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I suggested an older Mercedes to my wife but she didn't like the idea - too big... not sporty enough, in image at least.
The 944/968 would be fine except for the lack of a back seat for our daughter.
I drove the used BMW 323i the morning that I bought the Mazda3. I'm not going to sit here and say they were the same or even extremely similar, but I have to believe that somebody at Mazda used the 3 series BMW as the target for the Mazda3.
The BMW had a few hundred dollars worth of cosmetic issues, 68K miles and the owner was at $16K firm. The Mazda3 S cost just under $18K out the door, with 2 miles, has a 4 year/50K mile warranty... and it already had a CD player - the BMW did not. I know I'm comparing apples to oranges here (so no need to lecture me, I know the E46 is a great car), but after driving both cars back to back I didn't feel like we gave up much with the Mazda.
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Lee
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