Something Quite Different 2021 Mazda 3 Turbo Sedan Review

What is up guys? So right behind me is the brand new Mazda 3 Turbo. And I'm super excited to drive this because the old Mazda Speed was something I really liked. However, this is very different and I'm gonna show you guys throughout this entire review. So we're going to go over every detail. Let's go ahead and get started. All right guys, let's go ahead and check out the brand new Mazda 3 Turbo sedan. So this one is around $34,000 as you see it. You guys can see the exact MSRP here on the screen. And that's a lot of money. That's hard to swallow for a lot of people, including myself. It's a very high premium though. I would argue that this is a very premium car to justify the premium price. And we'll jump into that right now. Let's go ahead and talk about the color. So this is machine gray metallic. This color is very nice. Now I do apologize because it's been raining literally all day today on and off. And so I have not had an opportunity to keep this clean. So it's not as clean as it could be, but the gray does an awesome job at hiding a lot of the dirt. And it just looks super sleek, even on this overcast day. Now you do have black wheels, which are going to be one of the two exterior differences that you'll be able to tell. I'm sorry, one of the three exterior differences you'll be able to tell from a non-turbo version. Now, as you come to the front, you're basically going to have the same grill. So no change here. However, if you do go to the hatchback, the hatchback is going to have a more aggressive front end. So of course you have your blacked out grill. This one's going to have a different mesh than the hatchback. And then the hatchback also has a way bigger, lower lip spoiler that is going to be all blacked out as well. And you don't really have any chrome on the hatchback version. So this one's a little bit classier. This one is the more, I guess, mature grownup version of the turbo. Now you do have full LED lights on here. So you have your halo ring in the middle, which looks pretty good. I really like the way that it looks. And then of course, full LEDs on this car, even your turn signals are going to be LEDs. However, you do not get fog lights on this car, unfortunately. Other than that, the grill is pretty good. You guys can get a better look at this grill versus the grill on the hatchback. And this one just has a slightly different pattern. Once again, to really give off that more elegant feel versus a more sporty feel that you're going to get on the hatchback. Now, as we come to the wheels, like I already talked about, blacked out wheels, that is the main difference with the sedan in terms of telling whether or not this is a turbo. The other difference is going to be these blacked out mirror caps right here. But once again, very subtle. You also have slightly upgraded brakes on here to basically compensate for this having a little bit more power. Now, as you move back to the side profile, really nice side profile. So on the sedan, I quite like it. It just looks very elegant, very clean and handsome. Whereas the hatchback, a lot of people don't like that rear C pillar just because it has this bulbous sort of look. I personally really like it. I think they both offer their own special taste, which is nice that you get such a difference between the two cars. Now, as we move to the back, the final difference is going to be right here. You have this really small deck lid, like lip spoiler. It's going to be a blacked out spoiler and it looks pretty good. It adds a little touch of sportiness. And I do mean little. And then as you move towards the back, pretty much everything else is going to be the same aside from your turbo badge over there. And you have slightly bigger exhaust tips, but the taillights on here look really good. One of my favorite parts about this car, it just looks very cool. You have these quad circles in the back and even your turn signals, reverse lights, all that is going to be full LED. But let's go ahead, start this up and hear how it sounds. All right, guys, so here's the key for your Mazda 3. Now it's the same as basically every new Mazda. So it's got this kind of hard plastic, have your Mazda symbol there, aluminum accents or chrome accents on the side, your buttons on the other side, your lock, your unlock, your trunk release, and your panic. And then on the back, it's just more like flat black, but it's a pretty nice key design. It is pretty big. I actually slightly prefer the previous key design just because it felt a little bit more robust in my personal opinion, but I guess it is nice to have something different, question mark, but you can get in using these buttons here on the side or you can use the touch sensitive buttons on the door handle. So once you get to the door handle, there is basically a little area here. If I rest my finger there, just gonna lock it. You'll hear one beep to let you know that it's locked. And then there's a touch pad behind here. And if I put my hand there, two beeps will mean it's unlocked. And then obviously it'll unlock. Now, once you get inside, this is going to have basically like a ivory and black