When the hell are they going to offer the 2.5 with the manual...

"PanchoVilleneuve ST" (PanchoVilleneuve)
07/13/2014 at 12:24 • Filed to: Mazda3

...In the Mazda3? Since as much as I love the new Fit, that recent recall of JDM models has me looking elsewhere, to an extent. The 2.0 is all fine and good, but I hate knowing that there is MORE POWWWAAAAAA available in the same car, and as good as that automatic supposedly is, my love of the 3-pedal Lambada makes me deem it unacceptable. It's a stupid and backwards way of thinking, I know, but still.

Other plus points with the 3: lack of touchscreen (it's got this iDrive style thingy that actually isn't retarded), a body that is more shooting brake-ish than what Mercedes will claim a Shooting Brake is, and optional brown paint (call it "Titanium Flash" all you want, Mazda, we all know it's brown).

I'll settle for the 2.0 if I had to, but you know, POWWWAAAAA.

DISCUSSION (12)

Spencer > PanchoVilleneuve ST
07/13/2014 at 12:35

I just picked up a 2.0 and am actually impressed by how it drives. I'm coming from a 07 Mustang GT so I didn't expect FAST but it's really easy to whip around.

Vi517, JDX Racing > PanchoVilleneuve ST
07/13/2014 at 12:39

I'm not really worried about the lack of a manual on the 2.5 because we all know the MazdaSpeed 3 will be coming sometime, and they better offer a manual on that,

PanchoVilleneuve ST > Spencer
07/13/2014 at 12:40

I'll gladly accept the 2.0, if I have no other choice. I was, for a short period of time, driving a 2003 Protege5, and that only had a 130 horsepower 2-liter engine, and it still got along great.

My positive memories of the Pro5 (which were brief and otherwise uneventful enough to not be nostalgia) have me giving a serious look at the 3. As was how the interior of the one I sat in at the NY Auto Show was nice, like Audi nice.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > PanchoVilleneuve ST
07/13/2014 at 12:44

It's just hard for me to endorse the new 3 with the price hike that came along with the latest generation. You could get a really well equipped Golf for the prices Mazda is charging now...

PanchoVilleneuve ST > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
07/13/2014 at 12:48

Based on what I've seen of the 3 up close, it's a really NICE car. I also like the look of it a lot more than the overly-conservative looks of the Golf.

Also, I'm a Japanese car nerd. I prefer Japanese cars. So yes, there's some bias there.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > PanchoVilleneuve ST
07/13/2014 at 12:53

Dude, I get it. I have an FA5 Si and I used to have a DC2 GS-R. Trust me. But after spending some more time in some Golfs, the difference is like night and day...

PanchoVilleneuve ST > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
07/13/2014 at 13:05

My first car that wasn't the special kind of hell that was the car I learned to drive on (a 1995 non-SSEI Pontiac Bonneville) was a 97 Jetta GT. VWs are really the only German cars that I can say I like without many qualifiers. I loved that car, and would gladly drive a VW again (I really like the idea of owning the new GTI), but thanks to Gran Turismo being the thing that turned me into an obsessive car guy in high school, I will forever love the cars of Japan.

VW makes really, really nice everyday cars, but Mazda is, well, special in their own way. Volkswagens are fun in a restrained sort of way, but Mazda really lets you know they are the only company to really make the rotary work (sorry, NSU, but it was a valiant effort) and that they understand the small sports car better than even the British with every car they make. This is the company that sold a car with a 1.8 liter V6, just because. This was a company that (with Suzuki's help) made a mid-engined gullwing kei car.

PanchoVilleneuve ST > Vi517, JDX Racing
07/13/2014 at 13:30

I once drove a drunk friend home in his first-gen Speed3. It was the perfect "drive somebody else's on occasion because you don't have to live with it every day" car. It's like Mazda forgot, in that Mazda way of theirs, that a hot hatch should be a hardcore sports car when you want it to be and normal, sedate everyday car when you don't. They did the first part great, the second like not at all.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > PanchoVilleneuve ST
07/13/2014 at 14:07

Seriously, Mazda... You can get it in the 6, now do the right thing.

Also, MAZDASPEED ALL THE THINGS!

Logansteno: Bought a VW? > PanchoVilleneuve ST
07/13/2014 at 15:22

I swear I read somewhere it's going to happen.

Or maybe I'm remembering things that didn't happen again..

PanchoVilleneuve ST > Logansteno: Bought a VW?
07/13/2014 at 15:25

Mazda said when launching the car the 2.5/manual combo was coming soon. How soon is soon, we may never know.

Still, 155 horses is 47 more than I currently am making do with.

Spencer > PanchoVilleneuve ST
07/13/2014 at 22:28

Yeah, that's what impressed me the most. My buddy is cross shopping the 3 with the Golf, and he said the big difference is how much more he likes being in the 3.