A newbie from the East

Greetings,
I'm Danny from Malaysia and I just got myself a used 2012 Mazda 2 Touring after a long search in used car ads and going through many small hatches. To be honest, this is my first car and I'm having trouble asking for opinions and help from the local Mazda 2 community due to the fact that the Mazda 2 is quite rare in my country and most owners are inactive. So I'm here to ask you guys if there are any faults or issues on the DE models?

I have intentions on making this small fun car to make it more fun, currently saving up for new wheels, seats, strut bars and small items such as air filters etc. as I'll be using this car for at least the next 5 years so I want to make it as sweet as possible. Any do's and don'ts that I should know about?

Cheers

Welcome

Howdy!

They're honestly pretty reliable overall. Mostly just stupid issues like squeaks/rattles from interior and rear suspension bushings in cold weather. I've seen very few problems from the 2 in general. I've resealed an oil pan on one and done preventative maintenance stuff but that's really about the extent of it. Some are plagued with steering clunks, of which there are multiple service bulletins for various sources of the problem, but overall they're great little cars.

As Tony said these cars are really simple and easy to keep running well.

Welcome to the group.

Zach

Cheers guys, I live in a hot country so the squeaks and rattles in cold weather shouldn't be an issue (at the moment) but I do realise that when I do heavy braking the steering kinda feels like its rattling but it only happens when hard braking but otherwise happy with the little car.

One problem that I've had and heard is fairly common is exactly what you mentioned about braking. I think the OEM front rotors are prone to warping (or uneven wear/buildup) for some reason, so mine started shaking under heavy braking around 50k miles. Swapped for new Centrix rotors (and new pads) and everything is back to normal. You could try resurfacing the rotors but I've heard that only delays the problem for a few thousand miles.

These are very reliable cars. You shouldn't have any major issues. I can vouch for the annoying squeaks and rattles as well, but it's nothing constant. It only makes noise on pretty rough roads for me. Some fresh front brakes will probably clear up your vibration issue. Welcome!