2021 Mazda3 2.5 Turbo AWD Sedan Review | Mazdaspeed Is Making a Comeback

Mazda. Their motto used to be zoom zoom. Sort of implicating that they were the ultimate driving machine of the East. And with stuff like the Miata spanning several decades, they sure have some pedigree. But it's been a while since we've seen anything truly competitive from the Hiroshima based manufacturer until now. Today we'll take a look at the new Mazda 3 2.5 Turbo all wheel drive sedan.

So right off the bat we've got some loyalty to Mazda here on the channel because. Well, my wife had a CX3 for a few years and it was our chase car, our equipment truck, our scout vehicle. Basically it helped to lay the foundation for track day back when we were still starting out. Unfortunately though, Mazda, like most Japanese carmakers, lacks one major thing to compete athletically in the US and European markets. And that's basically a dedicated performance division. You can argue that they used to have Mazda speed, but those days seem to be long gone. However, there is some light at the end of the tunnel because in 2021 they finally decided to bring forced induction back into their lineup. And you know, boost makes everything more fun. So let's see what we got today.

The Mazda 3 represents their submission into the compact sedan segment. The 2.5 Turbo is the second highest trim within that line. It's only out priced by the slightly more luxurious Premium plus model which adds 360 cameras, parking sensors and different interior leather options. With the exception of the front end, I find the car really unattractive in sedan form. I'd rather pay an extra thousand bucks for the hatchback version and get the poly metal gray exterior. Like I said earlier, it's special because they decided to turbocharge their Skyactiv 2.5 liter 4 banger to make 250 brake horsepower and 320 pounds of torque. But that's only if you put 93 octane in it. If you want to be a cheapskate, you can still fill up with 87 and make 227 horses. Obviously we don't roll like that around here. The interior feels like a tremendous upgrade from the CX3 that we had. And if you look past all the badging, you can see BMW idrive DNA in some of the design cues. Couple that with a decent Bose sound system and auto hold function. It does feel sort of premium in here. It even has a heads up display, but frankly it's small and difficult to read. Despite the efforts, you can tell that they ultimately fall short because it only has a driver's side power Seat navigation is optional and only one part of the dash is digital. Anyway, let's have a listen to see what it sounds like. Yeah, so in the sound department it needs a lot of help. But how does it drive? Well, as a mundane commuter, it's totally fine. Comfortable, quiet, quiet, decent visibility, relatively light steering, soft throttle inputs, etc. But as a sporty kind of car, it feels like a primate trying to amputate your leg. We'll start with the worst part, the transmission. In this age of 19 speed gearboxes, Mazda decided to stick to an ancient six speed automatic. And to make matters worse, it's just like a bucket of crabs. Even in sport mode, there's no aggression, no immediacy. It just feels like a planetary auto from the early 2000s. And I can't believe they even bothered to put paddle shifters in here because these Mazda paddles are easily some of the worst in the game right now. Electronic steering is also the bane of any true sports car. But I understand that this isn't a true performance offering and obviously lighter steering does appeal to the masses. The weirdest thing about Mazda is that they keep trying to position themselves in the entry luxury segment to compete with the likes of BMW, Infiniti or Audi. But in order to do that, they really need better performance tuning. Because despite having a better power to weight ratio and more torque than the 330i, it definitely feels slower and less responsive. And that 320 pound torque figure feels like a lie when you actually step on the pedal. However, Mazda is starting to feel close in terms of interior build quality. Some of this leather is super supple and the trim pieces feel quite nice. Overall, it's a step up from the previous generations of Mazdas, but they have a long way to go before they can call this car competitive. In the sports sedan segment, however, we'll let our performance test decide what's fast and what's not. Let's start with our full half mile acceleration. Test it. And now for the handling course. It. I gotta say, the Mazda felt really sloppy through those corners. It's surprising because it's quite light at £3,400. And even cars that are a thousand pounds Heavier, like the M5 or E63, feel way more planted. Not to mention the braking above 100 miles per hour is really sketchy. The car tends to want to torque slightly right or left. Anyway, 99.9% of people won't take this car on the track, so let's concentrate on the straight line stuff first. In terms of our in House 4100, the Mazda 3 Turbo ran a decent 11.81 second time, which is right up there with the tuned Abarth 124 Spider as well as the BMW 228i xDrive. I would say that the 228 is definitely slower than a 330 so if you're cross shopping the 2, the Mazda falls short in terms of straight line power. I love getting the full half mile metric on these tests and to clarify, trap speed is what matters. The Mazda crossed the line at 118.79 mph, again slower than the BMW, but it is significantly quicker than if you were to potentially downgrade to a non turbo trim of this graph car. This section feels a little empty because I normally do much faster vehicles, so maybe I should do more slow cars to fill in the void. Now for the lap time and handling metrics. It actually did a pretty decent 51.96 second time. And you know what, that's faster than their Miata around here. I think that having that extra power and automatic transmission definitely gave it an edge, but it's certainly much less enjoyable doing it. Even though it had a relatively fast lap time, all the supporting metrics besides the V Max are the slowest around here. You can see more times and metrics from all of our tests if you check out the fastest link in the description below. When we bought our very own CX3 back in 2017, the salesman tried to sell us on the idea that Mazda was on the level of the likes of Audi or Infiniti and that they were trying to change their brand image to be more like entry level luxury. But they had nothing to back up that claim. They only had mediocre interiors, modest designs and very slow engine options. So at the time I quietly laughed at him as I signed the paperwork. But looking at this Mazda 3 now, it feels like they are taking a step in the right direction. They weren't there four years ago and they still have a long way to go. But at some point in time I believe that MazdaSpeed will make a comeback and that the brand might become something more than what it is. At least that's my hope. But I also believe in the aftermarket potential here. The 2.5 liter engine has 25% more displacement than most of the competition. And honestly, I wouldn't mind leasing a Mazda 3 Turbo hatchback to be our dedicated production car and then slapping a tune and intake on it to see what it can do. Because like I said, even though this isn't a dedicated performance offering. It has all the right ingredients. We just need a better chef in the kitchen and at a little over $30,000, it represents a value that honestly is rather hard to beat. I hope you guys enjoyed this video as much as I did making it. If so, it'd be awesome if you can hit that thumbs up button and share the video with your friends. I can't cover everything I want to in the short amount of time that I have, so if you've got any questions for me, leave them in a comment below. Special thanks to Driven District for providing this Mazda 3 Turbo to me for testing. Go ahead and check out his channel if you get a chance. He's a fellow Abarth124 owner and uploads a lot of interesting content and if this is your first time here, forget to check out some more videos on the channel. I produce all sorts of cinematic car content, so if you like what you see, smash that subscribe button for new episodes every week. Thanks for watching.