[Midnightsky228]

Well last Saturday I took possession of a beautiful new 2017 Mazda 3 Hatch 2.5L 6spd manual in Snowflake White Pearl. I have not pushed it too hard yet as I want to wait until 2000km and ensure a good engine break-in period. A few km before I crossed 1000km curiosity got the better of me and I did go wide open throttle in 5th gear at about 4000rpm for a brief moment just to see how much further the pedal went down. I have crossed 4000rpm a few times already, mostly by accident, but I have not crossed 5000rpm and won't until 2000km.

Driving Impressions
Overall I am very happy with my driving experience so far. The engine produces torque very quickly even at 60-70% throttle which is very commendable. The suspension is definitely capable of much more with better tires, overall very stable and easy to manipulate. As expected the oem tires and brake pads are not too crazy but perform as required. I personally prefer a harder biting brake pad and better tire compound for summer driving, as such next summer I will be upgrading both. The clutch is a bit of a sore spot for me, possibly I am just not used to this style of clutch, very unforgiving in stop and go traffic which I encounter often. I am still adapting to it and will continue to try to be smoother with it. In my one experience today using wide open throttle for the first time I was slightly disappointed. I am used to a bigger variation of throttle application and more torque building as the rpms increase. I assume this has to do with the full torque being available early and myself being used to Honda's with vtec. Overall the driving experience has been very positive and I look forward to adding better brake pads and tires so I can push this Mazda towards the edge of what its capable of with stock suspension.

Interior/Exterior Impressions
I must say the fit and finish of this Mazda 3 is very impressive. I went for the top Canadian trim with the 2.5L engine 6spd manual GT hatchback with leather, sunroof, bose, ect. The leather is very nice, I actually thought it was all black leather for the first 24 hours and then finally got the right light to see the accents in dark brown which looks very sharp. The gauge cluster is very well laid out, easy to read and the digital speedo is a huge bonus to me. The dual climate HVAC is easy to use and has done a great job so far. The MZD infotainment unit works great, intuitive controls centrally mounted makes it easy to use while driving. The auto dimming rear view mirror is also a nice feature to have, had my doubts at first but definitely sold on auto dimming rear view mirrors. I have had the odd issues with my android phone steaming Bluetooth music from my Google play app but it is easily resolved, tho slightly annoying. I find the infotainment unit to be slightly laggy but that has been mentioned before on here, it could be better, it could be worse. The HUD is virtually useless IMHO, might still disconnect. I find things like lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring, distance recognition to be sad attempts to allow a driver to be comfortable with being a distracted driver and is unacceptable in my eyes. If you don't know you are following too close then you shouldn't be driving. If you don't know the speed limit of the roads you are traveling, again, you shouldn't be driving. Lane keep assist isn't consistent, the speed limit alert also is not consistent, that to me is a failure to implement new technology. The cargo area in the rear hatch could be bigger but fits all my tools and work gear, can always fold down the rear seats if I need more space. The driving position is good, great road view with very few small blind spots. I am exceedingly happy with the headlights, the combo of projectors and LED fog lights makes for a very bright road ahead and I can see 3x more than my old accord. Each time I look at my Mazda 3 I love it even more. The aggressive front end has much love by me and the rear end is growing on me, might not add a hatch spoiler as I originally intended. The 18 inch wheels also are growing on me, might keep them now for a summer setup.

All in all I am very happy with my choice to buy a Mazda 3 and would do it again.

 

[sc489]

I considered the leather seats but declined the considerable extra expense since Mazda advised me they are not real leather i.e. once belonging to an animal. Note the sedan has a larger load area and larger volume with the seats up (up to the parcel shelf). The clutch is fine on my 2.0 manual.

 

[Studum]

The seating surfaces are real leather. Other bits are leatherette, but it's a non-issue. I couldn't tell until I was told. I too love the interior design with some visual interest of different colors, even if not high contrast in the dark interior. Makes it feel like it's got that extra touch.

Glad you're liking your car car. I too am in love with mine (also Canada / GT / Premium package) and in an odd way I like it more and more as time goes on. Today marks exactly 6 months of ownership for me and it's got 19,000 kms on it. I'll be honest it took me a little while to grow into but that may be because my 2010 GT was taken from me before I was willing to give it up and I still missed it / was pissed about what happened when I picked the new one up.

After all of my time in mine one of my few wishes is that the trip meter was improved to modern standards. We just got a new CX-5 as well for the wife (because the 3 has been so awesome) and it's trip meter is much improved. I wish I had that, but it's such a relatively minor thing and in no way a real issue with the car for me. I love how the car is so good that my biggest gripes are minor "I-wish" things. No car is perfect, but this one came damn close for me!

Everyone's entitled to their opinion and while I completely agree about how people shouldn't be driving if they're not willing to devote themselves to the act of doing so at the time I disagree that the i-activesense suite is useless and provides a false sense of security. It's not an autonomous car and isn't designed as such. They're driver's aids, and when viewed upon and used as such vs being relied upon they have been very useful and there have been certain situations already where different aspects of the system have been a significant help to me. The good thing is at least Mazda will let you turn them off if they're not for you - and it's OK if they're not for you.

The HUD seems to be one of those "love it or hate it" features as well. While I would've loved for it to be on the windshield I don't mind it where it is. It does provide useful info for me in my driving patterns that the gauge cluster does not. I believe you can turn it off as well, but not sure if that will stop it from flipping up still. I suggest you try it out for a while longer though and give it a real shot, it may grow on you.

