Not adding much that others didn’t say but if you got the Kona, you possibly would be saying the same thing. Since it sounds like you have the means, adjust your budget a little higher next time to get something you really like. For not much more, there’s plenty of choices.
Exactly, for even less than 100mo, OP could be in a Volvo or BMW. Lots of good fun options under 400mo. Granted, all infotainment systems are horrible.
I’d keep the appliance car through the whole lease. No sense in getting trapped in the negative equality carousel.
CarPlay or Android Auto and you can forget about the Mazda System.
Fun to drive… Not this one. Watch the SavageGeese review on Youtube. He explains it pretty well.
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That’s obviously a joke, it’s a movie reference
Just out of curiosity, did you also test drive a CX-5? They’re pretty much as ‘emotional’ to drive as anything in the mainstream/non-luxury space. Granted the infotainment is older/worse. But I’m surprised you find the CX-30 so dull as based on reviews, it’s also up there with the CX-5.
We actually like our Tiguan S more and more over the year we’ve had it. The CarPlay system is pretty good and easy to use and the turbo motor has plenty of mid-range punch. The few things I feel like I’m ‘missing’ (ie: sunroof, seatback map pockets, HIDs, park sensors), I’m already over.
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Wait, you expected a Madza to spark… joy? Don’t tell me you actually believed their commercials.
Anyway, you could try listing it on auto trader for your buyout price and see if anybody happens to stumble upon it that way. Every month drop the price by $280. Or you could turo it out and get another car. I dunno man.
How many miles are on the car? Dealers do have the ability to roll back a deal if you complain enough they just hate to do it. I’ve seen it done twice one for my dad and one for a friend. Talk to the GM but it has to be a worse complaint then that say something bothers you eyes at night or something.
If they’ve gotten the mazda3 hatch, which is probably an inch lower than cx-30, it would’ve been pretty fun.
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If only it was that easy. 
Especially after he’s had the car for over 3 weeks.
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But customer is always right, so there…
The second time this has been suggested in this thread. Again:
Not sure that suggesting buying 10 shares of a stock trading at 160x earnings in an artificially inflated market at all time highs that has been on a 12 year meteoric bull run is going to be the best investment for the next 3 years.
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Soooooo, what does carvana/shift/vroom say they’ll give you for it vs the buy out?
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Also curious what isn’t fun about the car/how you define fun? You don’t like the handling in corners? Acceleration is too slow? Steering feel isn’t good?
I only ask because based on reviews plus my own experience in the CX5 and CX9, it seems like this car should be even more fun in the turns which is where Mazdas shine.
If you don’t like the engine you should have known that within 30 seconds of your test drive.
Otherwise many handling characteristics can be improved with stickier tires.
Im curious as to the scenarios for each “roll back.”
Contracts can’t just be rolled back once they’ve been signed; let alone been funded 10 days later.
The “roll back” you speak of is most likely the dealer buying out the lease and essentially taking it at a disadvantageous lease where they took a several thousand dollar hit on the vehicle.
That’s why they don’t like to do it.
A deal can ABSOLUTELY be undone once the car leaves. Talk to any GM. I’ve been around the business since I cane out of the womb I am million percent sure a deal can be undone within 30 days. Dealers will say no but a dealer can do it. My father was a corporate district manager for car companies my whole life and he’s sitting next to me as we speak. A deal if a dealer is willing to do it can be unwritten. I even had an ex girlfriends mother get hosed in finance on a Camry. I got her a payment of I think 260. A month later she calls me complaining that she got her payment and it was $525. They hit her with everything. I went to the dealer on 9w in NJ and within ten minutes had them redo the deal at $260. Dealers have more power then people think.
There’s a big difference between a dealer unwinding dealer accessories and F&I extras vs. taking back a brand new car, giving a full refund of drive offs for a car they now need to sell as used.
