Mazda 3 review and buying guide: Small cars with great potential
The current generation of Mazda 3 offers such a broad spectrum of affordable, comfortable and reasonably practical family transport that it’s hard to look away. It helps that it’s a lovely thing to look at too.
Here’s why you might consider the Mazda 3 in your search for a small, sensible family runabout…
If you can stop perving on the Mazda 3 Evolve pictured here for just a moment, I’ll do my best to explain to you the good and bad reasons for buying one, so that you can make an informed choice.
Firstly, you need to be aware that this notionally small car is in short supply at the moment (latter half of 2022), but that’s because it offers such a compelling and relatively affordable borderline luxury-level of comfort that many people are prepared to wait for one brand—spanking new.
Shopping in the small car segment you’ll want to be comparing Mazda 3 to the Kia Cerato, Hyundai i30, Subaru Impreza and Toyota Corolla - but to be straight with you from the outset, the Mazda 3 is by far the most luxurious vehicle in the mainstream small car market. That doesn’t mean it compares with a BMW 3-Series or Lexus whatever, but among the most popular brands, its by far the nicest to drive, sit in and use every day.
If a small car is getting too small for you, you might consider the Kia Seltos, Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, Subaru XV (new model coming soon) or the Hyundai Kona.
It needs to be said that the MZD Connect system which Mazda makes you use to operate the central dash-mounted screen — which is not a touchscreen, please be aware, not matter how many times you try to finger it — is actually pretty slick to use, once you get the hang of it.
There are lots of vocal critics out there who hate the use of a rotary dial mounted on the transmission tunnel to manipulate a cursor on the screen on the dash. But, hear me out. I did hate this system once, too. But, having persevered in several Mazdas over the course of a few weeks, it quickly becomes so intuitive, you barely have to even look at the screen - and this is worth its weight in gold.
In our modern automotive world, we’re being drowned in distractions. Bigger screens, fewer buttons, invasive ‘safety’ tech that bings at you, reminders for trivial crap like opening the doors or having the key in the ignition. It’s total sensory overload for a great many people. And big, overbearing touchscreens which force you to look at them simply to change radio station, skip a song or adjust the temperature are deadly distractions.
MZD Connect, once you dial it in and adapt to it - like you have to don with every new car - is actually counter-intuitively brilliant. It means you can glance for a split second at the screen to orient your hand-eye coordination and you simply twirl the dial to the desired icon. You hit ‘entre’ by pushing the dial down, or you can shuffle across to other main menus by pushing the dial left or right. Or simply push the ‘home’ button at 12 o’clock to start from scratch.
Have a go using it at the dealership for yourself because writing it off. Once you get it, it’ll be like playing Super Nintendo all over again.
You can tell that Mazda wanted daily comfort to be the 3’s primary goal. The cabin is wonderfully quite, the engine doesn’t burble or grumble like in the Cerato or i30 because it’s more smooth and refined, and the detail that’s gone into seats, switches and gauges, and touchpoints like the doors, handles and vents is obviously the priority for Mazda.
This means you get a much more relaxed and dignified vehicle to use every day, whereas there are more profound characteristics to tolerate in the others. Corolla is cheap for a reason (and that’s not an insult), the Cerato is closest to Mazda 3 but lacks the polish, i30 is the best value with a good engine (same as Cerato) but isn’t as nicely made as the Mazda, and the Impreza has the most practical powertrain in terms of offering all-wheel drive for anybody who lives in regional or rural areas where ice, dirt, gravel or quaggy areas might occasionally pop up - and where an SUV is overkill, such as in provincial towns or small population hubs which are peppered across Australia.
TRANSPARENCY: BestFamilyCars tested a Mazda 3 Evolve hatch for one week, courtesy of Mazda Australia, worth $36,000. It was provided with a full 40-litre tank of 91-RON fuel and tollway charges paid for. Mazda has no input into this review which they also did not get to read in advance of publication.
