New to everything, looking at buying an MSP (The story so far...apparently)

[RixterGT]

Hello,

I'd like to introduce myself and ask a few newbie questions about a couple MSPs I looked at today. By new to everything I mean I've never owned an import, a front wheel drive, or a turbo car. What I'm looking for is a fun daily driver, and I've always liked the Mazdaspeed protege's since I saw them at the car show back when they were introduced.

So I found a couple locally, an orange 2003 (the one I really like) and a yellow 2003.5, and drove the orange one today.

Orange
Now, I knew it wasn't gonna be fast (really), I've seen the specs, but I'm pretty sure it was slower than it should have been. I could hear the turbo just fine, but I couldn't feel it. I also didn't experience any of the torque-steer I've heard so much about (from reviews). Also, it was squeaky in the back and the check engine light was on...
Interestingly, it did have a boost gauge mounted on the column, which I never saw go higher than like 3psi... Did I not take it to high enough RPM? Or is there some serious boost leak happening?
Now I realize I drove it, not you guys, but does any of this raise any red flags of "Don't buy it at any price"? Also, it idled super rough, is this normal? It was enough to shake the steering wheel (seemed to idle at a normal rpm though). I'm going to look at it again tomorrow and have my brother drive it to see what he thinks, maybe it was as fast as it's supposed to be, I'm just not used to having no torque?

Yellow
The yellow one I'm going to drive tomorrow, but he did start it up today (it was at a dealer, had it up on a ramp), and a little puff of white smoke came out the tail pipe (not much, but I stood back there when he started so I could look for it). Is this common? Or is it a sign of abuse? I'm glad there happen to be two near me, so I can drive the yellow one and see how the power compares to the orange one, if similar I know it's all in my head.

I've read through the forums a bit, searching for common problems and came across the LDS, blown engine, clunking, etc, but I wasn't sure about these two.

I really am looking for a daily driver, so I won't be souping it up (maybe some tuning stuff), I have a 5.0 mustang to fill that void. The other car I was considering was a Impreza 2.5 RS, but I like Mazda better than Subaru, and the MSP looks way cooler too :). I was almost tempted by the SE-R Spec-V when I found out they had a 6-speed, but I just can't get into their looks. An SVT Focus would be cool too, but for the last two months I've been driving an 03 SVT Cobra, and going from an SVT Cobra to an SVT Focus might make me cry every night lol. Besides, I've never owned an import and would like to give them a chance.

Ok, so that was kind of a long post, but now you should be up to date on the important stuff about me lol. Seems like a nice community, nice to meet you.

Oh yeah! One more thing. When I pop the trunk, what should it look like? On both of them I saw hanging speaker wires, but no speakers... The reviews said the sound system takes up part of the trunk, but I haven't seen pictures, did the previous owners jack the system?

[Mazda_Tech]

the orange one you drove seems to have a boost problem, If the boost was not going over 3psi there is something wrong, it should be around 7. It could be a bad actuator or just have a leak. Did the owner say what why the check engine light was on? What other mods did it have?

Also the shaking at idle could be because he has aftermarket stiffer motor mounts in the car, because the stock ones are really shitty. The shaking is normal if in fact he has motor mounts in it. The squeek in the back is probably the rear sway bar bushings, they are very shitty and need to be replaced.

Also how many miles are on these cars?

The yellow one with the smoke could be nothing, the car could have been sitting for a while and may not have been started in who knows how long. I wouldn't worry about that. Again how many miles are on the car?

As far as blowing engines and lsd's, you never know what's going to happen with these cars, people have blown engines at stock psi and broke there lsd's not even beating on the cars. And others, such as myself have ran 10psi with supporting mods for 70k miles and done over a hundred of 1/4 mile runs without a problem, still on the stock clutch. Its hard to say because you don't know what the previous owner has done to the car.

As for the systems, it sounds like they were taking out of the trunk.

Sorry for the long response but i hope this helps.

[RixterGT]

Thanks for the response! The orange one has 62k miles, the yellow has 50k. Drove the yellow one today, it was definitely faster than the orange one, the clutch engaged sooner too. Has a bunch of little cosmetic stuff wrong, but nothing super major.

I took my brother with me this time, and looked at the orange one again, he checked it out and turns out it was just the hose disconnected from the turbo. So we hilariously asked the salesman to borrow a wrench, and fixed it for him. It does have some crazy pipework under the hood, but looks like just a blow off valve was added, and after the fix, the boost gauge reads about 7, so I guess not much else has been modified. Ran better too. The guy said he would fix the check engine light and bushings. This is the one I really like, and I think I'm gonna try to get it.

If the stereo's gone, not that big of deal really, I can put new speakers in it (it did have the deck). It's a fun car to drive, I'm looking forward to getting one. :)

[Maxxpwr]

I have a yellow for sale. selling for 14 obo with mods. or 13obo stock. 57k. and in great shape. l loved and babied this car, let me know if interested. http://www.carsoup.com/used/detail.asp?usedVehicleID=4060809&MakeID=48&minYear=2003&maxYear=2003&searchID=90015422&vehicleTypeID=1&UVViewID=4&Page=1&DealerGroupID=