For eight years, I owned and drove the absolute snot out of a 2008.5 Mazdaspeed3. Metro grey, six-speed, sport seats, and tuned within an inch of its stock internals’ lives. The Racing Beat exhaust calmed the drone-prone factory note and added a hint of unequal-length-header rumble. On paper, the 2026 Mazda 3 has nothing in common with my old car, and yet, something about it just feels right .
The Basics
The 3 isn’t new, and we’ve reviewed it plenty of times , but what stood out in my recent test drive is its humble transmission. It’s the last vestige of what Mazda once stood for (Zoom Zoom), and to its credit, it’s one of the few admirable…
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