{"id":36284,"date":"2026-06-12T10:30:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=36284"},"modified":"2026-06-12T10:30:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:30:25","slug":"payne-manual-mazda3-is-the-anti-robot-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/payne-manual-mazda3-is-the-anti-robot-car","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Manual Mazda3 is the anti-robot car"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

The distinctive silhouette of the 2026 Mazda3 S Premium Hatchback.<\/em><\/div>\n

Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/em><\/p>\n

Memphis, Michigan<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 Tesla wowed the automotive word in January with news it was abandoning its Model S\/X models and putting the pedal to the metal on robots. Robot rideshare cars. Humanoid robots. Humanoid robots driving robot cars. Bots bots bots.<\/p>\n

Happily, there are still manual driver\u2019s toys out there to cope with the dystopian robot future. Like the six-speed, 2.5-liter Mazda3 S Premium hatchback in my driveway.<\/p>\n

WAUUUUGH! I escaped the robot headlines and headed north to rural Memphis, Michigan, for a quick road trip. This is manual country. Wide open space and empty roads where you can really row the gearbox. Can a rideshare robot do that?<\/p>\n

Like in Mazda\u2019s halo MX-5 Miata, the Mazda3’s six-speed is a joy. No rubbery gates here (looking at you, BMW). I never missed a shift despite flogging the Mazda3 unmercifully.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the compact Mazda3 S Premium model (the only Mazda3 trim accessorized with a stick) is best understood as an alternative to the similarly priced Miata roadster.<\/p>\n

Read full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The distinctive silhouette of the 2026 Mazda3 S Premium Hatchback. Henry Payne, The Detroit News Memphis, Michigan\u00a0\u2014 Tesla wowed the automotive word in January with news it was abandoning its Model S\/X models and putting the pedal to the metal on robots. Robot rideshare cars. Humanoid robots. Humanoid robots driving robot cars. Bots bots bots. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36284"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36285,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36284\/revisions\/36285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}