Mazda reliability questions...
 

Ok, I've always been a toyota or honda guy. Always a firm believer that these are the best for reliability and everything else is second rate.
We are in the market for a new vehicle. With our 19 month old I've been looking at hatch's with big roomy back seats.
So far as cars go, the 3 suits our needs pretty damn well.

Here is the problem...I think the car is great and from some limited research that I've done, it seems to be reliable. However, I'm having a hard time convincing the wife.
She thinks I only want this car because of it's performance. She knows mazda is basically Ford, and she is not sold on the 3 because of this.

I've done a bit of research on different cars..including mini vans like the toyota sienna and honda odyssey, camry, civic si, acura TSX, etc...as these are all vehicles we have considered over the last month of looking.
I was actually surprised to find on edmunds.com that both the odyssey and sienna have had quite a few problems...even the latest generation of camry (which I've always thought was completely bulletproof) has lots of bad reviews from owners.
Heck, the civic si has a TSB for it's 3rd gear synchro, and the 2007 I test drove a few days ago was popping out of 3rd gear on me.

My question is kind of two parts...
Have the japanese makes started to slide down in the reliability rankings?

And secondly, what are your opinions on the reliability of the mazdaspeed 3? I know most of you are fans, so you may not be the most objective...but I ask for your honest opinions on whether or not this car can be trusted for the long haul. I plan to keep whatever we buy for a long time. Do you think it will be relatively trouble free when compared to other makes/models?

Keep in mind, I'm careful with maintenance, a decent mechanic who knows the extra attention that turbo engines need, etc....

thx

You have to look at it in terms of cost of ownership, not just reliability.

If you buy a fairly reliable but expensive to maintain car you will be out of pocket just on maintenance.

The MS3 is one of the best bang for buck buys you can get. The mix of performance, reliability and low ownership cost is hard to beat. Yes, you can find something more reliable but it will also have less power, or be less efficient, or be less practical etc.

There are cars out there that are just as good or better than the MS3 and this depends on what your criteria for purchasing is. If you want the room the Si is out of the question for example. If you want really reliable low cost transportation then look at a Yaris, Fit, Mazda2, or Fiesta or Cruze.

There are lots of variables and cars are always getting better, safer, faster etc. The Mazda is a good choice at this time and if you like it, fits your needs and budget, then you won't regret it based on cost/hp. Test drive as much as possible as many cars as possible and get something that suits you. It's a buyer's market.

I would definitely recommend an MS3. Mine only has 10k miles now but that's only after 4 months. Its gonna be a high mileage speed3 and I really think it'll last. Just do your maintenance religiously and if you leave it completely stock, you should be fine.

Camrys and Accords have no personality.

Ya only live once, so get what makes you happy (MS3).

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

45K on my 09 with no issues. Treat her well and she'll treat you well. As Lex said, cost of ownership is a better determinant of value than reliability alone. Stacked up against the Si over 6 years/90K, the MS3 was expected to cost 2-3K more depending on which source you read. Not a bad tradeoff for twice the torque.

if you want worry free honda, you cant kill them! toyota has trans problems, atleast they yous to( low reverse )

mazda imo it's a bad idea, for non mechanically inclined, do to their inherent problems over the years, but im about the power!! and i a mechanic so it doesn't bother me but....

you can get the extended waranntee to 100k, and turn it before then! if you have problems

their are some purest that will argue other wise, but i hate all cars equally!

i havent had any problems with mine that were not my own fault

i don't think you will have a problem with almost anything japenese. i.e. depending on how you treat it proper maintanence etc. . i have had honda, mazda, mitsubishi, toyota, bmw, audi, and nissan.

any of my hondas, toyotas or mazdas (this car) seem put together particularly well.

my german cars had quirks that needed small attention-bmw and audi although i only had them for a short time

i had a honda and mitsubishi go 50k with no issues and a toyota go 75k without needing anything besides routine maintenance.

toyota seems like it has had growth pains. my parents have boughten three. like an 04 corrola, 08 matrix and just got a 2010 rav 4 each seemed to decrease by a noticeable amount in build quality. that 04 corrola seems bulletproof (my sister still has it).

