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If you want to buy a Mazda-speed 3, find one owned by a perfectionist.
Two types of people buy performance cars: Those who like to run hard and show off and those who enjoy the performance but are enamored by the technology and want the car to last. This guy is a type A. He makes sure the maintenance was done perfectly, always using premium components. He waxes the car every month and keeps it looking new. He doesn't drive it when the weather sucks; he has a spare beater car for that.
Wow man! That's pretty awesome. If I do get a MS3, I'll wanna make sure I have my whole financial system on check before I go doing anything potentially destructive to the engine, but that is definitely something I'll take into consideration.
How's torque steer with that much power?
Not bad at all believe it or not. If you look at my boost and torque curves they are very much delayed in the powerband. I like it considering it's FWD. On the stock turbo torque steer was plentiful since it was small and pretty quick to spool. I was hitting 350wtq at 3500 RPM before, you can see now it is very delayed to about 4500rpm thanks to the larger turbo and a great tuner, he purposely delayed torque in the lower RPM's (where you are more likely to bend a rod) to keep my motor safer.
If you buy an MS3 the absolute first thing you should buy is a tuner either Cobb's Accessport or Versatuner. The accessport is more common so I would recommend it. The 2nd thing you should buy is an e-tune from either Freektune, Stratified, or Hypnotic tunes. A custom tune is cheap and will run the car better and SAFER than even the OEM tune. Even with stock hard parts there are gains to be had.
If I could do it all again I would have only bought a stiffer rear motor mount, high pressure fuel pump internals (HPFP internals), accessport and a custom E-tune. No intake, no exhaust. All of those might run you somewhere around...$1200 if you don't find any of them used. BUT, you'd probably go from 220whp, 240wtq, to about 280whp,300wtq. That is PLENTY of power and enough to beat dodge R/T's and be within arms reach of 5.0's and SS's.
The stock turbo is good for about 330whp and 350wtq once you add an intake and 3'' downpipe and ethanol or methanol.
If you want to buy a Mazda-speed 3, find one owned by a perfectionist.
Two types of people buy performance cars: Those who like to run hard and show off and those who enjoy the performance but are enamored by the technology and want the car to last. This guy is a type A. He makes sure the maintenance was done perfectly, always using premium components. He waxes the car every month and keeps it looking new. He doesn't drive it when the weather sucks; he has a spare beater car for that.
Buy the car from that guy.
Haha, yeah; I'm gonna give it a shot. That's the kind of guy I bought my RX-8 from. A real perfectionist who had a passion for the car but was just too big to fit in it.
Hopefully I find someone like that in my next car hunt
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheesesteak Cravings
Not bad at all believe it or not. If you look at my boost and torque curves they are very much delayed in the powerband. I like it considering it's FWD. On the stock turbo torque steer was plentiful since it was small and pretty quick to spool. I was hitting 350wtq at 3500 RPM before, you can see now it is very delayed to about 4500rpm thanks to the larger turbo and a great tuner, he purposely delayed torque in the lower RPM's (where you are more likely to bend a rod) to keep my motor safer.
If you buy an MS3 the absolute first thing you should buy is a tuner either Cobb's Accessport or Versatuner. The accessport is more common so I would recommend it. The 2nd thing you should buy is an e-tune from either Freektune, Stratified, or Hypnotic tunes. A custom tune is cheap and will run the car better and SAFER than even the OEM tune. Even with stock hard parts there are gains to be had.
If I could do it all again I would have only bought a stiffer rear motor mount, high pressure fuel pump internals (HPFP internals), accessport and a custom E-tune. No intake, no exhaust. All of those might run you somewhere around...$1200 if you don't find any of them used. BUT, you'd probably go from 220whp, 240wtq, to about 280whp,300wtq. That is PLENTY of power and enough to beat dodge R/T's and be within arms reach of 5.0's and SS's.
The stock turbo is good for about 330whp and 350wtq once you add an intake and 3'' downpipe and ethanol or methanol.
