See also:

Design: inheriting the Mazda 3's established identity while making it more expressive
The design concept for the new Mazda 3 was "remaining faithful to an inherited identity while evolving the design to make it more expressive." While retaining some of the original model' ...

Two Strikes Against
The two strikes against the 2009 Mazda3 are its crash tests and its gas mileage. With the crash tests, the problem isn't the results, it's the lack thereof. The Insurance Institute for Highway Saf ...

Six-Speed Manual Transmission
Both engines feature a manual six-speed transmission with a compact three-shaft design carried over from the original model. It has triple-cone synchronizers for first, second and third gears, and ...