PRACTICALITY
Here’s where the Mazda 3 is quite underrated. It might look small and like being useful is a third or fourth priority down the list, and that might be true (however unable I am to prove it), but do not think for a moment a vehicle with gorgeous red leather seats and plush door trims cannot be a smart package when it comes to ‘getting the job done’.
The boot is not vast like an SUV, but it’s certainly big enough for a full shopping load, or a combination of kids scooters and push-bikes, a bunch of small to medium-size luggage bags, or a series of boxes or tubs full of house-moving or office-type miscellaneous things. Granted, you won’t be able to do all these things at once, but how rarely are you going to be doing all these things in concert? Extremely unlikely is my guess.
The boot is a bit over one metre wide (closer to 1.2 at the sides), it’s easily a metre long to the bottom of the raked-rearward backseats, and there’s about half a metre in height from the boot floor to the parcel shelf. Parcel shelf is tethered to the hatch which can be untethered very easily at a moment’s notice, and the shelf itself is very easy to remove in advance of hauling bigger, bulkier furniture-type items before leaving home. The parcel shelf, like they all are in every make/,model, takes up quite a bit of room in the cabin if you’re caught out having to take it out, but the best spots are across the footwells in the backseat or diagonally in the front passenger footwell resting on the seatback.
This might seem like a lot of overthinking just to review a small hatchback, but it’s worth taking into consideration because on the 1-in-10 occasion you need to get a big box home from Bunnings or IKEA, knowing in advance might get you out of a pickle.
Under the boot floor in all grades of Mazda 3 is a space-saver spare wheel, which means you’ll need to have the original full-sizer replaced immediately in the unlikely event you get a flat. It’s inherently unsafe to drive for prolonged periods of time on a space-saver, so again, knowing ahead of time what your operating procedures are going to need to be with the Mazda 3 is a strategy you can already have in place before taking ownership. Many people don’t plan, however loosely in the back of the heads, for this kind of situation before buying - and it’s only when they’re two years into ownership (or something) before they realise they have no idea what to do when it actually happens.
Statistically, flat tyres are a rare occurrence, so having a space-saver which means seriously limited grip of the road when in-use (even worse in the wet), may not be a big problem, but it’s nice to know. I would argue the benefits of having a Mazda 3 outweigh the unlikely event of changing a flat, living with and driving slowly on a skinny space-saver for half a day.
Mazda 3 is never going to be a high-performance towing platform, but you can tow with it. But you’ll be limited to a small 6X4 trailer and very light loads such as a mattress and bedframe, a few odd lengths of timber from Bunnings, or maybe the odd whitegood. In the Evolve model I tested, towball download maximum limit was 80kg, the braked towing capacity was 1200kg and the unbraked capacity was 600kg. Not much to work with, but consider some roof racks if you want to carry things.
PERFORMANCE
Straight line performance in Mazda 3 is good, without being great. After all, that’s not the intended design purpose, in the same way the Hyundai i30 N-Line is supposed to be more towards the harsher characteristics of a performance car.
Mazda 3 doesnt have the rough ride, heavy steering or putright thrust of a true performance-focused vehicle. But it does get up and go when you make it.
Don’t expect throaty exhaust notes until you’re high in the revs, by which point you’re ready to go back to Civilised Motoring territory. The transmission is a conventional epicyclic automatic, which means it reaches peak power at fairly high revs, then drops back down when it changes gear.
And when it does change, you'll barely notice it apart from the sound. It’s a very smooth gear change and ultimately that’s what makes this powertrain so lovely to use daily. It’s calm, comfortable, and sporty enough when it needs to be for overtaking or heading out to some weekend destination before switching back into ‘slipper mode’. That feeling of getting home, kicking your shoes off and sliding into your favourite slippers.
Think of it less as a moccasin and more of an ugg boot. Still relaxed, but upmarket enough that you can wear to the shops, go hand-to-hand with an intruder (they'll stay on your feet) and yet remain warm, soft and reasonably medium-duty in that you can nick of to the garage in them, or kick up on the couch.
