Let me be clear, I don't care what the reviews say. I'd probably pick the MS3 10 out of 10 times if I had to choose a hot hatch to buy tomorrow, I was just wondering what happened between the outgoing model and this new one that changed the opinions so much.
The motortrend article said that the Speed 3 didn't feel that much faster than the GTI. With a 63 hp advantage, that just can't be true. I'm wondering what Mazda needs to iterate on (short of AWD as that would add weight and cost) to make the next MS3 perfect.
Can't just take "feel" into account. My a$$ tells me that my new STi is NOT significantly faster than the MS6 it replaced. However, the stats don't lie. For some reason the STi seems to just do the job with much less excitement and abruptness of power delivery than the MS6. In the same fashion I expect that the new MS3 probably does the job with much less excitement than the previous model MS3.
Don't know any of this for fact, but that is my $0.02.
R