Winter wipers are a must! Even with winter wipers, the passenger side wiper sometimes freezes in the arc of the windshield and then doesn't lay flat when wiping until it warms up or you give it a smack.

Regarding tires; Mine originally came with Toyo Proxes, which i thought was a great tire. they turned out to be crap too, and wore out far quicker than i ever imagined. my mechanic (non-Mazda) then explained to me that stock tires on anything less than $30,000 are always crap. They may have a 'good name', but are the lowest quality that 'good name' makes. i now have Michelin Arctic Alpins for the winter and they're great. i'll keep my original Toyos for one more summer then get something better the year after. So maybe Good Year Eagles aren't so bad in general, and you just got stuck with the lowest quality run.

 

Going through my first winter (and season) with my M3 and so far, I dont have many problems. I put on some winter tires, as the snow up here in Montreal can get pretty nasty at time, and driving with 4 season tires is a no-no.

Car drives just as well as any other car I have had in the snow. I have had the bad wiper/freezing wiper experience. Nothing yet with the trunk though.

So far so good.

 

Have had my '05 M3S 5-dr for a couple of weeks and love it!

That said, it's not the most practical New England winter car. So far the same issues as most. Definitely needs some decent tires. Wipers freeze and hatch freezes. The frustrating one for me, though, is that the fuel filler door keeps collecting water in it and freezing. Have never had a car that did that before. My neighbors must think I'm nuts as I go out with a kettle of hot water in the morning, towel dry it once it defrosts and go get gas.

Can't wait for the spring to arrive so that I can thorougly enjoy the cornering grip and punch of this car!

 

I've had my 2004s 5-dr for just over a week, and was not looking forward to getting in and driving when we had some snow the other day that piled up quickly, turned to slush, and then froze nearly instantly with a quick temp drop into a beautiful glaze. I found myself going down a steep hill and watching a Toyota Corolla slide gracefully right into the curb - - but the Mazda3 kept perfect control on the glare ice and I sailed right past with no problem at all, and made a turn at the bottom of the hill easily.

Bottom line: this car, even with the Goodyear RS-A tires, is certainly no worse than other cars and trucks I've had, and is probably better. My one complaint is that it does not have traction control, which helps considerably when you hit a stoplight in slippery conditions going uphill and have to start up on an incline. I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it does even with the standard tires, although I probably will replace the Goodyears with the Kumhos for next winter.