Reliability has been excellent so far.
But it's really hard to say. Who knows if there's a possibility of a recall in a year or so?
But so far, things look good.
The JD Power study looks like it takes an agreggate of all the cars for the automaker.
But not all cars are created equal. I wouldn't buy an 02 Nissan Sentra Spec V over Mazda 3 just cuz Nissan is a bit higher over industry average.
Well, I'm not sure under which system my friend placed 5th in, but I'll ask him the next time I see him.
Stiff competition includes Impreza, Celica, etc.
There aren't a lot of MZ3 mods out there yet.
But soon enough there will be :) Just wait for a few more months. The MZ3 has just gained a ton of popularity last month (AJAC awards... and I've seen about 30 of them in the last month. A new MZ3 a day on the road).
here's the recalls:
http://groups.msn.com/BrunoLuong/tsb.msnw
As for an AWD MPS6 with turbo, I highly doubt the AWD will come out here. The Protege 5 in Japan had optional AWD... the Mazdaspeed Protege only had the turbo.
So chances are Mazda will not give any car AWD except for the Tribute.
Oh okay :) I stand corrected then.
But either way, it's still not the same engine as the old Focus. As far as I know, MZR parts are limited to OEM Mazda stuff.