only talking the cars, i was going to buy Mazda3 Sport (i didn't look at other models since im not rich to buy them, lol, so if you are into Mazda6, then you can just ignore me, ), so i did bit of research on it, after all it's a Jap car, meaning it's light, and not as safe, but it safes gas if you don't floor it that much, the exterior shell is thin, easy to damage? ya, so does Honda, if you want Mazda3 class car, Mazda's styling is not bad (my personal opinion), i took a look of the details, they really put in some efforts, for the money you have more features than some others, like rims, interiors, this car is new design, meaning it's not redseigned from older model, and i used to hate Mazda because it's quality problem, but this time it's somewhat different, the 3 is a Mix" you can call it, since it's under Ford, it's divided into 3 areas, Mazda designed the power train (engine & trans), Ford Eorope (from Focus) did the suspension which tuned later in Japan, Volvo designed the body, which shared some design with Volvo S40/V50, so Mazda3 has designs from everywhere, the power train is better than before, so overall it's a not bad car (with a nice package) for that money (around $23000 +/- 2000 before Tax), im not saying it's a perfect car, because it does has some small problems, which i haven't heard turned major, if you only want to drive it for like 3 years, then it's alright to choose, me personaly like Mazda3 Sport, so enough shit said, you think it up, btw, Civic's new model is out, personaly i think it's getting more ugly for the styling, since i like 4 doors, but it's worth a look, anyways, hope you make a good choice, ^_^