I got a Velocity Red 06 3i (2.0L Manual) 3 days after Katrina with 2 miles on it. As I type these words it has just a little over 84,000.

Like austinseven & a very few others noted I think the 2.0L engine is superior. You only lose about 13HP & 10 foot-pounds of torque for 5mpg on the highway. Plus the GT/Touring are some 400lbs heavier than the i.

Someone noted that parts are exspensive. Of course dealer pricing can be all over the place & it is best to shop around in your market. However, short of the huge aftermarket for Honda’s I would contend that Mazda AM parts are second to none. eBay is your friend. On eBay there are thousand of parts straight from the factory in Hiroshima. Want some G35-like LED tail lights? 200 bucks. Like the BMW cat’s eye xenon headlight profile. 400. Want to take that standard 5 speed shifter & turn it into a “short-shifter? 300 dollars & 3 hours of your time. Make your base i as stiff as a GT, get all 3 swaybars for 200 & put em’ on yourself. The point is, there is a huge fanboi underground market that realized, like TTAC, that the Mazda 3 is just one hell of a car.

I routinely get 31 mpg of with average speeds of 75 to 80mph on my 80 mile per day commute, here in the Atlanta area. With my base radio upgraded to a pioneer Nav unit, I have a pleasant enough drive, that I actaully look forward to it at the end of the day. Now I will say, that while the handling is exceptional, extremely bumpy roads will upset her trim, but just easing off the throttle a litte, clears that right up. The only really bad thing, is that the engine can be a bit buzzy on very long trips.

In closing the sheer utility of this car is overwhelming. I can really not think of any other car, in any price range, that does as many things right as this one.

I LOVE me the base 3 – its even better than the Civic – and I’m a Honda fanboy – handling, power, fuel economy, fit and finish – all top notch (for an economy car)

I even like the base 3 better than the Speed3 – its more frugal, way lighter (so more fun toss into the corners) and about $10,000 cheaper.

Take that $10,000 and go buy yourself a used LS1 Z28 if you want to go fast in a straight line.

Good luck with that. If you find it, let me know.

I’ll tell you how the Three made the list. It was the least offensive car.

Everybody has their preferences, their favorites, and usually it’s not a porky hatchback with good driving dynamics and lousy mileage. But since we get to pick up to 10 cars, we always select cars that we “don’t mind”. End result, while Mazda3 wasn’t on the top of anyone’s Best Cars Ever list, it was THE car that all of us found to be “good enough”. As a result, since we all were “OK” with it, it was on the top.

I say, we just exposed a fundamental flaw in this voting system. The voting should either be point-based (as in, give all 10 points to one car, or give 5 to one, 3 to second best, and 1 each to the other two, for example), or we should only select ONE car, period.

There ya go, nothing unusual… Disperse, disperse… Nothing to see here…

Or better yet, rank all the cars you vote for. If you require all voters to pick ten cars and assign their own rank, you can simply tally up the scores and the lowest one wins. For instance:

If three people vote on the Mazda, Corvette, and 3-series, and all three people vote the Mazda as #3, The Corvette as #2 and the 3-series as #1, the total points would be:

Mazda – 9 points
Corvette – 6 points
3-series – 3 points

Under the current system, all three cars would have gotten three votes and would be considered equal. But in the case above, the 3-series got more high ranking votes, so it ends up higher on the overall ranking.

This would require a bit more thought during voting, but I feel like the TTAC crowd could handle it.

Apparently to many, “best” means finding the sweet spot of value, performance, economy and style. In that regard, it is again “apparent” that most responders to the poll feel that the Mazda 3 hits that sweet spot “better” than the other cars on the list.

Also, it may be a vote for demography. I believe more responders know someone, or know someone who knows someone, who actually drives a 3 and has listened to them rave about it, most of what they know about the Audi S-car they’ve read in the media. And, speaking for myself, we have frankly been hearing for two decades or more about the virtues of the BMW 3-series,they are kind of 10 minutes ago for the best-this or that award.

