Discussion
Hello all.
So when I passed my test in 2007, I had a Fiat Punto.
Had this for 6 years and 46,000 happy, if iffily reliable, miles. After it decided to s
te out its clutch and several gears on the way back to uni from my parents' house one weekend, I bit the bullet and used part of some money I'd inherited to purchase this.
January last year - in comes a 2010 Honda Civic 1.8 Type-S GT. It felt very grown up and posh compared to the Punto to start with, and while living in Glasgow and coming home to Dundee it was a great car. Huge amount of space inside, moved house in 2 trips with it! Got 40mpg on the motorway, comfy seats, nice to drive, very stylish. But it did drain its battery completely one night after the boot light stuck on. It also had the squeaky clutch, which drove me insane. Also, all that you hear about the ride quality of these is true - it is terrible. Yes it handles really nicely, and is good fun on the back roads, but it is so crashy and stiff the rest of the time that it does grate.
So after having been graduated for almost a year, I decided in September to look at buying something else. Was looking at Leon Cupras, Octavia vRS, Golf GTi/R32, Megane RS etc. and then spotted this online. Went to test drive it, loved it, and now here it is after 8 weeks of ownership and 1300 miles.
2009 Mazda3 MPS. This one was registered November 2009, and I think that makes it quite an early Mk2. Was originally the demo for Mazda Aberdeen, before being bought at 6 months old. I'm the 3rd owner. Car had only done 26,500 miles from new, and was in very nice condition aside from a small nick out of one of the alloys. It has an enormous amount of equipment - sat nav, heated seats, LSD, part-leather, cruise, 6 disc changer, Bluetooth with audio streaming, 10-speaker Bose sound system, dual zone climate, heated windscreen, parking sensors, radar blind-spot monitoring(!) - and all this for less than 10k.
It is very quick, particularly compared to what I'm used to. I've driven the parents' Subaru Legacy spec.B before, but I would say that the Mazda feels considerably quicker. Yes, there is torque steer but it's easy to drive around it and certainly doesn't feel as bad as made out. There's very little body roll, probably related to the ride - about the same crashiness as the Honda, but it evens out nicely with a bit of speed, and I'm more prepared to put up with it in this given it's a 'proper' hot hatch, if you know what I mean. Even managed to get 34mpg on a run down to Glasgow with it the other day, no doubt thanks to the average speed cameras!
Current plans are just to enjoy it, although I've had the alloy repaired for £48 (if you're in the Dundee area, Michael at Chips Away is fantastic) and a shark fin aerial's shortly to arrive, and I have been looking at the Jetex exhaust, as fitted to the BBR car that did the press rounds a while back.
So when I passed my test in 2007, I had a Fiat Punto.
Had this for 6 years and 46,000 happy, if iffily reliable, miles. After it decided to s
te out its clutch and several gears on the way back to uni from my parents' house one weekend, I bit the bullet and used part of some money I'd inherited to purchase this. January last year - in comes a 2010 Honda Civic 1.8 Type-S GT. It felt very grown up and posh compared to the Punto to start with, and while living in Glasgow and coming home to Dundee it was a great car. Huge amount of space inside, moved house in 2 trips with it! Got 40mpg on the motorway, comfy seats, nice to drive, very stylish. But it did drain its battery completely one night after the boot light stuck on. It also had the squeaky clutch, which drove me insane. Also, all that you hear about the ride quality of these is true - it is terrible. Yes it handles really nicely, and is good fun on the back roads, but it is so crashy and stiff the rest of the time that it does grate.
So after having been graduated for almost a year, I decided in September to look at buying something else. Was looking at Leon Cupras, Octavia vRS, Golf GTi/R32, Megane RS etc. and then spotted this online. Went to test drive it, loved it, and now here it is after 8 weeks of ownership and 1300 miles.
2009 Mazda3 MPS. This one was registered November 2009, and I think that makes it quite an early Mk2. Was originally the demo for Mazda Aberdeen, before being bought at 6 months old. I'm the 3rd owner. Car had only done 26,500 miles from new, and was in very nice condition aside from a small nick out of one of the alloys. It has an enormous amount of equipment - sat nav, heated seats, LSD, part-leather, cruise, 6 disc changer, Bluetooth with audio streaming, 10-speaker Bose sound system, dual zone climate, heated windscreen, parking sensors, radar blind-spot monitoring(!) - and all this for less than 10k.
It is very quick, particularly compared to what I'm used to. I've driven the parents' Subaru Legacy spec.B before, but I would say that the Mazda feels considerably quicker. Yes, there is torque steer but it's easy to drive around it and certainly doesn't feel as bad as made out. There's very little body roll, probably related to the ride - about the same crashiness as the Honda, but it evens out nicely with a bit of speed, and I'm more prepared to put up with it in this given it's a 'proper' hot hatch, if you know what I mean. Even managed to get 34mpg on a run down to Glasgow with it the other day, no doubt thanks to the average speed cameras!
Current plans are just to enjoy it, although I've had the alloy repaired for £48 (if you're in the Dundee area, Michael at Chips Away is fantastic) and a shark fin aerial's shortly to arrive, and I have been looking at the Jetex exhaust, as fitted to the BBR car that did the press rounds a while back.
