Highly rigid body
The basic development concept for the body shell of the all-new Mazda 3 was to improve the overall balance of the body's rigidity and ensure it firmly absorbs the reaction force of the dampers. To this end, particular attention went to reinforcing the area around the front and rear suspension mounts and the joint sections in each corner, which are subject to greater stress. Structural adhesive was used to strengthen the joints for the front and rear suspension towers, and spot welding was added to reinforce the joints of the door openings. The result is a substantial improvement in rigidity and body hysteresis (the degree of car body deformation due to repeated applications of torsional load).
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Cargo & Towing
There's 17.2 cubic feet of cargo room behind the third-row seat. Folding the
third row flat increases the cargo area to 48.4 cubic feet, and folding the
second row flat makes for a total of 100.7 ...
Convertible Commentary
As mentioned, our test car had the retractable-hardtop roof, and Mazda's
implementation of this type of roof has a few advantages over those from other
manufacturers.
First of all, it's fast; it ...
Defining Attributes
On the upside, the current generation's reliability has been above average to
well above average, and it's one of the most fun cars in the compact class. Fun
is hard to define, but it usually invo ...