2015 Mazda3 s Grand Touring
As someone that is terribly fond of driving, especially in fun cars, I’m not terribly enthusiastic about the prospect of human-driven cars becoming obsolete some day. Then again, I’m old enough and there are enough technical, legal and ethical problems to overcome that the fully autonomous car may not arrive in my lifetime. Alternatively, if all cars were as enjoyable as the 2015 Mazda3 s Grand Touring, there might not be any customer desire for cars that handle the driving.
The current generation Mazda3 arrived in 2013, carrying the brand’s new Kodo design language. Like its big brother the Mazda6 midsize sedan and the CX-5 crossover, this new design theme features a prominent upright grille and long hood profile that creates proportions that look more like a longitudinal engine rear drive machine than the front wheel driver that it is. In fact, in five-door hatchback form, the profile of the 3 is strongly reminiscent of the Europe-only BMW 1 series.
The strongly sculpted flanks and the 18-inch alloy wheels that come with the Grand Touring trim level give this compact car a remarkably athletic stance. Just sitting there, it looks like it wants to go for a romp which is quite fitting considering the way it drives. The car I tested adds to the aggression with the optional and rather pricey $1,750 appearance package that includes a front splitter, side sill extensions, rear diffuser and hatch-mounted spoiler.
The $1,750 appearance package adds a front splitter, side sill extensions, rear spoiler and diffuser
It looks like a tablet sitting on the dashboard, but it doesn’t have touch support
The cabin of the 3 is one of the best you’ll find today in a compact car and it’s definitely biased toward driving. The entire layout has been kept deliberately clean and straightforward with only the essential controls. A horizontal strip of physical knobs and switches in the middle of the center stack gives unfettered access to the dual-zone climate control. The audio system is controlled through an i-Drive-like rotary knob on console. The interface appears on a screen that looks like a tablet propped on top of the dash, but there is no touchscreen.
In addition to straight-up Bluetooth streaming from your phone, the Mazda Connect system supports remote control of Aha Radio, Pandora and Stitcher apps. The physical control knob is more responsive than many of the touch screens I’ve used works great even with gloves on, an important feature during February in Michigan. Voice control is available for the navigation system, but frankly it’s not really worth messing with. The recognition was somewhat spotty and it insisted on reading out everything it recognized or found in search before allowing me to confirm the correct choice. Fortunately, the 3 is so much fun to drive, that I’d rather just go anywhere and get lost than try to mess with this navigation.
The Mazda3 heads up display is a bit too low to be useful
Another minor annoyance in the cabin is the heads up display. When the car starts up, a small translucent panel flips up from the top of the instrument cluster for the HUD and while the display was clear and visible even with polarized sunglasses on, it was mounted too low to be truly useful. Other HUDs that don’t require a dedicated panel appear higher, closer to my normal line of sight.
The front thrones in the 3 were a wonderful place to spend time on the road, providing excellent lateral support for brisk cornering and great comfort for cruising. The almond leather trim on the seats give this car a marvelously upscale appearance, while the contrasting red stitching for the leather on the steering wheel, shifter boot and armrest reinforce the Mazda “Zoom-Zoom” attitude. Passengers relegated to the back seat won’t feel punished in the 3, with plenty head and leg room for a pair of adults.
All manual gearboxes should be this good
Opting for the Mazda3 s Touring or Grand Touring brings an upgrade from the standard 155-horsepower 2.0-liter four cylinder to a beefier 2.5-liter with 184-hp and 185-lb.-ft. of torque. Thankfully, Mazda doesn’t restrict its wonderful six-speed manual gearbox only to the cheaper entry-level models, making it available across the board. This is one of the sweetest front-wheel-drive manuals I’ve ever tried with precise gating and just enough weighting to give shifts a very deliberate and mechanical feel. When you move this lever, you know you are physically engaging moving parts, without ever fighting it.
The 2.5-liter has enough torque to provide excellent around-town driveability and a pleasant growl to it. However, you’ll never mistake this for the more powerful boosted engines in a Focus ST or a GTI. On the other hand, this 3 didn’t exhibit any of the torque steer that plagued the last previous-generation turbo MazdaSpeed3 I drove several years back.
Even on the big 18-inch wheels, the 3 was reasonably well behaved the winter-war torn roads of southeast Michigan. The 3 is responsive to inputs from the steering wheel with decent feedback and some mild understeer at the limits of adhesion. Overall, this is about the most fun you’re going to have in compact car shy of one of the hot hatch editions that is currently absent from the Mazda lineup.
The EPA rates the 2.5-liter, manual gearbox 3 at 26 mpg city, 35 mpg highway and 29 mpg combined. In a week of mixed but decidedly brisk driving in very cold weather, I matched the 26 mpg mark. Warmer weather and a lighter right foot could easily bring that figure up to 30 mpg. The base 2.0-liter 3 can be had from $19,675 delivered and the loaded model I tested rang up at $28,385. If it was my monthly payment, I’d probably skip the appearance package and the leather and opt for the 3 s Touring at $25,165. Either way, you won’t be disappointed with the way this car looks or goes. I’m just glad that we have cars like this to drive.
Click here for full specifications of the 2015 Mazda3
