Mazda 3 appearance vs. others

cburrell

Member
:
2013 CX-5 Touring, 2016 Mazda 6 Sport
I figured i would repost this thread in its proper place.

Why does the front smiling fascia of the Mazda 3 always get made fun of. Compared to the competition the overall design of the 3 is better than most. Unlike the Darth Vader front fascia of the Focus, that I liked at first, but grows old quick. The side profile of the 3 looks better to me than the focus. Then their is the Elantra which design is nice, but when I see how their are hundreds of them on the road and how Hyundai has used virtually the same design for the accent, elantra, and the sonata, that design gets old quick and seems gimmicky to me. I often wondered how Hyundai can use virtually the same body design for 3 of their cars and yet the auto world praises them for their bold design moves, and hardly criticizes the fact that they have 3 cars with the same design. If Honda, Toyota, or even Mazda had used one design for three of their cars, the auto world would have ripped those companies apart for being clique and thoughtless for not putting more effort into each individual model. Then their is the jetta which has never won many awards for it exterior design, and the civic and corolla have been ho hum and boring for years, even so much that the officials at Honda and Toyota have admitted that much. I just don't understand how the smile on the front fascia of the 3 is such a deal breaker for some people, if you look at the overall design of the 3 and not just on the smile, it is one of the better designs in the compact car segment, not to mention that it handles way better than most of those cars in its segment.
 
I didn't like the smile, but then it grew on me once I owned one. It gives the car personality and Mazdas are all about personality from the driving dynamics to the appearance. The heavier gen2 hatch with the 2.5L seems more tame than more light and nimble the gen1 sedan with the 2.0L which was a blast to drive any time, yes I miss it but don't regret the power of the 2.5L. What attracted me to the gen1 sedan was the appearance, it looked great, and the gen2 isn't that far off either. In fact my wife said the gen1 hatch was ugly but the gen2 was just fine although it looks like a Pokemon from some angles.
 
I didn't like the smile, but then it grew on me once I owned one. It gives the car personality and Mazdas are all about personality from the driving dynamics to the appearance. The heavier gen2 hatch with the 2.5L seems more tame than more light and nimble the gen1 sedan with the 2.0L which was a blast to drive any time, yes I miss it but don't regret the power of the 2.5L. What attracted me to the gen1 sedan was the appearance, it looked great, and the gen2 isn't that far off either. In fact my wife said the gen1 hatch was ugly but the gen2 was just fine although it looks like a Pokemon from some angles.

The smile didn't do anything for in the photos, but when I saw in real life it grew on me, now that I own one I quite like it. I have a 2010 GT hatchback Canadian model.
Actually if you really look at the first generation close enough you see that the grill in that model is actually a smiley face too.

Pat.
 
The 2012 is a toned down smile compared to the 2010 and 2011's. Regardless of if you like the clown face or not, at least Mazda hasn't sold out by only doing safe designs like toyota and honda, and at least they haven't over used one gimmicky design language that makes all their cars look the same, as Hyundai has. Sometimes they step over the boundaries with their designs, just look at the Nagare design in the 2012 Mazda 5, but at least they care enough about design to go unconventional.
 

Similar Threads and Articles

Back