A dealer can do anything, sure. They could give you the car for free to, if they wanted to. The chances of the dealer actually considering taking the car back and giving you a full refund without any pretense of negligence on their part is effectively nil.
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Especially when the reason is I don’t like the infotainment and it’s not fun to drive.
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Hello all. Thanks for the many replies. I can’t respond to all of them – life isn’t long enough – but here is what I think today.
We are not going to try to give the car back. The process of finding and leasing a car was prolonged and annoying. No desire to jump back into that.
“Fun to drive” – ok, the car we had before this was a Fiat 500E. Now before the avalanche of snark begins, I have to say, we loved that car and NEVER had a problem with it. Yes, it was tiny, yes, it had a very limited range, yes, it was definitely not fun on the freeway – but then we hardly ever drove it on the freeway.
That car was a landmark deal in 2017. 36 months, 10K miles a year, whatever we paid down was refunded by the state (e-car rebates) – $82.30 a month. It was practically free. And it was fun to drive.
The infotainment system had Apple Car Play but we never used it. Had satellite radio, which is what we used for music. Used Apple or Google Maps on our phone for navigation. I don’t like my music being interrupted by phone calls or texts, and I don’t listen to playlists when I drive. Plus, if the phone was plugged in (for charging), the GPS app wouldn’t speak. Same thing on the Mazda, by the way.
We returned the Fiat with a total of 13K miles on the odometer. Never came anywhere near the limit. Hated to see it go, but they wanted 19K as the purchase price. Are you kidding? In what universe?
That car had torque up the wazoo. Unspeakably easy to park. Always got compliments on its looks (adorable baby blue color). Didn’t pump up our electric bill noticeably. Plus the obvious advantages: no gas, no oil, no maintenance at all really except for tires. They only sell this car in CA and Oregon.
As for alternatives, we would not want a Volvo – reliability, inflated price, ponderous, pretentious. BMW? We will never buy a German car. Cousin who works at MB dealership offered us an analogous deal to the Mazda’s on a GLA. Even if we wanted to buy a car from the country that murdered our grandparents, we wouldn’t have wanted that one. Looked cheaper than a Hyundai.
Those who say no car in the compact/subcompact SUV class is fun to drive – well, maybe. I did enjoy test-driving the Hyundai Kona, more than the Mazda, but my husband couldn’t tolerate the looks of the dash – “like they dumped a parts bin in there.” Plus, there is a cheapo factor associated with the Hyundai name. I know, I know, they have improved LOTS, and I know a millionaire who drives one, but … husband just couldn’t.
Our garage is on the narrow side. A Mazda CX-5 would have been too wide (our other car is a Lexus ES 350, on the wide side itself). I wanted a Ford Escape – loved driving it, we had Fords for years, rented an Edge once and loved the infotainment – but new ones cost too much, and are three inches wider than the CX-30. We also considered the Buick Encore and the Nissan Rogue(as used cars), but they were underpowered and claustrophobic (narrow cabin).
I wanted to lease because I simply could not see locking up five figures on a car. We are beezers (boomer geezers). Who knows what we might need our money for – stem cell therapy, cryogenics, Botox by the bushel, long-term care? So it had to be a comparatively low-priced new car.
Had to be some sort of SUV because I garden and routinely haul large bags of smelly/messy stuff. Also, we take road trips and have dogs.
I don’t think it’s at all unusual for people to second-guess car purchases.
If six months or a year from now we still can’t live happily with the Mazda, then I’ll look at Carvana, etc. I have never used those services, but clearly they work.
One final word on fun-to-drive: many years ago, I owned a 1966 MGB. Wire wheels, leather tonneau, delightful stick action … broke down every fifteen minutes, and mechanics HATED working on it. “British car shit” was a phrase I heard in a variety of accents. Now that car was fun to drive, but I wouldn’t want it today.
Thank again for your replies.
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Yet, you didn’t have a problem leasing a car manufactured by their WW II ally?
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