2010 Mazda 3 Sport

We've been toying with the idea of buying a new car lately, so I decided to practice my Picassa skills by assembling a collage of photos of my 3 current favourites; the 2010 Mazda 3 Sport, the 2007/08 Mazdaspeed 3, and the 2010 Golf GTI with phone dial wheels (at least that's what I call them). And I threw in the Subaru Impreza, too, mostly because it looks so much like the Mazda 3.

The perfect car (a.k.a. the Hot Wheels dream edition), in my humble opinion, would be a black 2010 Mazda 3 Sport fitted with the 18" wheels of a 2007/08/09 Mazdaspeed 3, and of course, tinted windows. I'm not proficient enough to photoshop that combination yet.

Our choice will almost certainly be a 2010 Mazda 3 Sport GS because the Mazdaspeed 3 is simply too powerful , not too mention beyond our budget. The only thing that bugs me about the GS is the wheel size. I want 17" wheels but the GS package only offers 16s. It's an additional $3,000 to bump up to the GT. The only item I want from the GT package is the 17" wheels, but I'm not willing to pay the big upcharge just for the wheels. Decisions, decisions...

As for the Mazdaspeed3, in 1992 I purchased a brand new Mustang 5.0 LX. At the time I thought it's 225 hp definitely placed it in muscle car territory. But the MS3 blows the doors off that aged Mustang. I don't have the exact numbers at my fingertips, but the 'speed 3's hp rating is somewhere around 300 this year. I can't deny that would be an awful lot of fun, but realistically, where can one really unleash that kind of power? And why tempt yourself that much? I would imagine more than a few drivers' licenses have been revoked due to the Mazdaspeed 3.

I'm really attracted to the Golf too. It's only drawback is price. The GTI is not worth the extra 7 grand or so to me, even though I have always been partial to Volkswagens.