2012 Mazda 3 2.5L: My 2 Year Review

In reply to Mad_Ratel:

One thing I like about the car is that the dash does NOT dig into my knee. I'm a big guy, and I'm more comfortable in this car than in a lot of other larger cars. The console sides are curved so your legs fit better.

Mine was as well, glad to hear that they fixed it. I sold the car for a z 1 month after payoff because of that issue. and having to rev the piss out of the 2.3 on the highway to pass people. thinking back, I was stupid and should have kept it.

I have had 6 Subarus, all WRXs or STis and just haven't had the experiences that others have had. Mine have all been good. Having said that my 2015 WRX is light years better than all the rest of them. I giant leap forward in quality and economy. I can average high 20s mpg around town (if I am careful) and low 30s on the highway. Anyway nice write up.

Quick update:

I have been complaining about the brakes on the car since I replaced the stock stuff with Centric C-Tek rotors and Stop Tech Street Performance pads around 60k miles. I broke them in properly, and they were ok to start. Not too soon after I replaced them, I began to have some severe shuddering at speed and during braking. I took them all apart and noticed that not only were the pads leaving a lot of deposits (that's to be expected), but there were parts of the rotor that were visibly damaged or defective. I just dealt with them for a while.

Well, last week, I had enough of the vibro-brakes, so I started looking for something else. I saw on Amazon a company called MaxBrakes that was selling those cross drilled and slotted kits you always see cheap on eBay. I was skeptical, so I researched them more. People seemed to like them well enough, so I ordered up a set direct from them. For $151 shipped, I got front and rear rotors and their no-name ceramic pads. For that price, I figured I'll just replace them if they are awful.

They were ordered on last Tuesday night from somewhere in Ontario, Canada, and they showed up on Friday to my house in Southeastern MA. Not bad! And to my surprise, the rotors and pads looked pretty good. The rotor castings looked nicer than any aftermarket brakes I've gotten in the past. They are e-coated too, so maybe they won't rust to the hubs like the Mazda 3's are notorious for doing.

I slapped them on and rotated my tires, and the car became 100% better to drive. The braking is very smooth, and the car stops a lot better than the Centric/Stop Techs ever did. The pedal feel is better, too. The vibration under braking is completely gone now. The vibration at highway speeds, however, is reduced by a lot, but still present. I'm thinking it's either wheel balancing or the shredded transmission mount that still needs to be replaced. That's next on the list.

Also, the car officially hit 100K yesterday!

And PICS!

Here's one of the rotors.

The old driver's front rotor. Does this rotor look warped to you? It looks pretty warped to me.

See that vertical line? All the rotors have that. And that's not pad deposits; it's more like missing rotor material.

My dog Holly thinks I'm lame.

After she was done "helping" me, she derped it up in the yard for like 10 minutes.

And 100K!!!

Pics aren't working?

All I have to add, I really wanted a current gen 3 when I was car shopping, but ended up with a 2014 6 instead. The extra room is awesome, as in I don't think I'll ever want a compact car again, it was almost as nimble, and the slight mpg penalty was more than made up for by a significantly lower insurance premium. A 3 would have cost about as much to insure as my '13 v6 mustang, the 6 was several hundred dollars less every 6 months.

Averaging high 20's with almost all in town driving, mid 30's on highway trips.

My only real complaint is it doesn't like to warm up when it's -25 or colder. It's fine while moving but sitting at idle my heater will blow cool air. I think I'll do something to cover the radiator this winter.

In reply to SilverFleet: Thanks for filling out that survey!! I find my 2014 is much more enjoyable than the earlier ones I've driven. Though I still don't like the damned fob! It's not been any problem but it's too big in your pocket and not handy to attach other keys to, which would really make it huge!

BTW: For those of you who don't like the feature that locks the doors when you walk away with the fob in your pocket or the constant on lights, there is an easy cure. I took the car back to the dealer and the disabled the headlight always on and the empty car auto-lock features both with a quick software update. In fact there are a ton of features you can either enable or disable as you wish.

do the newer skyactiv motors still sound horrible while they're cold and still in Park/neutral? My '12 sounds like some combination of an exhaust leak, a misfire, and a vacuum leak. At least until I put it in drive. I'm told it's intentional, and nothing more than a valve-timing setting designed to bring the motor up to operating temp faster.

In reply to slowride:

I have an 09 Mazda 3 w/2.3 engine. The tire wear/noise issue is due to the fact that the rear camber and toe can not be set correctly without an aftermarket link that can adjust the rear toe. If the toe can not be adjusted to spec, the tires will develop cupping which causes the noise. With an adjustable link in place, camber and toe can be set to specs or adjusted to minimize tire wear. Several choices available with varying prices. Installed and aligned car last spring, installed new tires at the same time. Just installed winter tires and inspected summer tires. No toe related wear or cupping. Problem solved. Now I can dial in my Mazda 3 just as I do on the Miata.

I haven't noticed any untoward noises from the engine in my 6 unless I forget to plug it in and it's below 0. Did that once when he dash said it was -35*f. It still turned over, but it really really wasn't happy about it. Most things aren't at those temps though.

belteshazzar wrote: do the newer skyactiv motors still sound horrible while they're cold and still in Park/neutral? My '12 sounds like some combination of an exhaust leak, a misfire, and a vacuum leak. At least until I put it in drive. I'm told it's intentional, and nothing more than a valve-timing setting designed to bring the motor up to operating temp faster.

I had some Centric rotors on my MS3 and a year later they started shaking while braking. Turned them and they were good for about 4 months and the shake came back. Turned them again and same thing happened. Got some OEM Mazda rotors, no more shake in 2 years.