2022 Mazda3 Turbo Hatchback Review _ Luxury for less.

The Mazda 3 is a mix of two cars. In the $20,000 range, it competes against the Civic and the Elantra. In the 30s, it goes against Mercedes and Audi. This right here is a $36,000 car, and admittedly, it's not a whole lot of car. It's a small hatchback. But what's here is entry-level luxury at a bargain price. Speaking of bargains, why not sell your car with CarGurus? Type a few details, get a cash offer from thousands of dealers nationwide. If you like the price, they pick it up and pay you. We've driven every version of the Mazda 3 since this generation came out for 2019. Hatchback, sedan, turbo sedan, and now the turbo hatchback. The hatchback is the designer's choice, and it's so bent on looking fashionable that it cuts out visibility and headroom. But so what? The Mazda 3 hatchback has the panache of an Italian car. It reminds me more of an Alfa Romeo than anything remotely Japanese. But here you have it. Flowing lines, beautiful creases, this nice big-mouth grille, and these thin LED headlights. It's very distinctive when you see a Mazda from the front or in the back. I'll show you that in a little bit. This one is so low. I absolutely love it. It's so low, it almost scrapes the ground because it has an optional black chin spoiler that's on the Premium Plus package. This is the most expensive one. You also get a rear roof spoiler. I just generally like how the colors look on this car. All the cut lines, especially the paint quality, is excellent in a car that only costs mid-30s. The rear is even prettier than the front, and it's prettier than that of the sedan. What you get here is the cam-back tail. Now, the cam-back was something that the Germans pioneered in the 30s, continued into other European cars throughout the 70s. Even the Datsun Z had a cam-back. That's this very aggressive slant that goes straight down almost 90 degrees. It's more aerodynamic, but on the 3, it just looks so, so good. Other hatchbacks have a similar kind of profile, but not quite this aggressive. When you combine that with this decklid spoiler on top, nicely polished black, and these four red ring lights for the tail lights – absolutely love how they're different shapes, inner and outer – then you combine this with the C-pillar. It's really thick, so you see this gorgeous profile on the side. It's uninterrupted, and then it flows right over the fenders. When you're looking at this car head-on, it just looks nice and wide like a proper sports car. This is how you do design, folks. Another benefit with the hatch is the cargo hold. 20 cubic feet behind these seats, compared to 13 on the 3 sedan, and when you fold these down, 47. There are 7 trims on the hatch, and 8 on the sedan. Check out how the sedan looks in profile. It's handsome, no doubt, but now look at the hatchback. It looks more upscale in every way, and it's priced that way. Trim for trim, the hatchback is a couple grand more. And here's where you really pay for it. Getting in. Gotta be careful, because this door cut line is just so low. I'm really close to the door, and the B-pillar just blocks your immediate vision any time you turn left to change a lane, the way it always is. And that C-pillar out back, while it's so beautiful from the outside, it's a burden inside when you're reversing, because the thickness of that panel and just the way the rear shoulder line rises and has the window going upward, it blocks a lot of visibility. It's a good thing blind spot monitoring is standard on every trim but the base S, but only the Premium Plus has the 360 cameras and rear emergency braking. In this car, you might need the help. But what a grand interior, and by grand, I mean minimal, subtle. It's the best kind of high-end. Every surface exudes quality, from the leatherette on the softly padded dash, to the grip of the small hub steering wheel, to the switches, all the way to the supportive, very comfortable seats. Mazda doesn't shout, it whispers, and you'll appreciate the finer details. Try the classy instrument panel. It's got a digital speedometer that mimics the analog gauges. In this view, you can see when the car detects a vehicle in the blind spot, and when it's helping you stay in the lane. I wish Mazda made this system work above 40 miles an hour, but it's good. I also wish they had a better infotainment, because while the rotary controller is fine, the interface isn't. For example, you really have to dig to find controls for the tuning and the seeking. They're not there by default. And say if you want to change the source, without a touchscreen, all of this is a little hard to use. Once you're used to it, you'll find surround sound for the Bose stereo. It sounds really good, especially center point. You get a nice virtual surround sound experience. I like that. And when you go into the settings, there's a lot of personalization, including for the head-up display. Every 3 comes standard with forward emergency braking. You also get lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, automatic high beams, and the top of the Line 3 has traffic jam assist. That works below 40 miles an hour to self-steer the car. It's all good, but the real luxury brands do a lot better job with the technology. They don't have better engines. Not on this turbocharged 2.5-liter 4. This one's got 250 horsepower