Mazda 3 with matching painted upper "smile"

[IronLion]

It appears the Malaysians have a slightly different-looking 3, some may say better looking as the smile doesn't look quite as pronounced.

Mazda 3 - Year 2010 | Life as Malaysian - Events, Food, Gadgets and Places

Almost looks like it has paddle shifters too...

[Gunner]

Looks pretty good.

[ntechnic]

Painting that on our US cars is very doable.

Hey, are those paddle shifting buttons on the steering wheel? That would rock! I wonder if it can be retro fitted?

[AxelaSpeed]

the painted smiley makes it looks really good



i wonder if anyone would make theres carbon fiber

[Chummorsel]

Also looks like right-hand drive--awesome!

[josh]

Wow the painted upper smile looks great! Axela doesn't have a 2010 so who is going to be the first one here to make their upper lip look like carbon fiber?

[prasad_16]

Originally Posted by ntechnic

Painting that on our US cars is very doable.

Hey, are those paddle shifting buttons on the steering wheel? That would rock! I wonder if it can be retro fitted?

yeah what are those Paddle shifters on our Mazda3 would have rocked

[alvse]

Australia has those on our top of range model (not MazdaSpeed). Although, there are a lot of other things we don't get (like advance keyless entry, that's only in our MazdaSpeed)

[Derrick_B]

Yeah, it's back paddles to shift up and thumbs to shift down. Pretty dumb, imo. It should be right shift up and left shift down - no thumbs! The good thing is if you got the parts together and hacked it, you could wire it that way and skip the thumb buttons

I had the idea to paint the upper trim piece back in June when I was looking at the 2010's, but I never followed-through with it. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. In some ways it looks good, but in other ways it just makes the smile look like it has a mustache :P

[speedster00]

I bet you get that painted at a body shop for $150 or less if you brought it to them...I have a very good friend who is an excellent painter...I'll ask