While I don't presently own a car ( I live in China 10 months out of 12.) I did hire a Mazda3 all last summer. It was great! It was easy to drive ( no blind spots etc) very comfortable and good on gas use. It also had the advantage of fitting both my very tall, broad shouldered husband and just under five feet tall me equally comfortably to drive it - with appropriate adjustments of course lol!

There was a lot of space in the car and the trunk too; we drove home from the airport with four heavy suitcases, two wheelie computer/cabin bags and various other odds and ends acquired en route from China and still had plenty of space to spare.

We had no mechanical problems with it even though, being a rental car, it had probably not been treated with much respect by previous drivers. I would thoroughly recommend it!