Fully-Built Mazda3 Is a Show Car You Can Make Your Own

The Mazda3 isn’t a typical choice to build a heavily modified sport-compact. That honor usually goes to various Hondas, Subarus, and Nissans. If you’d like to enter a car show and stand out from the crowd, this fully-built 2010 Mazda3 recently for sale on eBay Motors in Auburn, Wash., is the vehicle for you.

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A Unique Show-Car Starting Point

The second-generation Mazda3 hails from a tumultuous time in Mazda’s history. At the time, Ford owned Mazda and shared parts with other brands across the Blue Oval empire. This 2010 Mazda3 uses a platform found in Ford and Volvo models, but Mazda was able to bake in some peppy handling and communicative steering. It even landed a coveted spot on Car and Driver’s 10 Best list.

That makes an excellent foundation for a tuner, but building a show car out of a Mazda3 isn’t easy. Aftermarket support for this model isn’t as plentiful as it would be for a Honda Civic or Subaru Impreza. That’s what makes this example so unique. Despite an uncommon starting point, the seller has built a show car with nearly nothing left stock.

High-Quality Mods for Miles

This 2010 Mazda3 features many parts imported from Mazda specialists in Japan, including a front body kit from AutoExe, side skirts, and a rear lip from M’z. The alloy wheels are 18-inch WedsSport RN-05Ms wrapped in 215/35R-18 Yokohama S-Drive tires, upgrades worth a few thousand bucks on their own.

The car also sports many CorkSport performance upgrades, including suspension components, a steering wheel, and exhaust sourced from the longtime US-based Mazda tuner. The interior impresses with an array of Defi gauges, a Kenwood infotainment unit, and lots of carbon fiber.

Turbocharged Power With the Option to Upgrade

This car started life in a decidedly non-enthusiastic spec, with a 2.0-liter Mazda inline four—the entry-level engine for the 2010 Mazda3 i—and a five-speed automatic transmission. Of course, it’s been heavily modified. It all starts with a turbocharger and plenty of custom-fabbed piping, adding to the $50,000 the seller claims was spent on customization. If you insist on a powertrain with more street cred, the sale includes a complete engine and six-speed manual transmission from the hot-rod Mazdaspeed3, upgraded with built internals. Some assembly would be required, but the hard work of sourcing the parts is already done.

The asking price of $19,999 seems like a bargain, considering the volume of high-end custom parts that come with this car. It would certainly cost far more to replicate such a build today. The seller says this car has won numerous awards. It’s been featured in several magazines, which is easy to believe, given how heavily modded it is.

Whoever buys this Mazda3 will face a choice: Leave it as-is, a thoroughly modified show car, or swap in that Mazdaspeed engine and transmission and make it their own. Either way, the next owner will end up with a head-turning custom car that stands out from the crowd.