The Mazda3's last-place acceleration figures also get an asterisk. The only 3 s sedan available was equipped with a four-speed automatic (which desperately needs a fifth or sixth cog and a performance-shift program). We've tested four five-door Mazda3 s manuals, the best of which ran within about 0.2 second off the Focus ST's pace. All four of those Mazda sticks also felt vastly more pleasurable to row than any of the other four boxes gathered in this test. The Cobalt's shifter feels recalcitrant and is located too far aft in the car; the Kia's is imprecise and long of throw; the Ford's is difficult to hurry into the third-gear slot; and the Toyota's seems notchy--like there's still metal flashing to be worn off the various pivots and joints.
A super-short first-gear gives the Kia sprightly Toyota-matching performance off the line (or around the block during a test drive), but its last-place weight-to-power ratio makes it a back-marker at the higher speeds. Chevy's 2.2-liter Ecotec engine always seems to be working hard and grumbling about it ever so slightly. Power drops off quickly just past the 5600-rpm power peak, but because the gear ratios are more widely spaced, the engine falls out of its powerband in the next gear if one doesn't rev to the redline. At least the super-tall fifth gear helped return the highest observed fuel economy in the test (28 mpg, tied with the 201-pound-lighter Toyota).
Spend 240 miles slogging through Los Angeles commuter traffic on freeways and surface streets, and these five cars seem remarkably similar and reasonably well suited to commuting tasks. Thrash them up and down the twisty Angeles Crest, and they quickly separate. Chevrolet's half-hearted sport package obviously shares nothing with its SS coupe sibling. The "hunt-and-peck steering," as one tester dubbed it, is reasonably precise and linear in its action, but feels rheostatic and uncommunicative. The seats don't offer enough lateral support for even the modest 0.79 g of lateral grip the Pirellis generate. Stops from 60 mph require a truckish 140 feet. At least the bumpy corners never flustered the well-composed chassis. As proof that numbers never tell the whole story, the Kia logged virtually identical lateral grip and figure-eight performance, but felt far more eager and tossable. The steering wheel gives loads of warning as the limits of adhesion approach, so that even novice drivers can safely utilize the entire envelope of performance. The Spectra returned the second-best braking performance, but style points were deducted for a grabby pedal and noticeable brake dive. Pushed hard in bumpy corners, the Kia exhibits severe steering kickback that indicates a less astute state of chassis development.
The Focus ZX4 ST begs to be thrown hard into corners, and, when the surface is as smooth as that of our slalom and figure-eight venue, it tracks like a slot car. Overly stiff damping, however, means that in bumpy corners the tires often lose grip--and the chassis its composure. The next-generation Mazda3 s achieves nearly the same smooth-surface performance, but glides over the rough stuff with far greater poise. It can be coaxed into oversteer with aggressive trail braking, but otherwise exhibits superb control and finesse in the twisties. Equipped with the $490 17-inch wheel/tire package, the Mazda3 s would likely outperform the Focus on any surface.
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