Great first drive, little longer than usual which is nice. Probably because it's such an important car to us Canadians. Mazda is doing a great job with the Mazda3, selling more than the Cruze, Focus, Dart, Golf & Jetta, Sentra, and Impreza. It will be interesting to see this time next year, who is doing better, the new Mazda3, or the new Corolla.
When the manual comes in the GT, for the most part they will make everybody happy. Mazdaspeed 3 is important to the brands image, so I assume that's coming in 2015.... Haven't really followed the news on that one.
When the manual comes to the GT. I have mentioned before, still makes one wonder, how much bigger is the Mazda6 (especially rear seats) compared to the Mazda3.
Might consider a Mazda3 GT sport manual, over a Mazda6 GS. Will have to look at it more closely...