General Information
Year
2020
Make
Mazda
Model
3 Hatchback
Color
Machine gray metallic
Packages
Premium
History
Bought used in Sept 2022
Way before the Mazda3 became part of the fam, my Dad bought his now my FJ Cruiser in 2007. Since I was 16 I have been driving the FJ all through the remaining 2 yrs of high school in TN, 5 yrs of college in FL with an internship in TN and another in WI, and now currently in WI for a career job working for Oshkosh Corporation as an Engineer. Having put 100k mi on the clock on top of the 75k that it had when I started driving, things are starting to wear out and make noises that I am not liking, along with the horrid gas mileage from all of my mods. I had seriously started thinking about another daily around summer 2022 and knew I wanted a hatchback, and I really wanted the GR Corolla with performance package. Knowing that dealer markups would be very high, delivery would be at least Jan 2023, and planning on driving a lot for the rest of 2022 back and forth to TN at least 5 times, I figured I would start looking at a new daily instead of wasting multiple down payments on rental cars for driving fast and at long distances. One Saturday in Sept I out-of-the-blue called my local Mazda and asked them if they had any gen4 Mazda3 hatches. 30 min later they call back and say they have a 2020 grey fwd manual that is waiting for its title to be transferred to them. I tell them I will be there in 10min to test drive. After test driving for about an hour all over town trying to get used to slow driving a manual, I had fallen in love with everything about the Mazda3. It's a hatchback, has all of the aero checked, the Premium interior is amazing, the exterior color looks way better in person, its a 6sp, gets double the mpg as the FJ, and is NA so higher reliability and no turbo lag than the boosted version. After about 2 hrs at the dealer calling my dad and several friends to hear their opinions, I had put down a deposit and waited 2 weeks for the title to eventually be delivered and the keys in my hands. Not 3 days after acquiring it I had to go to and from TN twice within a month for family reasons and a bunch of other driving, so I got plenty of practice with daily driving a manual in traffic, the city, the highway above the speed limit, and pretty good rev-match up and down shifting.
Modifications
Drivetrain
6sp fwd manual
Interior
Red leather and new car smell
Garmin front 56 and rear Dashcam 2, and Uniden R8 detector hard wired all going to the center console controlled by a voltage switch
Weather tech rear storage mat and holders, spare tire with tools, emergency blanket and food, 800w Ryobi DC to AC converter, and a 10lb fire extinguisher
Garmin front 56 and rear Dashcam 2, and Uniden R8 detector hard wired all going to the center console controlled by a voltage switch
Weather tech rear storage mat and holders, spare tire with tools, emergency blanket and food, 800w Ryobi DC to AC converter, and a 10lb fire extinguisher
Exterior
Front lip, rear spoiler, rear diffuser
Audio
Bose surround sound
Lighting
Stock
Exhaust
Stock
Wheel and Tire
Non-winter: Stock black premium 18s with all weathers
Winter: Sparco Terra bronze wrapped in Blizzaks
Winter: Sparco Terra bronze wrapped in Blizzaks