I bought this car brand new in 2012. Paid 17k. Worth every penny. It has 63k miles onit right now. Have never done anything other than change the oil and filter. It runs like it is expected. Slow and easy. You won't win no races with it. But it gets my wife to work with no issues. { 5 miles} Rain or snow. We have taken it on several road trips. Including a couple 1000 plus mile trips. Running wide open the whole way. It has no problem. I am a big guy. Very un comfy in most cars. But this I fall right into it and am able to climb back out with ease. The interior is cloth. Its starting to fade. But still no tears or wear marks. Theres nothing fancy about this car. But my wife loves it.

I purchased this car with just under 117K miles in late 2023 and wrote my first review after just 1,000 miles. Currently, it has 141K, so this is more of an ownership review than just first impressions. I haven't done much other than regular maintenance (oil changes, brakes, etc.) although I have replaced the exhaust. It always starts and returns excellent fuel economy. I get about 32 in the city and 42 on the highway, with an overall average of 36. For a small car it is stable but also has very agile handling. My only gripe is that it is very, very slow. It takes anywhere from 8 to 10 seconds to get to 60 MPH and can be scary at times when you really need to step on it and there's barely any power until 4000 RPM, but it's the sacrifice you'll need to make to get those high fuel economy figures. The Mazda3 is a great alternative to a Civic or a Corolla, while also offering a manual transmission on every trim and many available features. On the GT trim you can even get blindspot monitors and adaptive headlights!

I’ve always stuck with Japanese import cars because of their reliability and overall quality. The 2012 Mazda 3 is the first Mazda I’ve ever owned. I bought mine 4 years ago just coming out of a divorce and needed a good reliable vehicle that wasn’t very expensive. I’ve put over 50,000 miles on my 3 and the only thing outside of regular maintenance I’ve had to replace was a serpentine belt. For me, the car is perfect in size because I’m quite petite but if you’re a tall person I could imagine you don’t have much leg room since it would s a compact sedan. If I ever decided to trade my car in, I would definitely buy a much newer Mazda 3. They’re great on gas, gets about similar gas mileage to a Civic or Corolla and it’s a perfect car for daily commuting.