paranoidxe said:
I was just curious, if both cars had equal mileage, and ZERO problems would you trade straight acrossed your P5 for a Mazda3 Wagon?
Oh hell no. Look at a Protege5, and then look at a Mazda3
One has agressive, edgy styling, the other is round and bulbous and looks downright obese from some angles. The Mazda3 HB looks really big next to a Protege5 too, and while some people might like that I sure don't.
I like the looks of the Mazda3 sedan, but the hood/grille of the hatchback completely ruins it for me. It reminds me of a horse, I can't put my finger on why though.
I don't like that the dash design prohibits an aftermarket head unit from looking at all decent. I like the Protege5 steering wheel a lot more too, though audio controls are nice I'd much rather a wheel like the Mazda6 wheel for that.
I don't like the cable actuated shifter, it feels numb. I don't like the taillights, the style is a bit overplayed if you ask me. The LED taillights on the SP23 are cool though. But why doesn't the Mazda3 HB have an LED high mount stop light? weird.
I don't like looking at the rear of the Mazda3 HB, the hatch area looks way too damn empty since they moved the license plate down below.
I don't like how the exhaust system is set up on the car because from what I've read it's like all one piece back from the exhaust manifold so it's a pain to replace without wrecking the stock one.
The general proportions of the car look off to me, and it just doesn't look at all sporty. The angle of the last pillar looks bad to me too, but of course this is all just my opinion.
Look at the side profile of a Protege5, and then look at the Mazda3.
There's the P5 side profile for reference, I don't have a pic of a Mazda3 handy.
To me, the current Mazda3 hatchback is the equivalent of making a Mazda Protege LX wagon. Don't get me wrong, I actually rather like the LX/ES.. but you know what I mean. The Protege5 has the agressive styling of the MP3 and Mazdaspeed and I think it does a great job getting the "sport wagon" theme across.
I'm going to stop my rant now. Most of what I don't like in the hatchback is proper in the sedan, like the proportions, the front/rear styling, etc. Yeah it's not agressive looking, but it looks damn nice.
EDIT: oh and the handling is painfully mushy if you ask me. Even thinking back to how my car was stock the 3 just feels heavier and damn it seems to lean a lot. The tires are gahbage too, same crap that ford puts on the Focus.
They aren't bad cars, they just definitely aren't for me.
EDIT2: the lack of a roof rack bothers me as well, I think it was rather well executed on the Protege5 from a style standpoint.