RE: Spotted: Mazda 3 MPS

[spencermit]

[quote=garycat]I'd say the 6 MPS was better value. Same engine plus 4WD.

http://classifieds.pistonheads.com/classifieds/use...

That is a whole lot of car for the cash..

[Iang84]

Terzo123 said:

Is it the 3 or the 6 MPS which gets whacked with the big £400+ annual road tax?

My work mate has the 3mps and that is definatley in the £400+ bracket (£460 iirc) when he last taxed it

[Spanna]

If registered after March 2006 then it will be hit with the £400 road tax, if before then I think it's £260.

[Prawnboy]

A shepherds pie full of vindaloo.

[phil_cardiff]

Didn't Evo magazine test a tuned one of these with uprated suspension? Wasn't half bad if I remember correctly. Or am I thinking of the gen2?

[carinaman]

kambites said:

Terzo123 said:

Is it the 3 or the 6 MPS which gets whacked with the big £400+ annual road tax?

The later 6s will; I'm pretty sure the earliest ones are old enough to avoid it.

I think the 3 came out later, so all 3s will cost 400+ quid?

I think so. I think only a few 6MPSs scrape through before the 23 March 2006 date. I aint paying £400+ RFL, no way. It's bad enough paying £270 on something that cost less than £400 half a decade ago. £400+ a year road tax? Screw that.

And as for rejoining the IAM so I can put one of their badges on the front........


There was some discussion on BBC Radio 4 about paying for new roads last week, and they referred to road tax, inferring that road tax gets spent on roads rather than just disappearing into the Treasury. They mentioned some new PFI road in the midlands where private money paid for it and the govt. pays them a fee for us to drive on it.

Edited by carinaman on Tuesday 23 October 10:37

[KrazyIvan]

The current one looks better and seems to give more of a hint to what's underneath as well

[Numeric]

Odd question - but both the Mazda's in the PH adverts are being sold by Robert in the west country...

My name isn't Robert, can I still buy one?

[LukeBird]

Early 3 MPSs are in the £400 band, but later ones were slightly more economical and fell back to the £270 band.
Or at least that's what was said on the MPS forum.

[Escort Si-130]

Have to admit it looks very dull, especially in that colour. Well those PH members that loves to prat on about Q car and sleeper would love this, bu as usual they would find something else about the car not to find a reason to buy one.
TO be honest, I love the car, but it looks too dull as the 1st poster mentioned. On a daily basis, sleepers get bored. You also want to look out of your window at the driveway seeing something that has flair at times, its a bit of sex appeal
Its like having a stunning looking woman that is good in bed. There are some ugly looking women that are good in bed, but Im nure not much people want them. That is my line for you guys that seems to go on about q cars.

Frimley111R said:

Christ, that is epically dull. Is there a car out there with a greater performance/dullness ratio?

[Escort Si-130]

RS3 may be a lil plain, but its not that dull

gofasterrosssco said:

RS3?

Like them, but some R888's = track car..?

[crispyshark]

Watched a BBR preped one of these destroy quite a few 'better' cars around the ring. Obviously driver skill comes into it but with a bit of tweaking well over 300 bhp is easily achieved!

Not a bad family runner if you have a weekend toy!

[Escort Si-130]

They also dont bother with some people in the most extreme looking vehicles. Some people do not even get stopped drving hot rides.

enroz said:

The whole point of the post is it's dullness!

This is what a Q car is and should be!

Apparently they also have a very nice kit as standard, including a very expensive stereo system.

The police won't even look twice at you in your boring grey hatch.

Nice.

[GranCab]

I guess it depends on the cost of the car / cost of road tax ratio but - yes there is little logic in buying a car that will cost you around 10% of the purchase price in annual RFL.

