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mazda reliability

17K views 82 replies 44 participants last post by  Shocker 
#1 ·
I'm seriously thinking about purchasing a Mazda3 (used, < 15k miles), but I was concerned primarily about reliability...

I know Toyotas are known for their long lasting quality and reliabily..how does Mazda fair? Would later mileages have lots of problems and things that, assuming the car is taken care of and things like that. I mean like anything..mechanical breakdowns, I've tried researching. bu tyou know, american cars are notorious and I know friends whos cars are already falling apart and they only have about 30-40k miles on them.

I'm deciding between a 3 or a corolla, though I like the 3 so much better
 
#27 ·
I can tell you from past experience that Mazda is a reliable brand. I bought a 1984 626 brand new ($8K) and only had two problems in 90000 miles and both were covered under warranty. The head gasket went at 60K and since mazda knew they had a problem with head gaskets for that model year they replaced it free and the car was 5 years old. Later on the compressor failed and I had to buy a new one.. In 1994 I sold it and bought a Honda ($12K) (no problems at all). In 2000 I bought a new BMW 323i ($38K) and had numerous problems, but all were covered under the warranty. So paying big bucks for a car doesn't mean great reliability. In June 2004 I got rid of the BMW and bought a 4dr 3S. I only have 2000 miles on it and have had two problems. From day one the fuel pump was bad and it was replaced. Then I noticed the A/C was not cold enough and had Mazda install a Diffuser Plate (TSB) and that solved the A/C problem.. Now I'm curious to see if the '04 Mazda turns out to be as reliable as the '84 Mazda... We will see... BTW in 1965 I bought a brand new Pontiac GTO ($2800) with 3 duces/360hp and the engine blew at 50000 miles. But you can imagine why the engine blew. ha ha...
 
#28 ·
Pumbaaw said:
To be honest I would like to believe the 3 is reliable, but things like lack of heat, and squeaky brakes, ABS lights, rattles and noises point in the other direction.
Pumbaaw, do you know something I don't know?
My 3HB just passed a 10,000 km mark.
All city driving, stop and go, short trips, high revving, hard braking miles.
The car is FLAWLESS.
There is plenty of heat in the vehicle (?) the brakes are excellent (and quiet), rotors are smooth and shiny - no grooving whatsoever - and it was supposed to be this big "problem" and I have absolutely no rattles.
I've heard some noises from the hatch area once and I thought - oh yes, here they come them nasty rattles...
But it was simply the back shelf that was misplaced/loose due to me removing it for cleanup the night before.

So either you are talking about your particular car and your disappointment is based on your personal experience, or it seems to me that you're just spreading rumors based on what you've heard.. and you are not accurate at that either. I believe there were/are some air-conditioning issues (not heat ) and some airbag sensor light issues (not abs) - I have not heard about problems you describe and make it sound like they're typical for our car... could you point me to threads dealing with these?

Please don't make blanket statements like: stay away from mazda3 because it has reliability issues. This is simply not true for the moment, and we need more time to see the long-term reliabilty results as it is a new model after all.
 
#30 ·
trvale said:
After this long, boring set of stories, I am just trying to say that buying a car is a risk and a horrible investment.
I don't know if I would use the word investment, because there is no return on it... usually only (rapid) depreciation. A car is a consumable product, unfortunately.

That being said, I still have a '94 Mazda Protege LX in addition to my 3. That car was driven VERY VERY hard (I was a teen with a shiny new license). Amazingly, it still runs great and doesn't burn enough oil to notice. My dad uses it as his daily driver to and from work now.
 
#31 ·
3AndMe said:
trvale said:
After this long, boring set of stories, I am just trying to say that buying a car is a risk and a horrible investment.
I don't know if I would use the word investment, because there is no return on it... usually only (rapid) depreciation. A car is a consumable product, unfortunately.

That being said, I still have a '94 Mazda Protege LX in addition to my 3. That car was driven VERY VERY hard (I was a teen with a shiny new license). Amazingly, it still runs great and doesn't burn enough oil to notice. My dad uses it as his daily driver to and from work now.
Thanks for the correction. I should have used money pit instead.
 
#32 ·
I used to own an '02 protege5 and I have to say I drove that thing to the ground....

conclusion: all the problems experienced were my fault / related to my driving.

I was really pleased with it and replaced it with an '05 mazda3 sport... which I consider to be the same car but a whole evolution later, so improvements almost everywhere... quieter, more powerful, more luxurious, smoother ride, better suspension, better sound, etc etc.

two thumbs up for mazda reliability 8)
 
#34 ·
First of all, this is all opinon. Do you "Think" this car is reliable. I am speaking on behalf of my car, but my car is a mazda3 and it is a part of this conversation. Since you live in Vancouver, you wouldnt have a problem with your heat since its only moderately cool, and my dash had rattles which go on and off from time to time. The Brakes do sqeak like crazy when they are cold, and Ive had to bring my car to fix the ABS and Airbag light. I dont know what your so upset about, you might have to calm down as all cars have problems. Im not insulting you by commenting on a car you may drive buddy.

