Anyone have a Mazda MX-3?

[Shikkaka]

Considering getting one of these. Getting rid of my megane coupe for a cheaper car to run.

What sort of mpg can i expect from these?

Are they reliable?

and also what are parts like on these?

Ta

 

[pinkaardvark]

I'm sure they were reliable in their day but they are pretty old now and were never popular so parts may be difficult to get and examples available may be poor. So I can't see them being cheaper to run than a megane,which is essentially a bog standard mass market car with a couple of doors lopped off.

 

[Shikkaka]

I'm sure they were reliable in their day but they are pretty old now and were never popular so parts may be difficult to get and examples available may be poor. So I can't see them being cheaper to run than a megane,which is essentially a bog standard mass market car with a couple of doors lopped off.

why are cars so pants!

Oh well looks like it's a good old fiesta si then

Had one of these before and not a single fault with it. Wish i'd never got rid.

 

[happytechie]

I test drove a couple of these a few years ago before I got my MG F. two ebgines iirc a 4 pot 1.8 (slower than a slow thing) and a V6 2.5 version (a bit faster than a slow thing) I quite liked the 2.5 version but in the end got the MG instead. A girl in the office drove a 1.8 for the last few years and I don't think whe had any trouble with it at all. Insurance quotes were silly for the V6 as well for me at the time.

HT

 

[DreXeL]

Actually the 4-pot was 1.6, and the V6 was 1.8, the smallest capacity V6 in production if I recall.

Specs.

 

[Magsy]

Heh, my GF had one for two years and I also got it back on the road after a semi-write off, so I know quite a bit

Make sure you get a UK car, plenty of japs about. The 1.8 V6 is pretty fun, felt quite nice to me and sounds good too. I'm going to say a fair few negative things but I really liked the car. It was cheap, powerful, handled well and had some gadgets, it was also slightly rare, a lot of people didn't know what it was. You could throw it about and it would never bite you. Insurance was very cheap, she was 18 and it was ~£1000 (the reason we bought it)

It didn't break down once in 20,000, we had a dead battery but that was it.

Problems we had on a 92 car with 90,000 :-

Noisey hydraulic tappets, I tired everything bar replacing them but the best I could do was quieten them for 4000-5000 miles.

Sticky calipers

Slight thirst for oil

Awful MPG, I think it may of had a failed o2 sensor or something. We never got more than 24 mpg regularly, when I drove it for a week it did 19. On the motorway you could scrape 26-28 and that is with her driving. Small fuel tank afaik, 40 something litres which means it only did 220 miles before empty.

She had an accident at the rear which I tired to put right as cheap as poss. First problem was that it was hard to find scrap yard parts (this is two years ago, maybe easier now), I did manage to cover most bits but some I had to go to the dealer for.
The dealer prices are jaw dropping, they were more expensive than BMW main dealer. They wanted in the region of £80 for a washer bottle, a rear caliper was £249.

Sadly I never could make it driver perfect after the bump, despite a proper 4 wheel alignment something else must have been still bent. Then a year later she got t-boned and it was writen off - poor car

In short, buy one that is in good nick and you should be fine. Generic parts like fliters/plugs/pads/discs were all cheap enough and available in most cheap parts shops.

 

[Magsy]

I test drove a couple of these a few years ago before I got my MG F. two ebgines iirc a 4 pot 1.8 (slower than a slow thing) and a V6 2.5 version (a bit faster than a slow thing) I quite liked the 2.5 version but in the end got the MG instead. A girl in the office drove a 1.8 for the last few years and I don't think whe had any trouble with it at all. Insurance quotes were silly for the V6 as well for me at the time.

HT

You drove the MX-6 mate, same car but about 3 foot longer
The UK MX-3 only ever had the 1.8 V6, which was the worlds smallest proddy V6.

The 1.6 models are all Jap imports and the 2.5 V6 only came in the big sister MX-6. (It was a popular conversion the USA to put the 2.5 in the MX-3)

 

[happytechie]

Actually the 4-pot was 1.6, and the V6 was 1.8, the smallest capacity V6 in production if I recall.

Specs.

damn my memory sucks so badly

it was only a 1.8 it went quite well all things considered then, wtf was it in such a high insurance group?

HT

 

[unclelonghair]

The 1.6 models are all Jap imports

iirc the 1.6 was available in the UK as an automatic, with steel wheels instead of alloys, and no rear spoiler.

 

[Magsy]

Yea you may be right there, I've was thinking about it and having my doubts There is something that sets the Jap cars apart from the UK models but I cannot remember what....I thought it was the engine.

Either way you want the V6!

Insurance was dirt cheap, she couldn't insure much at 18 but this was cheap enough with Elephant. It certainly was not the refuse-to-quoteathon you get trying to insure say an FTO when you are young.

You just need to make sure you get a UK car because a lot are Jap. There is a big difference in insurance costs.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Mate you drive a 2.0 Megane. I can think of few cars this side of a 0.8 Deawoo Matiz that will be noticeably cheaper to run unless you are doing 20k a year..

 

[Shikkaka]

Mate you drive a 2.0 Megane. I can think of few cars this side of a 0.8 Deawoo Matiz that will be noticeably cheaper to run unless you are doing 20k a year..

With a budget of 2k?