New guy from florida.

[J Dog]

Hey guys this is my first thread and post. im in the market for a mazdaspeed3 right now. im going to test drive one in about a week and hopefully buy it. a little background. My name is Joey and im from Daytona Beach, FL Im 23 and i live with my gf in an apartment (makes it almost impossible to afford mods lol) my current vehicle is a 2007 Pontiac G6 Base. previous vehicles, 00' Mitsubishi Galant Es, 88' Ford Bronco 2, and 89' Pontiac Sunbird (rustbucket). I have been into cars for as long as i can remember. never had any bias just love vehicles in general. and i love helping my friends work on thier cars as well as my own. only ever work on my own cars because i cant afford to pay anyone to do it. im far from a master mechanic but i know a thing or two. im coming from G6ownersclub.com and thats my G6 progression thread in the signature. ill be giving that car to my little sister when i get a new one bc she has a daughter and another one on the way but no car and i want to help her out. i also technically own my gf's car bc the loan and car are in my name bc she couldnt finance it by herself. its also an 07' G6 base. (except she hates it lol, she had to sacrifice her 12' nissan altima 2.5s for us to be able to afford to move in together.) i work at community bank and its fun. pays for my car mods...sometimes when i can afford them.
sorry to be long winded but thanks in advance for any help and insight you all can offer me.

BTW this is the MS3 im looking to buy...any input on why or why not to buy would be appreciated as well this will be my first turbo'd vehicle so i dont really know much of anything about it. 08' Mazdaspeed 3 for sell....~click~

-J(idhitit)

 

[chief_wiggum]

Well, it at least has a COBB aftermarket short ram intake (SRI), can't tell from the pictures if the stock turbo inlet pipe (TIP) is there or whether it's an aftermarket TIP. Based on what the previous owner did to the wheels and the aftermarket fuel door, I'd guess the SRI is not the only engine/drive train modification done to the car. While aftermarket parts don't necessarily mean a car has been beat on, in my opinion, it significantly raises the probability. Look it over very well and spend a lot of time on this and other forums so you know what potential problems/issues to look/listen for. good luck.

 

[J Dog]

Thanks for the insight! I'll deff be looking over this forum a lot. What other forum would you recommend I join? And if you don't mind what should I look the closest at and listen for to see if its been beat on?

 

[zoomzoomMSP]

looks to have a Forge Bypass valve as well which is a plus. could just be the original owner did a quick search on good mods for the car and upgraded a few things, which could be a plus means the car is happier, but you do also run the chance of this car having been more heavily modded and potentially beat on. a lot of the things your gonna want to know about are things that you cant really see, a dashhawk would be an awesome tool to have with you to hook up and monitor the cars performance. mileage of the car is not bad and this car my be mint internally and out. at nearly 50k you may have some play in the sway bar bushings so you might hear a little clunk over bumps at low or high speed, not a big deal though but maybe a bargining tool to get a better price. drive the car, really drive it, listen to it, if you feel any shutter or hesitation under WOT it may be one to stay away from. does smoke pour out of the tail pipe after it has been warmed up and driven for a bit, turbo may be in need of some help if it does. stock exhaust or aftermarket. any chance you can get a look at the down pipe....of course you might not know what your looking at either.
car looks clean and the engine bay looks stock and untouched besides the obvious that has been stated. best of luck!!

 

[J Dog]

thank you so much for the info. im going to try and bring my uncle who also owns a car lot or my cousin (his son who works there sometimes to help him out) and hopefully they know what they're looking at which i am sure they do. i dont know anyone that has a dashhawk but i may be able to track someone down that does. just gotta ask around a bit. ill do my best to try and distinguish any aftermarket parts. ill take pics to and try to post them and hopefully someone will see it. im going next tuesday to test drive it bc i cant get there any sooner if its not sold by then. but those couple parts you can see are they good? thanks again!

 

[zoomzoomMSP]

the parts under the hood that i see are great, a Forge BPV and a Cobb SRI, cant go wrong with those.

 

[J Dog]

well thats pretty awesome then. a few bucks i dont have to spend lol im new to the import world so i dont know any of the parts names of whats good and whats not. i used to have a 00' galant with a few mods but it was a cheap ebay intake and straight pipe from muffler man lol. so no name brand. and all the big parts over in the GM world were different from what ive seen on these sites so far.

 

[Domino81]

What's funny is that theres a "JDOGG" on ProbeTalk and he's in Florida, as well. But, I think he's in the Orlando area. I dunno... his name is Jesse.