The Mazdaspeed 3 won some award for under $25K for like 2 or 3 years in a row.


I looked at GTIs when shopping for cars in late 2007. Went with the MS3. I like the 4 doors, the 63 extra horsepower and more torque, surprisingly impressive build quality and fit and finish, and the features are pretty much everything the GTI had at the time. The new MS3 is a little lacking to me in how it looks from the front, but is essentially the same car. 6 speed with LSD, great factory handling, fantastic audio system, super tight steering. I'm biased, and while I liked the GTi a lot, I got more at the time.

The GTI had less road noise (the Mazdas are on the louder side of the scale vs most cars - though the exhaust sounds good), and gets better mileage. The MS3 was rated at 19/26 and I average 25-29 mostly...not too shabby.