My 08 speed has had the thermostat replaced under warranty and that's it. I'm at 74,000miles. That being said if your looking for a reliable car the regular three will be more reliable just based upon the fact that there is less stuff to go wrong. This is a performance oriented car and should be purchased with that in mind. you will never have a smoking turbo or a boost spike in a regular N/A three.
As far as really long term reliability as a brand I have a 97 mazda protege with 208,000 miles on it. it's thermostat was stuck halfway open at about 175000 and i replaced the timing belt at 75,000 other than that sparkplugs were replaced maybe once and the air conditioning went out at about 165,000(compressor) and i just replaced the fuel pump at about 204000. That's it. Not bad for a 12,000 dollar car.

also it should be noted that ford has improved dramatically in their reliability in the last decade and the poor reliability stigma should be looked at again.

In response to your post (I have a mazdaspeed6) - no awd = no differential problems.

I bought my car used with 38k on the clock, I am the third owner. Right now my car has 56.5k I will have owned it for a year on January 14th. I had my whole drivetrain changed under warranty because the differentials are the weak spots on these cars. That being said, however, the key word here is WARRANTY. I made sure that my car still had one prior to buying and 6 grand in repair work cost me nothing.

Having said all that, however, I have had no other problems. So if you are getting a mazdaspeed 3, just be careful and do your due diligence when selecting one, and then treat it well. Try to find one under warranty so that anything unexpected that comes up in the first few months of ownership gets covered, and after that it all pretty much depends on you and how you treat your car.

if you cant convince her on the ms3...why not take a look at the cx-7?

if you dont mod the ms3...follow the maintenance schedule and know how to drive it properly..it will last just fine..sure their will be lemons and things that go wrong under warranty but i would say most of the problems around this forum are caused by our own damn fault

really this holds true to any car....a car is as reliable as you want it to be.

Cant go wrong with a Toyota, i have a 96 and 2009 camry, 2008 urban runner, 2010 tundra on my driveway. The camry(winter beater) currently has 217,xxx miles and it couldn't have been more reliable. Major repairs rack & pinion, axles, radiator. Besides that it has been trouble free. But the simple matter is all cars break down, its a driving wear and tear item. I couldn't be happier with my MS3, its has been plenty reliable with all those 6k miles.

I agree with the CX-7 recommendation for a family car. I drive a MS3 and have two kids and it was a pain when my daughter was in a rear facing car seat. Now that both kids are in forward facing seats we can all use the car. My sister has a CX-7 AWD and it is a very nice car. Good luck.

P.S. I have not had any issues with my car in 25,000 miles. Whereas my VW (Golf TDI) had the transmission replaced by now! I will never own anything VW again! Besides my aircooled ones.

thank you all for the responses.
It sounds like the MS3 is a relatively trouble free car.
We are not going to modify this car in anyway, so we will not be putting more stress on engine/tranny/clutch, etc.

We only have one child, and arent having anymore, and he sits in a front facing car seat. I like the hatchback for it's ease of throwing a stroller and other baby items inside.
It just seems like a car that can meet my wife's requirements, yet still be a lot of fun to drive for me.

On another forum I'm on some MS3 owners reported a couple of CEL issues...one for faulty gas cap. But that is about it. They were all happy with the mazda and hadnt done anything more than tires and oil changes.

I'll show my wife this thread, along with the other forum thread, and see what she says.
We are going to take one for a test drive today after work.

If you don't plan on modifying it, then yes it will last.

There are a few speed 6's out there with 75k+ miles.

Lenny's 3 is 80k, and he's beaten the living shit out of his car for every one of those miles.

These cars can be reliable, you just have to spend some time getting to know the engine. Don't floor it in high gear @ low rpm's, wait for the car to warm up before you beat on it, and if you really rag on it less than a minute before you park, let the car idle for a little bit before you turn it off. Change the oil every 3,000 miles, etc.

