Ive owned this car for 4 years & I have to say its the best car ive owned.
If your looking for a fast, sporty, practical & reliable car this is the one. The looks alone sold it to me but once inside its suprisingly spacious, especially when compared to its rival the Toyota MR2. It does have small back seats but since they are the bucket type you tend to sit in them rather than on them, giving more head room. I do find that with passengers in the back that the rear view is obstructed, so if your trying to park it can make things difficault.
I dont think the fuel economy is too bad, depending on what sort of journey you do. This car uses a lot less petrol on the open road than it does stuck in town.
The insurance is fairly high and you do need to shop around as the quotes vary a great deal, my car is a Japanese import and although I managed to get it insured
competitvely, it can be off putting when some of the big companies turn you down.
I have found this car very practical, ive managed to get all sorts in this car & since the back seats can be laid flat & the parcel shelf removed you'll be suprised at how roomy it is. I think for a sports car, this has to be the one with the biggest boot, its even bigger than most family hatchbacks. The one drawback is that you have to lift things into it as its quite high, which can be hard on your back if you have heavy bags to remove. I regularly pick up bales of hay, sacks of horse feed and leave my saddle in the boot & theres plenty of room, with the heavy sacks, I simply slide them out through the front seats rather than lift them out of the boot as its easier on my back. The front seats are very handy as they move forwards a long way and are ideal for shorter people (such as myself!) and they do seem to have a great deal of adjustment.
The inside of the car isnt too bad, theres plenty of pockets and hidey holes to put things in and ive never had any problems with any switches or handles breaking. The switches for the wipers and indicators on my model are on the opposite side to usual British cars, but that may be just because mine is an import, however this doesnt cause me any problems. I find the wiper switch very useful as it has 10 different settings for every type of rain or drizzle! The only thing I really dont like is the beeper that tells you your door is open as you cant switch it off manually, this can be a real pain but its a small point overall. The sound system I have in my model is the original one, it works fine apart from the radio not picking up most of the UK frequency bands, I believe you can get a band extender to cure this. The stereo itself is very large and fits nicely into the dash and as its not an average size its not considered woth stealing by any wanna be thieves which is a real bonus if you live in a dodgy area.
I have found the reliability to be very good. I regularly drive from Essex to Wales and find the car very comfortable and easy to drive and have never had the car break down. I have only ever had to have the usual parts replaced, which are perhaps a little bit more than what you would pay for British car parts, but its not too bad. I have found that since this car is quite unusual I have had to wait for the garage to order parts for me, but its not usually any big problem as the main Mazdadealers are very helpful and will always ship parts in if necessary as soon as they can. I have found that local garages are slower to order parts than the main dealers and I also found that if I ordered the part from the main dealer through the local garage the cost was cheaper as the local garage got the parts on a trade price and it seemed to speed the process up a bit- Its worth bearing in mind.
I have tried to get hold of a copy of a manual for this car as my own was in Japanese with odd cartoons thoughout but so far havent been successful. To be honest, when you look under the bonnet you dont really want to touch anything yourself anyway as it all looks very hi tech! You should get a tool kit with the car but I strongly suggest you get another tyre iron as the one they provide you with is useless. Also note that the spare tyre is one of those skinny space saving ones, which can be a bit daunting to drive on. The tyres can be expensive too as they are quite wide, my last lot were £52 each.
I have taken a few knocks to the front and back bumpers since ive had the car, ive even had a car rear end me and ive only got little scratches to show its even happened, it seems to be very well made and sturdy.
This car is lovely to drive, handles fantastic, over takes other cars with ease and is comfortable for long journeys. Its great fun for a spot of rally driving round the country lanes!
Overall id say that this is great car and if you can find one for sale, as they are quite rare I would defiantly buy one.
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i too love my mazda , recently picked a '98 model up for £2k !
fun2night4us 06.10.2004 00:29
vn. I have one myself and I found a manual or my dad did on ebay. It is still in the States though, but it is for 92-95 models. They discontinued making them some time ago though...
ElizaF 18.03.2004 22:34
you manages to import an MX-3 for 3,200 - wow, well done! :) xx E.
Mar 18th, 2004
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