A friend of mine might be selling his truck. It is a Toyota Xrunner with all the bolt ons you could think of. He is seriously considering a Mazdaspeed3 but I would like the opinions of EVOM as biased as they may be. His budgets is around $17,000.00
My opinion:
He lives in a state where it rains, and snows a lot. Between May and July all it did was rain. FWD is just not practical considering how much it precipitates but I fail to even see the comparison between the three cars... The MS3 has had a solid amount of cars with transmission problems, and grenading. The stock turbo/engine is pretty much maxed from the factory and the stock internals aren't so hot. The TMIC IMO is just plain stupid, why? an enclosed hood with a TMIC... hmm. Here are the performance specs of the 3 cars
EVO VIII:
0-60 MPH: 4.8
1/4 mi: 13.1
60-0 Braking: 109 ft
Skid Pad: 0.97g
Slalom: 71.7 mph
STi:
0-60 MPH: 4.7
1/4 mi: 13.1
60-0 Braking: 114 ft
Skid Pad: 0.92g
Slalom: 69.8 mph
MS3:
0-60 MPH: 5.8
1/4 mi: 14.4
60-0 Braking: 116 ft
Skid Pad: 0.87g (same as a stock 2005 SRT-4)
Slalom: 67.0 mph
-He is under the impression that the EVO and STi are very expensive to maintain, he mentioned "the clutch and the labor that goes in it and how expensive it is"
-He said finding an EVO for $17,000 or so with lower mileage was RARE and then I found 4 solid examples with under 50,000 miles
-He refuses to test drive the EVO and STi. He has yet to ever even drive one of the two, but he has driven the MS3
-He insists that the 2008+ MS3 won't have transmission or engine problems, but Mazda has proven time and time again to either ignore, or NOT be able to fix the woes of cars previous production years.
I personally think he is batty for even considering the Mazdaspeed3, the only reason to justify it IMO over an EVO or STi is that it would be newer, for a similar price. But newer to me doesn't mean much to me in regards to what car is best... it just means, well... newer. The performance advantage the EVO and STi have over the MS3 are so significant I don't even think the MS3 should be in the equation. Things would be different if EVO's and STi's where still $30,000 but they are dirt cheap now and he doesn't want to buy brand new. What do you all think?
My opinion:
He lives in a state where it rains, and snows a lot. Between May and July all it did was rain. FWD is just not practical considering how much it precipitates but I fail to even see the comparison between the three cars... The MS3 has had a solid amount of cars with transmission problems, and grenading. The stock turbo/engine is pretty much maxed from the factory and the stock internals aren't so hot. The TMIC IMO is just plain stupid, why? an enclosed hood with a TMIC... hmm. Here are the performance specs of the 3 cars
EVO VIII:
0-60 MPH: 4.8
1/4 mi: 13.1
60-0 Braking: 109 ft
Skid Pad: 0.97g
Slalom: 71.7 mph
STi:
0-60 MPH: 4.7
1/4 mi: 13.1
60-0 Braking: 114 ft
Skid Pad: 0.92g
Slalom: 69.8 mph
MS3:
0-60 MPH: 5.8
1/4 mi: 14.4
60-0 Braking: 116 ft
Skid Pad: 0.87g (same as a stock 2005 SRT-4)
Slalom: 67.0 mph
-He is under the impression that the EVO and STi are very expensive to maintain, he mentioned "the clutch and the labor that goes in it and how expensive it is"
-He said finding an EVO for $17,000 or so with lower mileage was RARE and then I found 4 solid examples with under 50,000 miles
-He refuses to test drive the EVO and STi. He has yet to ever even drive one of the two, but he has driven the MS3
-He insists that the 2008+ MS3 won't have transmission or engine problems, but Mazda has proven time and time again to either ignore, or NOT be able to fix the woes of cars previous production years.
I personally think he is batty for even considering the Mazdaspeed3, the only reason to justify it IMO over an EVO or STi is that it would be newer, for a similar price. But newer to me doesn't mean much to me in regards to what car is best... it just means, well... newer. The performance advantage the EVO and STi have over the MS3 are so significant I don't even think the MS3 should be in the equation. Things would be different if EVO's and STi's where still $30,000 but they are dirt cheap now and he doesn't want to buy brand new. What do you all think?