Purchased a used 09 mazda3 and I absolutely love this car, it feels great to drive and looks beautiful! I've tried my best to clean it but due to the older paint some things like sun damage and hand prints won't come out and I may need to get it repainted eventually, but I managed to clean the head lights :D!

Replaced a fender, due to some crinkles caused by me on the wheel arch. The sticker really makes me not want to paint it now 😂 This car is lousy with character.

Finally got a new polisher and put it to use. Happy with the results 👍🏾

My wife is not an enthusiast, but wanted to keep driving a stick shift. I looked at all viable options.

It was down to the 3 or the Civic Si.

Honestly I think the Civic was a better car, but this was the better fit. Her old car was a 2014 Soul with 235k on it that's still nearly perfect condition but getting aged. We bought that new and she was still on original clutch. We are keeping that car as a back up.

Had to drive to Atlanta as none of the ding dongs in Tennessee seemed to have this optioned car.

Sadly they only come in basic colors.

I’m at just over 23k miles on the OEM Toyo tires. Going to replace them before winter. Any suggestions for the next set of shoes?

Transfagarasan and Transalpina are just made for the Mazda 3.

Sadly, I couldn’t get many photos of the car or the views at the top of Transalpina because of the heavy fog and rain, here are some photos I took from both roads.

If you ever get the chance, go and drive these roads!

Greetings from 🇭🇷

So, I'm not looking for upvotes or anything. I'm just still amazed how much I love this car. 50,000 miles in and I still get excited to drive it every day. Had no intention of buying a Mazda until I test drove this thing. Japan build, which I think is pretty neat.

Anyone have tint on their Mazda3 that I could use as a reference?

I’m looking to tint my 2024 Mazda3 sedan and want to stay as close to legal as possible in both Illinois and Iowa. From what I’ve found, Illinois allows 35% on the front side windows and 35% on the rear windows, while Iowa is 50% on the front side windows and 35% on the rear side windows for a 4-door sedan.

I’m thinking about doing 50% on the front side windows and 35% on the rear side windows, but I’m worried it’ll look weird with the front being lighter than the back. If anyone has this setup or something similar, I’d really appreciate seeing any pictures if anyone’s had theirs done around this range.

The car will be driven in both Illinois and Iowa and I’d prefer to avoid tint tickets so please let me know your guises thoughts!

Proud to be part of the family! Did a ton of research on compact sedans and midsize sedans. Landed on Mazda 3 Sedan for many reasons including exterior looks and especially interior looks and features (best in the class by far). And the price. Got 3300 off MSRP for a 2026 Carbon Edition, which I am happy with.

Almost luxury car interior.

I bought the Carbon Edition because I liked the color the most. Didn’t like Machine Gray in person as much as the pictures and videos (still great though! Still my 2nd favorite color). Plus I don’t like the preferred trim’s gray wheels (although they are MUCH nicer in person than videos and pictures). Plus AWD…

I chose Mazda 3 over Civic and Corolla because I wanted a naturally aspirated engine, no hybrid, and no CVT. Plus I think the Mazda 3 looks amazing inside and out. The Corolla is ugly and the new Civic is ugly (imo). And Mazda’s interior far ahead both Corolla and Civic.

This color is beautiful. And the AWD drives better than the FWD Preferred Trim. Carbon Edition also has real leather and wireless CarPlay, nice bonuses. I am liking CarPlay being wireless way more than I thought I would. Wired is fine, but it’s nice if I don’t want to deal with a cord, or if the cord goes bad which I have experienced many times. Just instantly connected the moment I get in the car.

The wireless charger is useless, but that’s every car with a wireless charger.

I LOVE this car. You get so much more than a Civic Touring and Corolla XSE/XLE. Memory Seating (once you have this you can’t live without it) being one.

I recommend this car to everyone! And no, no affiliation with Mazda 😂

I prefer black, tan, or white interior but the red has really grown on me and is wayyyy nicer in person than in videos. Plus it’s dark red. I would never buy Toyota’s bright red interior that looks like a Toy Car.

Gas mileage isn’t bad. Great on the highway, was getting 37 mpg. City I’ve only been getting like 23 but then again I’ve only had the car for a couple days and these might not be super accurate yet. Still a lot better than my old IS 350 where I got like 20 in the city, 32 on the highway, and took Premium Gas. I expect my gas bill to go down 25-30%.

