2022 Mazda 3 Turbo Sedan: Nice 'N Easy Quick Spin Review

Nice N' Easy Touring Machine

The 2022 Mazda 3 Turbo Sedan AWD Premium is your ticket to rekindle an automotive romance—a compact car with luxury-grade aspirations. 

Attuned to a level of mellow crooned best by Frank Sinatra, the Mazda3 Turbo Sedan proves “Nice ‘n’ Easy” does it every time. 

The four door fastback sibling to the turbocharged 5-door hatchback retains the streamlined Kodo design language, with wide grille Mako Shark nose, coke-bottle fuselage, subtly muscular fenders and hips, and a concave rear deck. The few other sport compact sedans that display such restrained sensuousness are in the luxury brand realm.

The understated esotericism permeates inside all four Mazda 3 Turbo Sedan doors, where little effort (on a budget) has been spared to effectuate a cosseting experience. Seats are shaped for long haul support and instrumentation is a restrained modern take on traditional hooded bin twin dials. The center console saddle is padded. Padded panel edges are contrast stitched. A-pillars are webbed cloth draped.

Controls have been minimized, assembled into function groupings. Switchgear, which is on open display, features pleasant shaping, upscale metallic knurling and crisp action. The steering wheel is the right size, accented with a restrained boss. A padded dash board gently flows in layers creating a natural center valley for a landscape tablet media display. Middle dash, door cards, helm spokes and speaker grills feature metallic treatments. No panel seems unfinished and assembly feels quite tight.

While specs on paper suggest the Mazda 3 Turbo Sedan could easily take on other performance sport compact cars, it is most at home as a silky grand tourer. The forced induction powerplant simply won't become riotous, and the six-speed automatic transaxle is dedicated to smooth, unhurried shifting. Open differential all-wheel drive is more about slipping traction rear-wards in slippery conditions.

To arrive at a more stately ride, a semi-independent torsion beam rear suspension has been adopted, complementing taut but forgiving damping. Steering is crisp, with turn in limited by low tire grip and the slowing pedal is linear. While this sport sedan has ample muscle and input responsiveness to move with aplomb at triple digit speeds, it isn't damped, shod, or clamped for competitive road course lapping. But it sure is quiet inside.

Mazda asks a modest $34,710 for the Mazda 3 Turbo Sedan with standard all-wheel drive. Beyond the de-rigeur supplemental restraint and rear camera passive safety, it hosts advanced driver assistance cornucopia sufficient to avoid or mitigate low speed forward collisions, automatically adapt cruise control to traffic ahead, warn of blind spot traffic and provide some amount of lane departure prevention.

LED headlamp broadcast is a dark road revelation at this price point. Even a rare for segment Heads Up Display is on tap. While Mazda didn't design the 3 Turbo Sedan to exceed Level 1.5 assisted operation, that didn't prevent it from earning an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety coveted Top Safety Pick Plus trophy.

Welcome features in the 2025 Mazda 3 Turbo Sedan Premium include:

• Heated front seats, steering wheel
• Power driver seat
• premium Bose Centerpoint audio
• moon-roof
• reverse tilting wing mirrors

Compromising Misses are but a few in the 2025 Mazda 3 Turbo Sedan:

• - 25 miles per gallon fuel economy pales to similar powered entry luxury compact sport sedans.
• No media screen touch functionality except for Android, Apple phone projection
• - Blind spot warning chimes are overdone, Lane departure avoidance is but a nudge
• - Adaptive cruise reacts slowly to forward lane jumping
• Height non-adjustable front passenger seat
• Chintzy trunk lining material