Just test drove the Mazda 3 CBU as they don't have CKD for testing. I don't feel it is sluggish at low speed. When you press down the gas at low speed it will surge forward. Steering feedback is good and it's fun car to drive. Goes over bumps gracefully. On the same day I test drove the Cerato and it's well...like driving a well equipped Proton. Mazda 3 is a driver's car.

Not able to compare this. I was testing the Cerato 1.6 as Naza doesn't have any 2.0 cars for test drive.

Did you test drive the CKD or CBU car? The CBU car I test drove was impressively quiet although I only went up to 100 km/hr due to road conditions. Noise tolerance is subjective depending on your sensitivity. But 18" rims isn't going to be as quiet as the smaller rims we are more used to.

I realize that we cannot replace the touchscreen head unit with an Android one as it is not a standard double din device. An Android head unit will be far more flexible. Well, you can't have everything.

I wonder why give 18" rims for a C-segment car? Tyres will be expensive for the target market and due to our not that great Malaysian roads insulation must be very good to dampen noise and harshness. For a luxury car OK but for Mazda 3 not a good choice.

I wonder if we trade in rims and tyres for 17" in after market will it void warranty?



This post has been edited by Ginny88: Apr 17 2015, 11:25 AM

I called SA and he confirms warranty not affected by downgrading rim size. For future maintenance tyres will be cheaper. Doing aftermarket sound proofing is very expensive and not really effective. My friend spent RM3K for soundproofing his Civic and only managed to get about 30% noise reduction.

Whatever the NVH not much you can do to change it. From my experience chasing lower road noise by selecting the tyre is ineffective. The difference between the so-called quiet ones and normal ones is not much. All tyres are quiet when new. When they wear down noise increase until I hear no difference between the "quiet" ones and normal ones. Those rated as quiet tyres are made of soft compound and wear out faster.

If you like you can spend some money on insulation but be prepared to spend a few K's to make a difference. Or just turn up the music and leave it. As the service centre people like to say. "It's like that wan".

This post has been edited by Ginny88: Apr 18 2015, 04:22 PM

I hope it's not new version of the Mazda 3.

Expect to pay RM750 for one piece of reasonable quality 18" tyres. A set of 4 will easily set you back by RM3000.

Most D-segment cars use 16" to 17" rims so I don't know what Bermaz is thinking putting 18" rims on a C-segment car. In this segment owners are mainly wage earners calculating fuel consumption obsessively. Spending RM3K on tyres every 18-24 months is pretty painful.

The 16" rims used on the low spec is good enough. Bermaz could have brought down the price of the high spec with 16" rims or give more features. Fuel consumption will be better and NVH reduced.

If I were to buy the high spec I will promptly trade in the rims and tyres for 16". 18" is a mismatch for a car of this segment.

This post has been edited by Ginny88: Apr 19 2015, 11:59 PM

The low spec Mazda 3 use 16" rims. So if we downgrade to 16" or 17" Bermaz has no leg to stand on if they say that it will void warranty.

RM2000 for 18" rims + tyres seems very cheap. I presume this is for 4 sets?


This post has been edited by Ginny88: Apr 20 2015, 02:14 PM

You may be right unless the engine startup requires a special battery. From my test drive the startup is extremely fast. When you lift your foot off the brake it already started up before you can press the gas.

knock knock sound when going over bumpy roads. But this problem is for the CBU car. Nobody knows if the CKD car will inherit the same problem.

Don't wait for it. Our car market is too small for too many models so it may never be CKD here.

Right. But the soul red is too expensive unless they charge extra for it. Even then they may not have the facility to produce this special colour.

As long as you haven't signed the H.P. agreement yet you can still withdraw and get back 90% of your deposit.

Anybody knows if we have to use the key or press the remote to open the door for the low spec version? I forgot to check this at the showroom. I hope we don't have to turn a key to gain entry or people will laugh, so old school meh?

Have you test driven the M3? How do you compare with M2 in terms of power?

Well, M2 is still a great car. Don't regret.

True. The Mazda 3 low spec still has more stuff than Altis 1.8 and Civic 1.8 which is a few K's more expensive than it. It should be called standard spec, not low spec. And remember we are comparing a 2.0L car with 1.8L.

The tinting doesn't come standard. My SA only offered me a RM500 discount voucher for tinting which I'm not going to take advantage of. It's no point getting a RM500 discount if the price has been marked up much higher.