interior. It looks really, really good. So starting at the door, you're gonna have pretty soft touch materials up here. You're gonna have this white colored leather here. I love how the door handle flows into this chrome accent. And you're gonna have these metal Bose speakers. You can even see like the grain in the metal there, which is pretty neat. Gloss black here with all of your window mirror controls, decent cubby area, which is pretty nice. And even this armrest is like super soft. That's me barely giving any pressure to it. And it just gives like crazy. So that's a very nice area to rest your elbow for sure. And then once you get on the inside, I mean, I don't know if you guys can see this, let me get out of the way, but look at this interior. It is super, super nice. The seats look great. Perforations in the middle and the whole inside just has such an upscale feel if you have not experienced these new Mazdas. All right, so in terms of me fitting in here, I'm six feet tall. I fit pretty well. You have a little cubby off here to the side so I could put something like maybe a key in there. I am gonna have two memory seat settings there. This is to open my rear trunk. You have a camera view. This is gonna be turned on and off your sensors, like blind spot, rear cross, all that good stuff. Parking sensors, traction. And I even love this little chrome accent that's going to go all along here. Just looks really nice. And it even extends to the outside here. You can see more of that leather with the stitching. It's just a really nice design. But let's go ahead, start this thing up, and check out the rest. All right, everyone. So sitting inside the Mazda 3. Now to start, very simple. Just make sure you have the key inside of the vehicle. Put your foot on the brake. This is gonna highlight green. And then you just hit that to start. There you go. Pretty much all there is to it. Now let's go ahead and start with the steering wheel. Now the steering wheel is very nice. Just super, super soft grain leather. I love the way it feels. It feels super high quality. Even your buttons here are gonna be these metal buttons. And just have a very solid feel to them. Chrome accent here. Your Mazda logo looking very pretty there in the middle. And then you are going to have your cruise control over to the right side. All of your media commands to the left. So info button, hang up, answer on your phone, volume. You're going to have your source. So AM, FM, XM. And then previous, next on here. You have these little paddle shifters here in the back for your six speed auto. So up shift over here. Down shift. They're super small. Probably about the same size as like the paddle shifters on like a Golf GTI. These really tiny things. Automatic wipers, automatic lights over here with your automatic high beams on the outside of the stock. You just push right there. That will turn that on. And then once you get to this gauge cluster, it's pretty interesting. So you have two physical gauges over on the outside. So physical tack, physical water temp, fuel temp, or fuel gauge. And then in the middle, that's where I can hit the info button and I can adjust things like driving information. I can see all of my adaptive cruise information. And then I can go back to just this digital like speedometer right here, which is pretty neat. And that's pretty much the extent of that. I have a head up display up here. You guys probably can't see it on the camera. So here is a B-roll clip for you guys. Very clear, and I just love the font. It's just easy to read, very nice. And then you get to this screen here. I love how it's slightly more inside of the dash. It just gives it a much more expensive look. I quite like it. And then you are going to have different things on here. So like you have Apple CarPlay, you do have Android Auto on here now, and it's just a really nice system. Very easy to use. It's not going to be touchscreen, so I can't touch it or do anything like that. You just have to use this dial, which I'll show you guys in just a second. Other than that, you've got this really nice leather quality here. And just the entire interior looks so beautiful. I mean, it's just laid out so well, especially for the price point that you're paying for this car. Even everything up top is soft touch. Now, as you come down, you're going to have adaptive cruise control right down here. Heated seats for both sides, as well as a heated steering wheel. No cooled seats, unfortunately, or sorry, no ventilated seats, unfortunately. USB here for Apple CarPlay, Android Auto. A nice area to put things like a phone, two cup holders, your shifter, which is really nice. Smooth leather, this nice chrome accent on the side. Manual mode, pull back to upshift, push forward to downshift. Just the correct way to do it. And then you have your backup camera once you put it into reverse. You're going to have your backup camera here. I can change my angles by basically hitting this camera button over to the left. It'll give me a wider angle, and then I have my 360 degree over there as well. Then next to that, you're going to have your sport mode here. So I just hit that up one time. It's just a little