I wondered for a while boring Corolla outselled Mazda 3 so much, until I realized that people probably stick to the numbers. Toyota still up there for reliability and the fuel efficiency is somewhat better too, so. Same with the Honda Civic. Mazda 3 has not been as reliable as the Japanese origin may suggest and parts cost a fortune, so...
I prefer a middling ground between performance, reliability and fuel effciency and when I got my Lancer (09), I wondered why there were not more on the road (great drive!!) until I looked at the fuel consumption numbers. After the $1.40/liters prices of last summer, that is all people were looking at.