I recommend it for everyday driving. My sister has one and its saves her a ton on gas. I have a Mazda Speed 3 by the way and I get 263 HP @ 5500 RPM with 280 peak torque (lb-ft) on stock. I added other performance parts so it probably close to 300hp. Well, it's overkill for everyday commuting but what the hell. I like to have a 4 banger with 280+ HP and a bose stereo. :-)

Hi all. Given the choice of whether to drive a Mazda, Honda, Mitsubishi, Toyota or Nissan, I think I'll chose Mazda as it's a brand thatz exclusive that subconsciously hint on class and quality. driving a corolla altis now. Fc is good but gets tired with long ride and lack of power above 130kmh. Tried a M3 1.6L on the highway stable even at 160kmh can push on to 200 + if engine was 2.0 or 2.3L as chassis feels firm and grounded to take a bigger more powerful engine!

Use any positive word and it describes this car!!

Examples:

Cute, handsome, aggressive, macho, beefy, pretty, sweet, ravishing... and so on!

I own a UK Mazda 3 (face-lifted) 2.0 Sport. I've had a loan of a 1.6 TS2 and was disappointed with the engine.

The 2.0 has a really peachy engine. I was a bit surprised how lumpy the 1.6 was in comparison. It was a hire car so these tend to be abused. Its not a patch on the 2.0.

As a whole owning a 3 is painless, it works, is cheap to maintain. Only the lack of dealers is a pain.

If you want real performance then its the 2.3 MPS with 256 BHP!