Anyone ever drive their speed 3 in the snow? im from bc where we get a good amount of snow, and was planning on getting a mazda speed 3 (as my mazda 3 hatch just got written off due to deer accident). are they still pretty bad with rust? and will they make it up my hill well its covered in snow and ice. any insight helps, thank you :)
Yes!! I was a full time pizza delivery driver in New England for 3 years with my Speed3. Put some snow tires on and it COULD NOT be stopped. Found myself driving around a lot of 4x4 vehicles that got stuck.
Man I wish they would put an LSD in vehicles today because some of us have to drive in snow! Better fuel efficiency and easier maintenance then four-wheel drive, And often still works better!
It’s pretty handy in the rain with the right tires, so with some winter tires it should be quite fun. Stock it came with summer tires, though frankly modern high performance all seasons match those, with modern summer only tires being good enough to mitigate some of the torque steer the car is infamous for (IMO exaggerated). With some good AS rubber it should be perfectly fine with light snow but with dedicated winter tires I recall many other ms3 drivers being really happy with it back in the day. Just keep in mind it does not have a lot of ground clearance, so no matter the tires, it will not like proper deep snow.
Like others mention, keep in mind that Mazda’s from this era don’t have the best rust proofing, and the MZR DISI turbo in these cars is an engine that does not tolerate lack of/extended intervals of maintenance in the best of cases. By these point even stock tuned cars will likely not have their original turbo.