2024 Mazda MAZDA3 Reviews, Pricing & Specs

Considering the Mazda3 was last redesigned in 2019, it looks astonishingly modern. With swooping lines and beautifully scalloped bodywork, Mazda’s least-expensive vehicle looks right at home alongside luxury vehicles–and that’s exactly what Mazda wants.

At the front, squinting headlights featuring LED turn signals and stylish round lighting elements reach up along the front fenders. The headlight housings are set back, under the lip of the car’s hood, adding to the vehicle’s dramatic and, frankly, expensive looking design.

Mazda sells the 3 in two body styles, sedan and hatchback, and in Canada there are three and four trim levels respectively. The sedan comes in GX, GS, and GT trims. On the more expensive hatchback, these three configurations are joined by a premium Suna trim.

We think the hatchback is the way to go, not just because it’s a better-looking car in our opinion. You also get more usable storage space and more available powertrain configurations.

Our test car is in U.S. specification, but it’s a close match to a 2024 Mazda3 Sport GT hatchback with the AWD and the turbocharged engine. In Canada, this version starts at $41,031 as tested, including destination charges and other fees. This price looks a bit steep to those who still consider Mazda a mass-market car manufacturer, but anyone who cross-shops our tester with something from Audi or BMW will be impressed with both the material quality and the comparative value.

Our test car wore the available impressive red leather interior, a $250 upgrade. While a Toyota or a Honda might offer leather seats but hard plastic components on the doors and dash, the Mazda3 is positively awash in leather trimmings. Soft—and, again, red—leather covers the top portion of the doors and stretches across the entire width of the dashboard. The thin, almost delicate steering wheel is wrapped in black leather, as is the car’s shift knob. At least in the driver’s seat, the 2024 Mazda3 is beautifully designed and impressively furnished.

Shop for a Mazda3, and you’ll be presented with two engine options. A naturally aspirated 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine comes standard, and it offers a healthy 191 horsepower and 186 pound-feet of torque. The turbocharged 2.5-litre four-cylinder is optional on higher trim levels. All-wheel drive (AWD) is available with the turbocharged engine in certain configurations.

A six-speed manual transmission is offered, but it’s not a base-spec feature. If you want a six-speed stick, one comes standard on the Sport GT, equipped with FWD. All the others use a six-speed automatic transmission.

Although we’d rarely turn down the opportunity to drive a stick-shift Mazda, we’re not inclined to trade in the great turbo engine to get one, either. With 250 horsepower and 320 pound-feet of torque, our test vehicle was a delight in all driving scenarios. The car can run on regular or premium fuel, although using the former drops power numbers down to 227 hp and 310 lb-ft. The intelligent AWD system manages traction well, although the Mazda3 sits so low to the ground, we doubt anyone would want this car if heavy snow was even occasionally in the forecast.

Fuel economy measures 8.4 litres per 100 kilometres in the city, 6.3 on the highway, and 7.5 combined in FWD, non-turbo sedans, and 8.5 city, 6.5 highway, and 7.6 combined in FWD, non-turbo hatchbacks. The manual transmission adjusts those figures to 9.0/6.4/7.8. With AWD and the naturally aspirated engine, you’re looking at 8.9/6.6/7.9 with the sedan and 9.0/7.1/8.1 with the hatchback. Swap in the turbocharged powertrain (and its standard AWD drivetrain), and fuel economy measures 10.1/7.3/8.8 for the sedan and 10.1/7.5/8.9 for the hatch.

The Mazda3 shines on back roads. Despite a shift from a multi-link rear suspension in the third-generation Mazda3 to a torsion beam suspension in the current, fourth-generation car, the chassis still manages corners incredibly well. The only situations where we could clearly notice the suspension become unsettled was particularly rough pavement or when we accidentally drove over a speed bump a bit too quickly. In general, this car handles magnificently well.

Likewise, the 3’s steering is tight and precise, and there’s almost no perceptible body roll during normal driving. The Mazda3 definitely feels more stiffly sprung than some of its lukewarm competitors, but that’s a compromise many enthusiastic drivers will be willing to make. Although the Mazdaspeed name has been out of production since 2013, and while we don’t expect it to return, the current era of turbo Mazdas is doing a good job of satisfying our need for performance in a decidedly more civilized manner.

The 2024 Mazda3 puts the “compact” in compact car. The hatchback is a beautiful vehicle, but it’s not an overly practical one. 569 litres of cargo space is fine on paper—it’s less than the current Honda Civic Hatchback, but competitive with the Subaru Impreza and more than the Toyota Corolla Hatchback. Total cargo space, at 1,333 litres, is similarly middle-of-the-road.

