I haven’t driven a vehicle with a manual transmission since I was a regular at a joint where beers were a quarter on Thursdays, designated drivers were chosen by rock, paper, scissors, and I spent more money replacing clutches than I did on text books. When I was offered a Mazda 3 with a 6-speed manual transmission to drive for a week, I couldn’t wait to add shifting at the proper RPM”s as another element of my driving to seriously annoy my husband.
When the Mazda 3 was delivered, I thought it was cute, in a total kid car way. Like wearing a too-short-animal-print skirt at a PTA meeting west of the Jersey Shore or trying to rock hair chalk past age 16, I totally felt like a poser behind the wheel. Seriously, if I’m going to drive an age inappropriate vehicle, it should be a motorcycle.
I label the Mazda 3 a kid car because I can totally picture myself driving this car 15 years ago. Pushing 40, however, this car would be more appropriate for my daughter.
Why I would let my teenager drive the 2012 Mazda 3
- Toggle Controls on the steering wheel make it easier to operate the stereo and take calls by feel rather than sight. She would happily crank One Direction to drown out the moderate road noise.
- It has a 5 star frontal crash driver’s side safety rating and the brakes stop on a dime. Don’t ask me how I know.
- Excellent gas mileage. I was advised by my husband as he reached over to lovingly put his hand on mine in an attempt to persuade me to shift, that the gas mileage would be even better if the vehicle were operated by someone who knew how to properly operate a manual transmission. Whatever, I stopped counting the number of times I killed the engine at 7.
- They are reasonably priced. The MSRP for the model I tested was $20,625 and that included satellite radio. By the time she is a licensed driver in 2014, I will be on the look out for a used model.
- Unless you’re Gumby, the back seat is too small for extracurricular activities.
Why I wouldn’t drive the 2012 Mazda 3 on a regular basis
- I’m 39.
- The back seat is way too small for 2 carseats and a teenager to ride comfortably.
- Like a go-kart, it was really fun to drive for the first few laps. After a while the manual transmission just got in the way of more important things like texting or putting on my make-up at stop lights.
- The cup holders are awkwardly placed too close to the gear shift. It might not matter with a regular size cup, but anything that gets in between me and a Venti is a deal breaker.
- The cargo area is fairly roomy, but stacking items from our weekly Costco trip was like playing a game of drunken Jenga. It’s all fun and games until someone spills the $10.00 peanut butter.
Mazda’s Skyactiv technology improves gas mileage without sacrificing performance. I agree this car is really responsive. It cornered well, accelerated fast and it was a lot of fun to drive. However, if this were my daily driver, I’m pretty sure any money saved on gas would go towards paying fines racked up from speeding tickets.
Disclosure: Mazda allowed me to abuse their vehicle for a full week in exchange for my opinion which is often influenced by wine and whine. But not this time.
Poppy
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I love your car reviews! I am amazed, however, that dealers continue to allow you to abuse their vehicles for a week at a time!!! lol
The fact that the car’s back seat is too small for one teenager, never mind my three, has me sold on it! It is a super cute car, and you could totally pull it off. Just show a bit of boob, and you’re good. Speaking of showing boob, I have four Ford guys following me on Twitter. I’m going to a blog conference in Toronto next week where one of them will be there. I’m thinking if I flash him some tit I might get to do cool reviews like this one, and drive a car for free (my mini-van makes so much clunking noise that my mother insist I pull over so she could get out. True story.) PS: Don’t reciprocate this by coming to my blog. I wrote a Jesus-y post, and you’ll accuse me of emotional eating again.
HOw the heck do you keep getting cars to test???? CAn you believe that I have never driven a stick and I am only one year younger than you? Somehow, when I got my license, no one had a stick, so I didn’t learn. I played in a parking lot once with a friend’s ancient car because I thought I should at least know the idea behind a stick in case I had to drive someone in an emergency and that was all they had. But I’ve never driven on on the road. When I first starting dating k-ster, he had a truck with a clutch, but it was so stiff, I literally had to stand on it, so I never drove that either. I’m surprised they even make them anymore!
And I’m horrified by the jar of peanut butter spilling in the parking lot. Just horrified. On so many levels. Mostly the level of wondering how much parking lot debris would be acceptable around the lid as I put the remains of the jar in my cabinet!
I mean can someone drop off a car at my house??
I am awarding you this week:)
This car looks great. Since Taryn & John will turn 16 on Saturday, the review is actually really helpful. However, my first car was a 1980 Chevette bought in 1991, so they can’t have anything newer than a 2001.