I used to sell Mazdas back in 2000. Back in the day of the Mazda Millenia, 626 & Protege. Fast forward to 5 yrs later & I decided to purchase a new car since I'm going into the air force & wanted my wife to have a reliable car. My first thought was well, let's check out Kia, Hyundai, Toyota, Suzuki and why not, even Chevy. On our way I saw the first dealership was a Mazda dealership. I thought to myself, hmm, I have seen a lot of good reviews for both the Mazda 6 and the Mazda 3. The Mazda 6 was out of our price range a bit, but my wife laid eyes on the Mazda 3 sedan & fell in love. The 3s was a bit out of our range still considering right now I'm the only one working & she starts her new job next month but we decided to give it a test drive. 5 hrs later we drove home in the very car we test drove. I fell in love with the fact that it has auto & manual mode. Although of course it doesnt truley emulate a manual transmission it's good enough for me. Considering we live in Arizona, the i's interior is of course lighter than that of the S, so my wife figured she'd rather go with the lighter interior & foregoe the power options. Just wanted to say it's the best & first new car I've ever owned.

 

congrats on the new car, and welcome to the forum!