Car Review: 2025 Mazda3 GT | Reviews

For the joy and engagement of shifting its six-speed manual transmission, the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera T exacts a toll of $166,042, basically $100K more than the average price of a new car in Canada. Nice for some, but doesn’t the average Joe Shiftright deserve a third pedal and a snickety-snick gearshift handshake? Happily, Mazda still seems to think so, as the mid-range Mazda3 Sport GT comes with the ability to row your own.

As with the Porsche, there’s a premium to be paid here: neither the entry level GX nor better-equipped GS models get this option. However, there’s no price difference versus the automatic transmission GT model. For $34,450, Mazda will still give you one of the last chances to get a manual transmission in your car. If you always fancied an MX-5, but need four-doors and a useful trunk, then here you go.

Quite frankly, Mazda could have made a bigger deal out of the stick-shift GT, even if it probably won’t sell all that many of them. Porsche festoons the Carrera GT with stickers, speaking loudly about carrying a stick. Given Mazda’s fun-to-drive-centric ethos, it could possibly have done a little more trumpeting: hey, we’re one of the last companies to care about this sort of thing.

No more manual Honda Civic Hatchback unless you order a Type-R. No more manual VW GTI. A stick is an anachronism, and it alone can’t provide a mediocre car with a personality. However, when you take an essentially good car and spice it up with some enthusiast-pleasing flavour, you can’t beat it with a stick.

Stop talking about manual transmissions and tell me about the rest of the car

Right then: the Mazda3. This version is the Sport, which is what Mazda calls its hatchback variant, and it’s the only way to still get the six-speed manual. All sedan ‘3s are six-speed automatic only.

This packaging is fairly well-reasoned as sedan buyers are generally a bit more conservative, but someone looking at a hatchback might want a bit sportier flair. At 569L with the seats up versus 374L for the sedan, the hatchback has a bit more cargo area along with greater flexibility for your stuff. Fold those seats down relatively flat, and there’s a huge 1,334L of space.

Having said that, this isn’t roomiest hatchback on the market. The Civic Sport has a considerably larger trunk with the seats up, and the rear seats in the Mazda are a little on the tight side. Fine for kids, a bit cramped for adults. In fact, the interior of the ‘3 as a whole reminds all passengers that this is a compact car.

In the GT model at least, you won’t care that things are a bit snug. This is a convincingly upscale-looking interior, businesslike but well executed. It has the feel of a nineties BMW, though is obviously more complex being a modern car. One caveat: the use of piano black trim around the shifter looks great when the ‘3 is freshly detailed, but is prone to scratching and shows up every speck of dust.

There isn’t a great deal of interior storage in here, and the armrest’s slide-then-open functionality takes some getting used to. Happily, there’s wireless CarPlay and Android Auto along with a wireless charging pad ahead of the gearshift, so no need to clutter things up with cables.

What powers the Mazda3 Sport?

• 2.5L I4 making 191 hp and 186 lb-ft of torque
• 6-speed manual transmission

All Mazda3s are powered by 2.5L engines, one turbocharged application and one naturally aspirated. The turbocharged engines are paired with all-wheel-drive – no echoes of the torque-steering Mazdaspeed3s of the past – while the naturally aspirated models are either front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive.

Selecting the manual transmission cuts your options down to just front-wheel-drive and the 2.5L naturally-aspirated engine. Peak power is 191 hp at 6,000 rpm, and 186 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm. This is more punch than you get in something like a Toyota Corolla or Hyundai Elantra, but it’s less zippy than the turbocharged small-displacement engines found elsewhere.

But let’s come back to that MX-5 again. With the Subaru BRZ and Toyota GR86 offering more power for less money, and not too far off the curb weight of Mazda’s little roadster, you’d think the fourth-generation MX-5 would be badly due for an update. Likewise, the current Mazda3 is rapidly approaching its sixth birthday, older statesman status in the compact car lifecycle.

However, in both cases, Mazda’s engineers have iteratively improved the breed to the point that both cars feel refined into excellence. You won’t find the results on a spec sheet, but from behind the wheel, the ‘3 drives just as polished as it looks.

It’s no rally-car-for-the-road like the GR Corolla or WRX, nor as sharply focused a performance offering as the Elantra N. Instead, it’s a balanced package. More raucous Mazda diehards might call for the all-wheel-drive and tuned turbocharged engine to be paired with a six-speed manual to create a reborn Mazdaspeed3, but what we have here instead is a grownup little hatchback that offers refinement and fun at the same time. If anything, the subtlety of this car makes the Carrera T’s sticker package look try-hard by comparison.

It’s quick but not too quick, nimble but not crashy over bumps. The roads around Hiroshima are nowhere near as smooth as Tokyo’s highways, so Mazda tends to bake a little more compliance into suspension rather than flinty spring rates to iron out any body roll. You can drive the ‘3 hard or you can relax and just upshift early. It’s happy doing either, with a buttery shift action that probably kept a small team of engineers up at nights.

Technology features in the Mazda3

The potential downfall of having a corporate identity of letting engineers run the show is that you sometimes end up with solutions that are more logic-oriented than actually common sense. So it is with Mazda’s infotainment layout, which is largely controlled by a large dial between the seats.

Think of it as an optimized version of BMW’s old iDrive system, and you’ve basically got it. Most other manufactures simply rely on touchscreens (in frequent cases, probably too many of them and too large), but Mazda has tried here to offer something that is less distracting to the driver. The GT trim offers wireless CarPlay and Android Auto, which is largely how you will interact with your smartphone, and when this function is engaged, a touchscreen functionality is engaged.

The thing is, the longer you drive this car, the more you tend to use the rotary controller over reaching for the screen. Because it’s tactile in operation, and the screen is mounted nearly in your eyeline, it’s easier to keep your eyes on the road. The learning curve is steeper than a test-drive or two, and it’s not for everyone. However, it works just the way it’s supposed to, and wireless smartphone mirroring happened without any hiccups during the week (not the case for every wireless connectivity application).

As for safety technology, the GT level ‘3 comes with pretty much every driver assist Mazda currently offers: cross traffic alert and blind spot monitoring, pedestrian detection, and automated cruise control with full stop functionality. There’s also a 360-degree camera and sensors front and rear to make parking even quicker.

Final thoughts

You wouldn’t call the naturally aspirated 2.5L Mazda3 a hot hatchback or even a warm hatch. It’s plenty zippy, but it’s not a sport-oriented trim even with the GT’s larger wheels package. Instead, Mazda is relying here on the appeal of a well-packaged car that, despite an aging platform, still feels fresh and upscale.

This is an enthusiast’s ride of a different type, not necessarily one to appeal to those who follow F1 results or obsess over performance tire specifications when it’s time to upgrade. Instead, it’s just a really satisfying little car that’s elevated somewhat by the availability of a manual transmission.

Sales-wise, it’s unlikely to be more than a blip on the radar for Mazda’s overall fleet, and perhaps only a single-digit percentage of the number of ‘3s the company manages to move in Canada for the coming year. But that’s not your problem. In the future, and increasingly so in the present if we’re being honest, the manual will only be for those who can afford to pay a little extra. While you’ll have to step up to the GT trim to get it, this shift-your-own Mazda3 still shows that an outdated technology still has its appeal.

A stick-shift is not a wand that makes every car better. Here though, in a car that’s essentially good, the magic is there.

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