How is the mazda 3 SP23 a fun car to drive?

Im at the stage of purchasing a new car, my choices are either the mazda 3 SP23 or the new honda civic vti-l, ive been reading a lot of forums and it seems to me that almost everyone says that the mazda 3 is a fun car to drive hands down, i have never driven a mazda 3 before and just curious how is it fun??? such as performs better? handling? just how??? thanks!|||I cannot comment on the Civic,but my friends recently bought a Mazda 3 i was really excited to see it and they was over the moon.





I jumped in it when they arrived and of we went already they look unhappy.But trying to put a brave face on.





My prob with the car was the dash was bulky and boring,the seating position front and back was uncomfy even for short runs,It was super nosiey in the back and featured a stock exhaust.





Problems came with the car after a couple of months with braking problems suspension problems and steering problems,although why the car was like new with my kids bike having more mileage.





Buy now they really are fed up with the car although stuck with it,due to payments etc ,and the work even under warranty all seemed to be probs out of that warranty.





Performance wise it would be unfair for me and one of my friends to judge as we own Skylines and Supra's,but his partner has had really low cc cars before this and found it slow and boring and even scary with overtaking etc and had to drop through the gears anytime speed was dropped but scary on a big open road with heavy traffic.





So the comments might not match evey bodies thoughts on this car,and as said due to having sporty cars iam prob slightly wrong to judge as these prob are fun cars and exciting depending on what cars you have driven before,but as said my friends partner had,had slower cars before and lower spec-ed cars and she wants rid of this car asap.|||Tricky, that obviously wasn't an SP23. The SP23 is the second-tier in the performance perspective of the 3 range, with the MazdaSpeed/MPS obviously being the top. The SP23 will run rings around a Civic. More power, better suspension.