This Mazda Deserves Your Attention | 2023 Mazda3 Hatchback Turbo Review 

From Alex: Oooh the daggers are out for Brian on Mazda's transmission. Here's the deal. The 6-speed Mazda had a Ford lineage but yes it is a Mazda manufactured and designed transmission. The devil is in the origins which explains why Mazda's 6AT is so large and heavy. The origin is a Ford 4F274E which was a Ford/Mazda 4-speed transaxle from 2000. This was used in the Focus, Fiesta and pretty much every Mazda at the time. Next came the FNR5 / FS5A which was essentially a re-work of the 4-speed design with an additional ratio. This was used in most Mazdas from 2002-2014 and also the Fusion, Milan, etc etc. Then came the Mazda 6-speed transaxle which was based on the 4 and 5 speeds that came before it, **BUT** this time the transmission was designed entirely by Mazda, however it is based upon the design of the 5-speed FNR5. So it is 100% Mazda? It depends on how you look at it, but it shares no parts at this time with a Ford transmission, but the designs date back quite far which explains some of the eccentricities of the design.

Have the 2019 NA premium. Just test drive the Turbo this morning. Low end a very noticeable difference in power. Feels more like a V6. Highway speeds not a huge difference and I was surprised. The NA is not slow by any means. The turbo just had a little more push and the engine itself had a deeper note to it.

I bought this car 2 weeks ago and I'm absolutely in love with it. As my first ever brand new car and Mazda, it's truly a stunning car. I got the Platinum Quartz Metallic & black interior. It's a comfortable daily driver and plenty of power to get around, all around great car.

When I took my 3 turbo in for an oil change, I asked about the fuel economy. The dealer told me that Mazda's EPA numbers are under "very specific conditions" and that "3-4 MPG less than the EPA numbers is normal". They are right, because in my suburban town driving I'm getting about 19mpg without even driving anywhere close to aggressive. If the fuel tank was bigger, it might be less of an issue, but with a 12.7 gallon tank it usually means every 200 miles I am filling up again.

I have a 2004 Mazda RX-8 and always thought the interior was ahead of their time when compared with my friends Fords, Hondas and Toyotas. I would love to get a newer gen Mazda 3 turbo as my next car.

Nope no Ford. The transmission is fully developed by Mazda. Skyactiv platform has nothing from Ford.

Loved your review, especially when you go over the interior bits and pieces in great detail. Very few other reviewers do that and you do an excellent job in conveying the fit, feel, and finish of an interior.

When using the Mazda Navigation, the directions are shown in the heads up display which is a super nice touch

I have a cx-30 and honestly i love it. I drove Nissan with a cvt in drivers ed a few years ago and told myself i would never buy a cvt. Thank god mazda still offers a regular automictic at an affordable price. My next option would be an Audi but it's twice the price and still not a huge fan of turbos although they are getting better. My cx-30 is still naturally aspirated. I purposely avoided the turbo because i preferred reliability over performance.

Nice organized, informative review. Great job!

Excellent review. Recently drove a couple CX-9s and was struck by how similar the various review dimensions perform in that 3-row. Other than the claustrophobic back seat, of course.

Hi all from Australia. Into my fifth month of ownership of a ‘22 Mazda3 top of the range ( skyactiv x, auto, white metallic, black interior). I asked for the skyactiv x engine (compression ignition,40 us mpg)and took the colour to get the car In six weeks from Japan. Refined ( 48 changes in noise suppression over gen 3) no problem with ride (simpler and more durable rear suspension) still direct steering. I didn’t buy it to carry rear passengers, or car seats but for the fact that the style is completely different from all the CUVs and SUVs out there. I dislike current trends and I am 6ft 2in and perfectly comfortable. Korean brands don’t have long term durability, there interiors are appalling especially with the amount of piano black in them. There are no blind spots with monitoring, visibility fine with forward and rear. emergency braking. Get real, it’s all the car you need or want. Mercedes, Audi/VW reliability hasn’t been the same and expensive parts/maintenance.

The Toyota/ Mazda partnership nailed the new range of Mazda's.

It’s a shame most reviews are of the Turbo Premium Plus. The lower trims are far cheaper and feature most of the goodness these high trims have.

I love my '22 Mazda 3, I have the premium NA model (one day I will have a Turbo XD), only real issues I have is that center console feels a little flimsy and if you have the rear seats down it's really hard to open it and the downshift in non-sport is a bit sluggish and jarring if in manual mode.

great review my guy! I know the manual is pretty much axed from the lineup, barring some base models and the Miata, but yeah - the big thing missing from the brand is a modern, quick-shifting 8-speed auto. Would suit this car wonderfully.

