Hello; Just had a few disappointing days trying to decide about buying a 2026 Mazda 3 with a manual transmission. Some background. For decades I have been buying audio CDs.. I then rip the factory CD onto my home computer hard drive. For the first decade or more I ripped the CDs in WMA format. I would then burn the tunes selected onto blank CD-R disks to use in my vehicles. Keeping the factory CDs safe at home.

Now new cars do not offer CD players. So, i got a USB thumb drive some years ago and copied some songs onto the USB thumb drive. That way I could check out a new cars stereo to be sure I could play my music. Around 2016 it turned out some brands of car make would not play WMA format songs. A shame as out of the 1200 or so CD's I own maybe 800 + were already in WMA format on my computer hard drive.
So, i began to rip newly purchased CDs in MP3 format (a compress format I think) Maybe another 400 CDs by now. I then got a second USB thumb drive and copied maybe 30 songs on it in MP3 format. So far, so good but as many of you already know there is a new twist.

Turns out some new cars, including the 2026 Mazda 3 no longer have a USB port. The port is smaller and is referred to as a C. (do not yet know the term) So I found a small adapter to get the USB thumb drive to work in the C port. Worked fine on a Honda Si some months ago. The Honda played tunes in both WMA & MP3. So, when I visited the Mazda dealer this past Wednesday, I thought I was set. Not the case.

First glitch is my adaptor did not work. So, the dealership salesman got a newer adaptor from Best Buy. Tried it with the WMA formatted thumb drive and with the MP3 formatted thumb drive. At first it seemed things are all good. Could play any and all of the songs on the MP3 thumb drive.

On the WMA formatted thumb drive only two out of the 24 songs played. The entire list of 24 songs would show on the cars screen. We could move the control to any of the songs. But when selected the car would revert to one of only two songs. Only the two songs would play no matter what was selected. The salesman checked the file of the songs on his compute and found they were in WMA format. We were stumped.

A plan unfolded. Since the USB thumb drive was over ten years old, I went to Best Buy and bought a new USB 3.0 thumb drive. Last evening I copied some WMA formatted songs onto the new USB. Went to the dealer this morning and the same issue happened. This time in a different Mazda 3 only three songs played. Different songs for that matter. Such is where things stand.
The salesman seems to think it has something to do with the size of the WMA files. That the Mazda system will only play songs that are a smaller sized file. I do not have a clue. For further reference in the last year or so I have been looking at new cars with a manual transmission. All brands have played the WMA format drive just fine. Including Ford, Hyundai and Honda.

A point of this thread is to ask for comments or suggestions on this. I do not want to delete and rip over again 800 CDs into MP3. Further I do not have a smart phone nor an I-pad or any such linkable device. I want to be able to copy some songs from my computer as they already exist onto a thumb drive. In both WMA and MP3 format.

I was told years ago there is a way to reformat the WMA filles into MP3. Even if so that sort of thing often does not go well when I try such. Any help will be appreciated.

 

The older traditional USB port you think of is USB-A. The newer port - the smaller one - is USB-C. It has a bunch of protocol improvements but main functional improvement is it is the connector is reversible.

For the music formats, my CX-5 doesn't play WMA but does play MP3 and FLAC which is lossless. Most of my collection was MP3 with about half are 320 (least compression) and 256 (low compression, typical purchase quality). At one point I started slowly working being my entire CD catalog and converting to FLAC lossless. Honestly, while pretentious finicky types probably have the gear to notice, in my CX-5 I don't notice a difference between MP3 320 and FLAC.

You can do bulk conversion of WMA to MP3 using Audacity. At least you could a couple years ago.

 

Hello; As you point out the noise in a vehicle pretty much makes a difference between WMA & MP3 harr to notice. When I first starting ripping CDs I did not know much about the formats. I probably did a little research and picked a lossless format thinking it ought to sound better. Not that I understood the consequences.
Worked fine until the CD player is no longer around. My current vehicles have a CD player, so I am still covered until I buy a new vehicle.

As I want a manual trans the choices are becoming few. I had not considered the Mazda 3 of late because I thought the 2.5 four cylinder had cylinder deactivation. What I have been told is up to 2025 they did have such. That the new 2026 Mazda 3 does not have that feature any more. So, when a dealer about an hour and a half away got a couple in I went to check it out.
I do like a lot about the car. Some features not so much. The center console control seems hard to use after only a brief exposure. I do not care for the black only wheels you must get with a manual. Same with leather seats and a moon roof, things I would prefer to not have. But i could live with those.

I understand I am not the target buyer for new cars. Too much focus on tech I could do without.

The music glitch is a deal killer so far for me. I could change the wheels and turn f or hopefully ignore the tech.

Thanks for the reply. I did rip a couple of CDs in FLAC but have not done anything with those tunes. I will look into Audacity. Thanks.

 

Get the adapter from usb to c then get a basic CD player with a simple usb cable. You should be able to play your CDs. If at first it does not work then you may need one other adapter which is analog to digital. This all sounds like a lot of $ and labor intensive. If you had to get all three Componets roughly about 160–170 on Amazon give or take 10-15 depending on your choices made ?

The hardest thing to the whole installation is mounting the CD player in you glove box with 3m double sided tape .

 

Hello; I have an old external CD / DVD drive from back when a laptop's drive failed. I think it does plug into a USB port. As you say such would be hard to mount and be handy when driving. Thanks.

