My Mazda 3
Metra sucks. Scosche Mazda 3 Radio Kit = FTW.
01 year ago
by Cyclone
in My Mazda 3
The Metra radio kit for the Mazda 3 is god awful. The fitment kind of sucks and the plastic tray to replace the LCD is just horrendous to look at. With that, I decided to purchase the Scosche Mazda 3 double din kit and throw the Metra garbage in the trash. Needless to say, it was a great decision as it looks so much better in the Mazda 3. It fits better, looks more like it belongs and it doesn’t leave a big gap above the kit where the lcd trim resides.
If you have a Mazda 3 first gen and you’re planning on going with an aftermarket radio, avoid the Metra kit at all costs. It’s cheaply made and the fit sucks. Another kit to avoid is one made by ‘Best Kits’ which is apparently only sold in Futureshops in Canada. There is an official Mazda 3 double din radio kit that can be imported from Japan but it’s hard to find and wildly expensive.
Just my $0.02.
Aftermarket radio install in the Mazda 3
01 year ago
by Cyclone
in My Mazda 3
With the GTI gone, I pulled all my radio gear out to be transferred into a new car. The Mazda 3 now has my Kenwood DDX512 headunit installed with the Bluetooth, Sirius and iPod modules installed. Now I need to wire up the subwoofers, replace the door speakers and get an adapter for the steering wheel controls. The PAC SWI-JACK from the GTI won’t work in the Mazda 3 since I cut off all the extra wires when I installed it in the VW. Turns out, one of those extra wires is needed for the Mazda. Besides, Metra makes a steering wheel adapter that is apparently auto-config so it’ll be less of a pain in the ass than programming the PAC unit again.
Installing a radio in a Mazda 3 is easy. There is plenty of room to run wires and everything is clipped together. The glovebox has a big space at the rear that is great for installing modules like I mentioned above. It even has a nice sized hole to fish the cables out of and up to the headunit itself.
With the glovebox and factory radio out of the car, I only had to remove about 4 screws. Two held the radio in and two held in the glove box. I did have to remove a 5th screw which held in the glove box light. Over all, very very simple to pull this car apart.
This is the Kenwood DDX512 installed with the Metra kit I purchased from Crutchfield. The Metra kit was easy to put together and install and the radio surround fits pretty well and looks decent. The pocket that takes place of the factory radio lcd however is a total piece of shit. It’s shiny cheap looking plastic that doesn’t even fit properly. I’m trying to figure out a way to mount a Scangauge II in it’s place but that involves buying one and buying one involves monies. Soon, I hope. I might put a non-functional LCD back in the place of the pocket for now.
Bye Bye GTI, hello Zoom-Zoom!
41 year ago
by Cyclone
in My Mazda 3
With the GTI $1k away from pay off and the fact that I’m tired of it breaking all the damn time, I decided to jump on getting a newer car now that I’m employed again. I found a Mazda 3 for under $10k in really damn good shape and jumped on it. The only thing it needs is a new headlight and the headlight lenses polished. Besides that, the car is pretty much immaculate. This 3 is the S model with the 160hp 4cyl engine.
The engine has a lot of low end pick up but the car isn’t as fast or as nice sounding as the GTI. It also lacks a lot of the features the GTI had but in hindsight, most of the features won’t be missed and they added unnecessary weight. I’ll miss the GTI but I won’t miss it eating away at my bank account with constant repairs.
Here’s an analogy. The GTI was great but it was like being in a bad relationship towards the end. I loved it very much but I couldn’t trust her to not go fuck someone behind my back*, er, I mean I couldn’t trust it to not break down on me.
*Has never had this happen… that he knows of