toggle. It'll throw me in the sport mode. Basically holds me at a higher RPM and push down to turn it off. Electronic parking brake, auto hold. This is my command controller to control the screen with my corresponding buttons around that. Volume, previous, next, favorites button. And then you have your armrest, which is just the weight of my fingers causes it to just give. And then when you really push into it, it's just really comfortable. It's all I'm going to say. You fold that back, open it up, and you have a decent amount of storage space, another USB, and then a 12 volt in here. And I can remove this little divider if I want even more storage space, which is pretty nice. Now shutting this, you're going to have things like these integrated vents, which is pretty nice. So I like how these vents here are integrated into the actual design element here, which looks pretty cool. As you come up, you have a frameless mirror with your home link under here. LED lights, which is really nice. Sunglass holder. And then you're going to have your standard vanity mirrors with an LED light up here as well. Extension. And of course, you are going to have your moonroof right up here. It's very nice, but it's pretty much going to wrap up the inside guys. Let's go ahead and check out the back seat. All right, guys. So hopping in the back of the Mazda 3 sedan. So there's no difference here from the turbo, from the non-turbo, hatchback, non-hatchback. You're pretty much going to get the same room. The only difference is I believe the headroom in the hatchback is a little bit better just because you don't have the aggressive slant like you do in the sedan. So headroom will be a little bit better. Surprisingly, being six feet tall, sitting behind myself, my headroom is decent. If I didn't have my hair up, I don't think my hair would be scraping. So I can assume you probably have about an extra half inch, maybe an inch in the hatchback. I mean, at that point, you could be six to six, three maybe, six, four potentially. And you could fit in the back in terms of headroom. Now in terms of knee room, if the person driving is six feet tall, you're not going to be like dug into the back, but I am touching. I'm just like barely grazing against the back of the seat. So I can still pass my fingers through. I just am touching leather on the way through there. So there is that. Feet room is actually excellent though. So I can slide my feet underneath here. But the bottom of the seat kind of comes out towards me. So I can't really like recline and the seat sits up at such an angle, at such a straight angle that I feel like I'm just in super good posture the entire time. And it's just not a comfortable position, especially if you had to be back here for let's say 30 minutes. I would be very uncomfortable after a while. Now shutting the door, solid shut. The materials are pretty good. You don't get a lack of material quality here in the back. So the top is still soft touch. You still have this really soft leather right here. You've got that nice aluminum accent, soft here, gloss black. And even the bottom, I mean, it's still hard plastic, but it's not like the worst grade that you would get on something like a Ford, for example. I'm sorry, Ford, don't please send me cars. But I mean, their plastics on the bottoms are pretty hard and rough. This is a little bit better, but it's still going to be hard nonetheless. You don't have any vents back here. So you guys can see there's nothing here, even on the turbo model. You have a pretty big hump here. So I wouldn't suggest putting a third person. The seats are very soft. They have tons of give to them. If you fold down the armrest, just gives into my elbow, which is nice. And you have nice deep cup holders. So it seems like it would secure your drinks pretty well. They won't be flopping around everywhere, which you would definitely not want with all of this white leather. You want to have your drink secured, especially if it's something like a Coke or a Big Red or anything that's colored. But that's pretty much going to be it for the back. LED lights, grab handle, area to put like dry cleaning. And that's pretty much going to be it guys. So let's go ahead and check out trunk space. All right, so coming to the back of the Mazda 3. Now to get in, it's very simple. There's actually a button located right under the Mazda symbol here. And you just push that like that. And it opens right up. You can use your key. And that's pretty much the only two ways to get into the trunk. Now, once you're back here, you have a decent amount of space here. If I lift up this floor, you're going to have a spare tire located underneath there. And then you can pull the seats down as well by just pulling on these little triggers right here. And that's going to fold down the seats, giving you more space. Now, the benefit with the hatchback over the sedan is that the hatchback is just going to give you an easier use here in the back. It's just easier to get things in and out. You don't have to deal with this little lip area right here. And if you like the looks of the sedan, and if you want something a little bit more grown up feeling, this is the