Just about to join the Mazda community

[SpinZero]

Hi guys

First time posting here. My wife and I have been looking for a commuter for her for the last few weeks. But I have to admit, me being a car geek and her having been influenced by me for the last couple years, we have been looking at cars that are a little more than just a commuter. Now we are VERY close to cutting a deal on a 2006 3S 4D 5MT in Copper Red Mica. If that happens, I'll be coming here regularly on behalf of my wife.

The closest contender has been the Scion tC, which clearly takes advantage of the extensive and high quality Toyota parts bin. It really seems like a sensible choice, with reliable power/drivetrain from camry, high quality interior, good projected reliability, and good service department.

But in the end, even with all the little things Toyota did to attract young people, it failed to stir emotion. We took a test drive today, and hoestly I was less than impressed with how it drove. Very solid, nice car, but it felt heavy and the dynamics was pretty ordinary. The engine felt reluctant to rev despite the fact that it is actually quite a lot torqueir across the rev range than the MZR 2.3. It wasn't even particularly more comfortable or quiet. (something that we care, so as to compliment my rex) Definetely not in the same league as my WRX wagon in terms of the fun factor.

Then we went back to the Mazda dealer where we took a test drive a week ago, just to take a look at the car one more time before we make the final decision this weekend. But long story short, our sales guy offered us to let us keep the car over the weekend. We made sure that he was willing to give us a reasonable deal, and then we gratefully took the offer and drove the car back home.

I just drove it to come to school, and I have to say, I'm thoroughly impressed. (nana) It really is an excellent car. Small nit picks aside, its fun factor is right up there with my rex, and we both LOVE the interior/exterior! I think we are pretty much sold at this point.

So, it seems very likely that we will be a part of the Mazda community. I frequent Nasioc, but I've never owned a Mazda, so this is new to me.

Finally, before we left, our sales guy gave us a rough figure of $4~600 off the MSRP. I think that's a little high, but at that point I thought that was close enough. I'm probably gonna get the $500 Zoom Zoom live coupon on eBay, and bring the price down to $7~800 off the msrp. With the coupon, that will be about right below the invoice. Sounds reasonable?

Thanks for reading my long post.

 

[CRZbrussian]

sweet, welcome aboard mate!!

 

[RHAGEL]

Good luck on the buy, the red mica is an awesome color. $6-800 off a '06 right now would be pretty good. You can't expect too much off a car that sells as well as this one.

 

[Chibana]

Cool. I love my 2005 Mazda3s. I lucked out with the price on mine. I wasn't really planning on buying, but the dealer really wanted to meet a month quota. They wouldn't let it go. At first they tried the old, "That car won't be on the lot much longer!" However, when the salesman realized I really wasn't planning on buying right away (this was Halloween 2004), they got more desperate and offered me the dealer employee price, which was quite a bit off MSRP. I don't remember exactly how much I got off of it. I think it was a bit over $1000 off MSRP. However, I agree with the others--this car is selling very well, so it's hard to get them to come down as much as you could on many other cars in its class. So well, in fact, that Mazda has had to inrease production volume at least once at the beginning of 2005.

 

[SpinZero]

You know, I think letting-the-customer-keep-the-car-for-the-weekend thingy works really well for Mazda. As good as the 3 (and 6 for that matter) is, there are more sensible choices out there in terms of things like reliability and resale. Rather, Mazda usually makes cars that are emotionally appealing, cars that you can fall in love with. But you always need some quality time to fall in love right?

On the other hand, I don't think it would've changed anything even if Toyota let us keep the car for a few days. Reliability and resale are just not the kind of things you fall in love with over a weekend.

 

[Glhboy]

I traded my Scion tC in on my 3s hatch 2 days ago. The Scion does not handle nearly as well as the Mazda does and has the same HP rating as well. I needed a 4 door more than a 2 door too. One good thing about both cars is that they will hold resale value better since there are no incentives on either model and both are in good demand.

 

[SpinZero]

Ok guys. Yesteday my wife and I finally got a delivery of an 06 3s 5MT CRM with Moonroof/6CD, auto dimming mirror, and rear wing spoiler. We got it down to ~invoice, and we used the mazda Zoom Zoom live coupon. That equaled $17,110 + tax and registration. May not be the best EVAR, but still a pretty sweet deal, I think! (thumb)

I gotta say, the more I drive it, the more I'm amazed about how well it handles. Overall the car really doesn't feel like an economy car. It has that confident road manner of a euro sports sedan, even more so than the new Jetta we drove a week ago.

Overall, we could not be happier with a car purchase. Now I just need to work on my rex to make sure it doesn't fall behind in handling compared to my girl's ride!

 

[tsunami]

sweet... or you could make start modding the wifes car...?? hehehe...

 

[Mazda3Rookie]

SpinZero,

congratulations for your new car. F.Y.I., I got my 2006 3 S Touring 5-door Manual with no options at $17,100 + taxes and registration a couple of months ago. Plus the dealer gave me $1,200 for my 1997 Stratus ES.

What trim is yours?

 

[anarchistchiken]

I can't say anything about the 3 specificall because I havn't owned one, but I've driven both cars numerous times, and from all the impressions I've gotten, there is no way in which the TC is a superior car to the 3. I mean even just sitting in it, the Tc feels very cheap, the seating position is akward, and I think the whole center stack (radio, climate controls) is just god awful ugly. Speaking as a guy who likes cars, not a Mazda enthusiast, I would take the 3 any day of the week.

 

[SpinZero]

SpinZero,

congratulations for your new car. F.Y.I., I got my 2006 3 S Touring 5-door Manual with no options at $17,100 + taxes and registration a couple of months ago. Plus the dealer gave me $1,200 for my 1997 Stratus ES.

What trim is yours?

Rookie, our 3 is the base S, not touring. I think you got a very good deal, especially considering it was right after MY06 came out. In our case, the $500 zoom zoom live coupon was a great help.

 

[SpinZero]

I can't say anything about the 3 specificall because I havn't owned one, but I've driven both cars numerous times, and from all the impressions I've gotten, there is no way in which the TC is a superior car to the 3. I mean even just sitting in it, the Tc feels very cheap, the seating position is akward, and I think the whole center stack (radio, climate controls) is just god awful ugly. Speaking as a guy who likes cars, not a Mazda enthusiast, I would take the 3 any day of the week.

A-chicken, I didn't feel that the tC was "cheap" per se. Actually it seemed like most of the parts were high quality. My problem was that I could tell that Toyota scavenged those parts from other cars, like the crome interior door handle that totally didn't match the overall aluminum trim. It just didn't have the character like the 3.