just visited the dealership today to trade in my car, and to my suprise, there was a lot full of mazda 3's fresh off the truck. The dealership is Heritage Mazda of Bel Air, Maryland, and it is the number one large volume seller in the baltimore/dc/virginia region. the actual showroom is small, but there inventory lot has a capacity of 200 cars, which at the moment is holding 350. They were not supposed to recieve any 3's until january 2nd, but the mazda territory rep gave them early allocation due to their high selling status. They had a total of 12 when I was there, 2 had already been sold.
First impression: The hatch is niiice. from looking at pictures, it appears to be tall and bloated, almost like the rx-8. However, in person, the car is low and sleek, very nice looking car. The rear is at a perfect slope so that it has a swept back appearence. The sedan is very nice aswell, but pretty much what I expected, while the hatch looks better than I ever could have imagined. The rims on the hatch are awesome 5 spoke 17's with thin tires, and the high end sedan rims were no match. the sports grill looks great on both cars, and i do think the appearence package on the sedan looks much better than the stock one.
Colors: I got to see every color except white, dark blue, and orange. The best colors on the hatch were black, silver, and titanium, and the sedan looked great in every color except the yellow. the winning blue is identical to the rx-8's, and it looks great but it was a little to bright for me. the titanium looks sooo much better in person, the light reflects different colors at different angles. the yellow was pretty ugly, it looked dull and not as bright as most yellows. The red and nice, nothing special that caught my eye.
interior: wow. the iside of this car is very high class and expensive looking for an economy car. the seats are stitched to perfection and have a tight firm feel. The cloth seats are very volkswagon like, and the leather is the same as the 6. the console is big and made of high quality plastics. The screen says hello when the car is turned on and little led lights move with the volume dial, which most of you already knew. The guages look awesome with the backlit read and blue, again very rx-8 like. the sound system was awesome, it even had tweeters on the door mirrors. everything was power, including automatic drivers side windows, and power mirrors.
I didnt get a chance to drive the car, none of the were prepped yet. none had navigation, i am told this will not be available until the beggining of next year. Overall i was extremly impressed with the whole package. the loaded 2.3L hatch with 6cd changer, moonroof, leather, winter and abs packages and everything else came in close to 23,000. I could easily have selected a nicely equipped car without leather and the 6cd changer, still get the 2.3L, and come in to around 17-18,000. I reccomend to anyone who hasnt seen one to go check one out. To the protege owners: there was a wagon parked right next to a 5 in the lot, and I must say that the 3 looks much better. the 5 looked boxy and narrow comapred to the 3. While it still looks great and the design hasnt been outdated yet, the 3 had much more sleekness and style that I couldnt find on the 5. The interior was no competition, and unfortunatly i didnt get to drive the 3. anyway, i didnt have my camera on me and I would go today but all the cars are covered in a foot of snow, so next week i will take a few pics.
First impression: The hatch is niiice. from looking at pictures, it appears to be tall and bloated, almost like the rx-8. However, in person, the car is low and sleek, very nice looking car. The rear is at a perfect slope so that it has a swept back appearence. The sedan is very nice aswell, but pretty much what I expected, while the hatch looks better than I ever could have imagined. The rims on the hatch are awesome 5 spoke 17's with thin tires, and the high end sedan rims were no match. the sports grill looks great on both cars, and i do think the appearence package on the sedan looks much better than the stock one.
Colors: I got to see every color except white, dark blue, and orange. The best colors on the hatch were black, silver, and titanium, and the sedan looked great in every color except the yellow. the winning blue is identical to the rx-8's, and it looks great but it was a little to bright for me. the titanium looks sooo much better in person, the light reflects different colors at different angles. the yellow was pretty ugly, it looked dull and not as bright as most yellows. The red and nice, nothing special that caught my eye.
interior: wow. the iside of this car is very high class and expensive looking for an economy car. the seats are stitched to perfection and have a tight firm feel. The cloth seats are very volkswagon like, and the leather is the same as the 6. the console is big and made of high quality plastics. The screen says hello when the car is turned on and little led lights move with the volume dial, which most of you already knew. The guages look awesome with the backlit read and blue, again very rx-8 like. the sound system was awesome, it even had tweeters on the door mirrors. everything was power, including automatic drivers side windows, and power mirrors.
I didnt get a chance to drive the car, none of the were prepped yet. none had navigation, i am told this will not be available until the beggining of next year. Overall i was extremly impressed with the whole package. the loaded 2.3L hatch with 6cd changer, moonroof, leather, winter and abs packages and everything else came in close to 23,000. I could easily have selected a nicely equipped car without leather and the 6cd changer, still get the 2.3L, and come in to around 17-18,000. I reccomend to anyone who hasnt seen one to go check one out. To the protege owners: there was a wagon parked right next to a 5 in the lot, and I must say that the 3 looks much better. the 5 looked boxy and narrow comapred to the 3. While it still looks great and the design hasnt been outdated yet, the 3 had much more sleekness and style that I couldnt find on the 5. The interior was no competition, and unfortunatly i didnt get to drive the 3. anyway, i didnt have my camera on me and I would go today but all the cars are covered in a foot of snow, so next week i will take a few pics.
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