I choose Mazda 3 instead of the civic and elantra, main reason is due to the car design.
Besides, i personally feel that the handling is better than civic and more power. Therefore, i grabbed it.

If road noise is one of your concern, you may need to think twice. As it really loud if you getting the 2.0 with R17 tyre.

My advise of using m3 2.0 sedan for 3 months+ as follows:

- As for my wife experience who is sitting at the back most of the time when we travelling from JB and KL in every weekend, she feels quite comfortable due to its rear multilink layout. Hatchback's rear seat is a bit straight compare with the sedan version, but I believe the legroom space is the same. But if u wanna compare with 1.6 and 2.0 version....I think 1.6 is more comfortable because its tyre profile is higher than 2.0. 2.0 is using 17" rim with 45 profile...and due to our Malaysia's road condition, you should know what I mean.
- if budget allowed, 2.0 is always a better choice and it is more value of money, just the additional 4 airbags compare with the 1.6 version is worth the 20k.      FC wise, for my daily trips which is 90% highway + 10% city drives, average consumption is 8.5L/100km....RM60 RON95 can last for about 400km+ which I think is quite acceptable with a 2.0 c-segmnent car. The FC will be even better if I travel long distance....RM60 RON95 from JB to KL only spent half tank even if I drive at 130km/h....much better than my previous 1.3 SAGA FC
- My personal factors are - super handling, sporty outlook...I don't need to add any bodykits...IMO the current Civic outlook is not my liking...unless I wanna add modulo bodykit which is cost me another 5k....with the similar specs...for Civic (navi version + modulo kits) I need to pay almost 140k...m3 2.0 is only 119k...u do ur own maths.. For Elantra 1.8....the waiting list is about 6 months during the time when I placed my order with m3 2.0....6 months??!! I cannot wait that long...so no choice but to let it go and m3 that time was having 5+5 package which is very attractive...5k discount + free insurance + 5 yrs warranty + 5 yrs free service....I cant find another offer better than this at that time...

Hope it helps      looking forward for you to join the Zoom Zoom clan