By now, you have probably seen many reviews of the new Mazda 3, a car that looks, drives and feels great. However, none of the reviews had as their main focus on the infotainment and satnav systems, so CNET Brian Cooley’s angle is one you should not neglect if you’re interested in this kind of stuff.
As usual, the review is tech-centric, and it immediately finds the on-board tech inadequate. The nice-looking dash-mounted screen has a complicated menu, filled with confusing terminology and extra menus and settings you didn’t think were necessary for regular users, plus it doesn’t seamlessly show traffic information or connect to the internet without a phone-hosted (or another) exterior hotspot.
The video posted below goes into detail, explaining all of the discovered issues.
Moving on, other bad points are the apparent lack of power from the (2.5-liter) engine, and the long-legged character of the gearbox that makes it not ideally suited for city driving – the manual 2.0-liter I drove had that too, and it was quite leisurely with 120 hp; you’d have struggled to call it brisk…
Aside from the points mentioned above, the review finds the Mazda hatch a true contender in the class, one of the most appealing models currently on sale in its price bracket.
By Andrei Nedelea
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