I'd rather buy sth that is good to drive but no resale value than thinking about resale value. Maybe I will come to regret it when buying a new car in the future.

Anyway, mazda is slowly picking up in malaysia, I bet u have seen more and more of these cars on the road although nowhere near Toyota and Honda level yet.
Test drive both civic and mazda3 and I can tell why civic is more appealing. For only 110k, u get everything that the 123k mazda 3 have, a freakin 13k difference. Lower spec mazda 3 is not worth it, lots of gadgets are gone and most importantly, freakin manual aircond.

Actually it is our local mindset for getting spacious cars.

I met a few Americans, and they are just driving small cars like Prius C, where they are 190cm tall.

I asked them why they don't get a bigger spacious car like the Camry or something, they said "it is ok, just a car you know. "

But it also depends on the individual.