Questions from a Potential Buyer

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Goose4540

Member
Currently I drive a 2003 20th Anniversary GTI. Have been looking at getting a new car and always have liked the look of the Mazdaspeed3s. Finally test drove one this past Sunday and was thoroughly impressed with it. It surpassed what I thought it would do performance wise and the fit and finish was also better than I expected.

For all of you who have had yours for a while and logged some miles, are there any common problems with the Speeds. I know with VWs there are several issues that commonly arise, but was curious if the Mazdas have any similar issues.

If you could do it all over would you get the Speed3 again? Any info and advice for a potential buyer would be greatly appreciated

Thanks!
 
The only issue's I've ever heard of were, fuel pump, ecu reflash and turbo seals, which have all been taken cared of with the 2008.5 models. With that being said, I've never heard of anyone having issues with a 2008.5 model including myself. Runs like a champ and the interior is top notch, including the seats on the GT.

Would I get it again? Yeah!
 
I think the cars a great car and I of course love mine but I think the build qualitys a little shorty and now I just want something faster and not fwd
 
LOL... Having owned a VR6 GTI and several other tuner would bes I can say the speed3 is phenominal. Fast, fun, easy to build with light mods and little to no maintenance. Great deal for the money. Buy one, you wont regret it!
 
For me downsides are:

Excessive road noise IMO from stock tires.
Seat bottom a little narrow between bolsters for my liking.
Would prefer more extension from adjustable steering wheel to get a truly comfortable driving positon.
Would prefer a little more room to the right of my right leg while driving.

None of those were deal killers for me, though the road noise is getting really old really fast, and Im thinking about switching tires.

Owned for 1 month, 1000 miles.

1 issue so far, changed out rain sensor to new part number as it prevented TPMS from functioning (known issue 08)
 
i had test drove a gti before i bought my ms3. it was a sweet car. i almost bought it but thought i should at least "take a look" at the ms3. zowee poweee, my butt dyno went hyper!! so far not a single problem. i would have been po'd if i had got the gti, and then looked at the ms3. seems like a zillion (maybe just a million) reviewers agree with my my choice. buy it and feel smart. and fast!! lol
 
i appreciate the responses guys, i was mainly looking at the new gtis because of the dsg and drivin in traffic with a stick is no fun, however once i got on the throttle in the speed3, i had a grin from ear to ear that i think would make it worth while to get another stick

the one tid bit i dont like is the radio/cd controls, have many of you switched out the stock for aftermarket?
 
freeflyfreak said:
For me downsides are:
Would prefer a little more room to the right of my right leg while driving.
Click to expand...

this drives me ******* NUTS!!!
driver side door handle (the lock) rattles at radio high volume
front passenger seat belt noise - weird noise - hard to explain
the rear motor mount is ******* terrible. i have 18000 on my car and just replaced the mm...i should have done it at 18 miles. the stock mount was beat to s***
my car pops out of second gear sometimes - weird - upgrading the mm will almost solve this problem 100%
the interior is cheap plastic - really bendable cheap plastic - you pay 25k for a car, you get a 25k car, not more, not less
my car leaked coolant the first month i had it
there have been two recalls on the vehicle, one for the stock rear mm and one for all season floor mats
people have had problems with turbo seals and smoking turbos - STOCK configurations and aftermarket downpipes

my biggest problem is the space for my right leg. sometimes if i take turns really hard, my knee HURTS for hours
 
Resolved to get one when they first came out. Since this is the last year, I went ahead and jumped. I've had mine a bit over two months now. Just over 3k miles, including a 1k road trip. Still a hoot to drive. Decent gas mileage even if I play in the turbo some. I dealt with the right knee problem with a gel-filled mouse pad attached to the console with some 3M adhesive tape. I'm 6'4" which probably aggravates the knee problem some. I had to do a similar "remedy" in my 300C using a kid's flip-flop :)

I've had the audio system replaced under warranty for the high-volume bass drop-out. No other service issues. She's absolutely tight so far. No rattles or squeaks. Being more of a "geezer" than most folks here, I'll probably get 25K out of the tires, since I don't do much tire-melting. My fun comes in taking tight turns at serious speed and the ability to go from 80 to 100 with just a nudge of the loud pedal. Some folks say the A/C is inadequate. Mine does just fine against the Florida summer. I did get serious tint on the windows right away, though. Surely that helped a bunch.

I agree with the car magazines: hard to find a more fun hatch for the money than this one.
 
The right knee thing bothers me the most probably. Other then that, the fact that there are still TSB's coming out when this is the 3rd year of production. If you had a Honda you probably wouldn't have even seen 3 TSB's throughout the life of the entire car. I would still make the same purchase 15 times out of 10 though, especially at the 25k budget.
 
The only issue I have is during the school year (I am a teacher) the lip on the sides of my dress shoes can get caught under the brake pedal while lifting off the gas. I simply got used to using more toe and less for and it kind of took care of itself. That was my biggest pet peeve.
 
lestat13 said:
The only issue I have is during the school year (I am a teacher) the lip on the sides of my dress shoes can get caught under the brake pedal while lifting off the gas. I simply got used to using more toe and less for and it kind of took care of itself. That was my biggest pet peeve.
Click to expand...
I have the same issue with some shoes, and I've tried to develop the "tip-toe" posture. I'm just going to try to remember which shoes I can wear when I drive the Speed. It's not an issue when I drive my Ram (like today). Shoot, I can wear my boots today. (yes)
 
Goose4540 said:
i appreciate the responses guys, i was mainly looking at the new gtis because of the dsg and drivin in traffic with a stick is no fun, however once i got on the throttle in the speed3, i had a grin from ear to ear that i think would make it worth while to get another stick
Click to expand...

That was my dilemma too, but I after I drove the GTI DSG I hated it.
Nowhere near the same torque, but the worst thing for me was setting off from a stop drove me crazy. There is a slight 1/2 second hesitation with the DSG that I could not live with when starting from a standstill.

Much prefered the GTI interior but other than that.....
 
So far I've had only small noises and groans that are apparantly normal in this car. (I've had my Speed for a month now).

Also left VW camp for a Mazda. Had a really bad/lemony experience with one of those cars. A shame, because I like the GTI, but I'm not willing to put up with that same stealership (the only one in town).
 
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