Very thorough review. You are a great addition to the channel. How long are you going to keep Alex around? Haha

I love the fact that Mazda focusses on the driver and front seat passenger with this car. I do not care about all that nonsense like usb charging etc for the rear passengers. I rarely have them, maybe like once a month at the most so I do not buy a car for them I buy it for me.

Perfectly fine review. Just wondering why the Encore GX and Taos are here, when the one those vehicles really compete with is Mazda's CX-30. Wouldn't it be better if the Corolla Hatch and Volkswagen GTI were here instead?

If I was younger I'd definitely consider a Mazda3. As it stands my lower back demands my next car be a crossover.😄 I'll check out the CX-30 and CX-5. Have a feeling the CX-5 will be the only thing that works well.

Mazda 3 Hatchback is very appealing and compelling

good review you got talent well put together

Good review. I'm not a fan of a light colored dash or leather so it would have been nice to see what the lower trim levels looked like if only for a minute or so. Plus, living in the south I don't really need the complexity of AWD and even a turbo so, again, given the cost of new cars, it would have been nice to see what the lower trim levels looked and get your impressions.

I love Mazda vehicles!! Awesome job bro.

bought a 2023 2.5 T because of this excellent review! Great hot hatch.

I have one and i like it but hate the too small glove box. Is it too much to ask to get a bin style box and not this minuscule slot type where stuff falls out every time it is opened.?

Great job Brian. Carry on.

Did you guys not cover the CES Show in Vegas? RAM/Sony Concept Vehicles?

If they gave it a handling and performance upgrade I would have considered it

Good car but badly needs another 2-3 in. rear leg room and a newer transmission. GTI has less room on paper but roomier interior in the real world. GTI also has less power and no AWD but does faster 0-60.

Great car!. But having no rear vents is horrible for nowadays car. Backseat space is tight. The design is amazing.

For me Mazdas win for steering feel and speakers, both for base and top level models. Other brands have more room or better gas mileage. I prefer the brake feel for some Subarus, but the steering is a lot more numb.

Stretch the wheel base, widen the stance, add phev, pano fixed glass, it would be a top seller.

Others have observed that the comparison with a Taos and Encore would be more appropriate if you were reviewing a CX-30, not the 3 hatchback. It's a shame that Mazda or the local dealer does not provide a base model for a review. I don't need AWD, and certainly don't want any 'augmented' engine sounds coming through the speakers (did I hear that right?). Right now (Jan 2023) you won't find many base model 3's out there - you'll barely find the top line 3's either, at least where I am. As for Civic vs. Mazda3, I have had generally good experiences with my local Mazda dealer for servicing, and that weighs heavily on my buying decision. The local Honda dealer is a zoo. I'm in the borough of Queens, NYC. Your experiences with local dealers will definitely vary.

I enjoy Brian’s review. Good review 👍🏽

Hi, I have a 2016 mazda top spec which I bought new, please consider your options carefully before buying. Don't rely on looks. I have had a few issues with my mazda 3 that the dealership refused to fix for free in spite of the warranty. Currently there's my tensioner that needs fixing, mazda fixed it for free about a year and a half ago, but the same issue is happening and now they want $800 to fix it. There's also my starter motor that they say is noisy and reccomend that I change at the "low" price of $550. Last year I changed my serpentine belt at mazda for the "cheap" price of $650. I love my mazda and the way they drive and always drive it very conservatively, but for the sake of my pocket, my next car will be a toyota.

Why the comparison to the micro crossovers at the end? This is a hatchback with plenty of in class competition

Nice, but I'd rather have the sedan. I don't like the small rear side windows and "fat" rear end. Civic is a better hatchback. BTW, when are you going to do a full review of the CX-50?

1:33 how’d you manage to get the car parked like that 😂

If this was the size of the civic hatchback, 100% i would get it

the '24 Subaru Impreza RS will be worthy at about $29K though still no turbo. Expected hwy mpg of 37+ from the 182 hp 2.5 liter boxer w/full time AWD will be decent.

That 6 speed transmission is Mazda designed and built, NOT with Ford.