Petrol and Diesel engines

First year Annual rate (second year onwards)

A – up to 100g/km £0.00 £0.00

B – 101 to 110g/km £0.00 £20.00

C – 111 to 120g/km £0.00 £30.00

D – 121 to 130g/km £0.00 £100.00

E – 131 to 140g/km £120.00 £120.00

F – 141 to 150g/km £135.00 £135.00

G – 151 to 165g/km £170.00 £170.00

H – 166 to 175g/km £275.00 £195.00

I – 176 to 185g/km £325.00 £215.00

J – 186 to 200g/km £460.00 £250.00

K – 201 to 225g/km £600.00 £270.00

L – 226 to 255g/km £815.00 £460.00

M – over 255g/km £1,030.00 £475.00

[garypotter]

the grey colour kills it for me, snooooooze

[NeoVR]

All these "MK1" 3MPS's are the £400+ road tax.

The Fugly widemouth MK2 just scraped into the band below due to slightly longer gearing.

Standard kit is reasonable, Xenons, Bose sound, climate etc. - although back when they were on sale, there were major cock-ups with the advertised vs delivered spec.
the early ones (pre-08) were delivered without cruise control even though it was suppost to be standard spec, There were loads of issues with the optional satnav, and the Bose sound system couldnt do MP3s.

The aero pack was an option on all of them, which added eibach lowering springs, bigger boot spoiler and smaller M3 style wingmirrors.

I had a late 08 "facelift" aero in crystal perlecent white, had better upholstered seats and cruise. devastatingly fast in a straight line, very capable in the corners but it just felt numb.

[Prev]

I've had mine for 2 and half years now and still love it.

De-catted it, added a forge CAI and re-circ valve. Took it to a rolling road and it made an impressive 290bhp and 340ft. Since then I have added a custom remap. Just waiting for fuel pump internals (a weak point when it comes to tuning.) Will add a FMIC and should be looking at around 330-340bhp.

Also got coilovers, uprated discs and pads, engine mounts. Makes for one rapid hot hatch.

[Caulkhead]

carinaman said:

kambites said:

Terzo123 said:

Is it the 3 or the 6 MPS which gets whacked with the big £400+ annual road tax?

The later 6s will; I'm pretty sure the earliest ones are old enough to avoid it.

I think the 3 came out later, so all 3s will cost 400+ quid?

I think so. I think only a few 6MPSs scrape through before the 23 March 2006 date. I aint paying £400+ RFL, no way. It's bad enough paying £270 on something that cost less than £400 half a decade ago. £400+ a year road tax? Screw that.

And as for rejoining the IAM so I can put one of their badges on the front........


There was some discussion on BBC Radio 4 about paying for new roads last week, and they referred to road tax, inferring that road tax gets spent on roads rather than just disappearing into the Treasury. They mentioned some new PFI road in the midlands where private money paid for it and the govt. pays them a fee for us to drive on it.

Edited by carinaman on Tuesday 23 October 10:37

You need to look at the bigger picture. I pay £460 to tax my 6 MPS yet overall it's relatively cheap to run for a 4WD car of this performance. Every service I've had has been below £200, I pay £220 for fully comp with business use and in 4.5 years of ownership I haven't had a single repair, not even a bulb gone. I get 28mpg average and 30+ on a run.

Individual costs are irrelevant, it's the total cost per mile that matters.

PS - to the guy who mentioned de-badging one, don't bother. Hardly anyone has a clue what it is with or without badges!

[carinaman]

I resent giving a penny more than I have to in tax when 70% of the pump price goes to the Treasury.

QE? How many £Billions have we spent on that eroding all of our pensions and investments?

They could have been a bit smarter and mixed that with reducing fuel duty. It was a boom, people can't go anywhere and spend everything if they're paying so much on tax on everything just to go about their daily business.


I'm not slating the car, I use the same criteria for every other car, I disregard every other car that costs that much to tax.

[kambites]

carinaman said:

I resent giving a penny more than I have to in tax when 70% of the pump price goes to the Treasury.

Even with that attitude though, road tax pales into insignificance next to fuel economy if you do many miles.