If you aren't going to modify it, I don't see why it wouldn't be reliable.

This is my third Mazda, still own the other two. no reliability problems to speak of. drive my protege5 everyday its approaching 150k routine maintenance only
speed 3 +40k hard beat on miles, had a pulley tensioner go out replaced in 10mins under warrenty
cx-9 +40k no problems
so over 200,000 trouble free Mazda miles some of them michigan winters all of them florida summers..hope my perspective helps some

well modifying will not make the car less reliable, if anything it will help increase the reliability. lets say if you get a intake, it helps the car breathe better

thanks for all the responses.

We test drove a 2011 tonight and I was really impressed. By far the most powerful car I've ever driven. I was surprised at how effortlessly it would build speed...torque is a great thing.

Handled great and brakes seemed very strong. Had the wife drive it too and she seemed to enjoy it.

The dealers best price is 22K, which works out to 25K out the door after all of the fees get tacked on.

Now, I can find 2009's used with under 30K miles from private owners for less than 18K...

what do you think? I know most people who buy these kinds of cars arent going to be taking it all that easy on them...but that is a big price discount for not many miles. And with a private seller you save on dealer fees too. So, the difference would be spending 18K for a used one, or about 25K for a new one...

It's like any used car purchase, you have to get the car checked out. Have your mechanic look for signs of modifications (was the intake removed? the exhaust? etc). See how much warranty is left on it, if any. Check if any TSB work was taken care of, and if they did the routine maintenance on schedule.

Private party is a good way to go a lot of times, you'll find that a private owner usually is more informative than going through a dealer as far as what was done to a used car.

New, of course, you have that warranty, and if you're not going to mod it then you get a lot of time where you don't have to worry about anything breaking. With a family car, instead of a toy, that's not a bad thing to have. Check out the CX-7 too, because your family might grow into that in a few years.

really? i mean really? let say i put the mazdaspeed cai on...and drive through a deep puddle. hydrorock the engine. i'd say that's less reliable. more power means more cylinder pressure normally meaning more stress meaning less reliability. not all mods are gonna decrease reliability. but most of the power mods will in some way shape or form.

correctly modifying it by building the engine and whatnot can make it more reliable but the increased stress on things will almost always make things last not as long.

I am looking into a mazda as well..Ill be following this thread. Thanks for the info so far.

No.

Logic FAIL

If you're looking at buying used, look very carefully as I'm of the opinion that the demography for the sportier Mazdas has a rather large and quite irresponsible level of incompetent owners. I've seen and read too many zoom boom gloom stories from many forums and they've mostly been user faults. Rest assured that there are plenty of others that have ticking time bombs as they have thrashed their cars and are only now just trying to unload them.

That said, this isn't exclusive to Mazdas as the same can be seen in any other forums (STi, Evo, SRT4, Si etc.). That's typically the price to pay for any car that's accessible to the hands of the younger crowd.

On the flip side, you could also find someone off these forums who is so incredibly nervous and wrecked about what they've read about failures here and there that they'd love to get rid of their relatively well taken-care of cars because of the horror stories they keep reading :D

AKA vocal minority syndrome.

explain.

Are people really claiming that simple mods like adding a SRI and a CBE will make the car less reliable? Seems like a hard sell to me. I add both of those to my '03 Tacoma and it's been rock solid, smog tests w/ flying colors, much better MPG and power, etc., and obviously it's not a Mazda, but evidence that mild mods don't hurt reliability.

OP...there's a great blog on Inside Line that should help your research at: 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 Full Test and Video on Inside Line Check it out!

adding an intake/cbe will not necessarily decrease reliability. It will have adverse effects on the car, which the ecu will typically handle without a problem....but sometimes hard parts can go too because they have been pushed beyond their design

simple example

i put on an intake and testpipe....my fuel pump shit the bed

Ford sold majority share in Mazda last decade... :sad6:

Ford also sold everything else they owned.

