Mazda Is Always the Answer: Members’ Rides

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Today I get to introduce you all to Nick. Nick works in a network operation center for a large bank and lives in Houston. He had a Civic previously, but when it met its tragic demise, he needed to find a fun car that could do it all. For a bit, there was an epic plan to replace it with a Boxster and a Mercedes 190E! Due to parking and logistical constraints, that didn’t work out. Yet. But he did end up buying one of the best-looking hatchbacks ever.

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How did you get into cars?

I’ve been wrenching since I was old enough to hold one. My dad taught six-year-old me how to change the distributor cap and rotor on his Ranger. I also have a very vague memory of helping him swap the muffler on my mom’s LeBaron around then too. I’ve owned several cars over my 20-year driving history and I’ve always done my own maintenance and repairs. I used to spend Friday nights at my cousin’s. The rule was if you needed a car fixed, you brought a case of beer for shop rent and whoever was there would help you with whatever needed done. Sometimes you’d have one person changing oil while four people each took a tire and did brakes. You’d have the occasional engine out service or rebuild, sometimes body work, sometimes we’d build a trailer.

Speaking of dad, he was also a gamer, so he always kept the latest console in the house. We had Need for Speed and Road Rash for the 3DO, and another early NfS game for PC. Then the Gran Turismo games once the PlayStation and PS2 were out. I used to, and on rare occasions still do, spend hours setting up my favorite cars or taking a 190E around the Green Hell. GT is the reason for my general built not bought attitude towards cars. I’ve always enjoyed building some cheap starter car into the best version of itself and racing it.

What happened to the Civic?

I was sitting at a red light and got rear-ended pretty hard. I have no idea how fast the truck was going, but it was enough to knock my fiancée and I both unconscious. We were fortunate to be able to walk away from the accident. All I remember is pointing at something on my GPS, the impact and thinking “oh shit,” and then opening my eyes to be looking at the roof of my car. We were both pretty sore for a few days and I’m still not quite 100% recovered from the concussion.

The impact tilted my power seats all the way back, knocked the transmission out of gear, unlatched half of the back seat and broke the other half. The trunk couldn’t be opened, not even with a crowbar. Insurance couldn’t even get the car into gear when they looked at it – crazy for a FWD car.

What year was your Civic?

It was a 2019 EX-L sedan. A fantastic commuter car, but it left a lot to be desired in terms of driving engagement. I bought it in 2021 when almost nothing was on lots and I NEEDED a car, so I wasn’t spoiled for choice.

How did you land on the Mazda3?

It took about a month for insurance to get everything completely sorted out when my Civic was totaled, and I’d been looking at cars since it happened.

I went through a pretty long list of cars before I ended up on the Mazda 3:

• Mustang (my dad tried to talk me into a GT until the very end)
• Camaro
• Challenger
• Giulia
• Miata
• S2000
• Boxster
• Another Civic
• Maverick
• Bronco
• Golf GTI

… but none were quite right for one reason or another. I’ve got some knee issues that make driving a manual in city traffic painful some days and outright impossible others, so sadly I had to rule one out from the jump if I was going to buy one car.

Multiple-car solutions aren’t a great option right now for several reasons, so I had to pick just one vehicle, even though I could have afforded that 190E and Boxster combo I so desperately wanted. The icing on the cake: I had recommended a CX-30 to a friend who absolutely adores it and recommends a Mazda to everyone else now. She asked why I wasn’t considering a Mazda myself since I thought so highly of them. It was a pretty good question, so I started looking.

And how is it?

It’s a blast to drive. I knew I wanted an AWD turbo car if I was going to buy one, and it’s quite frankly the most fun car I’ve ever driven. The salesman in the passenger seat went from not knowing what the car even was to wanting to buy the last one on the lot – and he did a week later. I put it in manual and was running it up to redline before shifting and even he was having fun as a passenger. Mazda has performed wizardry with this drivetrain. It frankly has no business being this good for the price.

The 3 manages to hit all my wants and needs: It’s just big enough for everything my fiancée and I need if we want to take a long road trip, go camping, or lug all of my armor to the Texas renaissance faire. It’s incredibly comfortable and one of only two cars I’ve been able to get the seat to a perfect driving position.

What do you love about it?

Letting climate control also handle my heated wheel and seats is a godsend, especially if I remote start the car. The interior is incredibly comfortable, and all the surfaces are padded leather, so they feel fantastic. The dealer had three that I wanted to look at, and I got my second choice. The first was a 2023 AWD turbo premium plus with 8k miles for 26k … a car that stickers at 38k. It sold the day before I went in, so I ended up with the one I have.

It’s got a six-speed automatic with a manual mode and paddles. The AWD isn’t available with a manual, but I’ve seen several reviews from people who’d rather have the AWD. It’s necessary to get all the power down with the turbo model. I’ve managed to spin all four wheels, but admittedly it’s got cheap tires I knew needed to be replaced when I bought it.

