2010 Mazdaspeed 3: On Display

This just looks wretched.

1) This setup barely passed in the last-gen Mazda 3 only because it didn't look so visually jarring. But SERIOUSLY, what the HELL- the two screens don't line up, aren't proportional, and don't even look good next to each other.

2) That screen for the stereo might've been ok in 1999, but it's friggin 2010, and it's way too cramped and way too small.

3) How much could it have possibly cost Mazda to integrate the two screens and make the main one a little bit wider?

4) They don't even come close to matching each other visually.

5) Did I mention that it's possibly the ugliest toothpick display not in a Ford product?

And you know, I'm sorry, this practically kills the appeal of the car for me. Call me neurotic, but this is an eyesore.

It's really not bad at all. The information panel on the left can show radio information as well. There it shows the full name and artist. Granted they don't match in terms of style, both panels give you information. The biggest qualm I have is with my iPhone not supporting the proper Bluetooth spec to display song information up there.

Also, every time I turn on my car, the red panel says Zoom-Zoom. Worth it for that. ;)

Now there is one piece of data that the dash, nor these panels display... temperature. I'm guessing that left panel will pop up a warning like it does when a door is a jar. If not, I guess I'll find out the hard way if I ever overheat my baby. :/

I swear that fuel economy display looks identical to the writing style Mini uses...

That little red display suffers from information overload. Can't there be indicator light on the buttons for A/C and recirculation? If there are already, why bother stuffing that info onto that little screen?

I think I would a panel over the display on the right. mikeolan is absolutely right, Mazda should be unbearably embarrased to have put the right display in there at all. It's like something the US manufacturers would do, "Hey Joe, we got those leftover screens, let's use those. Customers won't care"

its fairly cheap though. the whole tech package comes in less than $2000. then again, portable navigation is like $100 these days.

Would look so much better (and still not very good) if the screens were at the same angle.

The screen on the right is designed so as to not hinder nighttime vision. Too bad the screen on the left blows that to hell.

The left screen is only included with the tech package, so not all MS3s or M3s have both. Coming from a Mazda 6 owner, the red display is similar to mine and looks just fine by itself. It's too bad they didn't work harder to improve their co-existance.

Rarely do I post on a blog for a car I don't own. I do own a 2009 Honda Fit Sport and occasionally read some of the posts here about the car but as an owner there was nothing to be gleamed from them (except for amusement listening to some of the writers bitch about one of the best manual transmissions on the market).

Anyway, since I'm a huge 5-door hatchback this Mazdaspeed looked interesting to me. But seeing some interior pictures, find the red stitching on the seats, and the funky red panels on the dash and doors to be utterly tacky and ugly. The mini navigation screen is cheap looking and useless. If you're going to have something that small it better be portable or else give me a normal looking nav screen. So they gave it the size of a Garmin with none of the portability, stupid. Plus it's not touch screen from what I understand, so all commands have to be entered with the steering wheel? Small screen, steering wheel only controls, and funky back lighting is a recipe for anger and frustration. The front grill of the car is bizarre looking and is not something that would grow on me. Otherwise it seems like a neat little car for what it is, a sporty daily driver. However that much horsepower and torque and I would want RWD, too much all going through the front wheels.

I would take the regular grand touring 3 over this one any day. More features, balanced horsepower for FWD, and none of the tacky crap from this car.

As someone that, through test drives and loaners, has been in a 3i, 3s GT and MPS3, I would say the following:

- The displays look misaligned because the dash curves to aim both screens at the driver. From the perspective of the driver, they both line up to you correctly.

- I own a Mazda, so I'm biased on it, but the red displays don't look any worse in person that what I've seen in other cars in the price range. It's not magnificent, but it isn't as bad as people seem to make it out to be.

- While driving, the left screen would normally have the map up. While it's definitely a personal preference, I liked that the two were separate.

- Both screens have a night mode, so there isn't an issue with that.