Also, I was scared the audio would suck after reading reviews. It’s great. Yeah no bass, but it gets loud and crystal clear. I was not expecting crystal clear. I had an Accord Sport Hybrid as a rental recently and the Bose audio sucked on that thing. It did not sound natural at all, and definitely not clear.

The microphone for phone calls is also like a 9.5/10. The Accord and Civic Microphone is like a 3/10, it’s awful. No one can hear me on calls.

One final thing: Mazda and Toyota also use a 1080p backup camera in their cars whereas Honda Civic and Accord are like 360p topps. It is NOT 480p I assure you.

Edit: Another reason I bought is reliability. I usually only buy Japanese cars and after months of research, I honestly think Mazda is the third most reliable car brand behind Lexus as #1 and Toyota as #2. Mazda has a ton of Mazda 3’s making it to 200k+ miles without issue. And a Naturally Aspirated Engine and normal 6 speed automatic transmission. Honda I see way too many head gaskets blown in their hybrids, especially the Accord’s between 80k miles to 150k miles. Even the 2.0L NA. Honda is still a very reliable brand but I’d rank them behind Lexus, Toyota, Mazda, and Subaru. Also the Mazda 3 Sedan is made in Japan again for 2026 after being made in Mexico for years, definitely makes a difference IMO.

Mazda also has ranked #1 safety car brand in the world regarding accident testing. Although they could use an upgrade to their safety alert systems, I feel Toyota has Mazda and Honda beat pretty decisively there with the Toyota Safety System.

I will say the Mazda Lane Assist works just as well as Toyota and Lexus though. The one in the Accord is laughable. I’ll be 3/4 in the next lane before it corrects, yikes!

/rant over

Happy to be here!!!!! Sorry for the BIG wall of text haha!

Hi all,

I have a 2021 mazda 3 6mt Skyactiv-X which is having some shifting issues. To keep it short sometimes shifting comes with a very notchy or bumpy feeling, especially in 2nd gear. I have had the cars for over 2 years and never had this issue until it started happening a couple of months ago. I have already replace the transmission oil and cleaned and greased the dirty shifter linkage in the engine bay. Especially the latter helped a bit. However the problem still occurs, just slightly less pronounced.

The problem is intermittent and is driving me insane. I am especially scared that the synchronizers are being hurt everytime this notchy feeling occurs. Mind you, there is no grinding noise and it doesn't resist per se.

I want to reset the position of the shifter cables. I have already opened up the center console and cup holder assembly to get access to the cables. My question is how do I actually reset them? It seems to be kept in place by a tab, but it is not only very hard to get to but also incredibly stiff. Has anyone done this before in a 4th gen?

Thanks in advance!

I have a 2020 Mazda 3 sedan with 37k miles and they are trying to charge me 3 grand to fix a ac leak and “compressor” I’m finding this hard to believe cause this car is solid and young BUT it is blowing barely cool and plain air.

Love seeing another 3 turbo💪

Went to Sheetz earlier and had to take some photos cause it was looking too clean 😮‍💨

I recently got my driver side mirror ERADICATED and wanted to replace it. All of the options only show the sedan without the heated mirror but mine came with heated mirrors. The hatch options come with heat and I ordered those. I was going to do the work myself will they fit on the sedan?

Hey has anyone else had trouble reinstalling the battery bracket after putting in a new car battery? The new one is a size 35 battery from Costco that should fit. Any tips would be appreciated!

I want to ask - do you know what could be causing this popping sound in the steering wheel? It only happens when I turn the steering wheel (with the car started or turned off) or when I drive over a bump, which is noticeable at low speeds. It's really driving me crazy.

Hallo Mazda-Fahrer,

ich habe eine kurze Frage: Ich überlege mir, einen Mazda 3 SKYACTIV-G zuzulegen, würde aber gerne wissen, wie hoch der Kraftstoffverbrauch im Mix aus Autobahn und Stadt pro 100 km ist. Danke im Voraus

What dashcams does everyone use? I’m looking for something with good quality, and something that comes with front/back cams.

Need to cut off pre-muffler flange and buy new exhaust parts, is it just a 2 inch exhaust all the way around past the manifold?