Amazing experience. Bought a 2026 Mazda 3 Sedan Carbon Edition. Negotiated some off MSRP over the…read morephone which they honored in person. Best car buying experience I have had, went in there and Colin (really tall guy) was super nice and polite. Had a very pleasant conversation with him and really good guy. The other guy I talked to was either the finance guy or the manager, don't remember his name, but he was great too. All in all I was out of there within four hours or so (car detail, paperwork, etc). A+ experience.
I've had some bad experiences before with Kia salesmen (finance guy was surprisingly solid though), Toyota salesmen, and Lexus Finance guy (Lexus salesmen was a perfect gentlemen though). I still remember the Lexus finance room where everytime I said no to a warranty, he'd give me a dirty look like I am an idiot and say "what are you going to do if it breaks?" It's a LEXUS dude! People are buying it to NOT have to buy extended warranties haha. Same with Mazda! It's reliable, no need for extended warranties.
The finance guy at Mazda gave me his warranty pitch, I politely declined, only a slight amount of polite pushback, and that was that. Great guy.
Thank you Modesto Mazda. I'll be servicing my Mazda there for many years.
My review on the car and why I bought a Mazda 3 Sedan over a Honda or Toyota:
- Almost luxury car interior. Best interior for the price range by far, head and shoulders above Toyota, Honda, etc.
- Exterior and Interior are beautiful.
- Naturally Aspirated Engine, Normal Automatic 6 speed Transmission, and I didn't want a Hybrid. I plan on driving this car 200k+ miles and I don't want a big 5k battery replacement expense nor do I want a CVT Transmission crapping out on me at 130k miles.
- Looks way nicer than a Corolla or Civic. I think the new Civics are kind of ugly TBH.
- After tons of research, I think Mazda is third in reliability behind Lexus and Toyota. And definitely more reliable than a Non Hybrid Corolla with the CVT (the eCVT in the hybrid version is fine).
- Mazda is #1 in car crash safety.
- AWD
- Seats are 10x more comfortable than other compact sedans. The Leather seats in the Civic Touring are horrible. No lumbar support and also hard as a rock, and you slip everywhere.
- Has memory seating, rare for this price point.
- Solid MPG for a non hybrid.
- I fell in love with the Polymetal Gray color. Although I do like Machine Gray, Platinum Quartz, Black, and Red a lot as well. Mazda Red is the only red I think looks great on a car.
Get a Mazda. And get one from Modesto. Maybe I should be part of the sales team haha (just kidding).
Hope this review helps any potential buyers out.
EDIT: One last thing... the service area here is basically a luxury car experience. It is a VERY nice area. Super upscale, great seats, great design, TV's, etc. It's completely on par with Lexus. Rare for a non luxury brand. Honda, Toyota, Kia, Hyundai, and most non luxury brands have a pretty meh service area. Mazda's is on par with Lexus, BMW, etc.
The outside also looks like a luxury car dealership. I love the black and silver color scheme and overall building design. Whoever designed the building did a great job.