If I were a Brit, I'd probably claim that the post-title was rhyming slang for "show the newbie something"

Anyway, please forgive that 1st poster gaffe - as well as any other faux pases in the following, cross-cultural or otherwise.

Located my own Mazda3 online, though it was local - the only pre-owned 2004 3S sedan to be found, hereabouts. It was the regional Mazda rep's car, who dropped it back onto the Mazda lot when the 05's arrived, back in September, and there it sat. I purchased it just three days after Christmas.

Sunshine Silver Metal with the Sport Package, 6CD/Moonroof, 17"'s (though those are part of the Sport deal, I think). No auto-wipers nor auto-lights, the latter of which are - unfortunately - xenon-free. but the fogs are sweet. Has the Sport/AT (coming to that). It has either the sill extensions or the door-piece/whatever-you-call thems. Or both. I haven't been able to figure that out, yet - and the mazda.com pix of these perportedly complementary accessories are assiduously nebulous.

Back in Dec, I'd had to scoot off the car lot with some just-recently-signed-for speed before the floor manager could learn what a gross over-allowance he'd given me (via blind appraisal) on my trade-in Accord - so there just wasn't opportunity for me to gather a whole lot of details on the bundled features. But I knew what I needed to know from research and the test-drive. The car was very obviously kindly-tended, throughout the brief six-months Carfax said it had been out on the road. Judging by the state of the machine, that rep must gave had a heart on for the car, himself, I think - which I can completely understand. Ahhh, it still smells like somebody else's girlfriend...

Anyway, I've found just a couple of things to mention, thus far:

Snow driving the Sport AT is very, very uncomfortable. Thing is - I've actually come to terms with the loss of 5th gear, in day-to-day. But the clutch, I do miss awfully. On snowy uphills (I'm in Colorado, USA), you inevitably get closely in behind someone at choke points, then want to resume acceleration as traffic eases forward - but s-l-o-w-l-y, right? So you barely touch the gas, still moving, in 2nd - and then the thing maliciously and suddenly autoshifts you down into 1st to avoid choking out! That's when you realize that there just IS alot of torque-steer in the Mazda3 - despite what some reviewers say, and maybe obvious under only these irregular circumstances - but still. That sudden, lurching jerk to the right as the clutch-grab happens is a Real Killer, if you're not ready to chintuck, pronto! I keep expecting a popup message to flash across the radio display: "The Mazda has decided you will be changing one lane to the right." And there'll be no "Cancel" button, just "OK" - like something Microsoft would churn out.

But - that said - the 3 Does Rock. Even with the brake squeal, and the puny a/c, and the lewdly dangling gas cap, etc. I believe that it's one of those truly benchmark cars that will - generations hence - be treasured for these very same idiosyncrasies. Like the hidden headlights on the pre-'ray 'Vettes; or the weird heat-ducting on the Fiat 124's; or the way the '64 Corvair used to launch it's occupants through the windshield, sometimes.

Really, the only thing I have yet seen that I would add - in the mod way - to my car is this
But I'd probably just wind up with 35 pieces of crooked pseudo-alum glued onto my interior. Any thoughts?

Oh, and (speaking of interiors) if anyone owning a very similiar automobile should be so pathologically stupid as to graze the headliner just over the driver's window with a lit cigarette, and upon finally reaching the office, can't think about anything except that nearly butt-sized searspot...

During lunch, hit up your secretary's desk for a nail file. Find some blue-tipped matches, the heads of which you apply gently to the file, whilst holding it above the empty matchbox. Grist up 10 matchheads in this delicate way. Then drip 10 drops or so of White Out into the resulting powder, working very quickly to get the mix just a shade darker than stock headliner silver before the liqui-pulp alltogether congeals; and - finally - daub the resulting paste gently onto the marred fuzzy liner with the back end of one of the matchsticks. Touch the spot with a clean matchstick during drying time, to pull up some "nap". Et voila, the spot will be no more.

And flick thru the moonroof next time, McGuyver!

Of course, your mileage may vary.

Thanks for letting me rant,

depayne