Overall great car and very happy with the new purchase. I did enjoy the 8 but the lack of torque and the other little things finally got to me. The one area where the 8 trumps the Mazdaspeed 3 for sure is the clutch/shifter, and of course RWD, but man besides 1st gear every gear in the MS3 is effortless speed, its amazing to get thrown back i your seat in 5th gear!!!! The car handles much better than I thought and am very happy with the first 35 miles I drove back from the dealership. I am loving this car and hopefully after 2 years I will still feel the same. No forum yet though!! So long!!!

 

protege5.com should be your home

congrats

 

there was a guy at the track with a 3 when i ran my 8. he was in the 17s....my best was 15.4

 

That wasn't a Mazdaspeed 3 unless he was the worlds worst driver.

 

www.mazdas247.com

which is the same as protege5.com

 

Ahh.. don't say so long. Please come back once a month a give us a factual update on the MS3. Many of us would like to hear it.

Me for one since I'm thinking about replacing my daily driver.

 

alrighty plenty of mazdaspeed accessories for it, cold air intake, exhaust, pretty good coilovers too.

 

Thanks wasn't aware of the forums. I'll be back to give a review after a couple of weeks.

 

http://www.mazda3forums.com/

http://www.msprotege.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=142

 

good luck!

 

I saw one the other day in the dealership. Nice looking car; seats were embroidered with mazdaspeed logo and nice little details. Turbo is nice to have too. All under the cost of an 8. It'd be perfect replacement for my Accord.

 

But the 3 isnt nearly as beautiful as the 8's!

 

I drove a Mazdaspeed 3 a couple of weeks ago and it was much faster than I anticipated... it even had torque steer in 2nd gear! Mazda really did their homework on this one!

FYI- I heard that HKS is making several parts for this car too!

 

cool! time to give up my 8 then! who wants some hks parts!!!





















































j/k....NEVER!!!!

 

Nice car but I didn't quite like the seat position relative to the pedals. It felt like there was too much of a leg drop from the seat to pedals. I was also quiet disappointed in the lack of adequate separation between the gas and break pedals and the gas pedal and the center section/console. I do have big feet but I don't get the way they designed the pedal set up.

 

Don't forget http://www.mazda3club.com/ .

 

Enjoy! I'd love to drive one too. Keep us updated.

 

saw my firts a couple of days ago, very good looking car and fast too, oh and yes the FD is faster

 

Doesn't looks matter?

 

Those MS3's are really nice! Lots of tuning potential as well. The biggest challenge with any high hp/tq FWD is learning how to control the power especially off the line. I had a 337 Gti 1.8T with a Milltek TBE with metal substrate highflow cat and oberscheider stage 2 tuning. It was damn near impossible to get a decent launch consistently off the line, but was great fun once you got going. It sounds like the MS3 is similar and obviously more powerful than my modded 337 was.

Availability and inflexibility in MS3 pricing kept it off my recent car choice list, otherwise it would have been one of my main options.

Have fun, its a cool car for sure!!

Jeff

 

looks matter a lot less when you can blow the doors off your competition with relative ease, just ask any STi/Evo guys

 

How do you post a thread and talk about your new car .... AND NEVER SHOW US A PIC!

 

You're saying the MS3 looks better than the FD?

 

could you get your computer flashed with the Mazdaspeed 6 program to gain an additonal 30 or so hp from that tune? I might go look at one of these 3's since the 8's aftermarket is terrible.

 

I took a test drive in the MS3. From what I read in the media and from the numbers, I expected the powerband to be quite narrow, but in reality, it felt fine. The spool up was quick and it felt beefy in any gear through a broad range. In the RX-8, downshifting is key. In this car, downshifting is not really necessary. The power is almost always on tap. The power makes it easier to forgive the less than optimal transmission. It's fine but a bit on the rough side.

Another thing I noticed was the handling. I always thought the BJ chassis Protege felt much nimbler than the stock Maz3. So it was a pleasant surprise to find agility and a lot of it in the MS3. It didn't feel as heavy as the numbers suggest. I think the handling feels nimbler than an STi (but not nearly as nimble as an EVO).

I still think the RX-8 is more of a driver's car. This is a fantastic daily driver supplement however!