way to go. But in terms of practicality, the hatchback is what I personally would recommend. Though, this is still pretty good. You guys can see the cubic feet here on the screen for this one. And if you want to know it for the hatchback, I have put that on the screen as well for you guys. But that's pretty much going to wrap up the back. Let's go ahead and see what's under the hood. All right, so coming under the hood of the Mazda 3. Now, I took off the engine cover just because I wanted to show you. It's a little bit different. It's going to say turbo in red lettering right here. Skyactiv-G, which is the basically code name for the engine. Mazda symbol. And yeah, so plastic engine cover as we would expect. But with the engine off, or with the cover off, you guys can see the inner workings of the engine. And it's pretty cool. It's obviously very clean because it's brand new. But you can actually see the turbo located right back there. So I thought that was pretty neat. Now, in terms of specs, there's a lot of stuff floating around. So here are the official numbers for this car. Now, you can run this off of two different fuels. So this computer will basically remap itself depending on what fuel you put in. So let's say if we're in California, like I am now, we only have a max of 91 octane. If you can find 93 octane, a lot of other states have it, this will retune itself to put out 250 horsepower and about 320 pound feet of torque. And if you run this just off of 87 octane, which you can do. So if you want a lower cost of ownership, you don't want to have to constantly put premium in this thing, you can run it off of 87. It will be safe for the engine. The computer will basically just remap itself. It won't put itself in its most aggressive setting. That way it's not basically using the full potential of the engine unless it has that high quality fuel. So if you just run it off of 87, it'll make 227 horsepower, 310 pound feet of torque. Still good power figures, especially the torque. The torque is what's very, very impressive on this car. And this is a 2.5 liter turbocharged four cylinder engine. This is Mazda's dynamic pressure turbo. So basically you have a really small port that's going to accelerate the air. So that way it fully spools up around 2000 RPM and then you have a bigger port that'll basically keep it flowing at higher RPM. So it's pretty neat. And once again, if you like to take care of your car, you love to put premium in your car, this is going to reward you greatly. And if you don't, nothing wrong with that. Just know that this engine will still run in a very safe manner, but it's pretty much going to be it for this. This is all wheel drive. It comes standard all wheel drive with the turbo because without it, this thing would literally just spin the front wheels for like a mile. It's pretty crazy. But yeah, let's go ahead and get this on the road. See how it does. What is up guys? So driving the Mazda 3 turbo. Now this engine is very, very good. Now there is a big downside. There's a big upside to this and I'll get to that in just a bit. But if you have not been in this new generation Mazda 3, it's amazing. The interior layout is beautiful. Everything is right where you need it to be. Visibility's excellent. Mirrors are in a good spot. Visibility out of the back is great. The windshield's good. Hardly any blind spots. It's just a really good car. The sound system on here is actually very good. For a Bose, it's way better than I expected. And come to think of it, I have never listened to the sound system on here. So it's just nice to know that the sound system is really, really good. Other than that, it's just a very comfortable vehicle. I could easily, easily drive this on a very long trip. It's so good. And if you have had experience with the previous Mazda 3s, the sound levels on here in terms of road noise are way better. Now if you see these things in my ears, these are binaural audio headphones. So if you have headphones, throw them on, you guys can hear what's kind of going on around. But yeah, the car's great. The steering is pretty solid. It's got a very, very nice, robust steering feel. And yeah, the car is great, but I'm sure you guys really want to know how this performs in a more performance-oriented setting. So let's go ahead and see how it does. All right, so let's actually have some fun with this thing. Driving the Mazda 3 Turbo, let's go ahead and toss it in the sport mode. And it's gonna hold my RPMs higher, so I'm at 2,000 RPM right now. And it's just basically, like I said, holding my revs higher. Now we're coming up to a stoplight. I'm gonna do a little zero to 60 run using my draggy here. So I'm gonna reset everything. It is wet and we're going uphill, so this won't be the best. I'll turn traction off, here we go. Tons of wheel spin. 60, there we go. And we're coming up to another stoplight. All righty, that was 7.9 seconds. So once again, going uphill, traction off. I'm gonna turn traction back on. Still going uphill, it's still wet. But I'm gonna see what it can do now. Reset everything. And I'm just gonna floor it when it turns green. Seemed to grip a lot better there. 