10th gen Civic vs. 2017 Mazda3

[Billy4202]

Honestly would not be surprised if Mazda comes out fighting and takes the crown away from Honda.

This new 3 was an amazing product when it came out. They can easily steal sales from Honda and re-capture some of their niche market.

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[Design]

The Sport Turbo is a decent car. Wasn't too enthused about the inconsistent power delivery and fit & finish compared to the Mazda (or even the Civic). I also noticed a lot more road noise being translated to the cabin. And long term reliability will continue to be a sore point for Hyundai after 80-100K.

The steering response, suspension, and torque vectoring put the Mazda in a different playing field. And I love that I can get a fully optioned 3 with a 6MT. It's more of a driver's car than the Civic. But the Civic's bright spots are definitely the rear seating, fuel economy, and safety.

Overall, across a wide range of reviews, the Civic edges out the Mazda (they swap rankings between 1-4 routinely). But the margin is paper-thin; they are both excellent cars.
https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/rankings/subcompact-cars

 

[SonicHB]

I'm a Mazda fan and have owned 3, all great cars. They do march to a different drum...which is not always good. They never reached the mass popularity of Toyota or Honda therefor they've never had billions of dollars to play with. Mazda was even surpassed by Mitsubishi for a time. The best thing about Mazda is they've always been car enthusiast focused, sadly there are less enthusiasts these days. Mazda avoided developing a small displacement turbo and opted for the Skyactiv route...which worked for a small window in time. The Skyactiv config requires more room between the engine and firewall which creates some limitations for configuring the whole car. Sometimes they do things that are just not good for current times... like when they reintroduced the rotary in the RX-8, the rotary was already obsolete, terrible at emissions and poor fuel economy, but they did it anyway... just like going Skyactiv. The new MX-5 has terrible sales numbers, so does the CX-3....don't know how long the CX-3 will be around. Also they rolled the dice again on keeping the CX-9 viable, it does have a turbo motor in it....still crazy competition in SUV world.

The 3 works if you don't have any friends over 4 feet tall that weigh over 100lbs. To me the Civic Hatch is just as much fun to drive as the 3, and it has better seats and seating room. I'll be cheering Mazda on, perhaps when it's time to move out of the Civic they will have something I like as much as my HB.

 

[hoodlum]

Mazda revealed their new Skyactiv-X engine yesterday and journalist test drove some Mazda 3 mules that were using the next-gen platform coming out later next year. The 2.0L with supercharger is rated for 187hp/170lb-ft with a flatter torque curve. Fuel economy improved by 15% over existing Mazda3 in tested driving in Germany, which would suggest best in class fuel economy.

http://driving.ca/mazda/mazda3/auto-news/news/2019-mazda3

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/...ive-can-spark-less-engine-ignite-our-passions

 

[CivicXI]

Mazda revealed their new Skyactiv-X engine yesterday and journalist test drove some Mazda 3 mules that were using the next-gen platform coming out later next year. The 2.0L with supercharger is rated for 187hp/170lb-ft with a flatter torque curve. Fuel economy improved by 15% over existing Mazda3 in tested driving in Germany, which would suggest best in class fuel economy.

http://driving.ca/mazda/mazda3/auto-news/news/2019-mazda3

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/...ive-can-spark-less-engine-ignite-our-passions

How would this motor compare to the 1.5t? From what I've seen, it's pretty comparable to a 1.5t but like, a year away. So essentially they busted their ass, came up with some kick ass technology, only to match and maybe just barely stay ahead of a 3 year old motor from Honda?

 

[Design]

I suspect it will be more responsive during initial tip-in, as with most NA powertrains (despite what journalists label as a supercharger). When mated to an auto, they saw improvements between 17-18%. I imagine that's good enough for 46+ mpgs hwy. Were it matched to a CVT, like Honda, we might see another 1-2% improvement.

The powertrain is impressive. But it will be interesting to see how it holds up long term.

 

[hoodlum]

I suspect it will be more responsive during initial tip-in, as with most NA powertrains (despite what journalists label as a supercharger). When mated to an auto, they saw improvements between 17-18%. I imagine that's good enough for 46+ mpgs hwy. Were it matched to a CVT, like Honda, we might see another 1-2% improvement.

The powertrain is impressive. But it will be interesting to see how it holds up long term.

I agree that the main difference will be how the power is delivered. You would not have any turbo lag and it looks it would still benefit from revving higher.

 

[hoodlum]

It looks like the throttle response will be even better than existing NA engines.

http://jalopnik.com/mazda-s-holy-grail-of-gasoline-engines-is-completely-1801820285

The other two areas where a lean compression engine can yield significant efficiency benefits is in cooling losses and throttling losses. The first is fairly straightforward, as lower combustion temperatures mean less heat transferred to the cylinder walls.

The second has to do with the fact that a leaner air/fuel mixture means there’s more air required for a given torque level. This—along with strategic use of EGR, variable valve timing and a supercharger to control airflow into the cylinder— means the throttle plate can be held fully open more often than on a standard gasoline engine.

So instead of trying to suck air through a restrictive throttle plate, air can flow easily into the cylinders. Mazda says this also has the added benefit of improved throttle response, since there’s no longer a delay in trying to fill the intake plenum.

 

[CivicXI]

The jalopnik tester said it was about 5-6mpg better during overall combined driving compared to the 2.0 Mazda. So that puts it maybe 1-2mpg better than the 1.5t.

Don't get me wrong, it's great technology but I expected something more than incremental.

 

[Civics4Ever]

Still, it's not as good looking as the Civic.

 

[Ethan]

Still, it's not as good looking as the Civic.

I still think the current Mazda 3 looks better than the Civic, and that's also the current body style. A concept will be released in a few months.

 

[hoodlum]

This journalist from Canada posted his results today. He did 45mpg (5.2l/100km) combined, which included doing 100mph (164 kmh) on the autobahn.

https://www.autos.ca/forum/index.php?topic=99404.40

 

[CivicXI]

This journalist from Canada posted his results today. He did 45mpg (5.2l/100km) combined, which included doing 100mph (164 kmh) on the autobahn.

https://www.autos.ca/forum/index.php?topic=99404.40

We don't know how long he was at 100mph for. I just did a 300 mile drive from New Hampshire to NY last week at like, midnight. This included about 60 miles of back country roads at 40-50mph, 230 miles of 70mph on cruise control. And about 10 miles between 90-110mph. My average mileage at the end was 42.6mpg.

The 10th generation civic with the 1.5t, at steady state highway speed of 55mph can achieve close to 60mpg.

 

[jks]

I'm really excited about Mazda's new SPCCI engine. All the major auto makers have been working on gasoline compression combustion technology for more than 20 years. Mazda's engineering skill and determination finally cracked the nut. Go Mazda! Basically it means turbo-diesel fuel economy and torque from a gasoline engine and gasoline engine ability to develop horsepower at higher rpm. Between Honda's gas-turbo 1.5L and the 2.0 Skyactive X, I think we can expect a 10mpg advantage for the Mazda on the road once everything is sorted. I'm hearing 190 hp and 200ft.lbs of torque for the Skyactive X. I have a 6MT Civic LX hatch on order with a backout clause if it doesn't get her by Oct 1, and it isn't going to make it, so I have a decision to make at the end of the month. I'm pretty certain I'm going to back out and wait for the next gen Mazda3. There are lots of question marks about the new Mazda3 but it debuts at the Tokyo Motor Show near the end of Oct. so we should get more info then.

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