My old 1990 4Runner was dying of neglect in the desert, and after three hard years of being eaten by rodents and beaten up by invisible assailants it was time for something new. Something smaller and more nimble, with enough space to be practical for buying groceries and carrying nephews and a niece around, but powerful. Emphasis on the powerful. Subtle enough to escape the Watchful Eyes but fast enough to strike fear into the hearts of those who lurk in the fast lane, applying makeup at five under. A ninja on roller skates. With a jetpack.
Three years of saving had given me enough to buy the car in cash, if needed, but I took out a loan as a sort of stalling tactic; with no other income I can still pay off my loan but I’ll still have money for survival. Saturday I went with my father to test drive some potentials. Under Mitsu’s direction we first visited the Mazda dealership, to scope out a Mazdaspeed 3 in Grand Touring trim. I had first thought the Mazda 3 was just a normal car, like a Corolla, but in secret the engineers had added a turbocharger and sport chassis components while keeping the whole thing looking mostly stock, and injected the word “speed” into the name. And here I thought methamphetamine was illegal.
The other test drive that day was the Volkswagen GTI. While it didn’t have as much raw power as the Mazda, its silky smooth gearbox and wide torque band were an advantage. And that same lower power made the car easier to control during the test drive. But the air conditioning seemed anemic even at full blast, as if the vents couldn’t direct sufficient air in my direction. And while many reviews claimed the GTI’s interior was of higher quality, I couldn’t really see much difference. In all honesty the dash cluster looked more accessible on the Mazda– who the hell marks their tachometer in hundreds, like 10, 20, 30? And most of the time I’m looking at the plastics, not stroking them like a 14 year old boy who’s just discovered what women hide underneath their blouses. Everything else aside, the prices for the two models I looked at were roughly equivalent, but the GTI was lacking in features, and its ratings for reliability weren’t that high.
We went for burgers and a chat, and my father rightly pointed out that the Mazda seemed to offer more for the money. We drove around to a couple lots, and even took a look at a used M3 on sale for $20k (the gangster tinting on all the windows couldn’t have been legal), but a new car just seemed like a better investment since I’d be doing all the driving and maintenance. We looked up prices online and drafted up a plan of attack for negotiations.
Today I went in to the dealership, and haggled for about an hour over extras, fees, and the trade-in value of my old car. The “dealer extras” on the car totaled almost 2000 dollars, and I spent most of my time trying to back them down from those, even with invoice price in hand. Negotiations weren’t going as smoothly as I’d hoped, and I played the tag team card: “I’ll have to talk to my dad.” I went home and started taking care of some paperwork. They were a bit more desperate to close the deal when my father arrived, as they wanted to sell their quota before the end of the month. He was able to negotiate further toward what he and I were expecting, and he phoned me up to say the deal was still on. One of the other guys handled the paperwork but his attempts to sell me a car alarm were no match for my prior knowledge about how easily factory systems are defeated. (Hint: don’t try to convince a guy with a computer engineering degree that your factory system is infallible. We know about back doors.) The dealer whom I’d sparred with was a great sport after all the wheeling and dealing, and he took the time to show me all the ins and outs of the interior controls before I drove it off the lot.
The car I bought seems to exceed my qualifications, despite my initial apprehension at buying a FWD car. In terms of subtlety, the Mazdaspeed is the proverbial shotgun in the box of roses. The phrase “hot hatch” is unknown in these parts, and the car certainly doesn’t look fast until it’s rocketing past you. They say it puts out 263 horsepower and 280 ft-lb of torque (that’s 380 N m for the rest of the world), through the front two wheels. Under heavy acceleration the car seems to want to torque steer itself into the next lane when you hit the gas hard, like a team of mismatched horses. Except in this case it’s more like a team of rabid cheetahs, on fire. Traction control kicks in if things get out of hand, but this car seems to follow the axiom, “Control your right foot.” On dry pavement on the way home, I gave it a little test from a stoplight. I didn’t hammer the launch, but the tires squeaked in second gear, and the traction control computer freaked out for much of 3rd while the front wheels found the ground again. I looked down and I was going 60, and there were still three gears left to go. I’m used to having to flog my vehicles, and it’s a real treat to have more power than I can use. Moth, meet flame. How those crazy bastards were able to keep it all at the rubber, I’m not really sure. It’s certainly a feat of engineering.
As for nimble, I haven’t gotten the chance to try that out yet, but my initial impressions are positive. I think a trip up to the mountains next week might be in order.
I love the nice little things that came with the new car as well, such as perforated leather seats (so your back can breathe) and the modern conveniences like automatic headlights and rain-sensing wipers. You can even toggle the dash lights between red-dominant and more of a blue theme, to suit your mood, or shut off the lights on the radio panel if you want your field of view free from distractions at night. I appreciate the thought and design that went into it. Really the only thing that’s missing is a boost gauge, and I’m sure someone will make an A-pillar mod with one soon.