60, pretty good. That was seven flat right there. So, you know, depending on conditions, this can probably be like a five second car. Maybe under perfect conditions and maybe high fours, but it's just not tuned for that aggressive power delivery. It just doesn't have a good off the line punch, which is actually pretty surprising considering that it's all wheel drive. And that is one of my biggest complaints, is this all wheel drive system. It's not that good if I'm being honest, especially in a more performance oriented manner. Now, in terms of things like making sure I have grip whenever it's wet, it's done well. So it's been raining literally the entire time I've had this car. And it drives so well in the rain. It just does a good job of putting the power down and making you feel safe and secure. But then in situations like that, when you're trying to go quickly, when you want to see what it can do off the line, it just doesn't perform well. The front wheels slip quite a bit before it actually sends power to the rear. And then it really doesn't seem like it's sending that much power to the rear, unfortunately. So in that regard, it's not a true like Mazda speed replacement. It's really more like, let's say if you get an Audi, or let's even use a Honda Accord, for example. They have the 1.5 turbo, they have the two liter turbo. This is the two liter turbo. This is the more potent engine offering, though this isn't a full on performance variant. I'm hoping that will still come later, because I really would like to see this all wheel drive tuned in a more aggressive fashion. It's time for a new transmission. I'm just going to go ahead and say it. The six speed auto is great, it's good, but it is time for something new. It doesn't shift that fast. So if I go into manual mode, I downshift, downshift, downshift, and the upshifts, shift, shift. So it takes a bit, and that small delay just completely disengages you. So I have literally just left it in drive the whole time, threw it into sport mode, and it does well. You know, if they had it in a manual, it may change that regard of it, but I still think the all wheel drive one here really needs to be beefed up if they're going to do something performance oriented. For what this is, it's fine. It's just remembering this is not a performance vehicle. It is a more potent Mazda 3. And if you continuously think about that, it does such a great job. It rides well, it's got a good punch to it, and it feels faster whenever you're just cruising around, because the torque on here is amazing. Imagine you are out here in the coast and you're just surfing on a wave of torque. That's literally what it feels like. It feels more diesel because you just have this effortless surge of just meaty torque. It's so satisfying. And in terms of an everyday car, it's perfect. In terms of engine, engines go, this is the best example of perfect power delivery without going to electric. This is that good. In terms of just rolling onto the power, giving you more than enough around, I could be around 2,500 RPM on a highway and easily cruise past someone going 70. It's just that good because it's got so much torque, especially if you're filling this up with premium fuel. Now the numbers may suggest this is like a GTI competitor, but it's really not. It's definitely something a little bit classier, something a little bit more mature, but I do hope Mazda does come out with a performance version because this is really just a massive tease to all of the enthusiasts out there. I know that they can do it, but in terms of what this is, it is a more potent Mazda3 that gives you more than enough passing power for any situation. And that's what we have here. So it's a good car in that regard, but it is not the Mazda Speed3 replacement that everyone thinks it is, unfortunately. Well, everyone, let's go ahead and wrap this video up. In conclusion, this is a great vehicle. I feel like it's truly an alternative now to something like a Mercedes-Benz A-Class, CLA-Class, an Audi A3, Audi A4, BMW 2 Series. Though this isn't the Mazda Speed we've been looking for, it sets the foundation for what Mazda is trying to be currently as a brand. And that's a more premium offering to things like Toyota, Honda, in terms of just your overall quality experience. And this does that very well. My only complaints would be, once again, the all-wheel drive system. And I do think that a better transmission would take advantage of the power on tap a little bit better. I would just really be happy with maybe more gears, shorter gearing at the bottom, and then obviously having your longer gears at the top. Most importantly, guys, I wanna know what you think. So comment below. If you're new to my channel, I would love, love to have you subscribe. Hit the red box, hit the notification bell. That way you guys never miss an upload. And be sure to follow me on my biggest account, TikTok. Same thing, Forrest Auto Reviews. You can find me on there. If you guys wanna see the cars that I have before I put them here on YouTube. But thank you guys so much for watching. Hope you enjoyed this review. Let me know by commenting below as well, and I'll see you guys in the next one. Take care.