Thanks for all the advice! I'm bookmarking all this as it's stuff I'll definitely be looking into if I do end up with a MS3.
So, you have a first gen MS3. I've been seeing a number of 2007 and 2008's for around $8000-$9000. This is like $5000 cheaper than the 2nd gens. If I go for a 2008 and all of the service bulletins have been taken care of, is there anything I'd need to worry about reliability-wise?
My biggest considerations currently:
2007-2008 Mazdaspeed 3
2010 Mazdaspeed 3
G35
I understand that some people have had good luck with the GTIs and there appears to be some love for BMW as well. These are brands I'd rather avoid, but I'll still look into specific models (gotta look into the MK6 still.)
Haha, yeah; I'm gonna give it a shot. That's the kind of guy I bought my RX-8 from. A real perfectionist who had a passion for the car but was just too big to fit in it.
Hopefully I find someone like that in my next car hunt
Try shopping in Texas
On the other hand, based on their username Cheesesteak Cravings might be too big the car too
Haha, yeah; I'm gonna give it a shot. That's the kind of guy I bought my RX-8 from. A real perfectionist who had a passion for the car but was just too big to fit in it.
Hopefully I find someone like that in my next car hunt
Thanks for all the advice! I'm bookmarking all this as it's stuff I'll definitely be looking into if I do end up with a MS3.
So, you have a first gen MS3. I've been seeing a number of 2007 and 2008's for around $8000-$9000. This is like $5000 cheaper than the 2nd gens. If I go for a 2008 and all of the service bulletins have been taken care of, is there anything I'd need to worry about reliability-wise?
My biggest considerations currently:
2007-2008 Mazdaspeed 3
2010 Mazdaspeed 3
G35
I understand that some people have had good luck with the GTIs and there appears to be some love for BMW as well. These are brands I'd rather avoid, but I'll still look into specific models (gotta look into the MK6 still.)
The new GTI's are monsters. They gain an insane amount of HP with just a tune.
If you don't mind the looks, I would go with the Gen2 (I hate how they look). They revised the piston design to make them more efficient, and they have slightly longer gears which is good once making bigger power. Most people like the interior of the Gen 1 GT's (the Sport has cloth seats) over any of the gen2 interiors. But the Gen2 with the tech package is pretty sweet, LED rear lights, headlights that swivel as you your turn, blind spot monitoring and tom tom built in navigation.
You'll want to verify some of that because I'm referencing my buddies 2013 model, not the 2010. I really can't think of anything major you'd have to worry about. My car is 9 years old and has 150k miles so yes I've had to do maintenance, but I also beat on the car daily. Any car with many years and a lot of miles is going to need work.
Stock for stock the MS3 will either be even, or maybe just a bit slower than a G35. But the ceiling is much higher (for much cheaper) for the MS3 thanks to the stout motor and turbocharger. But unfortunately no matter how fast it can be it's still FailWheelDrive.
Oh, and I'm 155 lbs. and 5'5 So I fit fine in an MS3. I crave cheesesteaks because good ones are hard to find around here.
If you want to buy a Mazda-speed 3, find one owned by a perfectionist.
Two types of people buy performance cars: Those who like to run hard and show off and those who enjoy the performance but are enamored by the technology and want the car to last. This guy is a type A. He makes sure the maintenance was done perfectly, always using premium components. He waxes the car every month and keeps it looking new. He doesn't drive it when the weather sucks; he has a spare beater car for that.
Buy the car from that guy.
Agreed! So many people will buy said performance car & drive into the ground & not spend a dime keeping the car up. Then complain when it stops running.
Hmm, I have to wonder if you got a lemon. I've heard emphasized quite frequently how great their reliability is. I did here that the first gens had some problems though. I'm only looking at seconds gens though.
