This car was an upgrade from my Honda Civic hatchback because the Honda was only a 3 door and had no A/C.
The Mazda is equally reliable but didn't get anywhere near the fuel economy it was supposed to get. My civic got roughly 510 km per 40 litres and the Mazda gets 400 km per 40 litres.
The Mazda did have a lot of extra conveniences for a car in it's price range, they put a lot of thought into the design and didn't cheap out. Ipod connectivity, power mirrors, power windows, manual shift for the autmatic transmission, and AC plus it came with car mats - my civic didn't.