Honda Civic EX vs Mazda3 S

Hello,

I am an extremely happy owner of a 1999 Civic EX 2dr @70K miles. I am
thinking about getting a four door car since we just had a son. I know
that I want to get a new 2005 4 door Civic EX to replace the old one,
but I also looked at Mazda3 S and liked the specs and the looks (have
not test driven either the Civic or the Mazda3 yet).

I have come across some posts comparing the two, but most go back to
2004/early 2005. I am wondering if any Mazda3 owners have come across
any problems since then (I have noticed that some owners had some
issues with rattles etc, and some said that they did not think the
quality of the car was not as good as a Civic and did not think it
would last as long). In my mind, my top 2 picks would be Honda and
Toyota, and right now I cannot decide if I should add Mazda to my list.

I saw that both Civic and Mazda 3 with side air bags are "Recommended"
picks in the Consumer Reports mag (both got poor without the side air
bags) but Civic received "Excellent 5/5" for crash ratings whereas
Mazda 3 got "Good 4/5". I guess this is the most important factor for
me when it comes to decide on which car to buy. The second factor is
reliability (the car should not break down and leave me stranded in
the middle of nowhere - never had this problem with any of the Civics I
have owned to date).

Also, does anybody know anything about the new (2006) Civic line? What
are your recommendations? Any comments appreciated.

Thank you.