I have a '22 and have put 13k miles on it... I know it's not meant to be a Speed3, but a little disappointed in Mazda cost-cutting with this model. They really went all out on features for the money/looks/mechanical reliability but should have put better wheels and tires on the turbo model when even the 180hp Civic Sport has a much better setup. Also, the stock handling/ride is mediocre with too aggressive of brake vectoring stock. Mods do help but still has the same SUV tune with peak power at 5k RPM on it that when the engine first came out on the'16 CX-9 instead of an actual car tune (and more power) like the Koreans have with their 2.5T of apparently same size turbo too. Also, mine has flimsy center console/lid, a light engine knock at cold start sometimes, the stock 12v battery is terrible and upgrading the too soft rear engine mount that was part of the problem with sloppy steering and handling to a stiffer one brought out all kinds of rattles. It also doesn't help dealer service centers that think they need to overfill it with conventional oil instead of using synthetic, even when you ask for it, etc. With the good blind spot monitoring (yes, it's actually even on the regular "premium" non "premium plus" trim) the rear visibility is not a big deal at all and a $100 rear mirror cam adds a much better wider view if needed. The gloss black on the transmission console and window switch gear are def very easily scratched, but there are all kinds of cover choices available. Stock, it's a good looking alternative to a Subaru and again, there are suspension mods available to make it handle better for sure, I have done bigger wheels/tires, strut bar brace, lowering springs and as mentioned above, a stiffer rear engine mount, every one of these had very clear benefits, but I'm kind of disappointed it took all that to get actual "Zoom Zoom". But you can also tell Mazda is milking that '14'-16 developed SkyActiv tech a little too long as a smaller maker. I don't think Ford had anything to do with these transmissions (I'm nearly certain they were developed after the breakup with Ford) and the shifting algo is very good, but only 6 gears means MPG's drop pretty quickly after 65 MPH. I'm not sure I'm going to keep it super long term, but tunes should finally be available for it by spring of '23 it looks like, I don't want/need 400hp, but 300hp with an actual car oriented powerband should be quite safe to achieve. Bottom-line: Good value car but would have preferred to pay a bit more for better tires/wheels/suspension and an actual car tune up front.

12:05 I’ve always wondered why Mazda made this partial LCD screen have an additional fuel gauge. Seems redundant.

The vehicles the 3 is compared to are interesting. Wouldn't it make more sense to compare it to other compacts? Like the Impreza and Corolla? Hondas are becoming more expensive even their standard models while Corolla and Impreza win on price but not on features or handling imo. Comparing the 3 to actual compact suvs is an apples to oranges comparison.

the rear spoiler, side skirts and bigger front bumper is a extra $3000cad addon

So, GTA/GT references, drives a hot hatch, is a stickler for rear wipers and is attractive... I think Brian is my dream man.

I had a 17 CX-5, and I really liked it, the tech wasn't the best though. The lane keeping assist would ping pong you inside the lane lines. I was told Mazdas still do that. Is that true Brian?

Does it come in a 6 speed or did I miss that part?

Mazda needs to make a sporty version of their mazda3 again.

much better than last time,,

Nice. Other than that you can't see out the rear window. Which is a small dealbreaker. But a dealbreaker all the same. For someone who wants a hatchback the Civic wins because of visibility. It's a shame. Mazda really failed the design on this. Not sure how you missed this glaring negative that most all other car channels will point out. Plus the Civic will soon have a hybrid.

Your sound meter must be different than the one used by Alex for everything else: hard to imagine this mazda is 65 db when even S-class, GLS, G90, X7, etc are all around 68 db at quietest, and are cars 3-4x the price

3:21 Major misinformation that needs correction! Ford influenced Mazda's ceased to exist from 2012. The Mazda 3, 2nd series was the last Ford-Mazda in this range. This is the 4th series. So really, it should be common knowledge that Ford should never be mentioned in the same sentence as this specific vehicle because it's ancient history! Both transmissions available are purely Mazda transmissions and were clean sheeted (as with absolutely everything in the vehicle) from 3rd generation onwards. Ford divested - and it helped Ford from a financial perspective and Mazda from an engineering perspective. Post the 2008 global financial crisis Ford divested from Mazda and Volvo as part of "One Ford", which saved Ford as a brand due to cost cutting that prevented Ford from having the same financial issues experienced by other US car brands. It was extremely smart on the part of Ford. It left Mazda in financial shambles and they had two options. To continue to use the Ford parts bin or reinvent themselves from scratch. They did the latter, thereby removing the stranglehold that the American brand had on the engineering of the Japanese brand. It turned from a brand run by Dearbourn, Michigan execs wanting profit, to a brand run by Hiroshima HQ with execs wanting a brand that could get back to its roots. This mean that Mazda could move forward with Japanese style engineering of its own hence why the transmissions were brand new pure Mazda transmissions as of 2012 - NOT the the old transmission they had during Ford era. Although it's a 6 speed, the number is the only thing that is truely old about it. It was a revelation when it was first released in 2012, and today is still considered by many to be the best AT available on any mainstream vehicle. The manual has even less contention, being considered the best MT on any mainstream without competition (the MX-5 should gear shift is used across the board).

beltline is too high - big blindspot, the golf has better visibility from lower dlo

The difference in road noise measurements between when Brian and Alex reviews a car is kind of annoying because it makes it impossible to compare it to other cars since something is clearly being measured differently.