Mazda 3 can do both sporty, nippy driving, while also being a relaxed cruiser with a bottle decent enough to take the grand grandkids for the weekend. Or your own kids for that matter.
Kerb weight is a pleasingly low 1339kg with a full tank of 91 RON unleaded petrol. And maximum power is 139kW at 6000 RPM, which explains the performance character I was describing - there’s plenty of it, you just have to work the car harder to access and extract it. That, of course, means you’ll drink more fuel, which is another noted character of the transmission type. They’re not as efficient as a CVT or DCT.
Click here for more on which transmission type suits your driving_
Mazda 3 does not tear your face off with unhinged performance you might get in a Hyundai i30 N-Line or a Cerato GT, but it’s good enough for rounding up trucks and giving it a squeeze down the freeway on-ramp.
KIDS
Mazda 3 is technically limited to three seats in the back, all of which contain top tether anchor points, however, you’re going to struggle getting three restraints across the back. There’s just not enough room. Maybe if one is a booster seat in the centre, but you’ll be better off in a Mazda 6 or a lower-spec CX-5 for similar money.
ISOFIX points number two in the outboard rear seats, and their respective top tethers are mounted in the centre of the relatively short seatbacks, so they’re within easy reach. But, the way Mazda has fitted the boot parcel shelf, it butts right up against the top of the seatback. So not only is the sloping coupe-like roofline in the way when it comes to removing the rear headrest (so you don’t scuff or stretch the leather against the top of the child restraint), you will also have a hard time getting the top tether latch down to lock into the anchor point. Meaning: you’ll have to open the boot and likely lift the parcel shelf out of the way, which is just that little bit more labour to add to your day.
Your Ultimate Child Seat Installation Guide: Common mistakes and getting it right_
As someone who installs and removes a child seat from car to car regularly, I find this incredibly annoying. But given your reduced likelihood of doing this, dealing with this is probably not going to be a regular occurrence for you. I’m simply pointing it out.
As usual, make sure you use an old towel down on the seat leather to prevent the restraint from stretching, tearing, creasing and rubbing. Top tether straps are particularly good at destroying the leather as they tighten down over the shoulder section of the seatback.
Happily, getting in and out of the Mazda 3 is pretty straight forward for the kiddos. There’s no vertical ascension, and climbing out, if they slip, there’s a lot less distance to fall. Getting your head in to fit their belts is a bit haphazard if you forget to keep your head ducked or to duck it enough on entry. I tried to scalp myself twice in one day getting my little dude in and out.
As for prams and strollers in the boot, you’re going to have to test yours out in the vehicle itself at the dealership, mostly because there is sufficient room, but it’ll depend on how you place it. Generally speaking, there’s room for most single prams, but double prams might be a bit tight, or you might have to try sitting it upright on its side, which is going to impact on your rearview mirror somewhat. As I say, try yours out in the Mazda 3 yourself before buying, but keep in mind that prams and strollers are a short or medium-term thing, too. Your kids won’t be using it forever, particularly if yours are anything like mine which wants to run, walk, play or sit in the trolley, or hang off the front.
If bigger prams or strollers, bags and backpacks are going to be the norm, but you want to - smartly - keep the vehicle as small as possible, and as cheap as possible - have a look at the Mazda 3 sedan with a bigger compartmentalised boot. Or have a look at the Mazda 6 - which comes in a brilliant wagon configuration; review coming soon.
Gripes and quirks
Let’s address some of the more irritating aspects of the Mazda 3, starting with my biggest peeve - the driver’s door mirror.
Now, before I let rip, keep in context here that Mazda is among the top five brands selling in Australia currently and for many years, and this driver’s door mirror issue is on all the family-based passenger Mazdas, including CX-9, CX-8, CX-5, Mazda 6 and I presume it’s the case on CX-30, CX-3, the 2 and I wouldn’t be surprised if the new CX-60 has it too.
