2021 Carbon looks like the sweet spot

[Unobtanium]

I'd be all about the Carbon except no ventilated seats. Nope. I'm spoilt.

 

[markjenn]

The question I have is - exactly what does it come with? From what I am reading it gets the Touring level trim with the Touring Preferred package and of course has leather which the Touring doesn't have, but this means it won't have a lot of the cool features the GT has such as HUD, cooled front seats and heated rear seats. A big one for me is the lighting. Does it have the LED rear lights from the GT or the incandescent units of the touring? I am waiting to see an official list.

Everything I’ve read says the CE is simply the Touring SV Preferred with the Polymetal paint, red leather, black 19" wheels, and the option for the turbo. As such, I doubt it will have any of the further GT upgrades like adaptive lighting, LED rears, cooled seats, etc. This is consistent with the pricing which (w/dest) is about $33,160 for the AWD turbo CE And $36,385 for the GTR (which includes AWD and the turbo as standard). Mazda is not going to cut the legs out from under the GTR by offering the same car for $3K+ less in CE trim. So they have to de-content the CE back to the Touring/SV level.

I suppose I would like some of the GT features, but none are deal-breakers.... the CE is a well-equipped car. I wish we could select all options individually ala carte and have the car built to individual spec - if I could I’d drop the moonroof for example - but bundling options in arbitrary packages is the nature of how cars are currently sold.

- Mark

 

[Bird-Dog]

There are a bunch of pictures on google if you search "polymetal grey metallic". Many of them appear to be unedited dealer stock photos in clear daylight. Here's a video:

Near the end of the video, while he quickly goes over the engine, the car is in direct sunlight. You should be able to get a good idea of how it would look in person.

Near the end he calls it Machine Gray. It's hard to tell from the video, but I think that might be the case, even though the title says Polymetal Gray. We test drove a Polymetal CX-30 and I seem to remember it being a little lighter. Looked good though.

Regardless, the video had a good look at a Mazda red interior. I like it! Not too bright or gaudy. I'd definitely consider the Carbon Edition with the 2.5T if we hadn't just leased a GTR a couple of months ago.

 

[sm1ke]

Near the end he calls it Machine Gray. It's hard to tell from the video, but I think that might be the case, even though the title says Polymetal Gray. We test drove a Polymetal CX-30 and I seem to remember it being a little lighter. Looked good though.

Regardless, the video had a good look at a Mazda red interior. I like it! Not too bright or gaudy. I'd definitely consider the Carbon Edition with the 2.5T if we hadn't just leased a GTR a couple of months ago.

If you skip to 22:47 of the video, he says it is Polymetal Grey, then goes on to talk about how the other colours are an upcharge while this colour is not. I also own a car with Machine Grey Metallic paint, and my paint does not look like that.

Here's a better video comparing the two colours (Mazda3 in PG and CX-30 in MGM). He walks around both vehicles in direct sunlight. Note the difference in colour of the Polymetal Grey between the video above and this one - the above video appears to have been taken in the late afternoon with the sun low, while the video below appears to be shot with the sun a little higher in the sky. Also, there is a very good chance that they are using different cameras/cellphones to record, which would likely contribute to the difference in the way the colour looks.

EDIT: If you skip to 4:30 in this video, he goes from one side of the car to the other. The side that isn't in direct sunlight looks much darker that I would have expected it to look.