I like these, but yeah... There's none in my area :P
The MS6's and first gen MS3's had a lot of issues. Mazda was still working out the bugs on the DISI engine. I had one of the early build MS6's and it was kind of a disappointing car. When it was new it felt extremely powerful but the engine kept cutting boost under hard acceleration - not exactly what you want on a car that's supposed to be fast and sporty. The updated ECU program fixed the boost cut but it also reduced power delivery substantially. The original clutch also only lasted 12k. It just felt like Mazda rushed these cars/drivetrain to market and left a lot of loose ends dangling. The early MS3's were breaking engine mounts at a surprising rate. The early tuners were having a very difficult time figuring out the engine programming and as a result many tuned cars were experiencing catastrophic engine failure - at power levels easily achieved on other boosted cars of the era. After owning one for about a year I wished I'd gone with the proven Subaru platform. Once the BMW 335i came out tuners that were working on the Mazda DISI abandoned it for the N54. While the N54 was certainly no paragon of reliability it had a lot more potential for big power #'s than the 2.3L Mazda.
None of this necessarily reflects on the second generation MS3, but the early ones soured a lot of people to the Mazda turbos.
Mazdaspeed3 is about as un-boyracer as you can get in a hopped up hatch. Aside from the hood scoop, not much going on visually. The only reason that's there is because the first generation was so prone to heat sink. It's not big on the look at me look at me stuff like a WRX STi or EVO are.
The new GTI's are monsters. They gain an insane amount of HP with just a tune.
If you don't mind the looks, I would go with the Gen2 (I hate how they look). They revised the piston design to make them more efficient, and they have slightly longer gears which is good once making bigger power. Most people like the interior of the Gen 1 GT's (the Sport has cloth seats) over any of the gen2 interiors. But the Gen2 with the tech package is pretty sweet, LED rear lights, headlights that swivel as you your turn, blind spot monitoring and tom tom built in navigation.
You'll want to verify some of that because I'm referencing my buddies 2013 model, not the 2010. I really can't think of anything major you'd have to worry about. My car is 9 years old and has 150k miles so yes I've had to do maintenance, but I also beat on the car daily. Any car with many years and a lot of miles is going to need work.
Stock for stock the MS3 will either be even, or maybe just a bit slower than a G35. But the ceiling is much higher (for much cheaper) for the MS3 thanks to the stout motor and turbocharger. But unfortunately no matter how fast it can be it's still FailWheelDrive.
Oh, and I'm 155 lbs. and 5'5 So I fit fine in an MS3. I crave cheesesteaks because good ones are hard to find around here.
I'm torn on the looks between the Gen 1 and Gen 2. I wouldn't be embarrassed to have either. I do like that the 2nd gen looks a little more aggressive though.
I think I'm sold on the MS3 at this point. I haven't seen any other car that offers quite as much for the same price. I'm gonna need to do a bit of MS3 specific research, and if I don't uncover anything particularly nasty, I'll look into getting one in the next month or two.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Malloric
Mazdaspeed3 is about as un-boyracer as you can get in a hopped up hatch. Aside from the hood scoop, not much going on visually. The only reason that's there is because the first generation was so prone to heat sink. It's not big on the look at me look at me stuff like a WRX STi or EVO are.
I don't think they look bad and on top of that, looks are NOT my first priority in getting a car. If it meets all of my other requirements with flying colors, but it's not the coolest looking car; I can live with that.
I've had several discussions on this with one of my friends who's hell bent on 350zs. I always make the case like this:
1. The MS3 is reliable.
2. The MS3 has room for people to sit in it (we often go on road trips, so this should make an impact)
3. The MS3 is fast
4. The MS3 has a nicer interior.
His response every time:
"I don't care dude, I just don't like them."
This sort of gets on my nerves. He'll argue that he'd take a 350z or an RX-8 over a MS3 anyday and a 350z over an RX-8 any day. Why? For this reason alone: "I like 350zs." What kind of reason is that? Consider that we're young men who hangout with friends 3, 4, 5 times a week and often drive places with more than 2 people in a vehicle. How convenient is the 350z really? It's got one of the weirdest interiors, 2 seats, poor gas mileage and requires premium. At least the RX-8 has 4 seats... The MS3 is just plain better on all fronts.
Anyhow, done ranting.
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