Went to London, or this end of it, for the day today. Had lunch in Kew with an American lady friend who has just had a quite serious operation and can't drive for a few weeks. She was looking and sounding well though.
A year or two back I approved her garage man's choice (for her) of a metallic blue Mazda 3. When she came to see us here she wouldn't let me take it out for a quick blast. But now the car needs to be kept alive while she's laid up. So she asked me to drive it about a bit with that in mind.
She keeps the seat too low but is tall so I didn't have to move it. The Mazda is very nice, silent at idle, hums pleasantly on throttle. Feels hewn from the block actually, none of the slop our jalopy has. This extreme solidity made my driving a tiny bit rough, habits die hard and engine and road speed weren't always perfectly matched during gear changes, but I didn't hurt it.
Went out down the M4 as far as Heathrow and came back on the A4 (inbound M4 looked terrible all the way, but A4 was fine). About half an hour, long enough to evaporate the crankcase acid condensations and warm it up thoroughly, didn't get lost, didn't go over 70, hardly broke a speed limit all the way. Damn good car I thought, on that slight acquaintance.
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>> Damn good car I thought,
And, there's a new Mazda 3 hatch and saloon (fastback?) coming out around January.
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When in 2.3t guise makes it a bit of a Q car. Never driven one, but with 260 horses through the front wheels it probably copes better than one would think.
My old Saab 9000 2.3T with 220 was pretty awful in that dept.
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Mazda Mazda 3 - Nice Japanese motor - Clk Sec
