New Hatchback Owner! '14

[DB3driver]

I've always been a fan of Mazda but had the bad luck of getting stuck with a '98 Ford Taurus for 10 years. Alas it was time to retire that car and move up in the automotive world. I've never had a thing for hatchbacks until I saw a 2012 Mazda 3 on the freeway, what a beauty.
I purchased my 2014 Mazda 3 iTouring hatchback last month and I couldn't' be happier. Actually during my initial test drive I had to swerve out of 1 jerks way who carelessly changed lanes and almost took out the front end, destiny.

 

[cxpmaz]

Welcome and congrats.
What color did you go with?
Automatic or manual?

 

[DB3driver]

Titanium Mica, automatic since the San Francisco hills that would ruin the manual fun for me

 

[WUNDRWMN14]

I'm considering trading in my 2014 Mazda2 sport (manual) for the Mazda3 2014 I touring. I test drove the Mazda3 2014 manual today and liked the engine power so much more compared to the little Mazda2 and found it so much easier to manage the engine compared to driving the automatics. I didn't like the 6 speed automatic in the 2013 Mazda3 or 2012 Mazda 3 (I haven't tested driven the 2014 Automatic.)

I have some concerns about the interior design.

1) I like the look of the 2013 rear better. the 2014 seems to have a small rear window in the hatchback and it's hard to see out of it when you're driving. What do you think?
2) how do you like the radio display panel? Is it easy to use?
3) for the automatic, do you use both the manual and the drive? I found it to be really confusing and distracting, and easy to knock yourself out of gear by accident on the 2013.

I welcome any additional thoughts you have about the i Touring 2014 Mazda 3.

Thank you

 

[DB3driver]

The rear window is smaller so it does add on to the blind spots but the side mirrors have blind spot monitoring to assist.
I have the navigation display so it is a bit higher, it took some getting used to but its a easier to look at VS the built in display that is lower on the dash in previous models.
I usually have it in automatic drive but on occasion will choose to use manual mode. I have never accidentally knocked it into manual mode while in drive.

Overall the car handles very well and I am very happy with it.
One flaw is the inability to mute the GPS voiceover. It will mute your driver side speaker to give you GPS directions, i have not figured out how to turn this feature off as I prefer to glance over vs having my phone call or music interrupted

 

[lowincash]

Overall the car handles very well and I am very happy with it.
One flaw is the inability to mute the GPS voiceover. It will mute your driver side speaker to give you GPS directions, i have not figured out how to turn this feature off as I prefer to glance over vs having my phone call or music interrupted

Get your software updated to v31 and you will be able to mute the gps voice and it will not cutoff music from driver side speaker.

 

[cre8tiveOne]

I've been driving a 2014 Mazda 3 i Touring hatch for a little over a month, about 60 miles a day plus a 1200 mile road trip. I really enjoy driving the car. It has excellent road feel and handling characteristics and I did, in fact attain the factory claimed 40 mpg on my long road trip. (yippy)

I don't find the size of the rear window to be a problem while driving forward. Backing up however is a real nightmare. I almost ran a woman over while backing out of a parking space shortly after getting the car. I never saw her - I only heard her yell, "Learn how to F-ing drive!" The car is one big rolling blind spot! Blind spot monitoring and the rear vehicle crossing monitor are almost a necessity and well worth the extra money.

I purchased the more basic Touring package, so - no infotainment iPad. I really don't know what the engineers were thinking though when they decided that a 70's era clock-radio would be a good thing to mount on top of the dash. It looks kind of clunky IMO and is just a little out of reach while driving.

IMO the manual shift feature of the automatic needs to be reworked too. I just moved away from a 5 speed manual in a 2004 Mazda 6, and miss it a little in some circumstances. The 2014 automatic is responsive when left to do it's own thing. I have no complaints at all about that, but the manual shift feature is only good for down shifting when pushing your car through the twisties. Up shifts are a joke! You can't use the manual mode if you're doing something like (a-hem!) drag racing. If you yank the shifter to upshift at maybe 6 grand, the car is like, "What?...Time to up-shift?... Oh. Okay. Let me put down my coffee and take care of that for you. ...Aaaaaaand up-shift complete. (drive)" By then you're already bouncing off the rev limiter. It's way better to leave the car in full auto when accelerating hard. Also, I have slipped the shifter into manual on many occasions because I have a bad habit of hanging onto the shift handle like a saddle horn to keep me in my seat during hard cornering.

I know you didn't ask about the seats, but you should read my other post (yes, I only have two) about that.

 

[WUNDRWMN14]

I appreciate your replies. Thank you.

My concern with the mixed manual and auto was not the manual part, but the actual acceleration of the car. When I was at a stand still and then hit the gas pedal, it lagged and I didn't like that. I want to pick up and go. LIke when you're pulling out of a parking lot into the road with incoming traffic. I don't have time to "lag" - I need a car that will get me safely onto the road and ahead of the oncoming traffic. I felt that the manual transmission I touring 2014 did that.

For now, I'm going to stick to my Mazda2 Sport Manual and be grateful for the cuteness of the car and the simple interior which I love. And learn to figure out how to maximize the speed across the gears to make the most of the pretty sad engine. 20 20 hindsight.

 

[cre8tiveOne]

In the 2014 Mazda 3 automatic, I don't notice any throttle lag, or hesitation when I step on the gas (I can't tolerate that either) it immediately starts accelerating. But if you're used to pre-revving to say 2500 rpm then lifting your clutch foot when the break in traffic happens -- you definitely aren't going to get that kind of sudden acceleration from the automatic. I suppose you could gun the engine then do a neutral drop into drive, but I've never had much longevity from my drive components when I've done that in the past. ;-)

 

[rdrokit]

Welcome to the forum. Regarding the back up problem I just had the dealer install back up sensors (4 in the rear bumper) and if I am backing up and get close to anything they beep.

 

[DB3driver]

I have a rearview camera & sensors so I haven't experienced any issues reversing.

Thanks! upgrading my informant version did allow me to mute that annoying GPS voice.

I honestly stay in automatic 99% of the time...no issues with acceleration lag have been experienced.