New Member... why the 3 ?

[hednik4am]

Had my 3 for about 4 months now... love it beyond anything else I could've gotten (cept the baby cramps up a bit, he son ly 10 months haha)

I do have one question for you all... the mazda 3 has better styling, performance, looks and fun to drive out of the box compared to a civic or other more popular tunned cars...so why does it seem its not as popular on the mod circuit ?

 

[ppself]

I don't know, maybe its because people think that just because Ford owns Mazda that it shouldn't in the mod community.

I for one am glad there isn't to many ricer Mazdas out their anyways. Giving us Mazda owners bad names.

 

[lucaspl88]

there is a much bigger market for performance parts for honda's, especially civids since they are out since a long time ago.
Mazda 3's are new (04) and they seem to be more complicated to work on then any other car so far but there is a lot of ppl that have modified them with a HUGE success

 

[jred321]

The biggest reason is probably the low volume of Mazda vs Honda. There just aren't the numbers to support a wide variety of similar options like there are with Hondas.

It's a bit of the chicken and the egg but part of the reason the aftermarket hasn't driven sales is that Mazda's ECU is a PITA that nobody has taken the time to properly figure out. That means sure you can slap an intake on but you're only going to get a couple hp gain. On a Honda you can slap on an intake, tweak the ECU a bit a get a gain that you can actually feel. Mazda tunes their cars super rich out of the box and the ECU fights to keep it that way. Rich isn't the right way to make power.

 

[lucaspl88]

for 2.3's CP-E came out with a standback, thats what im using, works great

 

[Akaveli]

the biggest reason is probably the low volume of mazda vs honda. There just aren't the numbers to support a wide variety of similar options like there are with hondas.

It's a bit of the chicken and the egg but part of the reason the aftermarket hasn't driven sales is that mazda's ecu is a pita that nobody has taken the time to properly figure out. That means sure you can slap an intake on but you're only going to get a couple hp gain. On a honda you can slap on an intake, tweak the ecu a bit a get a gain that you can actually feel. Mazda tunes their cars super rich out of the box and the ecu fights to keep it that way. Rich isn't the right way to make power.

+1

 

[lucaspl88]

my afr on full throttle is between 13.0 and 13.3

 

[hednik4am]

The biggest reason is probably the low volume of Mazda vs Honda. There just aren't the numbers to support a wide variety of similar options like there are with Hondas.

It's a bit of the chicken and the egg but part of the reason the aftermarket hasn't driven sales is that Mazda's ECU is a PITA that nobody has taken the time to properly figure out. That means sure you can slap an intake on but you're only going to get a couple hp gain. On a Honda you can slap on an intake, tweak the ECU a bit a get a gain that you can actually feel. Mazda tunes their cars super rich out of the box and the ECU fights to keep it that way. Rich isn't the right way to make power.

Is it something that's going to be firgured out or will it just stay this way ? I assume most will be in agreement with me on this but isn't the 3 the sexiest compact car for the money ? It just seems that when you have a gorgeous car like this with great lines and is this fun to drive wouldnt you want to have the mod guys on your side ? Is this something thats easier in Japan since our cars are actually still made in Japan ?

I could buy a late 80's to early 90's civic and just go to town on it modding but in the end don't I just have an ugly play toy ?

What do y'all think ?

 

[jred321]

Is it something that's going to be firgured out or will it just stay this way ?

it's been essentially the same problem that has been around since the mid-80s with the MX6 so i'm going to lean towards not gonna change any time soon. the only good solution has always been a full stand alone. for each gen there are band-aids that get developed to help things but nobody ever really does it right and mazda's programming always trys to learn around the change that the band-aid introduces.

my first car was a probe gt and i went through this with the PGT as well as the MSP. there will always be parts available for mazdas and you'll be able to find what you want but they will always be more expensive and you're certainly not going to have a lot of options. plus the gains you see will be so-so

 

[tschatzinger]

rub it in lucas, rub it in...lol. i can't wait until i'm makin some money again and can buy the SB unit

 

[lucaspl88]

rub it in lucas, rub it in...lol. i can't wait until i'm makin some money again and can buy the SB unit

hha sorry.. i just had to