Gen 3 to Gen 4

[Ed-Led]

Part exed my 65 plate Gen 3 165 Sport for a Gen 4 GT Sport Skyactiv X yesterday on a 69 plate. Only 9000 miles on the clock. Yes the battery was stuffed and yes it needed the all important software update before I bought it. I'd advise anyone buying these to insist this is done before buying. Still finding my way around the Gen 4 but first impressions are it's definitely quieter inside and the interior is a step up in quality.

[Engineer Andy]

The interior quality and styling is a real improvement, though space in the newer two generations of the Mazda3 doesn't appear to be as good as the first two, at least that's what I thought when test driving a gen-3 car and (whilst waiting for a service) sitting in a gen-4 car.

How much was the car you bought, if you don't mind me asking? I've definitely seen a marked drop in asking prices for second-hand cars of late.  A low mileage example like yours would normally attract a considerable premium, although in this case it sounds like the previous owner barely used it, and probably why the battery had failed.  You might want to keep an eye on the secondary battery system (i-Stop or whatever they call it now) in case that has also been significantly adversely affected.

One thing that might've been in your favour affordability-wise, other than the battery situation would be that the update of the model to 'e-Skyactiv-X' seems to have made more than just a cosmetic difference in terms of driveability and efficiency, not that yours is 'poor' at all.  I hope you enjoy your new car.

[Ed-Led]

The new 3 was £19,250 just over 4 weeks ago now but i have noticed a 10% drop in car prices since then. My old car's value was showing £8,900 on Auto Trader when i part-exed it (i actually got £9,250 for it from the dealership) but now it's dropped to £7,700.

  Thoughts on the new car so far....firstly the power and acceleration feels a lot different to my previous Gen 3 165 Sport. The Skyactiv X is supposed to be 180bhp yet somehow it doesn't feel like it is at times. The 165 Sport had a sudden burst of pace above 3500rpm on the motorway while this new car is more linear in it's acceleration and at lower speeds even sounds a bit like a diesel. It's not slow but feels less raw than the Gen 3. On the other hand it does feel a lot happier when you're driving in slow moving traffic and is definitely quieter inside.

  It's possible this car might need another software update as i believe there is one to improve throttle response. Some early Skyactiv X cars have slight hesitation on accelerating between 30 and 40mph and i have noticed mine doing this every now and again. Another slight niggle is the piano black detail around the gear stick scratches far too easily. Mine is not too great even on a 9,000 mile example so i'll see if i can do something about this going forward. Why Mazda use this material is a mystery as the rest of the interior is amazing quality, it easily matches the equivalent sized German cars.

  Overall though, the Gen 4 is lovely to drive, has an amazing gearbox, a brilliant infotainment system and is pretty nice to look at inside and out.