 

Hello; Thanks for the responses so far. I had a feeling there was not going to be a simple fix. In Knoxville TN a bit over an hour's drive is a store which trades in used CDs, movie DVDs, books, TVs, audio equipment, plastic Legos and more. Last few years they have thousands of the old vinyl LPs. It is called McKays. I usually stop in and get a few CDs and books. This is where i picked up many of the CDs I have.
I get that the world has moved on from where I am comfortable. Cars are become more like computers with wheels in the sense every few years some new, to me, item shows up and throws a curve. I do not know the advantage, if any, of the change to USB-C. Perhaps there is an advantage. I do hope so as the change has tripped me up a bit. At least i have a latest adapter now.
Looks like I can get a Ford Mustang, a Honda Civic Si, A Hyundai type N or a Mazda 3 to get a manual transmission. My music works well in all but the Mazda, both WMA & MP3. The Honda is turbocharged which to me is a negative. The Mustang is in some ways a favorite but is over the top in HP and cost. Also, the Mustang is a bit big and heavy. The Hyundai is hard to describe, but for some reason does not appeal. The Mazda drives and shifts great. The interior is tight with the big console, was awkward to buckle the seatbelt & use the console lid. Back seats will be tight for tall folks, but I rarely have passengers anyway. There are things to like and things to dislike about all the cars so a compromise is in order. For some reason the loss of my WMA formatted music bothers me overmuch.

Thanks again

 

I think you missed my point and information??

You should consult an Auto stereo shop in your area . You CAN play your cd on a CD player you just need to do a couple of inexpensive connections.

My Mazda came factory with a BOSE system and I had to do much more upgrading then a simple analog to digital adapter to use a cd player. Not to mention finding a place that worked to mount it without out looking "ghetto ricer" add on.









WOW!!!
Nice store I am looking at their inventory now... maybe doing a little shopping?
McKAY's | Bookstore & Record Store

Mckay Vinyl Records and CDs For Sale | MusicStack

 

Hello; you are likely correct that I am not understanding what it takes to add a CD player. My first thought was to see if simply plugging in my old external DVD drive into the USB-C port using the adapter i bought. Anyway, such an attempt as such will have to be a someday thing.

I was doing what pre buying checks I could before a purchase. In my experience shops work a bit quicker to help before the sale. Thank you for taking the time to respond. I now have a good idea about what is possible with regard to using an USB thumb drive to play my already owned CDs.

My current car is a 2001 Nissan Sentra SE I bought new. It has the 2.0 liter SE-R engine and transmission Nissan used in the SE-R package up to 2000. Apparently they had some 2.0 liter engines & transmissions left over during the switch over to the 2.5 L used in 2002 and later SE-R models. I had owned a 1991 SE-R for around ten years so knew the engine well. So, I have a 25-year-old car still in good running condition. This colors my thinking when looking at the latest offerings. partly because the old car is still in good shape but also, more to the point, I like the lack of the newer tech gadgets. So let me ask some additional questions.

I am leery of much of the new tech features standard on the new cars. One of my concerns has to do with how the tech will hold up after the warranty runs out. Even my old Sentra has some problematic tech. The only time it failed to start in 25 years was when a chip reader failed in the anti-theft immobilizer system. I trouble shot the issue and was able to identify the bad part. (A circular antenna which reads the chip in the key when the key is inserted) Had the part in my hand but understood if I replaced the part a trip to a dealer had to happen. So I had it towed to a dealer with my notes on what i suspected and let them do the job. That simple repair was over $500 several years ago.

I guess what i want to ask is what level of concern is appropriate for all the tech in the new cars. I used to be able to fix most anything on a vehicle. Not so much now.. I do have a scan tool and some fuel injection tools, but it seems so much will not be DIY possible. I was reading thru this forum and read thr a thread about replacing brake pads. Seems the new electronic parking brake system has a procedure to deal with the tech aspect. Seems the OP could not get Mazda to give the instructions, and an online method was tried. The Op is now plagued with warning lights. Members of this forum have suggested a way forward, which is good, so i hope the issue can be resolved.
To my question. Is the 2026 Mazda 3 going to be DIY or pretty much dealer only repair? I guess any other comments along that line are welcome.

 

There are dealership full of vehicles under warranty. You have to look hard on the internet to find all this information.
DIY can no longer fundamentally work on most platforms anymore without going to "SCHOOL" (automotive mechanical institutions) so to say and then buying the necessary equipment to work on them. Think investing about 6-12k and not on the average mechanic or DIY toolboxes.
You can as others read between the line, but I suppose at least for me if I were to buy a new vehicle from 2022 to 2026 I would trade it in long before the warranty expiration and defiantly after more than one warranty service needed that was running gear or computer controlled related.
I have already decided that when my next ASE testing to keep my L1 rating comes up in 3 years I will get that for the last time, and I will not be getting the newest EV certification.

 

Id skip all the work of a CD player, fumbling in the glovebox to change the song or disc and do the simple conversion. I did check Audacity and it does bulk conversion and outputs to MP3 format with the same file name. You can setup entire albums and convert without even monitoring it. I ran a test by ripping an old CD to WMA then covering it to MP3 at 320 kbps (insane quality setting). Super easy and not hard all.

As for USB-C, the form factor is one but power delivery capabilities are another. Not worth getting info there but that is the primary reason that connector has won the connector battle for now. My CX-5 still has usb-A front and back but my 2025 Blazer has A and C in the front and only C in the rear. Apple even gave up on lightning and moved to USB-C which is like a bad place freezing over.