You guys begged the question earlier this year when you opined as to how little 10 best lists actually meant. So, is anyone surprised that the results of this one would stir controversy in a site whose readers/contributors are as passionately partisan and parochial (I mean that in the best way possible, y’all!) as this site’s are?

I own a Mazdaspeed6 and am totally in love with the 2.3 DISI turbo. Is it efficient? Not really. Does is throw me into the back of my seat? Hell yes. So, I basically get V6 economy, but how many other cars out there offer 263hp and 280 lb-ft of torque and get better fuel economy than the Speed3 and even come close to the price and practicality? The Cobalt SS turbo is the only thing that comes to mind. Maybe that should have been our #1. I really have to laugh when people expect 30 mpg out of a car that hits 0-60 in less than 6 seconds.

In any event, creating a car with all these attributes that is actually within financial reach of the masses is bound to be popular. Though there are many more aspirational cars on the list, it may be some time before I can park an R8 in my garage, hence the popularity of the Mazdaspeed3.

And that’s just the sedan. I’m not a huge fan of the looks of the 5 door, but you cannnot ignore the practicality of that model.

I’ve owned 3 Mazdas since 1986 and 2 Hondas. The Mazdas were not flawless in their reliability (unlike the Hondas), but the fun to drive factor always makes me think of them more fondly.

That being said – the A/C is suspect is tropical climates, although I haven’t driven one since Mazda made some minor design changes to try and direct more air over the condensor.

But I’m hitting the Mazda dealer this weekend to look at a new 6 for my mother, and summer’s still here, so I’ll give it another whirl.

A lot of the cars on the Top 10 list seem to excel at one or several things (performance) while being not so great at other things (fuel economy, cargo capacity, etc). So an R8 might be a singlye guy’s favorite choice while a family guy wouldn’t vote for it. Both guys probably went down the list of car choices, stopped at the Mazda3 for a second, and thought to themselves that yes, it’s a nice little car so I’ll vote for it.

Enough voters did that, apparently. So the Mazda3 may not be considered THE top car on this site, but it still managed to get enough votes to get there.

Somebody proposed a points voting system for cars. Like my first choice car gets 10 points and my 10th choice gets 1 point. This system might be better placing a car like the Mazda3 in its true position amongst the Top 10 crowd.

Pretty close with your assesment of me. I’m not worried about my car getting women, I have a fairly serious girlfriend right now, and the “M” word has been tossed around recently.

That being said, I’m trying to pick up a decent E39 M5. It is really everything I want in a car. Prices on them are decent with sub 50K miles, four doors, roomy, the aftermarket is slowly starting to come down in price, its fast, its sexy in that understated subtly agressive sort of way, and it can pull track duty and haul any future kids around. That, and in highschool I worked in a BMW dealership, and did so during summers in college when I had my 325i, so I don’t really have to pay for service ever, lol. That, and I’ve also loved that car (and have had a huge man crush on Clive Owen) ever since I saw the Guy Ritchie BMW Film “Star”).

However, I can, and do, see how the car can be attractive to others. I guess by my own nature I tend to be a bit agressive. It really isn’t a bad car, per say. However, what I consider a good car is, of course, objective, and the Mazda3 and Speed3 just don’t fit the bill. I think the MX-5 should have been much lower on the list. I’m just glad number one wasn’t a prius.

Oh, and my comment about what the people call their Mazda3s comes from a long term love of BMWs (I can pinpoint the exact moment I became a jack off, I mean, Bimmerphile). So it irks me, much like the Lexus ES300 that I’ve seen around town with an ///M Badge, and the Mustang GT I saw slathered with “Type R” badging.

Haven’t come across a single car that costs X times as much and is more than X times better. It’s the bang-for-buck king that’s kept me from (and will continue to keep me from) buying a new car, especially since it’s worth about $10k now.

It’s obviously not the best car on the list. But the sheer value cannot be ignored, so I imagine that many who had 5-7 definite choices saw the Mz3 as a solid choice as a filler.

