Mazda 3 Sport 2.2D 185 Hatch - 18 month/ 25k miles review...
Discussion
After a PM from a forum member asking me what I thought of the car, I thought I'd post my ramblings here.
It went back to the lease company on Friday with 25,500 miles on the clocks.
Great car! Lovely spec (heated seats, BOSE, sat nav etc). Pretty quick when on the move.
It takes practise to accelerate hard through the gears as the box doesn't like to be rushed, not lifting completely off the accelerator during shifts seemed to work well. Only an issue when really pressing on
Satnav is a bit clunky but always gets you there. Input is though the little toggle switch and arrows on the steering wheel, so best only used when stationary. Phone works well when its set up, a bit tedious as you have to save individual numbers into the system by voice commands, and it will only display the number of the person calling. A Parrot kit is infinitely more intuitive, but the fitted kit is better than nothing. It also streamed bluetooth music from the iPhone without problem, although there is no way of skipping track etc without touching the phone.
The boot is a bit stingy, especially because the Bose reduced the depth by about 4". More than enough for the weekly shop.
Seats weren't the comfiest (I'm 5' 11" and 21st!), and they didn't go low enough for my liking. They are supportive though.
You can average about 45mpg over mixed driving, it would cruise at 120 leptons all day long and still get 32mpg! Motorway / Autobahn performance is staggering, although from 125mph it feels strained to be honest, although I had 140mph out of mine on occassions. Mid range is what this car is all about, noticably quicker than a GT TDI 170 Golf/Octy vRS/Audi TT diesel etc. Fastest diesel in its class. Nice and smooth in its power delivery, it really is a peach of an engine.
Handling is pretty amazing when you get the confidence to throw it around. Very predictable on the limit.
No faults at all in the 18 months/25k I had it. Needed front tyres at 9k and 18k, although rears still had plenty of life. Only niggle would be the heated drivers seat got unbearably hot, even on setting 1, but Mazda couldn't find a fault.
Its a stunning looking car and turns heads for sure. Rare enough to feel a bit more special than a Golf or Focus.
It does however have a couple of annoying "features". ECU isn't remappable (Denso not Bosch), as its such low volumes most tuners can't be bothered, although there are some plug in boxes that should make a difference.
The DPF! Fecking thing drove me mad. It works by injecting extra diesel to get the DPF really hot. It lasts for about 20 mins every 200 miles or so. During that time economy nearly HALVES, the exhast gets boomy, and the throttle gets really twitchy. If you turn the engine off during a regen then the extra diesel gets dumped into the sump. There is an 'X' mark on the dipstick about an inch higher than full, because the diesel will make the engine oil level go up. If it reaches the X mark it needs an oil change. If ignored the extra oil level could cause turbo seals to fail allowing the engine to run on its oil, it will run at fatal RPMs and wreck the engine. Highly unlikely, but a bit scary. Mine needed an extra oil change between each service as the Mrs did a lot of very short journeys in it. Real life mpg would be be closer to 50mpg if it wasn't for this thing, and an extra "intermediate" oil and filter change at £100 odd is a significant running cost. If you do lots of short journeys I wouldn't recommend this car. Plus I'm not sure on the lubricating properties of diesel, but I wouldn't think its great for long term longevity. Lots of earlier Mazda 6 diesels had a similar set up and have chomped through big end bearings at 120k miles... I wouldn't let it bother you if you get rid of a car after a few years though!
If there is a way to remove the DPF it would make the car stunningly brilliant, but it ruined the ownership experience a bit for me.
Overall its a great car! 8/10 for me, and looking back I can't think of anything (in its class ) I'd rather have done 25k commuting miles in.
Hope this helps anyone considering one.
Tom.
Lots of pictures from when Baker21 of Detailing World detailed it for me on this thread - http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...
It went back to the lease company on Friday with 25,500 miles on the clocks.
Great car! Lovely spec (heated seats, BOSE, sat nav etc). Pretty quick when on the move.
It takes practise to accelerate hard through the gears as the box doesn't like to be rushed, not lifting completely off the accelerator during shifts seemed to work well. Only an issue when really pressing on
Satnav is a bit clunky but always gets you there. Input is though the little toggle switch and arrows on the steering wheel, so best only used when stationary. Phone works well when its set up, a bit tedious as you have to save individual numbers into the system by voice commands, and it will only display the number of the person calling. A Parrot kit is infinitely more intuitive, but the fitted kit is better than nothing. It also streamed bluetooth music from the iPhone without problem, although there is no way of skipping track etc without touching the phone.