You have the fastest colour
Get onto mpsoc if you havent already.
Here is what you can and should end up doing to it
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Get onto mpsoc if you havent already.
Here is what you can and should end up doing to it
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Thought I'd do a wee update.
Now 4 months in and have covered around 2500 miles since buying it. Love the thing - the seats are incredibly comfy, the Bose system is fantastic and it still feels silly quick to me! Averaging about 26-28 mpg which is around about where I'd expected to be, and the reduced fuel prices have been welcome when it needs super unleaded every time. Put two new Pirelli P Zero Rosso on the front, unfortunately they seem to have exacerbated its tendency to tramline but they are substantially gripper than what was on before.
Decided to cool it on any modding plans - money is a bit tighter than previously so I'm just going to use it and enjoy it instead
Only thing I'm planning to do is wash it, as it hasn't been washed since early December... it's completely filthy!
Now 4 months in and have covered around 2500 miles since buying it. Love the thing - the seats are incredibly comfy, the Bose system is fantastic and it still feels silly quick to me! Averaging about 26-28 mpg which is around about where I'd expected to be, and the reduced fuel prices have been welcome when it needs super unleaded every time. Put two new Pirelli P Zero Rosso on the front, unfortunately they seem to have exacerbated its tendency to tramline but they are substantially gripper than what was on before.
Decided to cool it on any modding plans - money is a bit tighter than previously so I'm just going to use it and enjoy it instead
Only thing I'm planning to do is wash it, as it hasn't been washed since early December... it's completely filthy!
It does indeed have a recommended minimum 98 RON sticker inside the fuel flap, fitted at factory.
The Mazda 2.3 turbo is well known among owners for not responding particularly well to being run on anything lower than 97-98 RON, whether fitted to the 3 MPS, 6 MPS or the CX-7. Fairly high drop off in performance and reduced mpg being among the highlights. Given I bought it for its performance, I'd rather keep it running nice and smooth with the super unleaded.
The Mazda 2.3 turbo is well known among owners for not responding particularly well to being run on anything lower than 97-98 RON, whether fitted to the 3 MPS, 6 MPS or the CX-7. Fairly high drop off in performance and reduced mpg being among the highlights. Given I bought it for its performance, I'd rather keep it running nice and smooth with the super unleaded.
rm89 said:
Hello all.
]
Had this for 6 years and 46,000 happy, if iffily reliable, miles. After it decided to ste out its clutch and several gears on the way back to uni from my parents' house one weekend, I bit the bullet and used part of some money I'd inherited to purchase this.
46k miles in 6 months ]
Had this for 6 years and 46,000 happy, if iffily reliable, miles. After it decided to s
te out its clutch and several gears on the way back to uni from my parents' house one weekend, I bit the bullet and used part of some money I'd inherited to purchase this. 
, are you sure?Quhet said:
rm89 said:
Hello all.
]
Had this for 6 years and 46,000 happy, if iffily reliable, miles. After it decided to ste out its clutch and several gears on the way back to uni from my parents' house one weekend, I bit the bullet and used part of some money I'd inherited to purchase this.
46k miles in 6 months ]
Had this for 6 years and 46,000 happy, if iffily reliable, miles. After it decided to s
te out its clutch and several gears on the way back to uni from my parents' house one weekend, I bit the bullet and used part of some money I'd inherited to purchase this. , are you sure?
Small update.
Buggered an alloy. Hit one of those potholes that you don't see until the last millisecond before disaster, unfortunately it's creased the alloy on the inside - it's driveable but not particularly pleasant. I'd been looking at other alloys ever since I bought the car, as I didn't think the OEM alloys particularly suited it. Yesterday, I ordered these:
18x8 Rota Gravel in Gunmetal that will hopefully arrive next week and be fitted to the car soon after - need to arrange to get tyres off current wheels as it currently has 4 Pirelli P Zero Rosso with plenty of tread left on them. Been doing overtime at work this month so managed to get the money together for them just at the right time, as it turned out. Pics of them on the car to follow
Buggered an alloy. Hit one of those potholes that you don't see until the last millisecond before disaster, unfortunately it's creased the alloy on the inside - it's driveable but not particularly pleasant. I'd been looking at other alloys ever since I bought the car, as I didn't think the OEM alloys particularly suited it. Yesterday, I ordered these:
18x8 Rota Gravel in Gunmetal that will hopefully arrive next week and be fitted to the car soon after - need to arrange to get tyres off current wheels as it currently has 4 Pirelli P Zero Rosso with plenty of tread left on them. Been doing overtime at work this month so managed to get the money together for them just at the right time, as it turned out. Pics of them on the car to follow
Nice car and nice choice on the wheels!
Best colour too by a country mile.
Odd that the 3 got heated seats and the 6 didn't. You'd think the 6 would've but hey ho.
You should definitely think about a remap and new fuel pump. It'll transform the car for not much outlay. There aren't many who can do this properly, but go on the MPSOC forum and you'll see whats what!
Best colour too by a country mile
.Odd that the 3 got heated seats and the 6 didn't. You'd think the 6 would've but hey ho.
You should definitely think about a remap and new fuel pump. It'll transform the car for not much outlay. There aren't many who can do this properly, but go on the MPSOC forum and you'll see whats what!
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