Originally posted by: senseamp
Also, I am not sure the manual 3 gets better mileage than tC. I am guessing they both get similar mileage, which would be in the mid to high 20's in both city and highway.
I think both could use an extra gear for highway fuel economy.
The tC deff could, I own one and love it, they deff geared it for more speed then MPG, 4000 RPM at 85MPH is a bit much. Then again I came from a V8 which would sit at 2500RPM at 85-90.
And to the OP.... I'm sorry you live in the south, atleast for looking at a tC, southern dealerships ALL charge that damn 500-700 fee. I paid all of $29 for fees on mine, IL limits the documentation fees to that amount.
As for the squeak thing... that was fixed long ago, the sunroof on the first production models did it (mine included), but they told dealers whats wrong and how to fix it, and mine is fine now, not a peep from the sunroof. Now my dash and pasanger door rattle but thats my fault from my stereo, just gotta reinstall it this spring. I had to custom make a headunit mount since there wasn't one for the tC for aftermarket stereos when I got mine.
Honestly go with the one you think looks best, their almost the same besides the sunroof on the tC. Power is close to the same with the tC having a slight edge, but nothing major, the Mazda does have a slight MPG edge, more so in the manual then the auto because of the tCs very aggressive gearing.