The Mazda 3 Shines in Hollywood, CA

Usually in California, I have my own Cali girl to drive. This time around I was able to drive a 2016 Mazda3 S 5-Door Grand Touring. I wasn’t expecting much. I had never driven a Mazda before. Needless to say, I ended up falling in lust with the car and really didn’t want to give it back!

As I walked up to the car the first thing I noticed was the pretty and bright red. The official color being Soul Red Metallic. I hopped in the car and began adjusting everything. I looked around and noticed the interior colors. Beige or what they call Almond and black leather interior with red stitching. I really liked it.

I attempted to get the navigation system going to see how well it works. I couldn’t get it to work. Luckily I know my way around and wasn’t somewhere else. The navigation isn’t able to be used while driving so I had to use my phone to figure out how to get to a specific address.

There were so many great features that came in handy driving on the LA freeways. The side mirrors signaled letting me know their was a car in my blind spot and would beep whenever my signal was on. I loved that! There was also a pop up that showed me the MPH without looking down. That was an awesome feature.

I loved driving it around the neighborhood. I ended up parking and hanging out in the car messing with the touch screen. I must have sat in the car for 45 minutes. I put on my music and used the control in the center rather than the touch screen to navigate it. I blasted the music and it sounded amazing on the Bose system the car has. The music came alive.

My friend and I sat in the car attempting to figure out the navigation system again. We were almost defeated, but then I figured it out. As we were driving I thought something was wrong because the music was louder on the right side of the car. I realized that the left side would lower so that the driver can hear the directions. I had to bring the volume up on the voice though because it wasn’t loud enough. Another great feature. We also realized that if we brought up directions on our phone it ended up on the car’s navigation when connected via bluetooth.

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I drove the Mazda 3 to one of my favorite spots, Lake Hollywood. The car took the winding hill roads like a champ. It looked great near the infamous Hollywood sign. Rather than go around and spit out in Hollywood, I was able to make a quick broken U-turn to go back down into The Valley when I was ready to leave.

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I also went to my other favorite place, The Griffith Observatory. I briefly opened the moon roof, but believe it or not it was gloomy and chilly. Yes folks, Los Angeles is not always sunshine and hot. Again the Mazda hit those turns and hills like a champ. It was great on gas too, seeing as Los Angeles is very spread out. 31 mpg when doing the city/highway, which is exactly what I deal with when driving around LA.

The car was so spacious too. The trunk area had so much space, I could almost fit in there. The back seat had an arm rest that came down with cup holders. I hugged the steering wheel a few times because I really liked the car. After driving all over the place, I headed to the In N Out drive threw. Took about 20 minutes or so to get my food, even with 2 drive threw windows. It was raining and I put the back windshield wiper to work. I was having too much fun listening to music and talking on the phone using the bluetooth feature.

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The only thing I couldn’t get used to was the brakes. They weren’t as sensitive and when I needed to slow down quickly it took some time and pressing hard on the brakes. Other than that I loved the Mazda 3. If you ever get the opportunity to rent or buy this car, take it into serious consideration. It is a great car. I really wasn’t ready to give it back. I would drive it again in a heartbeat.

Have you ever driven the Mazda3 S 5-Door Grand Touring?

Disclaimer: While receiving the 2016 Mazda3 S to review, all opinions and thoughts are my own.

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