I'd just realized that my Mazda 3 and VW Passat have a lot of controls in opposite direction. This confused me when I switched driving these two cars. I pressed buttons or shift gear wrong a lot of times. Just want to share this with you guy. Nothing serious !!!

Mazda 3
Volume control - on left side of steering wheel
Cruise control - on right side of steering wheel
Windshield wiper control - push down steps
Gear shift - up (+) toward yourself

VW Passat
Volume control - on right side of steering wheel
Cruise control - on left side of steering wheel
Windshield wiper control - push up steps
Gear shift - down (-) toward yourself

โดย: yworr   วันที่: 10 Dec 2004 - 12:35

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 1 / 25 : 021990

โดย: yworr

Mazda 3: Volume control - on left side of steering wheel

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 2 / 25 : 021991

โดย: yworr

VW Passat: Volume control - on right side of steering wheel

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 3 / 25 : 021992

โดย: yworr

Mazda 3: Cruise control - on right side of steering wheel

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 4 / 25 : 021993

โดย: yworr

VW Passat: Cruise control - on left side of steering wheel

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 5 / 25 : 021994

โดย: yworr

Mazda 3: Gear shift - up (+) toward yourself

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 6 / 25 : 021995

โดย: yworr

VW Passat: Gear shift - down (-) toward yourself

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 7 / 25 : 021996

โดย: yworr

This is just the dashboard of VW Passat. We really like the blue light color on VW. One reason we bought Mazda 3 was blue light background on dashboard.

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 8 / 25 : 021999

โดย: Time will tell

oh thank you for beutiful pics...
I'm jealousy with U :-)

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 9 / 25 : 022016

โดย: ...

You should compare with VW Jetta .............Not VW Passat.

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 10 / 25 : 022017

โดย: 7DoZEN

One reason we bought Mazda 3 was blue light background on dashboard.

Blue-Colorism !

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 11 / 25 : 022018

โดย: 5MT

How can u do that !?!? I am the one who like blue colour !?!

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 12 / 25 : 022033

โดย: yworr

Blue color background (VW and Mazda 3-2.3L, 5Dr) came with the car. Not an add-on later. And I don't own VW Jetta, so I don't know how its control button works. But it should be similar. I just compare control features of what I own.

Like a couple days ago, I couldn't turn on windshield wiper on Mazda 3 because I kept pushing up the control lever - like I used to on VW Passat. Or the other day, while driving on 2nd gear, I wanted to up-shift to 3rd gear on Mazda 3. So I shifted gear up (+) away from me - like VW Passat, but Mazda 3 shifted it down to 1st because shifted gear away from the driver (toward the front) is down-shift (-). This might cause an accident, if not careful enough.

Just has to switch my thought before driving Mazda 3, that's all. Thanks.

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 13 / 25 : 022148

โดย: Nuay

May be in the next generation, they should have the standard for all of that na.

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 14 / 25 : 022229

โดย: TOOK

I was looking at the Mazda 3 5 drs to replace my daily driver but found the reverse logic of the gear shift not suitable for my usage. In other auto transmission car you pull down to go from "D" to "3" to "2" to "1" and push forward to go up the gears. This logic is also used in my other car with Tiptronic (like your Passat). I'm afraid that driving the Mazda 3 in semi-auto mode may cause me to shift in the wrong direction (like you did) especially in case of emergency. We can argue that most of the time the gear position is in "D" but then there are times when you need to shift and this reverse logic worries me. I like everything else about the Mazda 3 5 drs but may have to pass because of this shifting thing.

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 15 / 25 : 022236

โดย: TOOK

Here is a "normal" logic, when you're in semi-auto mode "1" is in the bottom so if you want to shift up then logic tells you to move upward which is similar to the auto mode. I wish I know what Mazda was thinking when they decide to use this reverse logic.

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 16 / 25 : 022250

โดย: Nuay

To Mr.TOOK
Nowadays, there are a lot of car which use the logic of sequential shifting like this such as Mini Cooper etc. so I think if you love Mazda3 and worries about this shifting, this car should provide safety function for human error like the others

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 17 / 25 : 022252

โดย: ต้น

พี่ตุ๊กครับ เกียร์ sequential ในรถแข่งเวลา upshift ดึงเข้าหาตัวนะครับ

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 18 / 25 : 022254

โดย: yworr

In VW Tiptronic, if you are using low gear and runing red line, it will shift up to higher ger to protect transmission and engine. But for Mazda 3, per Owner's manual page 5-14, it said:

"In manual shift mode, gears do not shift up automatically. Don't run the engine with the tachnometer needle in the RED ZONE. If the tachometer needle enters the RED ZONE, you may feel engine-braking beacuse the fuel delivery will be stopped to protect the engine However, this does not indicate an abnormality"

Weired and dangerous. I have to watch out and more careful when using Mazda 3 in manual mode from now on.

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 19 / 25 : 022306

โดย: thaweerat

Germany original design (Western) and Japan design(Eastern)
Um...very good point to focus.
Just my idea , The VW has been design the control switches for left hand steering, and the original design of Mazda3 was base on right hand steering.

As same as wiper stick control.
Just I think.

 ความคิดเห็นที่: 20 / 25 : 022422

โดย: TOOK

Khun Ton,

I know that sequential shift in race car pulls back to shift up but we're talking everyday car here.