Just picked up a brand new Mazda 323 for my wife from a local dealer today. It's a 5 speed manual with a 1.8l engine.
Driving home, I felt the harshness of the engine, evening in the rev range between 2000-3000rmp. Comparing with the 2l boxer engine in my 2001 model Forester, the 4-in-line of the Mazda engine sounds and feels so un-refined. Noticed the problem while test drive the car a couple of weeks ago, the dealer said it was probably from the abused test vehicle.
I have always been driving either boxer (Legacy the Forester lately) or 6 cylinder (Toyota Cressida with in-line 6) in the last 10 years, I probably forgot the difference between boxer (or 6-cylinder) and a small in-line-4. I understand boxer has a much better running smoothness due to its self-balance, therefore it doesn't need elaborate counterbalance used in most of in-line 4-cylinder engines. Still it made me really appreciate the Subie boxer engine.
One thing did make me to regret the purchase of this particular Forester model was how easy the Mazda engine pulls the car away compare with the 2l boxer engine in the Forester. I guess extra 200kg+ weight of Forester (1360kg against 1120kg of Mazda) really makes a big difference, even the boxer has 200ml extra capacity.
It's interesting to know that the 1.8l Mazda engine has exactly the same max power of 92kw as that of 2l boxer, but the boxer has a advantage in max torque value. I probably should have waited for another few month to get the current Forester with 2.5l boxer engine.
The other thing I noticed is the my Forester feels much more solid compare to the Mazda. Surely the extra 200kg comes from somewhere.