LETSDRIVE: The Mazda 3 Review

I spent a few days putting the Mazda 3 through its paces, and even took it to my track session to see how it fairs out. Now, even though I didn’t take it to a racing track but rather an athletic track, I’d love to note how much attention the car received firstly from its looks alone.

The rather sexy vehicle managed to turn heads and got me a few glances through traffic, which I understand why. The initial design of the car was said, by Mazda themselves, to be designed such as an animal ready to pounce – and one can see why. The overall exterior looks like the car is ready to take on any racer who pulls up to a traffic light looking for a challenge but does it so in a rather subtle way through its slick & clean design.

The front adaptive LED lights just add on to the car giving it as striking view through that futuristic front design.

The rear of the car has LED finishes right through to the brake lights that give the impression that Mazda really gave this one full consideration in the design of the car.

Moving into the interior, I really loved the finishes that have been layered out. The dashboard and center console alone feel like the brand did not want to go overboard with the finishes and wanted to maintain the quality right through. The feel is minimal with attention given to the very key points, and a bonus is that you still get a CD player in the car – yes, it is still 2022. The clean dashboard has been finished off with a few aluminum bits to help it stand out more as-well as a partial digital screen – partial as only the main dial is digital.

The infotainment system has a weirdly shaped digital display screen – I say weird because the weird cut of the screen on the left had me questioning why they went in that direction to begin with but driving around, it made sense. The screen is housed a bit lower into the dashboard with does not hamper driver visibility, and I feel like it was a nice touch. Along with the 12 speaker BOSE system, the unit comes standard with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as with new systems today, but one will have to note that the screen is not touchscreen but has to managed through the dial on the center console or voice commands.

The rear seats give ample space for one’s knees, provided that one is not regarded as South Africa’s version of ‘tall’ – which is anything over 1.80ms. The kicker, mind the pun, is that if the driver decides to slide the center storage console back then it will hit the occupant sitting in the middle seat, which can be rather uncomfortable for said occupant. The boot storage is enough to fit in ones full training gear for the week and practical in that instance in that I can fit in my road bike with seats folded down, and they fold all the way down.

The Mazda 3 come a choice of 1.5L(Active, Dynamic & Individual) or 2.0L(Astina) engines fitted with Mazda’s SKYACTIV Technology in its 6-speed, 4-cylinder natural aspirated engines. We had the 2.0L Astina pictured above which puts out 121Kw at 213nM of torque. Now the unfortunate thing is that the vehicle is not going to put out a punch from the line. The engine has been refined but often I felt like the transmission took its time deciding on which gear to switch into, and as such it felt like I was dragging the car along when I put my foot down.

The fuel economy has seen a notable improvement in the Astina; I managed to average about 7.9L/100km on a normal commute drive through the week’s training and office runs – and it its defence, I have been running it in as much as I could.

In conclusion, I feel like we need the turbo version of the cars really need to make their way into our market for us to truly make the best of the Mazda 3. It is an incredible car which has been built beautifully from the inside out but the let down is mostly in the performance of the car. I would recommend one getting the car if performance is not an issue for them, especially in a segment where the car competes with the likes of VW’s Golf variation.

Pricing for the car start from R409 600 and runs to R538 200(vat inclusive) for the 2.0L Astina and comes with Mazda’s 3 Year unlimited Care Service plan.