The driver’s door mirror is magnified. So every time you glance in it to check who’s beside you, you’re looking much further back than what is strictly necessary to your immediate surrounding environment. Every time you go to reverse up your driveway, you’re looking at objects which aren’t a threat to the vehicle, while missing things in the middle-ground which you might not have seen on-approach or in your peripheral vision.
Magnified passenger door mirrors make perfect sense, because you’re physically further away from the mirror and it helps you get a better perception of where the bogeys are on the port side. Also, drivers are typically obscured in their vision by the vehicle’s B and C pillars, so having a mirror that gives you a wide-angle lens is also common and helpful. But not on the driver’s side, which I suspect might be a legacy of the platform being for both left-hand drive and right-hand drive markets, globally.
Admittedly, the Mazda 3 does lack much in the way of storage cubbies. My Samsung something-or-other doesn’t really fit in the forward centre holder and can be prone to falling out under hard cornering.
Also, those cupholders fore of the transmission shifter might be an issue for bigger cups in both height and width, and the bottle holders in the doors aren’t much bigger, but they’ll do the job in most cases.
I risk twisting and ankle every time I do this, but I think it’s important for you to appreciate how far the back doors open on a vehicle, especially when you’re dealing with kids.
In some cases, having a door that doesn’t go out to the full 90 degrees is a good thing because it reduces the likelihood your kids are going to smash them into other cars, poles and walls you park beside out there in the wild carpark concrete jungle. But it can also be a pain in the arse when you can barely get yourself into the door cavity to put infants into their capsules or toddlers into their harnesses.
Don’t even get me started on packing for a holiday.
Something else weird about the Mazda 3 is that the rear seats fold in a 60:40 configuration, as opposed to a 40:60 design which is much more common relative to the left and right side of the vehicle. So in the 3, where in Australia we tend to load walking children on the left kerbside and infants on the right roadside, the biggest proportion of seat that folds down is the left side, which is most likely to be the one in-use. This leaves you with the smaller ‘40’ section of seat to feed long items through with a kid on board. Point being that you get a narrower loadspace with the right ‘40’ section folded down than you would typically get with the 60-section folded in other vehicles.
I suspect this is another American-European market configuration issue, but looking at how much room is in the back, it might have also been for practicality’s sake in relation to the ISOFIX and seatbelt buckle points.
Right, next issue is the use of removable plastic covers for the ISOFIX points. Just another thing to get lost, broken or chewed on unless they’re put in a specific place where you’ll remember you put them. I suggest either the seat pocket (AKA map pocket) in front of the row two seat, or the glovebox, taking up whatever tiny volume is left in there.
Okay, my last gripe with the Mazda 3 (and its SUV brethren which have the same issue) is the 360-degree camera system.
Where many other carmakers try to use graphics software to fill in the space you can see the four different camera angle join together, Mazda just does a cold black box join, which is not only crap to use, it also blanks out the exact information you need on each corner of the vehicle.
I can see what’s directly in front, directly behind and immediately to the left and right. What I can’t see, as the driver, is exactly what’s on each corner of the car - that’s why I want a camera system to tell me. But instead, we have this crude black box that stands-in as the external dimensions of the vehicle. This is entirely unhelpful. Rather than show exactly what’s between the car and the nearest object I might hit, I’ve got to guess.
It’s not a completely disaster to the point of writing it off - but it does need work. Just means you have to be a bit careful using the camera in concert with your mirrors and your own spatial awareness.
Oh, and those directional lines which change position based on the geometry of the steering input - is not for where the wheels will go, but where the corners of the vehicle will go. In the images above which I took, you can see it’s suggesting I will hit the front corner on the green bush if I keep going. This is genuinely helpful, but it kinda defeats the purpose of having a camera, in some ways.
Having said that, this is a much better system than the one some Hyundais use where the bird’s-eye 360-degree camera gives you some weird, stretched image software ‘join’ (if that’s the right word), which makes you look like you’ve gone out of a Nintendo 64’s player parameters.