2010 Mazda Mazda3

My wife and I took a trip up to the Boston area for her grandfather's birthday. We got to drive a 2010 Mazda Mazda3 with an automatic transmission. There was an awful lot of snow fall over the weekend, so much so that our flight home was cancelled and we had an extra day up north. So, lots of snow and ice driving in the Mazda3.

No snow tires, no manual transmission, just all seasons and the manual mode on the transmission. This was a good test for the manual mode as there were no dry roads the entire weekend. Also, due to conditions we did no real testing of RPM shift points.

At around 2855 lbs and with around 148 HP from this model's 2.0 L engine the acceleration is decent, though not fast.

More surprising to me was the steering response. I did my usual 90 degree turns from a dead stop and from a rolling start. The amount of wheel turn required matched that of my Subaru BRZ. 180 degrees from a dead stop and 90 degrees from a rolling start. Unfortunately the steering feel is not as communicative as the quick steering wrack would indicate. There is not much feel for what the front wheels are doing. No real center dead spot on the steering wheel.

Braking in the slick conditions resulted in ABS pulse through the brake pedal. The brake pedal did not feel like it had a dead spot at the top where you can cause the brake lights to turn on without actually slowing the vehicle. I like to be able to do this with my left foot which allows me to use my brake lights to warn off someone tailgating without losing momentum and harming fuel economy.

Rear seat room was comfortable for the trips we were doing. I cannot speak to whether or not this would be a comfortable place to be for a long road trip, but, with only four adults in the car for trips under two hours there was nothing to complain about. Granted none of us were very tall. Maybe only my sister-in-law was over six foot (not sure on her height).
[Update 03/012017:] The owner of this vehicle says they find it comfortable for trips around three hours. For reference, really comfortable cars are good for around six hours for them, and really uncomfortable cars are known within five minutes of seat time.

The front seats are comfortable enough. I was able to find a comfortable seating position and they do get nice and low to the floor. More importantly they are bucket style and provide much better communication to your posterior about what the rear of the car and rear wheels are doing than the steering wheel provides regarding the front wheels.

A few things about the instrument cluster and display on this car. You have a dash on dash thing going on. That screen visible in the top right provides exterior temperature, time, and audio information and has a bottom row dedicated to automatic (and I think dual zone) climate control features. Unfortunately the whole display essentially being two rows leaves the whole bottom row useless in this trim model.

Interestingly the instrument cluster has no engine temperature indicator, only an idiot light. I generally like to have a temperature gauge especially in the winter. First, it tells me when the engine oil has heated up and is protecting the engine. Second, it tells me when to turn on the heater. Keep in mind that your cabin heater does pull heat from the engine causing it to warm up slower; this also means you have less engine heat to heat the cabin. Generally I wait to turn on the heater until the engine has reached running temperature. The steering wheel has audio and cruise controls.

Finally the transmission. Engine speed at 65 MPH was roughly 2300 RPM in 5th gear. And when you go up hills on the highway in D the transmission will downshift, when in manual mode you should down shift to 4th. I know friends and family are going to use this against me at some point, but, in this car and on the snowy and slick roads I did not actually miss having a manual.
The manual mode shifting is set up like a sequential transmission. You pull the lever toward the rear of the car to upshift and push it toward the dash to downshift. The transmission responds quickly enough, I would not take it racing, but it is no slower in response than casually shifting a manual. And, when downshifting, the car properly engine brakes and slows down; meaning you can very much keep control in snow and wet conditions. There is no vagueness in engine braking as with some of the other automatic transmissions and CVTs I have tried.

My conclusion is that in the Mazda3 Mazda has made the "driver's economy car". Yes, steering feel is more vague than I might want, but other than that, even with an automatic transmission, this car was a pleasure to drive and did not feel like as appliance. As someone who likes driving I did not feel dead inside while driving this. And that is high praise when so many cars in this segment and above it are so isolating and dead to the world that I rather ride a bus or train.

Keep it going Mazda!

And to anyone looking for a new car, I strongly recommend the current Mazda3. You can get it in a manual with any trim or options available, unlike many other manufacturers.
(Lastly, apologies if the photo quality is low, all I had on this trip was my phone.)