Oh yes, it is 5 years, Im just dumb. My dad had his accord in 89 so thats a heck of along time :shock:
 
#35 ·
Pumbaaw said:
First of all, this is all opinon. Do you "Think" this car is reliable. I am speaking on behalf of my car, but my car is a mazda3 and it is a part of this conversation.
I understand now. From your original message it sounded like you are talking about common problems with mazda3 in general, not "your" car which has those issues.

Since you live in Vancouver, you wouldnt have a problem with your heat since its only moderately cool
Sorry, I couldn't tell from your signature where you are. But I lived in Winnipeg for 5 years so I guess I know what you mean. It can get cold there and honestly none of my cars I had there managed to keep me nice and toasty when it was -35 outside...
I dont know what your so upset about, you might have to calm down as all cars have problems. Im not insulting you by commenting on a car you may drive buddy
I'm not upset. Again, I just had an impression that you are commenting on mazda3 in general as being unreliable and quite simply I don't agree with that.
And why are you calling me "buddy"? :?
Sorry if out of two of us I sounded like the one who needs to calm down.
And I'm sorry about problems with your car.
I guess if I had issues with mine I would have doubts about it too.
 
#37 ·
^^^ Here's to 100,000 more :cheers:
I've said it before, but for the record, my cousin has a '94 VW Jetta III that is approaching 300,000 and still purrs. It burns very little oil for it's age, and is still very well below the emissions limits. (yes, it's a manual tranny by the way)

It has mostly to do with how you take care of it, I think.
 
#38 ·
vthokie said:
A pic I took when I hit 200,000 miles in my Saturn a couple of months ago Like a typical Saturn, it burns oil, but not too much.
My 1996 SL2 had 149,000 miles on it and I probably could've squeezed another 50k miles with no major issues. I did use about a quart of oil every 1,000 miles, however.

I'm loving my new 3s 5-dr! My first new car in years!

Reliability on the Mazda is a wait-and-see for me. But with proper maintenance, I expect to have the car for 9-10 years.
 
#39 ·
I've got a 2000 Protege I'm about to hit 100,000 miles on. I haven't had a single problem with the engine. I've had plenty of "failures" on the car, but they were ALL my/my wife's fault. For the past 4 years, I have absolutely PUNISHED that car... as if I want it to be sorry it ever existed. To make matters worse, my wife get's a little crazy when hectic traffic "situations" arise. My Protege has grabbed air many a time because she kept hitting curbs in parking garages to "avoid an asshole". I've had to replace both front struts and stablilizer bars, both front wheels, my rear suspension is still damaged but I can't afford to get it fixed yet, I BURNED through my first clutch at 60,000 miles because I was being a maniac.... I'm surprised it's still running! No leaks, no smoke, and I still get 34 mpg even when I'm needlessly winding the RPM's to the redline. My next car WILL be a Mazda.

Oh BTW, didn't Hyundai recently eclipse Honda for vehicle reliability? I thought they were second only to Toyota now. :dunno:
 
#40 ·
Codis said:
vthokie said:
A pic I took when I hit 200,000 miles in my Saturn a couple of months ago Like a typical Saturn, it burns oil, but not too much.
My 1996 SL2 had 149,000 miles on it and I probably could've squeezed another 50k miles with no major issues. I did use about a quart of oil every 1,000 miles, however.

I'm loving my new 3s 5-dr! My first new car in years!

Reliability on the Mazda is a wait-and-see for me. But with proper maintenance, I expect to have the car for 9-10 years.
I want to join the Saturn party :D I had a 93 with 170,000 miles on it when I traded it in for my 3. It used about a quart of oil every 1000 miles, but oil is cheap so its all good. The timing chain finally wore out among other things and I was tired of driving an old car. Definitely got my money's worth... too bad the current Saturns are not competitive. Very disappointing since the dealer service is amazing both in quality and price. I'm not looking forward to having to deal with the Mazda dealers for service.
 
