Buying a car is a rather stressful experience, but I think it would've been much worse without the internet at hand. Once again, the internet triumphs over all. I'll talk all about it later.

Alternate titles for this entry included "Can Has Car?", "Zoom Zoom", and "I Got Three Stars On The Way Home".

Here In My Car

I feel safest of all
I can lock all my doors
It's the only way to live
In cars

So I finally have my car. It's a "Sunlight Silver" 2008 Mazda3 Hatchback, s Touring. I took some photos so you can see what it looks like. Here's me drifting in Tokyo:

And here's me drifting in Hong Kong:

And here's a photo I took on a foggy day in Cloud City on Bespin:

Now, I know some of you are going to whine, like "those cars aren't drifting", or "the license plates are different and illegal in each photo", or "Cloud City is a fictional place". Well, you can just keep that to yourself. I don't have to explain myself to you.

It has a 2.3L four cylinder engine that puts out 156 bhp and 150 lbf.ft. The engine is mated to a five speed automatic transmission that includes a manual paddle shifting mode. It's no racecar, but there's enough power under the hood to get it to 60 mph from standstill in 8.1 seconds using the manual mode. That figure is according to Car and Driver. It's a front wheel drive car, but torque steer isn't really an issue. It rides on 17 inch wheels, and I haven't checked what the stock tires are yet. The brakes in particular are quite aggressive. A new Corvette can stop from 70 mph in about 166 feet; this Mazda can do it in 168 feet. It also does the Edmunds slalom faster than a WRX STi (and with a hell of a lot less body roll, if you watch videos).

Physically, it's almost identical in width and length to a Subaru Impreza wagon, which makes it very much a compact car. The styling is really nice, although it took me a little while to appreciate its looks. It's much sharper and more aggressive than a Golf or really any other hatchback I can think of. The interior is amazing, as far as I'm concerned. The audio system sounds great, and has an auxiliary input, so my Zune connects in nicely. The steering wheel feels great in my hands, as does the shifter. And just look at the dash:


There's plenty of reviews out there that discuss more about the car, so go read them if you're interested. I suggest Edmunds and Car and Driver. All I can say is, they're right. Mazda (and Volvo, who were responsible for the safety equipment in this car) did an amazing job -- this car, in this price segment (I paid 19K USD and change), is nothing short of incredible.