Tag Archives: Mazda

Photo-A-Day #4318

I have had a Mazda 3 to drive for over a week. I have enjoyed it thoroughly. The car was provided by Mazda so that I could experience all the car had to offer. Opinions are 100% my own. #DriveMazda

There were a bunch of great features that a commuter like me would use every day. Driving it was a dream. The ride was really smooth and whenever I wanted a little boost of power I had it. No matter what speed I was a at, I could still get a little more power. I don’t have the confidence in my current car to know that it will give me that boost to pass when I want to pass. I never felt that way with the Mazda 3. I always had what I needed to pass when I wanted to pass. When you drive far and often you don’t always want to hang out behind someone putt-putt-putting along in the left lane.

the car also had some nice safety features and one that I failed to mention in the video below. The sideview mirrors had blind spot monitoring. I know that you shouldn’t totally rely on them and you need to use your mirrors and also turn but it is nice to know that If I forgot to do any of those things I would quickly see that there was someone in my blindspot from the light on the side mirrors. That is also a commuter’s dream feature.

I liked that there was a rearview camera, too. We have a small driveway and because of that I often have to park part on the grass so that there is room. When it snows my door is by the snow and it is slightly sloped so I occasionally slip. With the rearview camera I can back into my spot with complete accuracy. It is fun to watch, too.

Fun with Andrew in the Mazda

I liked driving a car that had the advanced keyless entry system. I just have the key fob in my pocket, walk up to the car and push a button to open the car. Push it twice and it opens all the lock, push it again and it locks everything. You don’t even know how much I would have loved to have had this for the past year with my current car where I have to get Andrew in and out and then fumble with keys. Yeah, my 2015 car doesn’t even have keyless entry and that is standard on this edition of the Mazda 3. The the push to start button was excellent. It was so easy to get on the road and just drive.

My favorite feature, though had to be the Multi-Function Commander Control in the center of the car. I could do everything one handed and never have to take my eyes off the road to switch music, make calls, turn on navigation. Everything would display on the 7″ Color Touch-Screen Display. I didn’t even realize that it was a touch screen until today, and I’ve had the car over a week. I did everything with the control knob in the commander center.

Overall I give this car a really high rating. I’ve enjoyed driving the Mazda cars ever since my trip to Joshua Tree last April. While I drove those cars on a fantasy road trip, it is nice to know that the same cars have great real world practicality.

Continue reading BenSpark Rides – Driving the 2017 Mazda 3 Grand Touring – #DriveMazda →

Blogging, Food, Friends, Photo-A-Day, Photography, Travel, Vlog

Day One Recap of my Adventure in Joshua Tree

March 15, 2016 Drew

Photo-A-Day #3991

For the next few days I am on an adventure in Joshua Tree National Park as part of trip sponsored in part by Mazda. You can follow along with my adventure with the hashtag of #DrivingMatters. We were also sponsored by Napoleon Grills and Hormel Foods with Support from DriveShop and Men Who Blog. You can see my other adventurers over at the Mazda #DrivingMatters Exploring The Desert page.

I took off from Boston on the early morning flight to Dallas and then on to Palm Springs California. The flights weren’t too bad and I was able to play my new LEGO Avengers game on the Nintendo 3DS. I was leaving on the day that Marvel Battlegrounds was going to come out so I would have some withdrawals. So, the time passed quickly and I even watched the Tim Burton Batman movie on the entertainment units on my first, and most modern plane. All the rest were still pretty old without many amenities. But I was excited so I didn’t quite care, I just wanted to get to Palm Springs to get the adventure started.

I landed in Palm Springs, which as a beautiful little airport. Part of it is open air, too. I was picked up by Josh from DriveShop in the Mazda CX-3. We had a great conversation the whole way to the campground. We did make a pit stop in Walmart so that we could get additional supplies for the campsite. While we were there we picked through the Hot Wheels and I found some of the remaining Hot Wheels Hot Trucks series that I had been collecting. I show those in today’s vlog.

Continue reading Day One Recap of my Adventure in Joshua Tree →

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Wash It, Wax It

December 14, 2015 Drew

Photo-A-Day #3900

Windshield in a Carwash

We had to give back the CX-5 today. We had a great time with this car. During the week we did a bunch of fun family adventures including our annual trip to La Salette, a giant toy donation and more. It was a great car for tooling all around the town and carrying a bunch of things. The folks at DriveShop were awesome. Clyde was the guy who delivered and picked the car back up. He was really nice. I would have gone and picked him up at the train station next time, too. However, he flew up, took a train down and then walked to the house. A fun job. I look forward to our next vehicle loan.

Mazda CX-5

The rest of my day was spent working on Eva’s room, emptying out some boxes and organizing. I needed to be able to move around in my office or else I would have had her do this on her own. But then again, doing it myself allowed me to get rid of some real junk. I also got my car washed because it really, really needed it and I have to do it when I don’t have the kids so the back seat can be vacuumed. Hard to do with car seats. I hate putting them back in.

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Curses, it’s back in the box for us!

December 3, 2008 Drew 13 Comments

Photo-A-Day #1335

Over the past 7 years I have amassed a good deal of desk junk. No, not papers and notes and things like that. Nothing “work related” per se. No I have probably one of the most elaborate desk set ups in the entire office. If you can’t tell the theme, let me give you a hint “More Than Meets The Eye”.

I’m moving my desk to another building entirely. The other building has an entirely different feel, not so, how should I say this “laid back”. So on Friday I’m bringing in two plastic “bins” to pack up all of my toys. Then they will spend some time int he attic until such time as I either have my own office at home or at work or just someplace to put them back out. There is so much there, my Harley Pins (Which I may take with me), all my Transformers (into the bin with them), and many other things. Here are some more high res photos so you can really see what is going on on my desk.