I have now had the car for very nearly 5 months.. It has turned out to be a superb buy, my first Mazda.
Prior to buying the car I read just about every review possible and after 2200 miles of mixed motoring I can not agree with most of the adverse comments in the reviews.
The car is a pleasure to drive, the auto box is superb and the up/down paddles are hardly necessary but I do use them occasionally. Fuel consumption is 39.0 mpg using brim to brim method. I suspect if the greater proportion of the mileage had been long runs rather than short trips the consumption would be over 40 mpg, i.e. 80% of the claimed 50.4 mpg for this particular model.
There is some road noise attributable to the 18" wheels but I don't find this a nuisance except on some rougher tarmac surfaces.
Reports commented that manoeuvring the car was difficult due to poor rearwards vision. With 3 mirrors and front and rear parking sensors connected to an excellent display, parking is simplicity itself. This is the easiest car I have ever had to park.
Other reviews said that the external mirrors were placed too much to the rear of the door making them difficult for shorter drivers to use. This is also nonsense and in fact the large gap between the mirrors and the 'A' pillars leaves a handy gap for vision at road junctions and reduces what could be an even larger blindspot.
We had some tall friends staying and with us and I took the opportunity to ask them about rear seat comfort/headroom. They were completely happy with the rear despite some reports saying it was claustrophobic.
I have been unlucky and had 2 punctures necessitating replacement tyres within the first 900 miles. Fortunately as part of the car purchase I had a space saver spare wheel and jack etc included. It was at this juncture that I discovered that the Dunlop SP Sport Maxx TT 215/45R18 tyres are not available in the UK or Europe. This makes complete nonsense of the paragraphs in the Users Manual explaining how important it is to fit the same tyre as originally fitted. Happily this is the only negative thing I can say about this car at this relatively early stage
The equipment fitted to this car is comprehensive. the Rear View Monitoring system is a bonus as is the Lane Departure Warning System. This car replaced a Mercedes C Class of recent vintage and I rate the Mazda as good as that for some £10k less.

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