 

[Chimphappyhour]

Wow! I'm also hitting one week of ownership as of an hour ago. I only have the Touring 2.5 which features the finest of ancient animal hides for seating surfaces. (Otherwise known as pleather or leatherette.) So far my complaints are that the longest interval for the auto wipers doesn't seem long enough to me and the infotainment center has been a bit buggy to me. I'm also using bluetooth to stream from my Google Play account and sometimes I stream the Triple J app. (Really wish Triple J would transmit the song and artist info across bluetooth but at this point, I'm just glad that they within the app on my phone.)

Sometimes my the infotainment system finds my phone, occasionally it doesn't. Sometimes the display shows a full set of control buttons on the screen, sometimes just three. Sometimes I have to push the command knob a few times to agree to the stupid warning upon start up. I am going to submit these errors to Mazda but it's kind of saddening to me to have devs that aren't jumping to my whims like I do here at work.

I do find the decision to lock out the touchscreen to be a bit weird. The touch screen is up near my line of sight of the front window. It takes nothing for me to see the one or two buttons I might want to press out of the corner of my eye while I drive. Meanwhile, I do have to take my eyes off the road to find all the buttons and knobs down by my side. I also have to keep my eyes more on the screen to see if my inputs from the knob and buttons took at all. Whereas if I'm touching the screen, there's something about knowing there should be a change at the end of my finger that just seems quicker and requiring less of my attention. Ultimately, if they added haptic feedback, that would be even better.

Driving seems pretty good but I can see where better rubber and maybe a better rear sway bar might help a little. Although, I don't know enough about the G-Vectoring to know if the sway bar would mess with the programming of that little bit of trickery. Since the break in recommendations I had read here said to try to explore various rpm ranges, I haven't exactly limited myself below a certain level.

I am having trouble establishing a mpg number I trust. I'm only on my second tank of fuel. First tank from the dealer, I'm getting the impression that they went full on full. I don't think the fuel gauge moved off the full mark for the first fifty miles or so. I know I was starting to wonder if it was stuck. The second tank is one I put in myself. I put the pump into auto and when it shut off, I just rounded the price up to the nearest nickel. I think the fuel gauge moved off the full mark around 25 miles into the tank. I assuming the computer doing the info maths is working with the signal of a full tank being a certain capacity. So when the dealer got it really full, it gave me higher mgp numbers and this second tank probably not being at full but still "full" is giving me lower. No real change in driving.

Overall, I have to say this is one of the nicest cars I've ever owned. A lot of doodads and gizmos to figure out. Glad I didn't get most of the ones that are on the GT. Although, that Bose system would have been nice.

 

[mcm0455]

I too have a 17 Mazda 3 GT Hatchback manual with snowflake white pearl. I just passed 500 miles today. It is by far the nicest car that I have ever owned. I have not had a car that I have connected with so much since about 25 years ago when I bought a well used 77 Toyota Celica GT 5 speed. The Mazda reminds me so much of the Celica. It is not the fastest car but the way it is put together begs me to drive it. I took it up our Big Cottonwood Canyon at 6 am so that I would have open roads. It is delightful in the twisties and has plenty of power even at 8000 feet. My clutch work still needs works as five years without a manual, but this car loves the mountains. I think this is going to be a long and fun relationship with this car. There is really nothing to report that is negative, I am totally blown away that for 22k, I can have such a well rounded car. Zoom, zoom.

 

[arathol]

Sometimes I have to push the command knob a few times to agree to the stupid warning upon start up. I am going to submit these errors to Mazda but it's kind of saddening to me to have devs that aren't jumping to my whims like I do here at work.

I do find the decision to lock out the touchscreen to be a bit weird. The touch screen is up near my line of sight of the front window. It takes nothing for me to see the one or two buttons I might want to press out of the corner of my eye while I drive. Meanwhile, I do have to take my eyes off the road to find all the buttons and knobs down by my side. I also have to keep my eyes more on the screen to see if my inputs from the knob and buttons took at all. Whereas if I'm touching the screen, there's something about knowing there should be a change at the end of my finger that just seems quicker and requiring less of my attention.

Driving seems pretty good but I can see where better rubber and maybe a better rear sway bar might help a little. Although, I don't know enough about the G-Vectoring to know if the sway bar would mess with the programming of that little bit of trickery. Since the break in recommendations I had read here said to try to explore various rpm ranges, I haven't exactly limited myself below a certain level.

Its a simple task to be rid of that boot warning, defeat the touch screen lockout, and do a few other simple personalizations. All you need is a blank flash drive and a few minutes to do it.:laugh2:
Mazda AIO Tweaks

Better rubber is a must. OEM tires are bottom of the barrel crap. Real tires can make a huge difference.
The rear bar upgrade should not interfere with the G Vectoring. That is just a fancy torque vectoring system that does some trail braking for you when going hard into a corner. The sway bar isn't really a part of that system.

 

[Chimphappyhour]

Its a simple task to be rid of that boot warning, defeat the touch screen lockout, and do a few other simple personalizations. All you need is a blank flash drive and a few minutes to do it.:laugh2:
Mazda AIO Tweaks

Better rubber is a must. OEM tires are bottom of the barrel crap. Real tires can make a huge difference.
The rear bar upgrade should not interfere with the G Vectoring. That is just a fancy torque vectoring system that does some trail braking for you when going hard into a corner. The sway bar isn't really a part of that system.

Yeah, I've seen all the threads in that section and I've been seriously tempted. Right now I'm still trying to track down the dev team working on Android Auto for Mazda to see if I can become a beta tester. If I don't hear anything back in a couple of weeks, I'll look into doing the tweaks.

 

[arathol]

No reason you can't do both.:smile2: The AIO tweaks are very simple and easy to do. The chances of seeing any sort of AA in the near future are pretty slim I think though.