Hey guys, finally got some pictures of my SP23 i got about a month ago. had to drive all the way to pennsylvania from virginia to get it...a 4 hour drive but it was worth it, check it out! only 17k on it.

 

what about the SP23 makes it exclusive?

 

yeah, whats special about it? and whos in the car?

 

The sp23 was the special edition for 2005. It basically gave all the same options as the current grand touring trim, but it got: high gloss wheels (they actually look pretty good), carbon gray exterior paint, sp23 badges of course , leather interior. There were two options on the leather for the sp23. Either black or saddle brown (kinda a brownish orange).

There were only 3,659 of them made in 2005 (combined hatch, sedan) http://www.mazda3forums.com/index.php?topic=40011.0. Of course there were only 984 lava oranges made in 2005.

esloyer, where in VA are you?

 

Ahh neat stuff. If being a SP23 made it carbon gray, then what's this about lava orange?

 

Just like icspots said, performace wise it is the same as the mazda 3s except it has a longer wheel base(or a longer somethin or another, not really sure). its just perked up on the inside, the leather, heated seats, standard BOSE sound system, HID headlights...like icspots said. I have the saddle brown leather which looks really nice in person.

That is me in the car, i need to take some new pictures somewhere...gotta wait to get this burnt out bulb or ballast for the left HID though before i do it.

The lava orange is the rarest of colors as they only produced 984 in 2005 (posted a picture with this post) of course you dont see the mint green everywhere either but they produced many more of those then the rare lava orange.

and icspots i am close to charlottesville, how about you?

[IMG]local://upfiles/4601/9465F04CDA0247009EC354146674F127.jpg[/IMG]

 

I was just illustrating that though the "special edition" was available in a special color (note: the carbon gray is a standard color option in some other countries) that there were theoretically fewer lava oranges made. Lava Orange was available in 4 or 5 door in '04, and in 5-door only in '05. After that it was discontinued. The 984 came from a request to mazda, however they say they don't have any build numbers for '04 (yeah right!). The other two rare colors are the starlight green (the aforementioned "mint" ), and the Solar yellow both of which were only for 2004.

the sp23 is, except for it's asthetic and option differences, the exact same car as the regular 3. Same engine, same dimensions, same performance. Like I noted earlier the same options available on the sp are now available on the Grand Touring, and (with the exception of the Bose stereo) could be had on well equipped non-sp cars in '05.

I lived in Charlottesville for four years while my wife was in medical school, and just moved to Winston-Salem, NC last June.