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The Savior

This is about as close to driving nirvana as semi-affordable cars venture. The powertrain, chassis, and operator interfaces are honed to near perfection. The 2+2 accommodations are functionally useful, the trunk is amply sized and well proportioned. Searching diligently, I did find a trivial flaw: the left-front floor mat that had torn free of its attachments to foul the clutch pedal at the bottom of its travel. As a service to my fellow critics, I repaired that fault with an expeditious driveway correction. Nevertheless, as much as I respect this and most other BMWs, I'd give serious thought to Cadillac's new CTS coupe before I spent $40,000 for a 335i.

As our Four Seasons Mazda 3 prepares to pull out of our garage one last time, the odometer has rolled over the 26,000-mile mark. During its twelve months with us, the Mazda 3 has shown faultless reliability and has aged gracefully. Other than regular maintenance stops at 7500-mile intervals, our red Mazda was always ready to go.