Long-Term Tests
A key aim of the motoring.com.au crew is to make choosing your next vehicle easier. We do this via our mix of news, international and local launch reviews as well as our seven-day tests.
From time to time we also take the opportunity to spend more time in a vehicle. These longer-term tests can be as short as a couple of weeks or up to six months.
Long-term tests give our staff writers and contributors a chance to get to know a car as an owner would. While the car is with us, we pay for fuel, pay for the servicing and generally use and live with the car as a new owner would.
Manufacturers tend to have a love-hate relationship with long-term tests. Six months is plenty long enough to fall out of love with the latest and greatest, and start to nitpick -- just like real owners do.
That said, we believe long-term tests give car buyers an added insight into the vehicle on test. Not to mention the qualities behind the brand and nameplate.
Mazda3
I've been a fan of the latest Mazda3 since the first drive, several months before the car was even released in Australia. Even then, however, I expressed a preference for the larger, sportier 2.5-litre variants in the range. This long-term test vehicle is powered by the 2.0-litre engine that is expected to be the volume-selling choice for Australian consumers.
Does the smaller engine meet the needs of urban Aussies – and more to the point, personally, will it be able to pull the skin off a rice pudding despite being bolted to a six-speed automatic transmission?
My finding? No rice pudding should feel complacent...
The 2.0-litre engine in the test vehicle makes a virtue of its torque, holding gears on hills well after other 2.0-litre small cars have dropped back a cog or two. It's willing to rev as well, and accelerates in linear fashion from relatively low in the rev range right up to the redline. Under load, and working harder there's a bit of a snarl to it, but it's still not as sporty in character as the larger 2.5-litre engine.
The engine drives through the auto transmission to the front wheels. While it doesn't offer the level of refinement or adaptability of an equivalent ZF transmission, the Mazda unit is generally accomplished, proving pretty smooth in its shifting.
NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) comprises a mix of tyre noise and induction from the engine at open-road speeds. Wind passing over the body is audible too, but not to the same degree as the road noise. There's just a smidge of vibration when the transmission holds a high gear for the sake of fuel economy and the petrol engine is labouring between 1000 and 1500rpm.
Ride comfort is on a par with other rivals in the small car segment, but the Mazda's cornering is ahead of most. Steering response is slower than Volkswagen's Golf Mk7, to compare the Mazda3 with the segment benchmark, but once the Mazda begins to turn into a corner it can be placed precisely and the suspension ensures that it will adopt a broadly neutral stance – with a touch of oversteer on a trailing throttle cancelled immediately with the application of some power (or by the stability control system). Braking requires a little more finesse than usual, with the pedal over-responsive initially.
From the driver's seat the dash is functional and clean to look at. Controls are properly located and the instruments require little studying to use. I'm less in favour of the digital tachometer, but once you know it's there, and how it displays, it's fine. In keeping with other Mazda models, the new 3's HVAC and infotainment controls are self-explanatory. Some readers think the fixed infotainment touch screen – sitting proud of the dashboard – is a nasty example of el cheapo design, but it doesn't obscure vision and it's perfectly functional. Only aesthetes will seriously object to it.
Seating is well shaped and comfortable in the front, but there's less rear-seat leg room than in some competitors. Mazda has gone to reasonable lengths to improve rear-seat accommodation in the migration from the previous generation of Mazda3 to the new car, having scalloped out the rear of the backrest for the front seats, but there's still a little more work to be done. The boot space, on the other hand, is cavernous for a small car. My one concern is that the opening might be too small for larger objects that would otherwise pack into the boot.
The doors close securely with just a gentle push. They aren't heavy and nor do they need to be slammed. There are very few rivals that can achieve the same degree of user-friendliness without feeling either tinny or overweight.
The clunky steering on full lock is a Mazda trait shared with the larger Mazda6 and the CX-5 SUV. It's unlikely to be a concern for most owners, but it's a minor failing nonetheless. Our long-termer is equipped with the $1500 Safety Pack option, comprising an electrochromatic (self-dimming) mirror, Blind Spot Monitoring, Rear Cross Traffic Alert and Smart City Brake Support. Some will choke on their corn flakes reading this, but given the Mazda3 sedan's high waist at the rear, I would have liked the Safety Pack to include reverse parking sensors and acoustic guidance to complement the reversing camera.
Otherwise, it's so far so good for the Mazda3. Stay posted for updates.
Also consider:
>>Toyota Corolla
>> Ford Focus
>> Hyundai i30