and 320 pound-feet of torque. That's if you use 93 pump gas. If you don't want to pay six bucks a gallon right now, you can fill this up with regular, and Mazda detunes it automatically down to 227 horse and 310 pound-feet. Either way, those are big numbers in a small car. Now, it's not the immediate thrust that gets you. It's more of the smoothness. That's the character of this engine. When you get on it, especially in the mid-range, it punches. Because this is a much smaller car than the SUVs with this engine, the CX-5 and the CX-30, this responds a lot quicker. Mazda uses a six-speed automatic, which by today's standard is a little bit low compared to the 7, 8, and even the 10 speeds that other competitors are offering. But it does shift really well. The paddle shifters are good. In sport mode, it's very responsive, though I'd argue that it keeps the revs a little too high for too long when you don't want to go quickly. But all you take is just one little press on the switch here on the console and you can go back to normal driving. There is a six-speed manual transmission option, but it's only on one very specific trim of the three hatchback. You have to get the premium, it has to be the naturally aspirated engine, and it has to be front-wheel drive. So probably not going to find a whole lot of those around on sale. I think this turbo powertrain really pairs well with the all-wheel drive. It's really a natural partner. When you have that much power, you don't really want all of it being sent to the front wheels. All-wheel drive is really the best choice for this engine. Mazda also uses a system called G-Vectoring Plus, which is a type of torque vectoring. Not only does it break the wheels around turns, it will actually limit the engine torque. So it'll kind of modulate that up and down depending on your steering input. That's also pretty smart. You can get the naturally aspirated two and a half liter with 186 horsepower or a two with even less. But after driving the turbo 2.5, this is really the only engine that I want. All this mid-range and the top-end acceleration is where the three turbo really shines. Everyone else expects a slow little hatchback. That's not what this is. Not at all. Of course, there's a trade-off. It's fuel economy. If you get this version, you get 23 city, 31 highway, and 26 combined. That is the worst among all the Mazda three variants. If those numbers bother you, you can always pick the naturally aspirated two and a half liter or the naturally aspirated two liter and the sedan. And those do get better fuel economy because these days, every mile counts. The ride is just so quiet. I was really surprised first getting in this car with how damp everything is. It's totally insulated more in the lines of a luxury car. And the handling is just awesome too, as you'd expect. Then when you want to turn, grip, grip, grip for days, and it stays flat. It's just fun. There's no other word to say, you can do this all day. I love this little car. This is why smaller cars that are low to the ground can be safer than a big SUV because you can actually get out of the way. It's very agile. The soul of the Miata lives inside the three hatchback. It's just a fun little car to drive. And all the inputs are just so precisely calibrated that you're always having fun entering a turn, getting on the highway, just driving down the road. The only other car in this category among compact cars, it's the Honda Civic. It's the only one that is truly as well connected and tied down at every point, steering, handling, ride engines. Everything else is, is good, but it's not up to this level. If you like driving, that's why you buy a Mazda. It's just true. There's a trade off. Like in most Mazdas, the ride is a bit firm. It's not horrible, but you will feel the road a lot more than in other cars. That is just the sacrifice you make for feeling more of the road. You're more connected with the road. Sometimes you don't always want to be that connected. You'd like to be a little bit more distant. So if you want a lot more comfort, there's some other cars you may want to consider. I will say though, that any firmness in the ride is offset by these very cushioned seats. So I'll take the firmer ride with greater body control and keep these awesome seats. Seriously, we are on a back road with the three turbo. Not only do you accelerate nice and quickly and smoothly, you break just as strongly. That's how you know it's a Mazda feels like a Miata. The 2022 Mazda three hatchback starts at $23,100. Well equipped. You're looking at the high twenties for all the bells and whistles with the turbo engine. You're paying over 30. My car was 36 160 fully loaded. That's Volkswagen GTI money or a civic type R. But raw performance isn't the goal here. It's refinement. And next to a base Mercedes GLA, Audi Q3 or a BMW X2, a loaded Mazda three hatchback is better than all those cars for the same money. You get to choose how much you want to spend. That's the beauty of the Mazda three. I don't like any of the entry level German luxury cars because they feel cheap. With this, it's an alternative to luxury brands, and you're not going to regret it. Maybe even over the Acura Integra. We're reviewing that, too, and every other brand new car. So check out the channel, subscribe and go to CarGurus.com. We'll see you next time.