spammy56

This is from the Edmunds.com forum posted by someone in Mazda's focus group. Sounds great but this guy is a little Subaru biased because he has a WRX. Wouldn't that mean he would be used to a cheap interior? Plus he says it is better then VW interiors...

"The front sort of reminded me of a combo of the new Camry with some of the IS300 and Audi A4 in there. It is a more fluid design than either. It is smaller than the IS300, but has muscular lines none-the-less. The rear is higher than on previous Proteges (now called a Mazda 3). There is a clear (with a red tint) lense over the rear signal lights. The backup lights are each a big circle that are now mounted on the trunk lid

The front has headlights that were three receding silver circles and a clear lense (sort of like the Camry, except the lights are all the same size). Of course the signature grill was there.

The nose and bottom look a little like the Dodge Avenger on the sport model, and more like the Camry on the standard model.

The Wagon looks very similiar to the picture, except that the nose is more curved, and the fog lights are round. The side profile reminds me a little of a sleeker Pontiac Vibe. They had a Toyota Matrix there. The Toyota looked higher and bulkier than the Mazda wagon. The Mazda wagon also had a little bit of a point in the rear on the trunk lid (a shallow angle).

On the side view, the back seemed a little stubby (it is a compact). The rear seats were a little cramped.

The interior is really nice, even though I really did not care for the center console much. On the sport model, it is mainly charcole with sport bucket seats with plenty of bolsters (even a middle one in the front of the seat cushion!). The color scheme of the sport seats reminded me of my WRX seats. There was less bolstering on these seats than my WRX. The shifter had a nice feel even if it seemed a little vague. The trim did use plenty of aluminum colored trim. The dash was interesting. Looked like it was dials, but LCD hands! The dash was very well covered from sun, so I assume this will not be a problem. It was off so I could not tell for sure.

On the standard model, it was very well done! The color was the same color as the exterior, but looked sharp with the top of the dash being a different color than the bottom, sort of like on luxury vehicles (without the wood trim). I assume you will have the option of wood trim. The fabrics seemed to be of good quality.

The spoiler on the sports model of the sedan was sort of cheesy. It looked nice, but was just a piece of plastic covering the corner of the trunk lid. Was like the spoilers on Dodges and Chryslers.

The center console was not bad. It was charcole plastic with orange trim on the dials. It looked a little cheap, but better than many of the other cars we looked at (Civic, the Mitsu, Volkswagon Pasat and Golf). Also the stereo was part of the center console, not a separate unit fitted into the console. I really did not like that.

All in all, it looked like a significant improvement in shape and style to the older model, which in itself is very nice. Hey, if they come out with a Mazdaspeed version of it, I might think about it!"