As a hatchback, the Mazda 3 doesn’t have that much serious competition. It’s larger and roomier than the Honda Fit and probably more comfortable to drive when cruising the Interstate.

It’s one of those cars that won by default. It’s not great, but it does a lot of things good and it doesn’t have much competition.

but the speed3 is intended to go fast, get decent mpgs, carry stuff, blend in, stand out, ride well, handle well, be cheap, and feel not cheap. this is not easy. especially considering that many of the above are/seem contradictory. if you review the above list of features, the speed3 stands above all the others you mentioned (fit, wrx, sti, ralliart, evo, silverado hybrid???).

I think the sedan looks great. I hate the five-door, which I think looks like a dumpling from the rear.

My main criticisms, other than the mediocre gas mileage:

- The manual shift linkage is great when it’s new, but it’s none too robust.

- The windows desperately need better tinting. My old (’91) black Prelude had bronze-tinted windows that gave vastly better solar control. Bright sunlight can be a killer.

- The air conditioning is not strong enough. In the changeover from Protégé to 3, they downsized the A/C system, and the current car’s capacity is barely adequate. If I lived in Texas or Florida, it would be a problem.

- The strip of fake carbon fiber on the dash looks cheap, as does the painted silver surround of the instrument cluster.

- The black seats with red stitching look great, but the upholstery is easily gouged by the metal studs in blue jeans and the like.

Still, a vastly better deal than the previous-generation Civic EX (which would have cost me more money, at the time) in every area except fuel economy, fun to drive, and a superb all-around value.

I’m not interested in the Mazdaspeed3. For one, it’s the ugly hatchback. For another, it’s FWD, and the prospect of FWD turbo power is not appetizing. For a third, the dealer mark-up locally is appalling. And then there’s the need for premium fuel. Just not an appealing package.

The Civic, if ergonomically correct, is space-invaders bizarre, the Corolla a hard-plastic yawn, the Elantra an olfactory torture chamber of South Korean chemical remnants, and the Cobalt and Focus…well…Chapter 11.

I, too, lament the GTI’s absence because of its fantastic engine, available DSG, clean and muscular styling and funky seat fabric, but my ‘01 had the notable honor of being the only new car I’ve ever bought to break down on the trip home from the dealership. In the following several months the spunky GTI taught me to avoid VW products for the rest of my life.

The 3, while certainly not the best car on the list, is absolutely the best car in its class. Certainly it’s a sign of the times that it got the most votes.

Now everyone say a silent prayer in hopes that they don’t fuck up the successor.

Before I reply, I thought I would give you a drivers ed story.
Tonight my son asked me to give him some more night time driving.
He requires 50 total hours with an adult, of which 10 must be night.
So…OK.
I had him drive me out for some good wine..
Now that’s doing two lessons with one, right?

Don’t know if you like good red wine, but I know you love Mazdas.

But understand the original 6. It was introduced in 03.
Now that’s a long time ago, in car life.
At that time it was meant to be a World Car…a poor man’s sporty car.
Since that damned Euro trash doesn’t have my large ass, they insist upon smaller rear seats.
Just sit in those Bimmers and Audis!
Any decent American who understands real BBQ couldn’t handle a trip across town, let alone the country!

Now, mazda took a lesson and like the Accord made a car JUST for the US.
See, their Accord is our small ass rear seat TSX.
Try the new mazda6.
Its an astonishing car.
In fact, my favorite 4 was always the Honda free reving 4.
Now, Mazda got it right.
The 4 is actually the better of the two 6 cars.
Its seems better balanced and the 4 and its 5 trans are just like bread and butter together.
The rear seat now is fitting my rear end…and comfortable enough for my every two week 7 hour trip to MO.

Yes…there is no other poor man’s BMW out there other than the Mazda car.

As an enthusiast site, we really should try to be correct with our automobile nomenclature. That would be Bimmer…just sayin…