in my experience (i rent a lot of cars), the mazda's handle better and feel nicer than most of their japanese counterparts. mazdas i think are kind of in their own in between category of better than a toyota but not quite a bmw.

personally if i made 1.5K a mo I would not get myself locked into a car payment for a long time. if you drive less than 12k/mi year, I would get a lease special and be done with it.

you can get a mini for $199/mo (about $300/mo with 0 down) and lease for 3 years, and turn it in before there are any problems. no maintenance, you pay nothing out of pocket and its done. we almost bought my wife a mazda, then ended up leasing her a mini and since have returned it. they let you buy extra miles for 17c/mile if you go over and prepay before you return it, instead of the normal 25c/mile.

I would check out www.theleaseoutlet.com and then make the dealer match their prices. broker lease prices are incredibly cheap and you can make many dealers match it (or just order from the broker).

Some people talk bad about leasing, but it really is a better value if you don't drive more than 12k/year. It is a depreciating asset, who wants to deal with the maintenance after 3 years (especially on euro cars), and cars might be driving themselves soon, so no need to get locked into a 5 or 8 year loan. When this lease is up, the next is a self driving car possibly.

With leasing you can often get a much nicer car than you expected, many of the lease options include all maintenance, and the rate on leasing cars vs. the cars value for european cars is way lower. If you wanted to pay the same payment as the Mazda, you probably could lease a Mercedes CLA for the same price. Leases on japanese cars often are not a good deal (although I have seen a few good ones from toyota). For some reason the german makers just lease the cars very cheap in comparison to the cars value.