Hey everyone, my name is Greg and I am from Lancaster,PA. I just bought my first Mazda 3 hatchback. I have never owned a car like this, so be ready for a lot of questions. I had a Tahoe before my car and really enjoyed that, so thats a little about myself. Any ideas on what to do to my car would be appreciated. The car is a 2004, AT (triptronic) it has a 2.3 and besides the tint I just had installed the car is bone stock. Thanks

 

Sounds like a nice car. Welcome to the site.

 

welcome

 

Hi Greg!! Welcome to MazdaForum.
Lancaster huh? I was born in and spent much of my life only about an hour from there in the Easton area.

As far as what can be done: This is a question that often comes up and there are many ways to answer it... but that depends largely on what you expect from the car? How do you want to make it better? How do you want to personalize it to your liking?

My normal answer is forget about adding too much perfomance to the engine, especially w/the 4-sp auto trans.
What you can do is lighten the car for better handling and mileage. Find a lighter wheel/tire combination. Remove everything from the interior cabin that is not needed on a day-to-day basis. Lower it a bit. Get better shocks and struts. Adjustable rear camber arms are a good way to get the car aligned so that bad tire wear is a non-issue.
Move onto the brakes. There are several good pad manufacturer's out there that offer better than stock brake pads. Upgrade the rotors. Use DOT 3 semi-sythetic brake fluid and do a complete service on that.
Visually, there are grills, LED tails and side markers, HID headlights. You could add paint to the calipers and other bits. Do a bit of pin striping, etc.... All depends upon what you want. KIt's about YOUR vision of what the car should be.