How does the 3 compare to the Civic?

The Civic’s interior felt incredibly cheap, and while the CVT was great for long trips, it was bland and not particularly fun to drive otherwise. I felt like I needed to mod it for it to be something I wanted to drive. The Civic did have a better stock sound system though.

Sometimes I’ll turn off the 3’s climate control, shut the stereo off, and just listen to the turbo noises and laugh. It hits second gear at 33mph, so I can do hard pulls when there’s no traffic and still be well under the speed limit. The 6-speed is pretty good about picking gears, but I only put it in D for long trips to save on gas. Otherwise, it goes into M and rarely makes it past third. I could honestly do nothing else with it and still love it.

So what are the plans for the 3?

This is the first time I’m really planning to go nuts. My Civic was slightly modified, with a tune, cold air intake, and some appearance things, but I didn’t go crazy with it. I’ve done things like hardwire in cupholder LEDs and build custom sound systems in the past but not much beyond that. My fiancée has been encouraging me to go crazy. Cars are an appliance to her, but she loves to learn new things (she has four degrees!) and never wants to discourage my hobbies. I’ve mentioned picking up an FD RX-7 and converting it to a DCT with paddles and she told me to do it if we can afford it. Yes, I am aware of how lucky I am.

This will be my daily until I get a second car, hopefully a Cayenne or a Rivian R3X. Once I get past the mental hurdle of the accident, I’d love to track it.

I originally just wanted a car that I’d be excited to drive every day. But because I’m me, I can’t help myself and I never half-ass anything, so it’s become yet another project. I’ve got livery ideas kicking around in my head, and the Hokkaido green wheels I’m waiting on aren’t far off the Autopian green, so that may feature prominently on the car.

Plans include the aforementioned wheels, coilovers, and a TCR body kit. Eventually it will have some TE37s as well. Someone attempted to steal the Motegis off my Civic and until I can park my car inside, I don’t want to buy an expensive set of wheels. Wheel theft is a major problem here in Houston.

What makes you want the TCR kit?

It’s a widebody kit that goes a long way towards improving the egg shape of the 3 and I think it looks fantastic. Plus, since Mazda canceled the program, it’ll give me a pretty unique car. I’m aware of only three that exist in the wild.

One was done by TCP, the second looks to be a stock 3 with a JWIDE kit, and the third being CorkSport’s race car, and that was made using the only surviving set of molds from Mazda. This generation doesn’t have much aftermarket support here in the US outside of CS, who has been racing Mazdas for a while.

You mentioned having had several cars in the past, what was your favorite?

I had a 1988 Chevy K2500, it was my first vehicle and was very near and dear to me. It was my grandfather’s old farm truck and I spent a lot of time with him as a kid. My grandparents would babysit us when my parents were at work and sometimes we’d go up to their lake cottage and go fishing and things like that.

I never technically owned it; my parents bought it for me. It needed new cab corners, a new bed, the transmission rebuilt from decades of abuse, the heat barely worked, no AC, crank windows and manual locks, sometimes weird electrical issues, but I loved it. I had the time or the money to do those things, but never both at the same time.

How about your least favorite?

Probably my 2013 Fiesta. It was a great car … that was totally ruined by the PowerShift transmission issues. At 131k miles, the TCM died. It was under warranty until 135k, but after six months of waiting on parts and borrowing cars or doing Turo rentals, I said screw it and bought the Civic. I never had any issues with it beyond that and would probably still have it today if it could have been fixed in a timely manner.

What’s in your dream garage?

My dream garage has the ’88 Comanche that currently belongs to my dad, a 1992 black over black 190E, an FD or the right FC RX-7 as a project, a Rivian R3X, and if money were absolutely no object, a Lamborghini Miura.

What’s the story with the Comanche?

It was originally my grandfather’s truck. Straight six, 4WD, factory roll bar, auto, with factory bucket seats. Almost no rust because it was either garage-kept or not driven in winter the first 31 years of its life. One day, grandpa was backing it into his garage and hit the wall, and being the hot-tempered person he can be, decided it needed to be scrapped then and there. Both my dad and one of my great-uncles essentially raced over there to get it. Dad got there first, took it to the yard to ask how much they’d give for it, then hid it in a barn for a few months and gave my grandfather the cash they he would have received from the scrap yard.

Dad took it to a local place to see about having the roll bar powder coated and nobody believed he actually had a Comanche. The lady at the desk eventually came out and took a look, went back inside, and brought the owner to the front. He went out, saw it, dropped to his knees and asked “how?”.

Dad told him the story of how he got it and was offered $15,000 on the spot for it. He even commented how the factory dash clock still worked. I’ve driven it a few times, and every time someone shows me their bank account and offers to buy it on the spot. “We can go to my bank right now!” “Even if it were mine to sell, it’s not for sale.” I know they’re not especially rare in some parts of the country, but a mostly rust-free example in the midwest? We’ve seen DT’s Jeeps.

We have indeed! Thanks Nick!

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