I love how compact this car is and how tight the turning radius is. This makes it easy to park in parking lots and in parallel parking spots and fun and easy to drive in the city. For a small non-sports car, it has a great acceleration and get-up-and-go. I'm not one for needing high speed, but I appreciate this aspect of the car when I need to accelerate fairly quickly on the highway after my entrance. Despite being a compact car, it is surprisingly spacious and comfortable inside, even for taller people. This car has been reliable. I have had it for over ten years (although not a commensurate number of miles), and it has given me very few problems. Once the car heats up, the heat and A/C are very effective throughout the car. The sight lines in this car make it easy to navigate around your blind spots. My particular model has cloth, light-colored seat covers, which is perfect in a very hot environment. Sitting on the seats isn't painful. It's a small, fairly light car, which means it has pretty good gas mileage, despite being a traditional gas car.

I drove this car nearly 25,000 miles within the first year up and down the east coast. It has never so much as made me question it from reliability to fuel economy. The Mazda 3 is an exceptional piece of engineering. I am able to drive at highway speeds and maintain a 40+ mpg consumption rate. The car has a very smooth clutch in the standard transmission and, even with just a four cylinder engine, has a fine amount of pick up.