💯 Why you should rent this car:
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High build quality and luxurious interior
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Stylish exterior body and aesthetics
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Smart safety and quality of life features (Lane-keep assist, auto-hold, options to turn these on/off)
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Has all the modern tech (Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, rear-view camera)
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Supremely comfortable and supportive leather seats
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Car will feel like an extension of you and you won't even realize it (unless you read below)
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Fun to drive!
👩🔬 If you're a fan of human-centered design, this is the right car for you. The Mazda3 hatch is the best in-class luxury compact economy car. You will be surprised at the build quality, subtle design changes, and the amount of scientific research done that makes this car stand out.
⛽️ Mazda's SKYACTIV engines are one of the most gas-efficient combustion engines on the market. You're getting best-in-class mileage for a combustion engine. This is the FWD version and not the AWD. So although it's less mechanically capable, it's about 200 pounds lighter, saving you even more gas and providing a sportier driving experience. When you sit inside, you forget you're in an economy car. The quality feels so luxurious compared to other hatchbacks on the market. Everything is fine to the touch. There's tons of space to drive 3 passengers, and maybe have someone in the back middle seat if you need. Or if you need to carry space, you can pull down the rear seats for storage.
🏎 Equipped with a 6-speed automatic transmission, you get sporty shifts, rather than boring CVT transmissions on the market with gas efficient cars (I won't bore you with the details). You can shift it into manual shift mode for a sporty experience. Mazda is leveraging their motorsports pedigree into this Mazda3 hot hatch.
🤸♂️ Mazda focused a lot of driver experience, attention, and ergonomics in this generation. You'll notice when braking, Mazda tuned the suspension to minimize nose dive. Tons of small interior design changes focuses your attention on the road, and eliminating distraction. Plug in your phone to use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto for the best maps navigation experience. The infotainment isn't touch screen because that will divert your attention away from the road. Instead, you'll use the infotainment controls in the center console.
Mazda focused on human-centricity in this car. They studied how humans move in order to engineer this car to feel like an extension of the body. I'm not even exaggerating. They performed a comprehensive study of driver ergonomics starting from the needs of the driver, and not starting from the car and then designing the human response to the car.
This passage from Mazda USA's website focuses on driver position:
"We take it for granted, but when we walk or run, we never get motion sickness. By studying the human body, Mazda engineers learned that this is because we are subconsciously controlling our legs, feet, pelvis, and the spine to minimize head movement. With this insight, Mazda engineers took a fresh look at every single part and redesigned them in order to reduce head movements. The human body’s amazing ability to balance itself is our starting point. Going beyond conventional ergonomics in the all-new Mazda3, the driving position and the seats were crafted to compliment a natural posture for the human body. The seats in the all-new Mazda3 support the pelvis in an upright position that keeps the occupant’s spine in a natural S-shaped curve, which is the same posture that a person assumes naturally when walking. Mazda engineers discovered that by moving the pelvis and spine to maintain balance, the body absorbs input from the road surface and stabilizes the head."
🎛 The next research area they did was around sound:
"In studying how people hear and how vibrations are processed by the human body, Mazda engineers realized that people are more sensitive to changes in sound than the sound level itself. Rapid changes are unpleasant, and linear changes are much more pleasing. Using this knowledge, Mazda designer reduced the outside noise entering the cabin of the all-new Mazda3. Then they reduced the reflection of interior sound from conversations and stereo audio. The result is a clearer connection to the world with a well-damped sense of quality to the sound. From the tires, through the suspension, body structure, cabin and seats, Mazda took a holistic approach with the all-new Mazda3 that focused on how the complete vehicle performs and feels rather than simply maximizing each individual system."
Sources:
https://insidemazda.mazdausa.com/the-mazda-way/technology/science-behind-engineering-a-feeling/
https://insidemazda.mazdausa.com/the-mazda-way/cars-for-drivers/putting-people-first-mazda-designs-vehicles-human-race/