Interesting read, James. I too, would choose the Mazda 3 of those you reviewed. I'm really curious to see what Honda brings to the table with the next Civic. If they maintain or improve the current fuel economy it just might be our second car in a couple years. Alternatively, the way the 3 is selling we could probably pick up a nice one coming off a 3 year lease.
On a related note, my wife and I were on holiday for the month of July and managed to rent two cars during that period: a Mitsubishi Lancer followed by a Hyundai Elantra, both firsts for me. While the Lancer (MSRP $15998) was just okay, we were very impressed with the Elantra VE 4-door Auto (MSRP $18365). The Hyundai was quiet on the highway, fully loaded (air, cruise, power everything, CD), comfortable, had a large trunk that easily fit all our luggage and had decent fuel economy. I believe that it was only doing about 2600 rpm @ 120km/h. The only negative would be a lack of power but that's not really what this car is all about. I wonder how it would rate in your comparison?