Why is it when Alex does decibel readings he always gets higher numbers?

Hatchback vs. wagon ?

I just can’t go back to a car without CarPlay/Android Auto and Mazda isn’t budging on this anytime soon

Where's Alex??

Is this Alex' son?

How do you only fit 2 suitcases in a 20 cu. ft hatch and 3 suitcases into 13 cu. ft sedan trunk? I get that the shapes are different but with such a big difference in volume shouldn't hatch fit quite a bit more, not less? Something is seriously wrong with the hatch measurements.

nice car, drives very well. BUT way too rich for me. I do want a turbo but too expensive I am 6'2" and it feels VERY claustrophobic...

The lack of independent rear suspension has killled this car for me

Brian on Autos

We have a guy on base who has one..looks great but tight on the inside 😩

Hahaha LED turn signal that fades, we are going in full circle and soon incan bulbs will be the rage again.

Still waiting for Mazda's rotary range extender 🙄🙄💀

Where is Alex?

The engineering voodoo in Mazda products plus the user interface switches and knobs is why I want one for our next car. Would practically eat up a Mazda Prius right now.

The way the body line on the doors shrinks the whole car below, especially when you're looking at a decent color!! That part really ruins it for me because it looks like somebody put on a corset or something

This is just my opinion, but I find the Mazda lineup boring. If I was buying a car 2010 I'd say it'd be modern. But it just doesn't have any appeal to me. Even if I were to get one, I'd feel like I'd be trying to convince others of its lacking appeal, considering how more exciting cars are available for this price. Mazda needs to step it up interior and exterior.

Bloody good review

Alex, you look great, lost a lot of weight!

3:19 that’s definitely not a ford transmission

Mazda has a partnership with Toyota

Terrible rear seat legroom, which also often means a no go for rear facing child seats. The golf R and Kona are shorter vehicles with way more leg room. Mazda and Toyota both do this 😢 when will they learn

"Honda decided to make Civic Type R expensive". Nonsense comment. Alex please come back

It's the nicest car in this class of vehicle in terms of looks and driving dynamics, but it sacrifices all practicality. It's one of the most expensive. The fuel economy is the worst. The interior feels cramped and claustrophobic. The cargo area is small for this size of car. The windows are tiny and the pillars are huge, so visibility is poor. The all-black interior is like sitting in a coffin. That's a tough sell to a pragmatic person like myself.

Save money don't buy the turbo motor it will just break down later.The regular motor got a slight horsepower gain in 2024 so if you just drive it you won't miss the turbo also to get the most performance out of the turbo you must buy the most expensive fuel.

I wish it had manual…. I would’ve bought it

I always find it funny that Mazda and Acura want to ‘convince’ their customers that they should go NO touchscreen for ‘safety’ considerations, hence those non-intuitive track pads/knobs. Lexus and BMW are wiser lol.

The Transmission is MADE by Mazda now , not Ford , that is long gone ....Mazda has a very unique trans ....stop saying Ford Trans .

Nice car, but not sporty enough for a GTI buyer, not cheap enough for a cheap hatch buyer, and not a CUV for the normies. I hate to say, but this feels like the last generation of small Mazda hatch in the US.

Previous gen is a much better car.

Nope, way too small compared to competition

Yuck. AWD and turbo really kills mpgs! My mid-trim mazda 3 is +/-40

Mazda is slowly coming to their senses and introducing real touchscreens on their new models. That infotainment knob works okay, but it's not faster or safer than touch. It adds steps to every task. And CarPlay and Android Auto are specifically designed for touch.

So much but get so little

I'm not buying any car that doesn't have independent suspension.

Everything made in modern Mazdas are developed by Mazda.. its been this way for multiple years now. Love this car, great review otherwise

I have 2017 Mazda6 and my sis has 2017 Lexus NX. Both circa 32K miles. When you inspect under-body this is where you see the issue with Mazda. All its hardware all metal pieces and even raw-painted parts are rusting. Lexus under body is pristine. All the mazda hardware is junk. Lexus Disk brakes - you replace a pad and rotor is excellent. Mazda rotors must be replaced. They are that Rusty. I guess, if you live in Arizona - problem solved. In the salting states - forget it.

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🚘

A 7/10ths car.

DI + Turbo - PI = disaster

looks like it has a huge dent in the side.

Sorry but ford did not help in designing this transmission, it’s all Mazda. Do your research please, it’s distracting and uninformed and takes away your credibility.

They need to stop with the ugly black rims

Would buy if it had another 50hp. That turbo is too small!

no it doesn't because its a no head room cave in the back seat