2010 MazdaSpeed3 Review: Is There A New Hot Hatch King In Town?

I can't fit in the seats becuae I am not 16 years old...I can't figure out it's recalcetrant cheap nav system controls or see the tiny screen...styling smily face grill also makes my eyes bleed....this is a car for a 16-17 year old that is under 5 foot 10 and about 165 pounds.

I have seen some pretty large people stuffed in those Mazda3 hatchbacks!

It's actually a quite comfortable car with loads of support in the seats. I almost bought a used 3 hatch GT loaded in dark grey but alas, they did not offer AWD.

One thing missing from this hot hatch is AWD. That much power for front wheels is not always a good thing. But who can argue the price. You can get one loaded for under 30k and buy one new at just about 25k with lots of standard features. If your that hung up about navigation then get a life, use a map, buy a Garmin. Not everyone needs it, I personally would opt for not having it, my portable works fine.

It's better than a GTI, better than a Civic Si, better than a Sentra SE-R, and just as reliable. But again, my stickler is the AWD. It was rumored they were going to pump it's power to 300 and give it AWD but obviously that never happened. Dumb move IMO, heck the Mazdaspeed 6 had the exact same powertrain and AWD, just cram it in.

This is why I bought a WRX with navigation and tuned the motor up with a Cobb Tuning Stage 1 map from their access port and an SPT exhaust...oh yea the seats are a lot bigger!

I prefer the AWD cars especially Subarus, but think there is room in this segment for both FWD and AWD sport compacts.

Just waitin' for the AWD Golf R - now there's a car to drool over and a worthy competitor to the STI