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The Mazda3 Makes Driving Fun Again

Road trip! I was headed down to the Temecula wine country in a Celestial blue 2010 Mazda3. Windy roads look out! Me and my Mazda3 are coming to tame you

By CANDICE MERRILL
Published: Friday, December 11, 2009 | 10:58 PM

At first glance the Mazda3 Grand Touring looks much like the earlier versions of itself. Same general shape and size, but upon a closer look the Mazda3 yields some surprises. It is equipped with headlights that move with the steering which was a great use to me since I hit the windy mountain roads at night. A larger more powerful engine is behind the toothy smile which again served me well on those mountain grades.

My car was equipped with a six-speed manual transmission; making the vehicle very responsive. However it was a real downer in bumper-to-bumper traffic and serious bumper-to-bumper traffic is what I dealt with for 75% of the drive. If I were driving in heavy traffic on a daily basis (and who in LA doesn’t), I would give up some performance and opt for the automatic. But when out on the open road that stick shift was a dream, responsive but not too touchy, it down-shifted into the turns with ease.

Interior-wise the Mazda3 is comfortable and functional. Its navigation screen is controlled by a toggle on the steering wheel. At first I found this a bit confusing but once I got the hang of it I liked it much better than the touch screens. There is also a cool text-only display in place of the nav screen that allows the driver to toggle through various readings such as current and average fuel economy, fuel range (which I really appreciated—made it easy to plan the next gas stop), average speed, and vehicle settings.

Leather trimmed seats cradled the us and the leather-wrapped steering wheel gave me a better grip and more control. The back seat is fairly comfortable and the headroom sufficient if you’re not over 6ft, but seriously what compact car really accommodates taller people?

The 242-watt Bose surround sound system provided great sound for the satellite radio. It also has a Bluetooth connection for compatible music phones and MP3 players allowing you to stream audio through the Bose speakers without wires. The Mazda hands-free system is accessible via voice control using more steering wheel-mounted buttons, so you need to listen closely for voice prompts as there is no on-screen controls.

The Mazda sips fuel giving it an estimated 21 mpg city and whopping 29 mpg highway. On my trip the fuel consumptions was closer to 25 mpg as I did some mountain driving as well as stop and go freeway traffic. The base price for the Mazda3 Grand Touring is $21,500. Our model with the added sound system, keyless entry, nav system and moon roof was closer to $24,800.

I really enjoyed my time with the Mazda3. I found it to be peppy without sacrificing gas mileage. And the interior appointments are a few notches above average giving the impression of driving a much more expensive vehicle. If you’re looking for a fun economy car with plenty of zoom the Mazda3 is for you.

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