- 222,130
- 3,157 below average
- 1,999 great
- Orlando, FL
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- autoshopper.com
- 3,157 below average 222,130 black manual
2006 mazda 3 review this car review is specific to this model, not the actual vehicle for sale. It has a sporty demeanor and is fun to drive. The five-door looks more aggressive, and provides a lot of utility with its hatchback design and folding rear seats. quick, nimble handling makes these cars fun to drive on twisty country roads. The mazda 3s features a free-revving 2. 3-liter engine that delivers spirited performance. The 2006 mazda 3i benefits from increased power this year from its 2. 0-liter engine. Premium sound systems and luxury options, such as a sunroof and leather interior, are reasonably priced. Spoilers, cargo mats, fog lights, stereo upgrades, and an auto-dimming rear-view mirror with homelink are available as dealer-installed accessories. safety features include dual front airbags that sense the driver's position and the weight of the front passenger. Optional safety packages add the additional airbags to the 3s 245) and full airbag protection and abs to the 3i 395). Abs with ebd is standard on all 3s models. both the 3i and 3s are available as partial zero emissions vehicles (pzev) in california, new hampshire, massachusetts, vermont and new york. The no-cost option trades 5-7 horsepower for significant reductions in emissions. This represents what mazda is known for: innovation and the risk that comes with it. The five-door needed an edgy proboscis, which it got. Mazda's trademark wedge grille has body-color horizontal bars on the 3s, plain black mesh on the 3i. The standard headlamps on the sedan have a smooth and sexy shape, swept back like cat's eyes and sparkling with three beams inside. The whole front bumper, including the air dam at the bottom with foglights in the corners, is impressively integrated. There's a small seam on each fender between the headlights and the wheel opening, and between the headlights themselves there's only the hood opening. Everything south of that is one smooth and effective piece. the rear of the sedan is another smooth, cohesive design with an integrated bumper, and again only small seams at the edges. The deck is short and high and nicely softened at the top. Taillights have red lenses on 3i, clear on 3s. The fenders are dropped and sculpted to rise to the hood and flow into the front doors. The boxy top half makes the whole car look wide. There's less rake from the tops of the doors to the roof (affording more shoulder room), but the rear of the roof is gently rounded to the liftgate window, to soften the profile. There's a tidy spoiler above the rear window. the rear fenders of the hatchback are aggressively defined over the wheels. We thought the design was a bit exaggerated until we used it the first time and appreciated its excellent function. it's especially nice that there's no chrome trim. Black around the windows, body colored everywhere else. mazda 3 is a global car, sharing technology and components with the volvo s40 and the european-market ford focus that isn't sold in the u. It's like a talent co-op. People say component sharing makes cars all the same but it's not so. Mazda developed the engines and transmissions, volvo did the chassis and safety, and ford of europe did the basic suspension design. The fine-tuning of the suspension was in mazda's hands, worked out at its hiroshima test track. Each manufacturer did what it does best, and the result is the best of three worlds. a lot of work went into the rigid unit-body chassis. In a head-on collision the front of the chassis is designed to redirect energy to the outside rails, and not down the center toward the front seats. The steering column is crushable and the pedals are designed to retract away from the driver's feet. interiorthe standard interior in 3i is black or beige cloth. In 3s, black-bolstered seats offer a choice of blue or red-check cloth inserts. The optional leather seating surfaces are smooth and black and priced well compared to other cars. the seats are great, with adequate bolstering. The 3s has adjustable lumbar support, and the hip position is elevated, reducing front legroom a touch, but providing excellent forward visibility as well as a tidy relationship with the pedals and especially the short shift lever. There's no dead pedal. The outside of the driver's right shin rests comfortably on the edge of the center stack. the three-spoke steering wheel, leather-wrapped in the 3s, feels great in the hands, and the control buttons for the cruise control and sound system have a positive feel the dashboard shelf is golf-ball grainy, not unlike the new cadillacs, although mazda says it was the porsche boxster that inspired them. Instrument panel trim is piano black on 3i and silver on 3s. three big gauges are dead ahead for the driver, but they're down in tunnels where they effectively hide from the glare of the sun. They are electroluminescent on 3s, which means day or night the numbers are lit in reddish-orange with blue highlights. Even without the color, the 140-mph speedometer would be awfully busy, with hash marks for miles and a smaller kilometer measure with more hash marks inside the mph numbers. The dash panel looks better at night than during the day, with the reddish-orange lighting having its chance to be seen. There are glowing rings around most of the dials including the cigarette lighter, in kind of a dull maroon. the glovebox is huge (9 quarts), the door is dampened and the compartment has its own light. There's a deep but not long console under the driver's right elbow, and between the s.
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