Here's what you get when you go to a GT instead of a Club:

-heated leather seats instead of cloth
-lane departure warning system
-navigation
-no Bilstein-no LSD.

And it's about $600 more than a Club. Even if it were the same price I'd much rather have the Club.

 

1. Heated seats are awesome.

I think most here wouldn't care about the Bilstein's or the Navigation (what's on our phones is typically better than what's in a car anyways), but I'd have to take a brand new car somewhere to have an LSD installed.

 

Heated seats ARE awesome, but I hate leather in a 'vert. I wish sooooo much my s2k seats were cloth.

@Chilicharger665 the stock Club bilsteins on lowering springs with sways really drives nice. For a budget setup it's hard to beat. Yes if you're going to put Xidas on the car then the Billies aren't a good reason to choose to club... except that they're going to be worth more if resold.

But how 'bout the LSD? The Club is CHEAPER, and has an LSD. And, it has the same sound system as the GT -- the Bose with headrest speakers.

I really don't feel like the GT is a great value.

 

I bought and entire diff assembly with factory LSD from Mazda Motorsports for around $850

 

Good to know.

 

OK, so you are now at $1350 more than a Club for heated leather seats, nav, and lane departure warning.

I'd still go for the Club.

 

If I were in the market for an ND (I'm not) and I could get a club with heated seats and nav for $1350 more, I'd probably go for it. I really like heated seats, aftermarket ones don't measure up, and in-dash nav is so much easier to use than your phone.

The lane departure stuff I don't find all that useful.

--Ian

 

I have a company that can add heated seats for $500, and you can buy the Nav direct from Mazda on Amazon for $300.

But you do realize this is on a convertible, not your Audi, right? lol I'd actually pay to NOT have leather.

 

Serious question, since I haven't used any in-dash nav in a few years.

Does the current generation stuff have a real-time connection to whatever data service drives Google Maps, which provides you with both a constantly updated database of businesses, as well as realtime traffic and road conditions which then back-feed into automatic re-routing to avoid traffic jams and road closures?

 

No.

 

How does the hardtop not fit the GT3 bar. I thought it was designed around fitting that bar?

 

In my out-of-town drives in the ND where I needed directions I've always used my phone for nav. The best in-car nav still doesn't hold a candle to what we all have on our phones, so I've largely ignored that the car had that feature.

 

I'm still holding out hope that they'll add CarPlay/Android Auto. It desperately needs to happen, and if Mazda doesn't get on the ball soon they'll continue to lose sales over it. It's quite frustrating when people come in on the new 2017 3 or 6 and still no Android Auto, when friggin' Buicks and GMCs and Hyundais etc have had it for a couple model years now.

 

Kinda what I figured.

So, for codrus, the concepts "easy to use" and "essentially useless" are not incompatible.

 

The one in my 2016 Audi does. The newest Mazda I own is a 1999, so I can't say about those. (although we are looking at replacing my wife's Odyssey with a CX-9, so that may not be true for long)

I think, though, that there are different use cases here that are getting confused. Yes, for "find me the nearest Starbucks", the voice control on my Nexus 5 is better. In that case, I'm not actually using it as a Nav system, I'm just using it as a business finder system, and I'll mostly drive there using my brain's internal map. Where I think in-dash nav systems win is when I'm using it in unfamiliar territory, where I'm going to be looking at it every 10-15 seconds to find the turns I need to make. Phone screens are small, windshield suction cup mounts are a PITA, and trying to hold it in your hand is beyond annoying (and not particularly safe).

The other big win for an in-dash unit is that it doesn't rely on battery power. Yes, you can hook up a charging adapter and cable to your phone, but that's one more thing to fiddle with, and when they're sitting in the sun they heat up and then the charging circuitry shuts down to avoid overheating the battery. So in-dash is much better for road trips.

Ideal would be a system where I can look up the destination using my phone's voice recognition/etc and then have it automatically send the destination to the car's built-in system. Hopefully Android Auto will do that -- dunno, I've never actually seen one in real life.

If you can retrofit the Mazda OEM nav system to the car for $300, that's a viable option. Can you really do that? Most of the cars I've looked at that lacked the optional nav (not Mazdas) had a much lower-res screen in the dash to save cost. I've never seen an aftermarket seat heater install that I liked. As for leather in a convertible -- my Miata came with leather seats and the issues I had with them had nothing to do with the fact that it was a convertible, so I don't see what the big deal is?

--Ian

 

The ND dynos and weight make me so happy, but the cockpit has so much going on. The screen, all the buttons on the steering wheel... A stripped down version would be rad. I guess people will swap out the steering wheel, but that screen... It can't be hacked to display things like AFR etc can it?

 

Not yet. It's just a matter of time.

 

The GT also adds
-auto climate control
-auto headlights that also turn with the steering wheel
-auto windshield wipers
-lane departure, blind spot, and back up sensors
-heated side mirrors
-auto dimming rear view mirrors

All that stuff is cool, but the only real thing that would be a big deal to me is the turning headlights. That would be extremely useful for all the back roads I like to drive at night. As long as the difference is even noticeable. Has anybody driven both and noticed a difference?

Plus the Club comes with the blind spot monitoring for 2017. I also keep forgetting to say that the 2017 models will have the new transmission parts that Mazda is quietly substituting in now.

 

Ha, that is pretty cool that you know how the technology works behind the scenes! Or works terribly, in this case

The reasons I got the Sport was because I got it before VW finally announced the buybacks and all that ****. I have an affected TDI. I have satellite radio in that. So, now that it is going away soon and I want to go back to one car. I currently have 3 and going to one car will save me money. The Sport was bought with several compromises in mind, so now that I want one car, I don't want to compromise.

I deal with the "consequences" of changing cars constantly. I have gone through 5 cars in the past two years.

 

When it comes time, if I have met or exceeded my savings goal, I will consider spending the extra few K on the GT.

Ok, if the RS3 is too sticky, perhaps something like the Michelin Pilot Super Sport?

I am super sad that the GT3 bar doesn't fit the hardtop either... Is it just the main hoop that hits? I am sure Moti can and will design a new version that can fit.