Photos by Maclaine Morgan
Sometimes while I’m stuck in traffic, I play a little game: I look at the vehicles around me and count how many of them are trucks, crossovers, or SUVs. The number rises quickly and dwarfs the amount of nearby passenger cars. It’s to the point now that sedans, especially small ones such as the 2026 Mazda3 2.5 S Carbon Edition tested in this review, seem quaint and old-fashioned. Yet they still serve a purpose for those who need to get from point A to point B without carrying three rows of people, a bed full of gear, or a massive trailer with them.
Frankly, the Mazda3 is somewhat old-fashioned, as the fourth-generation model debuted way back in 2019. Changes for 2026 are minimal, consisting of the newly standard Mazda Harmonic Acoustics eight-speaker stereo system and various price adjustments. In terms of features, the $29,815 Carbon Edition is largely similar to the mid-range $27,290 2.5 S Preferred model, but it adds nice cosmetic and functional upgrades that include red leather seats, all-wheel drive, HD Radio, and wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. My test car was covered in $595 Polymetal Gray Metallic paint and, according to its window sticker, it came equipped with $575 illuminated door sill trim plates and $500 navigation SD card, which bumped its final price up to $32,520. Once the EPA was done crunching the numbers, it gave the Carbon Edition Sedan fuel economy ratings of 26 mpg city, 34 highway, and 29 combined. Over 196 miles of mixed driving, I averaged 26.5 mpg.
Despite its age, the Mazda3 still looks fresh and attractive, particularly with the Carbon Edition’s black mirror caps and Black Metallic 18-inch wheels, which make the well-proportioned design look even sleeker.
The biggest indicators of the Mazda3’s time on the market are inside the cabin. The gauges are largely analog. At 8.8 inches, the infotainment display is smaller than the 10.5-inch unit Toyota offers in the Corolla and the 12.3-inch gauge cluster and infotainment displays available in the Nissan Sentra. Plus, the Mazda3’s display is just that: a display, not a touchscreen. If you want to select anything you see on the screen, you need to use the dial/puck combo on the center console to get to it, then click on it. Frankly, that’s more tedious and distracting than simultaneously looking at and engaging with a touchscreen that’s positioned closer to the road ahead.
I was pleasantly surprised when I hopped into the back seat. I’m 5-foot-10, and not only was there plenty of legroom, but I also had a comfortable amount of headroom. Even folding the second row down partially freed up a useful amount of cargo space for hauling items out of a storage facility.
Driving the Mazda3 revealed a different set of pros and cons which depended on where and how I drove. On suburban streets, it felt neither playful nor polished. It was too buttoned-down and serious to seem fun, but rode too stiffly and let in too much wind, road, and tire noise to come across as upscale.
However, switching the Mazda3 into Sport mode and taking it out on the broad sweeping curves that wind through the Arizona desert showed me that it wasn’t as frumpy as I previously thought. Its small dimensions were easy to handle, and the harder I pushed it, the more it seemed to loosen up. Yes, the naturally aspirated 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine is a bit dated in a time when so many power plants are turbocharged, and the six-speed automatic is years — and gears — behind current autos, but neither of those things mattered. The I-4’s 186 horsepower and 186 lb-ft of torque were perfectly suited for moving the Mazda3’s 3,283-pound curb weight at a respectable pace. Though the automatic is from a bygone era, it was preferable to a CVT in terms of sound and feel.
Out there, flying past towering saguaros and zipping toward distant mountains straight out of a Western landscape painting, I realized the Mazda3 shares one major trait with the MX-5 Miata: It shows how enjoyable it is to drive a “slow car fast.”
To learn more about the good and the bad packed inside the 2026 Mazda3 2.5 S Carbon Edition Sedan, check out my video review below.
Click above and watch our full video review on YouTube!