#41 ·
Trumf said:
Have you heard about all the electonical issues on all new Mercedes models ? For such prices, it's a shame...
Some people have enough trouble keeping their home computer running. Imagine trying to keep something like 47 of them working all the time... especially when people won't pay what it would take to get real top-notch hardware in there. If you remember the old Mercedes cars, they ran until you lost them or someone blew them up. Of course, they didn't have, for example, two separate GPS units in the nose and tail of the car so the A/C would know which way the sun was coming from :roll:

Edit: To add actual content to the thread, I guess I can say that we had an '04 in the Toronto office fleet (I think that's where it was) that clocked over 130,000km needing little beyond scheduled maintenance, until some twit doing 160kph (that's about 100mph) on the 401 dropped it from fifth to third gear, for no discernable reason. That poor car :(
 
#42 ·
Bottom line...you can make most cars last 200,000 miles if you take care of them.
Case in point: Bought my 1998 Dodge Avenger ES, then heard their trannies were notorious for blowing (along with most ChryCo A604's in minivans, etc) I thought...Oh crap.

So, I bought and installed a tranny cooler, and then changed the tranny fluid every 20,000 miles. At 160,000, the car shifts perfectly. In fact, the car never gave me ONE SINGLE problem...engine/tranny/suspension/anything.

Sure, some cars have defects. My 2001 Focus zx3 had back drums that would not stop screeching, warm or cold. After 5 visits, I traded it in. Maybe it was the dealer who was incompetant, or maybe it was the car. Who knows.

Bottom line...buy a car that is free of defects, whether design or poor assembly, and then take care of it. It's gonna last.

Trade or sell the ones that aren't...cause they won't.
 
#43 ·
3AndMe said:
It has mostly to do with how you take care of it, I think.
Very well said!

It all depends on how well you take care of your car. Wanna keep it for 10+ years? Make sure to regularly change your oil, and the works.

I'm not too concerned about the reliability of my car as i plan on selling it within the next 4 years. However, i am curious about how well it will hold it's resale value.

:D
 
#45 ·
Holy crap, it HAS almost been 2 years since i posted the previous comment Monkey!

Well...with two exceptions, my Mazda3 has been perfect.

1. The entire exhaust was replaced under warranty because of a rattle. Most people wouldn't notice, but us car enthusiasts...we're a picky bunch!

2. The paint on my particular car is apparently NOT stock in some places. Unfortunately it looked fine when I bought it with 12,000 miles. By 35,000 miles, the front end has hundreds of rock chips, and it looks HORRIBLE. But, I can't blame Mazda for this.

Other than that...and maybe dismal fuel economy...(everyone is experiencing that it seems) the car has been great! I want to buy another for my wife!
 
#46 ·
If you buy the wife a manual transmission equipped 3i "dismal fuel economy" shouldn't be a problem. A 3i automatic probably would also be better on gas vs any 3s, but since I don't own an automatic can't say for sure. What I can say with certainty is that my car's fuel economy has averaged better than the EPA highway estimates.

Investing in the application of 3M clear film on the painted surfaces most subject to chipping when the car is new can significantly slow down or virtually eliminate this kind of damage. Maintaining a greater-than-average following distance between your car and the vehicles ahead (especially large trucks) also helps.

I've owned my car almost 23 months and 31k miles, yet so far it's suffered very little rock-induced damage. I've also experienced no problems with the car whatsoever.
 
#47 ·
There can be different countries manufacturing Mazda3's. In Taiwan for example, the car is quite different inside and it's manufactured in Taiwan. German cars have dropped big time in reliability....I wonder who's doing the surveys to say they are up there?

BTW, for those that don't know, there is some Mazda3 bashing going on autoblog right now due to it's reliability and the fact is's easy prey for thieves.
 
#48 ·
[quote author=El Cheapo link=topic=15282.msg1163830#msg1163830 date=1169528267]


BTW, for those that don't know, there is some Mazda3 bashing going on autoblog right now due to it's reliability and the fact is's easy prey for thieves.
[/quote]

do you have a link to that thread?
 
#50 ·
[quote author=Monkey link=topic=15282.msg1165127#msg1165127 date=1169591246]
And I just found this site here. Has the 3 really had that many recalls/issues? Maybe we should second guess this purchase.
http://www.finishlineperformance.com/mazda3/bulletins_index.html
[/quote]
I haven't had any problems w/my 3i. However, after reading so many horror stories from RX-8 owners, Car & Driver's problematic experience with a long-term example and seeing so many low-mileage examples up for sale I'd feel the same way about an RX-8...
 
#51 ·
Nah, to date the 3 hasnt had any major recalls.

However, the 3 has a considerable amount of outstanding unresolved issues which as a Mazda owner, I can't help wonder if they will even acknowledge them as being a problem instead of just saying "your vehicle is performing within factory specifications". Of course, they have done this so many times and a fix or TSB has been made later. It's the usual line they give us. One may want to weigh this into your consideration on deciding if the 3 is a car for you....for me, I bought the extended warranty and I will be bugging Mazda as long as I have the car that I have this problem and that problem.
 
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