Recent content by Mazdafreak16

Here's more spottings from NC. Anybody else want to contribute? 2014 Maserati Ghibli Q4 by Mazdafreak, on Flickr 2014 Maserati Ghibli Q4 by Mazdafreak, on Flickr Ferrari F12 by Mazdafreak, on Flickr Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series by Mazdafreak, on Flickr

Aston Martin Vanquish I'll start this thread off with a photo of an Aston Martin Vanquish I saw in Charlotte while I was there for Thanksgiving. Aston Martin Vanquish by Mazdafreak, on Flickr Aston Martin Vanquish by Mazdafreak, on Flickr

As a car enthusiast, I get excited when I see a rare car, and always like to try to get a few pictures. I don't live in an extremely opportune area for such cars, but I usually see something every week, and I imagine most of you do too! Thought I'd start a thread dedicated to exotic cars that...

In the U.S., according to Edmunds.com, only about 7% of new cars are sold with manuals (very low, but it is up from about 3% - 4% in the previous five or six years). I imagine the heavy hitters are the Mustang, the Camaro, and the Corvette. I think the manual take rate among CUV's/SUV's is...

I haven't read through the CR article, but I'm guessing one of them doesn't include destination?

I did see a 2014 Mazda3 i Sport Hatch on Friday. It was sliver; looked great even in base trim.

I read somewhere that SkyActiv engines aren't built to accept turbos. So maybe it'll be supercharged. I'm not buying the rumor that it will go NA with only 200 hp. The current car makes over 270, so it would be a huge drop off in power.

Nice! I notice it's an I Touring; is it a manual?

You are right. I got the wheels confused. I'm pretty sure it's an s Grand Touring, as I think I see a moon roof up there!

WOW!!! Looks great! Is it an i Grand Touring?

Anybody seen one outside of a dealer yet? I've been keeping my eyes open but haven't seen one. Been keeping my eyes open though.

The CX-5 is still head of the class! It has won a ton of comparos, you don't have anything to sneeze at!

I am pretty sure that the automatic is a $1,500 option, so when the 2.5 is offered with the manual, the price should drop by $1,500.

I realize it would drive the price up, but the Evo - which does 0-60 in 4.4 seconds - commands around $40,000 per unit. Mazda usually delivers good bang for the buck. If they can get the 0-60 time to under 5.0 seconds (more like 4.7), they could probably justify charging $30,000 a pop for these.

Oops - didn't get an email and didn't see your response. Not sure how that happened. It takes practice to learn to drive a manual gracefully, and LA probably isn't the greatest city to practice in. In Raleigh, where I live, there are a lot of hills (and a fair amount of traffic at rush hour)...