The boot is a bit stingy, especially because the Bose reduced the depth by about 4". More than enough for the weekly shop.
Seats weren't the comfiest (I'm 5' 11" and 21st!), and they didn't go low enough for my liking. They are supportive though.
You can average about 45mpg over mixed driving, it would cruise at 120 leptons all day long and still get 32mpg! Motorway / Autobahn performance is staggering, although from 125mph it feels strained to be honest, although I had 140mph out of mine on occassions. Mid range is what this car is all about, noticably quicker than a GT TDI 170 Golf/Octy vRS/Audi TT diesel etc. Fastest diesel in its class. Nice and smooth in its power delivery, it really is a peach of an engine.
Handling is pretty amazing when you get the confidence to throw it around. Very predictable on the limit.
No faults at all in the 18 months/25k I had it. Needed front tyres at 9k and 18k, although rears still had plenty of life. Only niggle would be the heated drivers seat got unbearably hot, even on setting 1, but Mazda couldn't find a fault.
Its a stunning looking car and turns heads for sure. Rare enough to feel a bit more special than a Golf or Focus.
It does however have a couple of annoying "features". ECU isn't remappable (Denso not Bosch), as its such low volumes most tuners can't be bothered, although there are some plug in boxes that should make a difference.
The DPF! Fecking thing drove me mad. It works by injecting extra diesel to get the DPF really hot. It lasts for about 20 mins every 200 miles or so. During that time economy nearly HALVES, the exhast gets boomy, and the throttle gets really twitchy. If you turn the engine off during a regen then the extra diesel gets dumped into the sump. There is an 'X' mark on the dipstick about an inch higher than full, because the diesel will make the engine oil level go up. If it reaches the X mark it needs an oil change. If ignored the extra oil level could cause turbo seals to fail allowing the engine to run on its oil, it will run at fatal RPMs and wreck the engine. Highly unlikely, but a bit scary. Mine needed an extra oil change between each service as the Mrs did a lot of very short journeys in it. Real life mpg would be be closer to 50mpg if it wasn't for this thing, and an extra "intermediate" oil and filter change at £100 odd is a significant running cost. If you do lots of short journeys I wouldn't recommend this car. Plus I'm not sure on the lubricating properties of diesel, but I wouldn't think its great for long term longevity. Lots of earlier Mazda 6 diesels had a similar set up and have chomped through big end bearings at 120k miles... I wouldn't let it bother you if you get rid of a car after a few years though!
If there is a way to remove the DPF it would make the car stunningly brilliant, but it ruined the ownership experience a bit for me.
Overall its a great car! 8/10 for me, and looking back I can't think of anything (in its class
) I'd rather have done 25k commuting miles in.Hope this helps anyone considering one.
Tom.
Lots of pictures from when Baker21 of Detailing World detailed it for me on this thread - http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...
Pentoman said:
Interesting - a car I had never considered so it's all new to me.
Rode in a petrol 3 recently and was impressed by the satnav screen and Bluetooth functions - but hearing the reality of the situation from you has made me rethink. The petrol was loud - really loud, so it sounds like you may have made the right choice with the diesel. Looks good to. Do these models of 3 have the abs, or is it ESP, failure problem?
No, these do not have the problematic Teves ABS controllers.Rode in a petrol 3 recently and was impressed by the satnav screen and Bluetooth functions - but hearing the reality of the situation from you has made me rethink. The petrol was loud - really loud, so it sounds like you may have made the right choice with the diesel. Looks good to. Do these models of 3 have the abs, or is it ESP, failure problem?
The petrol is pants on petrol too, 30mpg if your lucky I understand!
Olivera said:
I had to google your statement about the DPF causing diesel to drain into the sump! Can't actually believe that an engine could be designed in such a way that would dilute the lubrication properties of your engine oil. Sounds totally ludicrous to me.
I'm not making it up! It is an unbelievable design.It wasn't a problem when I was commuting 50 miles each way to work, but when SWMBO took the car over it was rarely more than 3 miles.
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