Maybe I’m just used to doing maintenance myself but I find it hard to believe that you’ll spend $4000 for maintenance over 5 years on a new car. Even at those Edmunds estimates, $100 a year extra seems to be a very small difference. Again I would be more concerned about the seats and the ride than $100 a year. I’m still not fully understanding this “sky-active” thing and worry a little about it.
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Edmunds estimates are for dealer services. Most people do not DIY as we might, and there is little sense in using DIY costs where we might put the labor cost at zero as you did. I pay more attention to normalized cost differential. No matter how an owner gets the maintenance done, the percent difference will be about the same on average. That is why I mentioned the percent difference.
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I can say with absolute truthfulness that I have never had any problems with those types of “electronic gizmos and gadgets” on my '86 Taurus, my '92 Accord, my '97 Outback, my '02 Outback, or my current car, a 2011 Outback.
Yes–in theory–those “gizmos” are potential problem areas, but in practice I have never had problems with them–even up to 120k miles–on any of the cars that I have owned over the past 3 decades.
And, I have NEVER experienced transmission failure on any of my automatic transmission cars, but–of course–I do change the fluid (and filter, if so equipped) every 30k miles. Heck, even my '74 Volvo–which was truly the car from hell–never gave me any trans problems, other than a persistent fluid leak.
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lol … 
…What does Consumer Reports say about it?
I was reading a review on the little Jeep in Motor trend and they complained about no room for a child seat in the back and still room for a “normal” (my word) passenger in the front seat. Can’t imagine where you’d put a car seat in that car.
You have been lucky VDC. I have replaced compressors and many transmissions. Usually the compressors last 250K or more before they go and transmissions for me were usually well over 100K and usually 2 or 300K when they failed. Regardless of maintenance, things do wear out. Then again, why would you want a car without these features? Life is too short to sweat all the time.
Hopefully folks here understand that when I say I’ve never much found the need for car AC in my own cars, that is b/c of where I have lived. Higher altitude in Colorado before, and now the SF Bay area. Both areas tend to be have moderate summer temperatures, few really hot days. If I lived in other areas where hot summers are common, heck yes, I’d demand AC in my cars. Reminds me of the one time I went on a business trip to Phoenix. It was late October I believe, so I figured it wouldn’t be very hot. Big mistake. Fortuneatly my rental car had AC, but if it didn’t I don’t think I would have survived the trip from the airport to my meeting in a local business park … lol … Just the walk from my car to the building about did me in it was so hot.
Yup, Phoenix was 119 yesterday. You’re gonna sweat even with the AC on full blast in the car or in the home. People getting their feet burned from walking and flights canceled.
+1
I never claimed to be a saint, so I am not into self-deprivation. If there is a solution to getting sweaty simply by pushing a button on my dashboard, why would I not avail myself of it?
Back in the late '50s or the very early '60s, Popular Science did an examination of driver fatigue over a long-distance drive, using a Desoto from the '30s vs. a brand-new Desoto that was equipped with every power option that existed at the time. They had doctors examine both drivers before the start of the test, and then had the two guys drive their drastically-different cars for a few hundred miles. They were then re-examined again by the doctors, and the drivers slept overnight.
The next day, the drivers swapped cars, and the tests were repeated after another drive of a few hundred miles. The tests included memory tests, as well as a physical exam.
The results were unambiguous, in that both drivers reported much less fatigue after driving the brand-new Desoto, and the medical exams supported the statements of both drivers. The consensus was that the A/C was most likely the biggest source of fatigue reduction, but it was felt that the power seat, power steering, and automatic transmission also played a role in allowing the driver of the modern car to be much less fatigued after a long trip.
Back in the '80s, I agreed to accompany a friend on a drive from NJ to Maine–and back–but I didn’t learn until the day of departure that the A/C in his Toyota was kaput. 
The drive–in August heat–was so exhausting that upon arrival in Maine, after showering, I had to immediately take a two hour nap–despite the fact that I do not normally take afternoon naps.
Traveling–even as a passenger–for 8 hours in August heat, without A/C, was exhausting.
