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I bought the new Mazda3 for my wife when it first came out in early 2014, an SP25 GT Sedan top-of-the-range. She likes the Mazdas and the write-ups on this model mentioned a lot less road noise, but I could only test it up to 80km/h on Melbourne roads, so thought it was reasonable. How wrong I was. Tyre noise has been an issue from day one with the new one, although I waited until 30,000km to change tyres. After a bit of research, I went for Continental ContiSportContact, which I also have on my Volkswagen Passat wagon and find quiet. It has reduced road noise on the Mazda by maybe 25 per cent, but still not acceptable in today's motoring and I find it hard to talk over the noise when on coarser road surfaces. This is the third Mazda we have owned and it will be our last.
In Mazda's defence the SP25 GT does have sports suspension which will transmit more noise, but we're hearing more complaints and hope that Mazda has addressed the noise issue when the Mazda3 is updated later this month.
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