Hi Mazdafans. Just brought my new M3i home. What a beautiful lil' car. Can't wait to start enjoying it on the road (come on spring!). Hope to have some good stories to share as time goes on.

Oh, and is it more of a testimony of my geekiness or the abundance of info on the forums that the very first thing I did after closing the garage door was to unlock the trip computer?

Anyway, I have a 3i Touring 5-speed 2.0 with the moonroof/CD package, ABS, compass, yada yada. Picked it over the Civic, Toyotas, and Saturn Astra - partially because of the handling, partially because it was the only car that had all the features I wanted.

Anyway, enough about me. See ya on the forums.

 

you had the same decision as i did. however this car is the best out of all those cars.. the civic... iunno im not keen on the shifter as well as the "spaceship" look dashboard.. the corolla is plain looking as well as all the other cars.. the mazda3 well looks good. and the illuminescent lights are great. i love it at night.. looks soo cool. congrats on your car man hope you enjoy it

 

Yeah, the Honda dash left me cold, as well as its instrument cluster. It was comfortable to drive, but an '08 Civic was actually a lot more expensive than my 3, and they were just out of '07s.

The Corolla didn't have rear discs - scratch that. The Camry was more expensive, heavier, and had a lot of body roll. I kinda liked the Scion tC but it was NOISY on the road. Much more engine/wind noise than the M3i.

And the Saturn - we didn't actually get to drive an Astra because they're still waiting for them at the dealer. But the engine uses a timing belt instead of a chain, and I feel it's crazy that the only way you can check the coolant temp is to bring up the TEST mode on the MFD and scroll down to the engine display. It was nice to have all that info, but the fact that it takes about 15 seconds to activate test mode and find the right screen is silly.

 

did you get the automatic 3 or the standard. i found out at the dealership it costs 1000 more to get the automatic.. which is ridiculous i think anyway. also your right the corolla wasnt that great plus yea it had rear drum brakes.. i also looked at the honda fit.. but nahhhhh. gas is amazing but its too small for my liking. the car i bought turned out to be the best out of them all. now im pissed off cuz i hit a raccoon annnnnnnnnnd the purchase financing is sitting at 0% GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. ahh well what can you do