The good and bad points...
I found these...:
"We would have liked greater available front suspension travel, as we bottomed out a few times in both cars in situations where we were not expecting anything of the sort."
Just bottoming out means there's not enough suspension travel up front. Think about lowering...? Then probably some bigger wheels and tires...? All that will probably cause even more bottoming!!!.
"CURB WEIGHT: 3050 pounds (mfr.)"
If that's for the basic model, that means my P5 is 300lbs lighter than the new 3...!
"Hideki Suzuki, Mazdas chief designer in charge of the 3, admits, We used the Civic and Corolla as examples of important global cars, but we used the Alfa Romeo 147 and Peugeot 307 as examples of beautiful execution within the C segment."
That's a weird mix of design examples if you ask me... Maybe that's why when I look at the new 3, I don't feel the vibe I felt with the P5...
"Mazda plans call for a three-door, wagon and convertible 3, and MazdaSpeed, MPS and all-wheel-drive versions available by the end of calendar year 2005."
It's good to know we will get the AWD as well as the MSP and cabriolet versions... Hopefully the AWD will look more agressive!.
"The North American sales goal is 70,000 Mazda 3s annually. One-third of these will be five-doors, the other two-thirds will get a trunk; 30 percent will be fitted with the standard five-speed manual, 70 percent the optional four-speed automaticboth from the Mazda 6 bin."
Are the Mazda6 trannies better than the current Proteg ones...? Hopefully!.
Later,
Andrs.
