My friend just bought a 2006 Mazada 3 SP23. Top of the class, I really like the look and disregard it's already 3 years old, the car still looks like a brand new one. This proves that the paint job is of the top quality.
However, after we finished dinner at beverly hills, when my friend used the remote to open the door, The car stoped working. Then the air con stops working, the indicators stops working, the hand break light stops working. My god, even my 12 years old falcon has never done something like this. I reckon I should stay away from Mazda, at least Mazda 3.
The price, The look
Interior design, poor platics paint, bad quality

Review for the Maxx Sports version Awesome design, great power for its size, lots of room, nice interior. Sticks to the road well, great accel, and likes to be driven hard. Feels quite luxurious inside, reminicent of an AUDII with the red lights. The servicing from the Mazda guys is quite good and they wash your car for you aswell The seats fold down in a split style and give you plenty of room to carry long things and still have room for a 2nd passenger. Havn't had any problems yet at 20'000k
Zippy, tight manauvering, very comfortable, long enough to carry a 7 ft. surfboard,
A little noisy, heavy for a hatch, but looks so cool so don't care.

Just Ok, not what I expected to be. Drove ok and looks ok but really for a so called 'prestige brand' just did not live up to the standard. A lot better cars for the same money out there currently
Good looking but now very dated
Very Very noisy on the road and terrible looking dash and lights at night time. very distracting.

I just bought a brand new 2008 Neo Sport model, it is so easy to parallel park, and drive in general. I have been having some trouble with the drivers seat, getting comfortable has been difficult, the drivers seat feels crooked, am putting it down to not being "broken-in" yet.
Great looking car, solid feel, japanese make
Tyre noise, for what I paid for it, I didn't think it would be loud at all. The key feels like it could break at any time, and opening the boot with the key is annoying, mostly because the key is a flip out key and is not very strong

Love the SP23, the only negative thing is that the boot is a bit small if you need to fit a decent baby pram in it. Otherwise I couldn't speak higher of the car, it's very stylish and pretty economical. The interior is well designed and the colours are actually nice (there are some horrible interior colours around on other cars). Oh I especially love the fact that I can plug my iPod into the car and listen to my downloaded music - saves taking all those CD's! So cool.
Great stylish look
Boot on the sedan is a bit small

I purchased a brand new SP23 model a little over 2 years ago now. I am very happy with my choice of vehicle as it has been nothing but a pleasure to drive. Am a little disappointed in having purchased a top of the range vehicle that it didn't come with cruise contol and was quoted $700 to have it put in by the Mazda dealership which I thought was a bit steep. At this stage it hasn't even developed any funny 'noises' or things which cars tend to develop over time. Admittedly, my kilometers are still low for a car which is over 2 years old.
Very stylish and great to drive.
Did not come with cruise control, having to open the boot with your key and for this model no MP3 player.

Am looking to sell car purely because seats are far too uncomfortable, like the look of the car, plenty of room in boot.
Stylish looks, value for money and hopefully good resale value.
Absolutely hate the seats, no lumbar support at all, very uncomfortable for long drives. Need key to open boot, bit annoying.

A great car. Although it's classed as "small" it drives like a large 6 CYL.
It's equally as good in city and freeway driving.
Excellent fuel economy 37-40mpg. Great safety items - ABS brakes/ 6 airbags etc,etc. Anti theft items include an engine immobiliser. Take-off and passing speed more than adequate when required. Virtually all "nice-to haves" are standard (except cruise control). The standard of finish is excellent.
When parked with the steering wheel in the straight ahead position the key-hole is difficult to find.The heater is relatively slow to warm up.

Very good overall, everything great except for excessive road noise. Great Handling! Has lots of acceleration power and good to learn how to drive in.
Nice Design, handles well, good power
Road noise

Well, a definite 5 star from me. The interior and exterior looks very sporty and drivers very well. I wouldn't mind if it could move faster on low speed though, but higher speed performance is great I thought (this is for a 2.3 SP23 auto)
Stating the obvious; it looks totally awesome... The performance is incredible swift for a small non-turbo charged car. Classy interior design, brilliant car if you like to overtake people on high speeds.
From 0-60km doesn't rev as well, but from 60-100 it revs very well... You get a lot of attention driving one... which can be a bad thing if you want to keep it at low profile :)

Overall Ive had no problems, it drives well, is very economical with fuel. My only problem was choosing a colour, I liked all of them but went with the phantom purple, but now I like the teal colour. oh well.
I like the sylish look and it has a nice feel about it when I drive it.
The back sits up a little high and me being a small person sometimes finds that it obstructs my rear veiw at times.