SkyActiv is Mazda’s name for technology that uses higher compression, lower weight, and reduced friction based on conventional internal combustion engine technology and conventional transmission technology. As an analogy, think of how fuel injection took ICE technology to a whole new level without radically altering the basic principals of engines. I am at 93,000 miles on my SkyActiv Mazda6 and it still runs and shifts like new. I am much happier owning a SkyActiv Mazda than a CVT Honda or a hybrid Toyota.
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Thanks! My 2008 Mazda3 has 146k miles and it still runs great. My air conditioner just died though!
All this new technology has me leery since I don’t know a lot about it.
My car has a manual transmission, what do you think about the paddle shifters?
You have to drive a car with paddle shifters to see if you like them. The transmission uses an automatic clutch and you need to see how it performs for you. Expensive cars use a dual clutch and can have exceptionally quick shifts. A Mazda3 will not likely use that technology, but that doesn’t mean paddle shifters would be a poor choice. You need to test it to see.
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Yeah, all kinds of trannys can have paddles, even a CVT (except regular manuals, of course). I think Mazda has a ‘regular’ automatic transmission, so the paddles are just fancy switches. Not something I’d worry about. Most folks seldom/never use them.
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+1
In many–perhaps most–cars nowadays, the paddle shifters have replaced the traditional detents on the transmission shift quadrant. On my 2011 Outback (conventional 5-speed automatic transmission), you move the shift lever to the left in order to enable “manual mode”, and then you can shift the transmission–up and down–with the paddle shifters. Functionally, this is really no different from using the traditional detents on the shift quadrant of cars from yesteryear.
All of that being said, I use the paddle shifter function only on rare occasions, in order to downshift on long downgrades.
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The only time I go into manual mode is when I’m pulling a trailer and want to make sure there is no slippage. Otherwise its a pain in the neck to manually shift instead of letting the automatic do the shifting. On the Pontiac you use the shift lever and on the Acura the paddles on the steering wheel. The only difference is you can keep your hands on the wheel for one. Just a switch though.
Un educated opinion, with all the new technology going on, they have not stood the test of time yet, so as others have said analyze the comfort factor.
Despite @jtsanders concerns, the Mazda SkyActiv transmission shifts just as quickly as a double clutch set up. It has a wider lock up band for greater fuel efficiency and, when using the paddles, it shifts very crisply. I find that the transmission does a better job of selecting gears based on throttle input then I can using the paddles. But every once in a while it is a cheap thrill to throw it in manual mode on some of the winding roads and let it all hang out.
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Dunno, in my opinion, that is just marketing speak, that is, meaningless. All engines are designed for lower weight and reduced friction, and set the compression as high as possible on regular gas (or hi-test if that is the goal)
My Mazda6 gets the highest mpg for a non-hybrid, non-diesel vehicle in its class. That is more than marketing speak my friend.
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I think the point was, at least for me, that the explanation of sky active is a little vague. Like I was told once “I don’t want to know kind of, I want to know exactly” (yeah and I’m not telling her name either except she was a nun). So if they have developed a method to reduce friction, what is it? Better bearings, high pressure lube, etc. How have they reduced weight and in what? Body like Ford trucks going aluminum, changing engine parts from cast iron to plastic? At any rate that’s what I was looking for when I was trying to understand what exactly sky active was and I could never get any detail so it concerned me some like maybe it was computer programming, or dropping cylinders out like the old 4-6-8 engines. I don’t like new technology just out of the box until proven if I have to pay for it so I like details on the new stuff.
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Well, I test drove too many cars, Honda civic exl, civic si… And my small town local dealership offers a lifetime power train warranty. At no extra cost…
So that’s hard to beat!
I went back to Mazda today, just to drive one, one more time to make sure I felt like I was making that right decision, I told the manager its impossible for me to reasonably say no to Hondas offer. The manager matched it!
So my car search is over. I felt all along Mazda was the better car. Although that SI was fun to drive too!
Thanks for the input you guys! :This is what I ended up with. 
http://www.leejohnsonmazda.com/auto/new-2017-mazda-mazda3-grand_touring-kirkland-98033-wa/17851953/
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