Today we feature a car that has received alot of hype in the FWD world. One of members has recently purchased one. I'm talking about the Mazdaspeed 3.
As you already know, I am trying to get rid of the jetta one way or another so we went with this approach to see what would happen.
The visit started out with a test drive, but while the salesman (Great guy, putting no pressure on me and my g/f to buy the car.) went to get the keys I got a chance to look around the car. The car was black which was a very nice color for the car. It was also alot smaller than you would think when you hear of a 4 door hatch. The front of the car has a nice agressive look that says im no ordinary FWD hatch.
I pop the hood to take a look at the 260 horsepower 2.3 liter turbocharged engine. The hood could lose a few pounds since the hood is about 4 times heavier than the rx-8's hood and about 2.5 times heavier than the jettas. Once I pushed the hood up I got to poke around the engine bay. Everything was nice and compact, the intercooler was mounted on the top with a ram air duct leading through the front and fed onto the intercooler. The Ko4 warner turbo was mounted in the back, connected to the exhaust (exactly like the jetta.) Basically it was a thing of beauty to look at, though I had seen it before (See my review of the Mazdaspeed 6).
The salesman came back with the keys so we got inside and started the car. The seats were amazingly comfortable, the bucket design gave you the feel that you were in a sports car, something the MS6 did not have since those seats were much more plush. The seat level on the car was lower than the MS6 as well, again giving you that sports car feel. When I started the car the engine had a nice little roar with an exhaust tone that sounded like music. The only problem I seemed to encounter was adjusting to the pedal placement. The pedals seemed to high up for the way the seat was.
The guy directed me where to drive to while we were talking. He told me how he was a fan of old school muscle cars and how he fully restored a 67 Mustang but his ex-wife sold it. (My favorite line was, "She's dead now" he said it with such a straight face before he laughed.) We were driving for a while and he finally said, "So im waiting for you to actually test the car." We get to a stop sign and I say "I didnt know if you would let me"
"So do you want to go around again?" he asked and me and my girl said "of course" I punched it, the turbo spooled up Immediately, the tires were not able to keep up, the car shot off. Reaching a little over 5k rpms the car did what the MS6 does, the engines power flatlines which was something I really did not like, shift I get power back but again at 5k flat lined. The gears also seemed very short. 2nd seemed to top at 45mph more than 20 less than the RX-8 and almost 30 less than the jetta.
I tested the handling with the dsc off and the car was extremely responsive, it was no rx-8 but comepared with the MS6 it would easily overtake the ms6 in an autox simply because you dont feel the turns as much as you would in the higher seating MS6. The MS3 was also very tail happy for a FWD which made it even better to drive. We had so much fun going through corners and testing everything we got lost for about 10 minutes as we tried to find our way back.
We returned the car and went inside to talk numbers. I already knew there was a markup fee of 4500 and I knew I owe about 5500-6000 still on the jetta. So they told me they would give me 8k for the jetta and the MS3 price would be roughly 27k (that is with the mark up) the total price of the car came out to 29k, I told them no too expensive, try again. The manager came and told me to make an offer, I said we could start by taking off that fee. he said he would take off half. I said no, try again. The floor manager came and said, they would give me 8k for the jetta AND take half off the fee. No, Try again. Then the Dealer manager came and asked what do I want, I said lets start with taking off the fee and you giving me 6k for the jetta. He said fine, the car then came out to 27k after everything (Cause the jetta isnt going to go away and I know that). I said nope, still too much. Then we got a final price on it. Give me 6k for the jetta to pay it off, dropped the price of the car to 19k, and after it was all said and done the final price came to 25k (with the jetta on it.)
So final verdict, Great car 8 out of 10 my opinion, great pricing (Once you talk them down), alot of power for a FWD 3000 pound car. It will keep you smiling as you blow past those other 4 bangers on the highway. This is what a mazdaspeed vehicle is all about
Pros: 260 hp out of a 2.3 liter, alot of comforts for the price. 1/4 in 13.9-14.5 and you still have a hatch to put groceries. Awsome handling with very responsive steering. Power on demand, no waiting for turbo lag. Lighter handling, which is a huge improvement from the MS6.
Cons: Too many pros, lol, As with the MS6 it could use some better gearing to add more to the Zoom-Zoom feel. Again, as with the MS6, Any thing past 5k just kills the fun of the car.