All New 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L Test Drive In Bayan Lepas

All New 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L Test Drive In Bayan Lepas

This time we decided to test drive the all new 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L, and it will our last test drive outing with my test drive partner too. He has decided to leave Penang to further his career. We went to Krystal Point, located at Bayan Lepas to the Mazda showroom to test drive the car.

The moment I step into the Mazda showroom, I saw this red devil and I thought the car is the new Mazda 6 but after I’ve look closer to the plate  name, it was the 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3! The Mazda 3 looks almost exactly the same as the Mazda 6 except it has a shorter butt and smaller overall dimension 🙂

The new 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L with styling directed by the ‘KUDO – Soul of Motion’ is fierce and definitely look so much better compared to it the previous version. Personally, I prefer this car as looks much more attractive compared to its closest rival, Honda Civic 1.8S.

The car redefined its projector headlamps to even more stylish and come with Adaptive Front-lighting System (AFS) feature. AFS feature will propagate the light beam to the right angle of on the road according to input from steering angle and vehicle speed, ensuring driver have to see the further and better compared to conventional headlamps.

Oh yea, the car come with headlamps washer too! Cuci bersih bersih! 🙂

What impressed me the most the size of the 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L wheels! The car is using the light weight 18′ low tires profile size of 215/45 R18! This is huge size wheels for a C-segment car. Most of C-segment cars are using only 17′ wheel size, but this Mazda bring the car to next level!

All new 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L come with beautiful  KUDO signature LED taillights. The light shapes from the taillights are similar to the projector headlamps. This is pretty awesome!

Not to forget this new car come with sunroof feature too. For the couple who want some sweet moment or romantic, they can open the sunroof cover and look toward to the sky through the sunroof and enjoy counting the stars during the night ride 🙂

The new car has large trunk size and come with soundproof material under the boot.

For the interior of the car, all new 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 looks more sportier compared to latest Toyota Altis 2.0V. The car interior is elegant and sporty at the same time.  The dashboard and door panels are wrapped with carbon fibers vinyl that give sport outlook. The new 2014 Skyativ Mazda 3 2.0L  interior only come with single tone color black color. The dashboard is refined with carbon fiber vinyls.

The 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L  interior looks great with carbon fiber vinyl, but the car pricing at almost RM140,000, I am disappointed because there is no real carbon fiber part installed on the car with this price! The dashboard come with fine crafted pieces of plastics across the whole dashboard panel and there are fine chrome lining around the air vents that enhanced the appearance of the interior.

The other drawback from this 2014 Skyativ Mazda 3 2.0L is the car only come with fabric seats. Pricing close to RM140,000, we believe Mazda can give more than just a black fabric seats. The front seat for both driver and passenger is quite comfortable for adult passenger but the rear seats little bit cramp for us. The legroom for the rear seat in this car is less spacious compared to its rival, Toyota Corolla Altis 2.0V.

Even my test drive partner said the rear seats will be cramp if there is 3 person sitting on it. See how much space he has taken when he sit in the middle of the rear seat 🙂

The car come with keyless entry system, yeah! This is something that we are looking for at such price for a car. We tried started the Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L engine, and the engine roar louder compared to Toyota Corolla Alties 2.0V and Honda Civic 1.8S.

Both Toyota Corolla Alties 2.0V and Honda Civic 1.8S wanted to make their car as quiet as possible, but Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L is doing the other way. No, don’t expect the car as loud as those cheapo Proton Wira with big, straight flow exhaust pipe. This Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L engine roar is a much better way yet not too loud. Under the car hood, there is no soundproof pad attached to it. This is the another reason why the engine roar louder than its rivals.

Once we completed the test drive procedures, we proceed to drive the 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L on the Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah highway. The car come with organ-type accelerator pedal which allows the drive to have precise control on the car acceleration. The weight of the accelerator pedal at the ‘right’ ratio which we can control the desire car speed effortlessly.

Armed with 155-hp SKYACTIV-G 2.0L engine integrated with i-Eloop feature, the car doesn’t let us down. The car accelerate quickly from the moment the pedal is stepped on it, there is G-force pulling me back to the seat, ahh… feel good 🙂

i-Eloop and i-STOP features are the one that I really amazed in this 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L. These 2 features give the car better acceleration and reduced the fuel consumption by 10% (claimed by Mazda measurements).

The i-Eloop and i-STOP features work similar way just like hybrid system but the system store the electrical power in revolutionary high-capacity Electric Double Layer Capacitor (EDLC) instead of in cell batteries (hybird car system).

The electrical power from the EDLC is released to support the electrical systems in the car during the car is accelerating and is charged when the car is slowing down.

The dashboard: infotainment system with: 7″ full-color touchscreen display, multi-function Commander control, Infotainment system voice command, Rearview camera is showing status of the i-Eloop whether the car is using the electrical power or charging the electrical power.

Sound high tech huh?

Even though the new 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L equipped with i-Eloop feature, but the acceleration is no faster then the new Toyota Corolla Altis 2.0V.

Personally, we don’t see the panel meter is sporty enough for this red  devil 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L. The rpm meter runs in digital display rather than the analog, leaving the driver to feel less sporty.

The Mazda 3 equipped with SKYACTIV-Drive 6-speed automatic transmission  with sports mode give us the very smooth gear changing during the ‘Drive’ mode activated. We barely feel the gear change at all during cruising on the highway. When we engage the gear to ‘manual’ mode, the car feels much more responsive and to our feet and we can easily overtake any car and zap on the Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah highway at speed between 80km/h to 120km/h for that time. Staying on the highway, right lane all the time is not an issue for this car 🙂

Equipped with Skyactiv-chassis, the strut-type front suspension, and multi-link rear suspension are fine-tuned for stability at high speed and sharp turn. The car still grips strongly and firmly on the road even though we zapping around the highway at high speed. The suspension is not too rigid as well, the car doesn’t shake as hard as Toyota Corolla Altis 2.0 when to go over bumpers even with the low profile tires (215/45/ R18).

During the cruising on the Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah highway, we tried the MZD Connect too. This concept was seeing in luxury car (BMW) before, now we have it in the Mazda’s cars! The MZD Connect provide huge range of infotainment options from internet through Aha when connected to smartphone through bluetooth.

This feature allowed selection of various music too from different sources, social media networks and navigation. The new 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L come with 6-speakers optimally located in the cabin provides us the crystal clear sound system. Even though the engine roar louder than its rivals, we still able to enjoy the music in the cabin while on the road.

The car safety features come with ABS (with EBD, BA, DSC & TCS), 6 airbags, ISOFIX child seat anchors, immobilizer and burglar alarm.

We make a big spin on the highway and went back to the Mazda Showroom, Krystal Point passing Queensbay Mall through the side with the car.

Conclusion, the new 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L equipped with a lot of new features from Skyactiv Technology. The outlook is simply sporty, attractive and bold while the interior looks plain for that price. For performance wise, this car is build for energy efficient vehicle (EEV), good fuel efficient is expecting and great stability on high speed with the big 18 inch wheels with the suspension setting not too rigid and it is pretty comfortable to be a family car. Pricing at RM139,000, there is a lot option driver can go for that price but this 2014 Skyactiv Mazda 3 2.0L would be one of the best choices you can be made.

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