I agree that with the new exterior design, 2010 Mazda3 is now more polarizing; some still like it, some don't. Again, looks are subjective. If an editor at C/D said the car is ugly it doesn't mean it is. If you don't like it, fine; you can write about it as much as you want. There are others here that don't like it and nobody tried to convince them otherwise.
There is no "authority" worth quoting when it comes to car design.
However, you used the “C/D argument" when you did not have a good argument to sustain your negative post about fuel economy.
This is what revealed your intentions to bring to the discussion any negative points made about this car. Breaking news: there are many available, but in general they stop at the exterior design, which doesn't really matter as I mentioned before.
Talk about missing the point - I brought up the styling since you started whining about "oh no, let's not talk fuel economy again!" and suggested that was the only negative in respect of this vehicle. And I do think the C/D reference was worth quoting - as it was a very cleverly-phrased expression of my own opinion of the interior and exterior styling of this vehicle. You don't like that - too bad - nobody is forcing you to read or to endlessly reply to my posts.
You may carry on with your crusade to portray this vehicle as an unqualified success, but you won't find me among your converts.
Jaeger
Just to get things straight, you can talk about styling all the way; I never commented on any poster's opinion about styling. You did not presented the quote from C/D as a reflection of your own thoughts; please correct me if I'm wrong, but you said:
"... what a Car and Driver editor said about the exterior design ..."
I'm not "whining" about anything and I'm not trying to convert anyone to anything. Everyone is entitled to its opinion and I respect that. I responded to your posts just as you responded to mine.
I apologize using the expression "who gives a s*it" in one of my posts, as it doesn't characterizes me.
I only responded to your post about fuel economy with the actual numbers from EPA to show that the Mazda3 is no more of a "gas guzzler" than any other car in this class with the same size engine; simple as that.
"Sir Osis of Liver" responded to another statement you made in your post :
"...And that big sporty 2.5 with the lousy mileage gets you a vehicle which turned out to be slower than the old one. That's progress?".
MotorTrend did instrument testing that showed actually a 0.5 sec improvement in the 0-60 mph acceleration, which is fairly significant in this test. All other performance numbers, as measured by MotorTrend, are similar or better. C/D may post different results, but why give precedence to one versus another? The conclusion I draw from the numbers is that this car takes 7.6-7.7 sec to 60 mph which place it on or near the top of its class.
Mazda3 is not a perfect car by any means (there is no such car IMO), but by comparison, and exterior design controversy aside (I already stated that I’m not thrilled about the exterior design), it’s still one of the best cars you can buy in this class. This is just my opinion about the car.
