Well as a past owner of two 10 year old Civics with 340,000 kms on each car
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, I can tell you that they were/are great cars. But, I was disappointed in this new design. Frankly I felt a bit dizzy, as I made selected turns, plus I just felt that I was miles away from the windshield and sitting even lower down than in the outgoing design. NOTE: I appreciate that the Civic’s long snout may help re crashworthiness
So my wife bought a Mazda 3 GS Sedan.
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Since Mazda does not offer the 5-speed auto with GS trim, we went with the manual. Even at this mid-level trim you get:
discs all around,
2 litre engine,
best manual shifter that I have ever tried,
wonderful forward and sideward visibility,
peppy 2 litre engine.
high seating position ,
very, very quiet engine (you forget to downshift!),
flip forward 60/40 seats,
steering wheel audio/cruise controls
turns on a dime and holds any curve like a pro
so, so light to drive, it is incredible
Indeed, in many ways the Mazda 3 is what I wanted the Civic to be. However, pedal placement is not ideal – a bit tight and nowhere “new” for your feet to “cruise”. Also, noise from the rear is a bit high above 80 km/hr and rearward visibility is poor.
The Mazda 3 is a wonderful car MOST OF THE TIME..
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but when you hit the broken –patched tar of the Gatineau Hills you don’t ever want to be in the back seat. No Sir, it just isn’t fun. Take last weekend; the wife and her girlfriend seized the front “sofa” seats while my buddy and I took quite a thrashing over every pothole. Better to have stayed at home having given the wife the keys to the car! I bet the Civic behaves a bit better over pot-holed surfaces!