- I had no issues at all with the steering wheel nav controls. I'm a tech-inclined person, though, so YMMV.

- The nav is part of the $1,895 Tech package that includes the Bose CenterPoint speaker system upgrade, 1-year Siruis subscription, keyless ignition, and the nav. While it's more than a portable system, it's way less than most in-dash systems, and for some people, the tight integration is worth it. I'm still not thrilled about the price, but it'd be worth it to me to not have the cords, mess and potential for theft that can come with portable systems. (Although I still have a Garmin and love it for what it is.)

- The spotted red seats and red dash are definitely weighing in on the tacky side, but aren't nearly as bad in person as some of the pictures have made them out to be. At the same time, though, the interior on the GT looks way better.

- The smiley theme Mazda's going with is just freakin' nutty. I wouldn't avoid the car because of it, but it's not an easy thing to accept.

That's my take on it.

they dont match at all, they look like they came from 2 different cars. I've never seen anything like this in any other car. One display is modern and clear and the other is from the previous generation. Why not have one coherent display instead of two?

I test drove a MS3 last weekend. I found the general layout of the controls to be unnecessarily complicated, and I didn't like how far I was from the Nav screen. If I was trying to read names of streets off of it, I think it would be a real pain. As far as the clutch goes, it wasn't the best clutch I've ever driven even though I didn't have any real problems. Maybe it was because its a new car, but I found the clutch generally very stiff and I immediately questioned whether I could survive in that car in a stop and go station.

Still, it was a blast to drive. I very quickly found myself exceeding the speed limit and having to slow down for the sake of my license (and the salesman)!

"they dont match at all, they look like they came from 2 different cars. I've never seen anything like this in any other car. One display is modern and clear and the other is from the previous generation. Why not have one coherent display instead of two?"

Yep..........looks like crap.

It's 2010. It's time to use font-matching displays throughout the interior cabins on all cars. This isn't a problem with just Mazda - even a $75k Lexus LS has this issue (super bright white electro-fancy gauge cluster lighting, with a light green back-lit digital 'quartz' clock on the center stack yanked straight from the 1980s). This is what happens when product designers don't meet until halfway down the production line.

The LCD in the photo will obviously smooth/anti-alias fonts better because of its pixel count. The interior design managers should have foreseen this issue when placed next to a dot-matrix readout with pixels ten times the size.

I find this post terribly misleading. It easily implies that the only way to view any audio information is through the right screen.

I never look at my radio information on the right screen. Perfectly clear station/artist/song/etc information on the left screen is 2 info button pushes away.

I've never had any problem reading even the tiniest street names on the Nav, much less the huge block lettering of a radio station on the right, but clearly that's down to personal eyesight. Though I would question your ability to read road signs while driving. If you can read the mpg and mph of the left, I don't see why you'd have any trouble reading the right.

Obviously another opinion, but I prefer having the HVAC display high for the same reason as the Nav, don't have to look down as much. All the HVAC controls are directly in front of the shift knob, and the temperature adjustments are simply twisting knobs, so you don't need to look down.

I personally find the smaller, but very clear multi-information screen a fresh departure from the huge, much lower, touchscreen systems. I don't screw around with my navigation system every time I get in the car, so I would prefer it to function more efficiently for what I use it for... multi-information display that is easily in the peripheral view.

"even a $75k Lexus LS has this issue (super bright white electro-fancy gauge cluster lighting, with a light green back-lit digital 'quartz' clock on the center stack yanked straight from the 1980s). "

Um, we all know Toyota is NEVER changing that clock display. My wife's old '94 corolla had the same clock. Toyota makes (made) billions but can't afford to offer custom clock displays in each car line. Never got that. And why do they continue to have the "h" and "m" set buttons on the dash? That is so 80s.

I certainly hope they bring some incarnation of the JDM Mazdaspeed Axela with the full screen navigation / rear backup camera in place of the current stereo headunit. Otherwise 3rd party manufacturer devices will have to suffice.

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