I think everyone is arguing some good points, but many opinions are being stated as a fact that aren't necessarily so. So let me play Devil's Advocate
While adding a HID kit to a Mz3 with halogen lights is quick and easy it is not equal to the OEM HIDs. I say this not because a kit works less well than OE lamps/ballasts but rather because despite both of them using projectors the projectors used for the halogens are optically different to those used in the HIDs. The OE HID projectors will have a sharper cutoff with less light leaking above the cutoff, a broader beam, and will distribute the light far more evenly avoiding the hotspots that HIDs in the halogen projectors tend to produce. Also the shield in the HID projector is movable so if you want you can color mod it to produce more flicker, whereas it's fixed in the halogen projector. So while a 35w kit and 35w OE HIDs emit the same amount of light the HID projectors will distribute that light better, and more effectively get it to where you need to see. To illustrate:
OE halogens with 55w HID installed.
OE HID projectors (retrofitted into OE halogen housings w/ evo8 clear lenses and w/ a color mod)
Same car btw.
Next getting the light to where you need to see. Proper aiming of headlights is always key
regardless of how much light your headlights put out! It doesn't matter how many lumens your headlights emit if they don't go where you need them. This does not mean that a person with properly aimed lights can not also be dissatisfied with the light's performance. As this depends on each individual person it can't be said that any properly aimed light is perfect..... I drive lots of vehicles with "properly aimed" lights which suck just because the lights are badly designed.
As far as brightness and upgrading goes 35w HIDs produce ~3x as much light as 35w halogens. Likewise 55w HIDs put out much more light than 35w HIDs. 35w HIDs are more than adequate for a large percentage of the population. Those who find 35w HIDs don't have quite enough oompf would probably be happier upgrading the ballasts and lamps to 55w, and this of course is perfectly fine. However just because some people prefer the greater light output of the 55w HIDs doesn't mean 35w HIDs are crap. Also those people who choose to upgrade would still benefit in the improved optics found in the HID projector.
Sorry for the long post everybody.
uthemang31 said:
1. As the title says, is it possible to get the Gt interior in the Sport model from factory? B/c I hate (might be strong word) BOSE System when testing at the dealership, and do not care much about the LED tail-lights nor the HIDS.
2. Speaking of HID for those of you with sport how difficult is to install HIDS in sport model? In the P5 it was simple, hoping it is the same in MS3.
3. Finally to verify, the sport model for 2009 comes with MP3 capabilities.
Thanks for helping me in my research!!!!
Sunny
1. Can you order it that way? No. Would the dealer be happy to charge you lots and lots of money to install the parts? Absolutely. Remember you could always try and buy the covers themselves from Mazda at a later time and put them on your sport seats yourself. Alternately you have the option of going with aftermarket leather from a company like Katzkins who use good quality products. Not to say I don't like the OEM leather/alcantara combo, on the contrary I think they're super sexy, but check out your options. I think I saw a group buy on some forum for MS3 katzkins covers recently but I can't remember where. If you did decide to buy the OE covers I'd suggest getting them from an online vendor as you'll probably get a much better price on them than you would at the dealer.
2. Installing a kit is easy, though see my thoughts on the projector differences above.
3. Yes. All '08.5+ Mz3/MS3's will read Mp3 files on burned discs, and all '07+ models include an audio input.