Before buying my Mazda I had only owned Hondas as my reliable cars. I now have no doubt in my mind Mazda is the only other Japanese car manufacture worth buying.

Definitely consider the MS3. You cannot get such practicality, overall reliability, and performance for such a price (including the generally low cost of ownership compared to its competitors). With my 2008 MS3, I'm more than comfortable using it to haul things (groceries, furniture, music equipment, etc.), transport passengers, and drive spiritedly. It's a great package deal.

MS3 is a great car. Just find one that hasn't been thrashed hard if you can and enjoy it. I'm nuts for it. Drives like a bat out of hell and is very practical/comfortable.

Not my field of expertise but engine wear is generally a function of RPM, pressure, and friction/heat. Increasing any of those should affect long term engine life. Yes, the motor is more efficient but how? More air/fuel in the combustion chamber should translate to additional strain on the motor (providing you're using the power).

I've owned three mazdas and am loyal to Mazda. Before I had Nissan, Ford, and Honda

This loyalty came after I was in a wreck in my Mazda tribute. Iwas hit from behind by a flatbed truck into the car in front of me and they were pushed under the truck in front of them. I was car # 3 in a 6 car pileup. I was impressed by how the tribute kept me safe.

2nd accident (in my Mazda3) was when an impala lost control and spun out in front of me. I hit the driver side door and put a pretty big dent in it. Damage to my Mazda 3 . . .nada. The firefighter and cops couldn't believe my car did so much damage to that impala and their was not any body damage to my car.

I feel safe in my Mazda's and plan to keep buying them. I love driving my new ms3. Next car will probably be a family friendly cx-9. . .way, way in the future when we have kids.

Claiming that increasing engine efficiency translates to strain on the engine doesn't seem right. I mean, modding an engine like our 2.3L 4 banger to squeeze out 500hp would be one thing, cuz it wouldn't do it reliably or for long. Simple mods like an intake or exhaust shouldn't decrease engine life, esp one that's been designed for "more air/fuel" w/ its turbocharger in stock form. Are you suggesting that because the MS3 is turbo'd, the engine will expire more quickly than a normally aspirated one? Hard to say there. Hope not.

cai does not increase reliability on this car, no mod really does, people have exploded from the simplest of mods. i don't really think cai increase a cars reliability in general, it is more efficient power wise, but they don't make your engines last longer.

and i don't think hondas and toyotas are more reliable than others, like everyone else is saying, they are just cheaper to fix. outside of the daimler era, i think benz is the most reliable, i had a couple friends growing up whose benzes would hit 3-400k miles, basically worry free.

but i think the most reliable cars in general, when stock, are subarus, and have been for a long time.

no, he is saying, more or less, that our ecu is bullshit and likes to fuck with you if you touch anything on this engine.

Reliability is relative to many factors - not just power. But you certainly can't ignore it. And apparently Mazda didn't either by adding forged rods, crank and coated pistons over its NA counterpart. Bottom line; from a physics perspective the engine should encounter increased strain as a higher volume of air enters the chamber under peak load. That load should amplify the wear effect inherent in all internal combustion motors.

don't be trying to put words in my mouth. i said IF ANYTHING, in other words it will def not decrease reliability such as intake, exhaust, etc.

in the ms3, they can. i would consider a dp part of the exhaust, and on this car it can destroy the turbo.

Yes it's an inherited trait for a turbo motor to not last as long as a N/A..... you are working a smaller displacement motor a lot harder and creating a lot more heat. There is also a lot more things that can potentially go wrong and cause failures with turbo'd motors....

now it cant, its not the dp that causes the turbo to go bad. the turbo is a POS and a free flowing dp just decreases back pressure and causes the turbo to smoke. shitty seals.

and before you little highschool girls start groaning do yourself a favor and re-read the post. rant over, sorry OP

sooo........ in other words, a new dp can fuck up the turbo, doesn't matter if it's a seal or what, but it doesn't happen until the dp is changed. cause=changing dp, effect=fucked up turbo.