The trouble is that the Mazda3’s rear passenger space is a casualty of those cargo space numbers. Rear-seat legroom will barely fit a six-foot-tall adult, and there’s no way you’re fitting three of them in the back seat without major complaints. Headroom is tight, too. The sedan offers a scant 374 litres of trunk space and similarly tight rear quarters.

On the topic of rear quarters, the 3 Sport’s beautiful bodywork also creates a massive blind spot at the C-pillar. Combine this with a small and sloped rear window and the available rear lip spoiler, and our test car offered truly terrible rearward visibility.

At CarGurus, expert reviewers have evaluated every Mazda model offered since 2020, so we’re exceptionally familiar with the brand’s technology. After all, Mazda uses a very similar infotainment system across its entire product line. The hallmark of Mazda tech is its rotary controller, which Mazda uses instead of a touchscreen interface, which is the more common mechanism used by other automakers.

There are upsides and downsides to restricting everything to a rotary dial. Mazda argues it’s safer, as the dial can be managed largely by feel, whereas a touchscreen demands the driver take their eyes off the road. On the flip side, folks who aren’t used to working the dial may end up more distracted than they’d be using a simple touchscreen setup.

Although the rotary controller does take some getting used to, we find it better than some other automaker’s non-touchscreen solutions (primarily the True Touch Interface from Acura and the touchpad controller from Lexus, which is rapidly being phased out of production). Furthermore, Mazda’s system becomes even easier to use once you’ve taken the time to set it up to your liking, such as adding key points of interest to the navigation system and setting your favourite radio stations.

There are some other quirks. An 8.8-inch infotainment display remains standard on most trims, but the 2024 Mazda3 gets a new available 10.25 screen. However, the extra real estate doesn’t stop the software from truncating text shown on the radio display. The larger screen does offer touchscreen functionality, but only when running Android Auto or Apple CarPlay—and the screen itself is positioned too far away for the driver to easily reach it.

Nonetheless, we’re happy to see CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity included as standard equipment, and it works wirelessly on upper trims. A wireless charging pad is also available, and the standard Mazda Connect system offers remote services, navigation, and roadside assistance. Although we’ve been unimpressed with Bose stereos in the past, the one offered in higher-trim Mazda3s sounds pretty good.

In all, it may take some time to get used to the Mazda3’s in-car tech, but the system is impressively featured. The rotary controller is lovely to use, too.

The 2024 Mazda3, in both hatchback and sedan forms, was awarded five stars from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Additionally, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) named it a 2024 Top Safety Pick+. Needless to say, this vehicle has performed admirably in crash tests.

Mazda also offers a wide array of safety features on the Mazda3, although much of it requires spending extra. Blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert are standard, but automatic emergency braking, lane-departure warning, and lane-keeping assist are included starting from the GS trim.

Adaptive Cruise Control with stop-and-go is also included beginning at GS, and the GT trim adds to this with Traffic Jam Assist. It’s not a hands-off system like Ford BlueCruise, but it’s effective.

The cost-effectiveness of the Mazda3 depends entirely on your social estimation of the brand. Compare it with a Honda or a Subaru, and the Mazda3 looks very well equipped but also incredibly expensive. Next to an Audi A3, however, it looks like an unbelievably good value.

The least expensive 2024 Mazda3 sedan in Canada is the GX trim level, which costs $27,581, including a $1,995 destination charge and other fees. The 2024 Mazda3 Sport hatchback in its base GX trim carries an MSRP of $28,331. Sedan pricing tops out at $40,281 for the GT trim with the turbo engine and AWD. On the Mazda3 Sport, the top Suna trim carries a fees-in price of $41,781. Next to a Subaru Impreza, which tops out at $37,270, that feels like a lot of scratch. An Audi A3, however, starts at $44,315—over $2,000 more than the Mazda3’s tippy-top price tag.

So, if you believe Mazda’s aspirations for luxury, then the Mazda3 is a bargain. If you’re looking for a Civic alternative, it’s less of a deal. What we can tell you is that the 2024 Mazda3 looks beautiful, drives even better, and offers a compelling suite of standard features. Beyond that, the decision of whether to buy one will come down to your relationship with the Mazda brand. At the very least, we suggest taking one for a good, long test drive. Preferably on some back roads.

Note: Images show a US model.