 Ok first off I will state that this car does what I bought it to do. Go from place to place cheaply and helps me stay out of debt. Cheap was the main reason I bought it. I needed something new, reliable, from a respected manufacturer to get me from place to place. The Mazda 2 does this just fine. With that being said here is what I think of the car. I bought the automatic touring model. - Interior.         Cheap plastics that scratch easily. Cheap fabric that tears easily. My back seat tore with only 2000 miles on the car. No one uses my back seat except for occasionally my dog. We religiously put a blanket on the back seat whenever he was in the car to minimize dog hair all over it. Still the seat tore. Had it sewn professionally and it tore again along the seam. With that being said it is a good looking interior with black fabric and red piping to spruce it up a bit.         Hard to see fuel level indicator. Small gauges on the dash. The layout is fine but the gauges and text on the information system are small and hard to read.         Not a lot of room in it. My daughter has both a Mini Cooper Coupe and a Chevy Sonic. Both small cars, like the Mazda 2, but both have tons more room inside. I feel like I am sitting on top of my passenger in the Mazda 2. In order to fit in the car I have to have the seat all the way back, the seat bottom lowered as far as it will go and the seat back reclining far back. In this position I am forced to keep my nose up high to see over the dash. And I am not especially tall (5'7"), but I do get my height from my legs. When I am in the driver's seat there is no leg room at all for any passengers behind me.         Cup holders are hidden underneath the optional arm rest I had installed. No back seat cup holders. Little storage.        We got the 6 speaker Bose system. Its an ok system. I have heard a lot better.        The windows wont defog for the life of me. I have tried every setting on the heat/ac system and the only setting that works in a/c on (even in winter in new england brrr) and full blast fan coming out of the defrost setting only. I had some luck with Rain Dance defogger.  - Exterior.       The chrome peeled off the Mazda 2 logo in back within weeks of buying the car. Other than that the exterior has held up pretty well.  - Mechanics.       It has been a reliable running vehicle now for 2+ years and 50,000 miles on it. It always starts in cold new england winters. Maintenance has been cheap and in frequent. Balise Mazda in West Springfield, Ma has been awesome! Now the bad. The brakes! Ugh. The anti lock brake feature comes on way too early. I have had  multiple issues stopping in it. I found pumping helps. I brought this up to Mazda service and they cant find anything wrong with them. Today I nearly hit a Jeep in front of me and it wasnt even in hard braking conditions. The anti lock braking comes on at random times. This is not acceptable and is the main reason I am trading the car in. I need braking power. Too many hills and bad road conditions in western Massachusetts to play around with finicky brakes.  - Handling.       It is easy to drive and handles fine. I taught my teenaged daughter to drive in it. It is way underpowered for driving in a hilly or mountainous region. I have given up on certain freeway on ramps because the car just doesnt have enough power to get up to 65 and merge. Now on to winter driving. Get 4 really good snow tires if you have to drive on snow at all. I had NO control on snow with the stock tires. I have a little better with top of the line snow tires but its still not really good and leaves me driving with sweat covered hands due to nerves.  - Overall.      If you are looking for something cheap, with fair MPG, and from a reliable maker then the Mazda 2 is a good bet. If you live in a hilly or mountainous area with bad weather then look at something with better handling, heating, power and control.