Alternate access to aux in jack on '07 Mazda3?

Thanks for the advice. The GPS will be mounted near the dashboard or windshield (though I'd prefer the latter, it's illegal here in CA, so we'll see... ). After looking more carefully at the center console, it looks like there's already a small hole beneath the upper tray of the console that leads directly into the large lower area. In fact, I'm guessing this is the "little channel" you mentioned in your reply?

Now what's the best way to get a wire beneath the cup holders and through the e-brake hole? I've never taken apart anything on this car.

Also, and this may be irrelevant, there's a small horizontal plastic cover just behind the two center cup holders. It looks like it could be pried off with a thin screwdriver but I haven't tried this. Any idea what's under there?

Thanks again!

No problem, happy to help.

The hole in the bottom of the upper tray in the armrest console is so you can plug an Mp3 player into the ACI and then have the player up top on the pad instead of knocking around in the bottom. That way you can still store stuff without worrying about damaging the player. The channel I'm talking about is actually the front lip of the compartment. In this picture it's in the top left corner (left is towards the front, right is towards the back, and up is towards the passenger side.

from sromero2

That channel is right above the hole for the ebrake, so getting the wire from the e-brake to the console will be easy. It will of course leave several inches of wire visible.... I don't know how you are, but I dislike non-hidden wires. For taking stuff apart... this is the easy part. To remove the cupholders: open the armrest storage bin, set the e-brake, grab the front lip of the storage bin (where the channel is) and pull up to release the tension clips holding the cupholders in, slide it over the ebrake handle and set aside. To remove the gear shift surround: remove the cupholders, if MTX unscrew shift knob (ATX ignore this step), grab the surround and pull up to release the tension clips. To remove the ashtray/lighter section: unscrew the two phillips head screws uncovered by the gear shift surround, remove lighter from plug, grab the ashtray section and pull backwards (it helps to put your right thumb in the lighter so make sure the car's off. ), there are wires for the airbag light/lighter which you can either unplug or just push the section out of the way for you to run wires.

It sounds hard and a little scary, but it's really really easy.

The little rectangular cover behind the cupholders is just an access to adjust the tension on the e-brake. I don't really know why they put that there when it's so easy to remove the cupholders, but oh well.

I guess mounting stuff on the windshield is illegal in CA? If so you could look into the mounts offered by www.proclipusa.com. They have one that clips into the left/center vent, and another that mounts on the right of the HVAC panel. Neither involve any cutting or drilling.