Looking for purchase advice

poppinfresh

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Hi all, first time poster here. I've been talking to the owner who is selling a Mazda5 close to me. I lease a full size truck that I currently commute 50 miles of interstate round trip daily, which is just unnecessary.

The car is a 2009 Sport auto with 103K on it and comes with a second set of rims with winter tires. Car is in the shop getting a rust spot under the rear storage fixed and new rear springs according to the owner. Car has a fresh inspection (good until Jan/2020), but seller states it will need an O2 sensor to pass next inspection. Interior and exterior pics looks really clean. Price is $3500 OBO.

What do you all think? I'm supposed to be able to check it out on Saturday and would like to know what to look for.

thanks,
Jon
 
Getting an inexpensive used car here completely without rust is impossible. I would literally have to fly south and drive something back.

Worth every penny finding one without rust...

Come to a rust free state, make a road trip / vacation out of it... (peep)
 
When I lived with masshole for 8 years, I flew down to Atlanta to buy a $3,700 land cruiser and drove it back to MA

You don*t want a rusty Mazda in MA, trust me


Good luck
 
There's rust, and then there RUST.

All depends on whether you can stop it, or slow it. I too live in the Northeast, and if my expectation on a 3.5K car was drive the snot out of it for ten years in all weather and then dispose of it, a little rust wouldn't throw me off, as long as it was priced in.

Mazdadude, you truly live up to your username, that's an impressive list of cars owned. I learned to drive stick on one of those late 80s 323s.

EDIT: I'm going to amend my statement. So I bought my van earlier this week, and had crawled under there enough to be fine with it, but just got it on a lift yesterday and man.... there's a lot of nooks and crannies for rust to get into and hide on these things. And lots of cheap tinny shields serving some unknown function other than rusting and hiding more rust. I've had my share of rust 80s Japanese tin, but things were much more visible on those. I didn't come across anything that can't be remediated, but it's gonna take at least a couple hours to Paint Over Rust and spray some bolts and whatnot.

So while I spoke from experience with body on frame trucks, and some unibody cars with a fairly flat bottom, I am surprised by the amount of hiding spots for rust underneath this car and my comment should be taken with a grain of road salt.
 
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