I have spoken with a few Mazda dealers in the Chicagoland area (which is a very high volume area in terms of new car sales) and they are saying the attention for the 3 is so hot right now that orders are starting to pile up. There isn't even any real publicity here in the U.S. yet except for magazine reviews ... we probably won't even have advertising until January ... but these dealers told me the orders are stacking up into the 3 or 4 month range. One even told me if I wanted it by JULY, I'd have to order by January. I looked at him like he was from Jupiter.
Needless to say, I am thinking about putting down a deposit now so that I can secure an order, even though I don't have my full down payment for a few months yet. Everyone else here may want to consider doing the same thing if the rumors about the wait on orders being as long as dealers are anticipating and speculating ...