Gadgetory

now the standard mazda3 got a pretty big upgrade for 2013 we're talking a new skyactiv engine that's more efficient a new visual upgrade and a bunch of interior upgrades that made it a much better car now the mazdaspeed3 the performance version here is pretty much unchanged for a 2013 model year with one exception it's got a new tech package that pretty much modernizes what's arguably the best hot hatch that you could buy in America - one Google with cnet.com let's take a look at the 2013 month of speed 3 check the tech now where the standard Mazda 3 is available as sedan the mazdaspeed3 is only available as a hatchback now you can tell it from a standard hatch by its more agressive spoiler it's bigger 18 inch wheels with they're much more aggressive brakes our models also equipped with the adaptive front lighting system it's a high-intensity discharge lighting system that steers a little bit when you turn your steering wheel so you kind of see around turns when you drive at night alright from the driver's seat of the new mazdaspeed3 we can see one really big change right away and that's this new touchscreen navigation system that's powered by TomTom now we're the previous mazdaspeed3 and mazda3 units new stuff hide their navigation up in this little tiny three and a half inch screen now you've got a really big touchscreen that gives you a lot of real estate for sort of fooling around with hitting buttons and also viewing the map you've got am/fm with HD radio decoding you've got your Sirius XM satellite radio bluetooth for hands-free calling and audio streaming now if you've got a bluetooth paired smartphone Android or iOS and it's running Pandora you can actually reach up right here and hit one button and actually have your phone launched the Pandora app automatically switch over into a accessory mode that'll lock you out of your phone and transfer all of those Pandora controls right over here into the mazdaspeed3 dashboard you get all of your audio information about what's playing who's playing get all your stations right here so you can browse through those now let's get over to the nav because it's interesting it's basically what they've done is taken a TomTom navigation unit boiled it down to just its data put it on an SD card somewhere in this dashboard and then giving you the readout here so the interface is exactly what you would see on a modern TomTom navigation device you've got your map here you could tap anywhere and bring up the familiar TomTom menu where you can search for destinations get traffic and whatnot it's all here now we expect that navigation system these two displays up here on the eyebrow still remain the same one of them pretty much only displays your climate control information and the other one is pretty much relegated to just showing your instantaneous fuel economy and range and miles you've also got brand new in the month of three a blind spot information system you hit a button on the dashboard and whenever something's in your blind spot you get a little light in the wing mirror there is no backup camera standard on this vehicle and I don't even know if you can get one as an option probably needs one lift the hood of the muffin feet three and the first thing you'll be greeted with is this top mount intercooler now the purpose of this thing is to cool the intake charge coming in from that hot turbocharger and it's fed cool air by this actual functional hood scoop on the hood now underneath this you'll find the 2.3 liter turbocharged engine that's gonna output 263 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque now all of that's going to the front wheels by way of a six-speed manual transmission that's a lot of torque so you want to want to make sure that steer will point it nice and straight before you drop the hammer or torque steer it's gonna be a bit of a problem fuel economy is rated at 1825 but let's be honest I'll be lucky if I can get 10 pretty good sound for what you know basically a turbocharged four-cylinder it's really easy to for these engines they end up sounding like weed whackers or lawnmowers or something like that this is actually got a pretty good sound because Mazda spent some time tuning the exhaust powers good to you know complain the first time I got an opportunity to drive this car was a couple of years ago and it was at night and in the rain and 280 pound-feet of torque at night in the rain in the front-wheel drive car as you can imagine is kind of scary on dry roads it's actually not that bad and that's helped partially by the fact that Mazda engineers have limited the total torque output in first and second gear so that you get less torque steer I know a lot of people are probably also turning their nose up at the fact that this is a front-wheel drive car but before you go get your torches and pitchforks and start talking about front-wheel drive MADD rules right good there are a lot of really good front wheel drive cars out there this is arguably one of the best ones that you can buy the suspension tune is firm but not punishing you definitely want to avoid potholes and any sort of like great drainage grates on the side of the road though because it is a bit of a rough ride but it's not punishing you don't really have to dodge joint in the roads and it's firm so that you get a lot of good feedback through the steering wheel and through the seat of your pants other than that at high wave speed you don't really get a ton of road noise you do have wider tires firmer suspension on this vehicle you would have in your standard last of three so there is a bit of road noise but it's not so much that you can't really hear the Bose audio system that we've got on this vehicle now that booth audio system sounds pretty good but I had to double check that it was actually premium audio because it doesn't sound premium good it's just alright expecting your twenty thirteen miles of speed three couldn't be easier it bases at twenty four thousand two hundred bucks and there's really only one option you want that's the all-encompassing tech package just gonna add the navigation the blind spot monitoring the adaptive front lighting all of that for two thousand four hundred and eighty five dollars adding a couple of small dealer installed options and our destination charge to reach our s tested price of twenty seven thousand nine hundred and fifty five bucks that's probably the sweet spot for the Mother's Day three you really can't get a better deal for a high performance hot hatchback this side of a Subaru WRX or a Mitsubishi rally our sport back