I’ve recently been driving a Mazda 3 2017 with the 2.0L engine and I’ve been finding you have to rev it quite a bit to get some decent power out of it. It also is most fuel efficient in 6th gear from 40mph and faster. Because of these factors I find myself accelerating up in 2nd up from 5 - 40mph and then sticking it straight in 6th to cruise at 40mph.
Is this bad for my engine/transmission/clutch?
I live in the UK and I, like most of the people I know, drive a hatchback. The most popular cars here are things like the Ford Fiesta/Focus, Honda Jazz/Fit, Vauxhall Corsa/Astra, VW Polo/Golf but looking in US based subreddits and from general pop culture it seems like hatchbacks like this are relatively unpopular in North America and the 'default' car is either a sedan or an SUV. In the UK although SUVs are quite popular now it's relatively rare to see a sedan. Just in my personal view hatchbacks are much more practical, surely it can't just be the nicer design that makes sedans more popular in North America?
Where has this disparity come from?
Any common problems with the engines? Looking at examples around the 100K mile mark
How is the manual gearbox compared to the auto?
Any other notable things to look out for?
So about 6 weeks ago I went to buy my current car, a 2017 Mazda 3 with 97K miles from a dealer in the midlands. The salesman was very helpful and accommodating and I was very happy with the condition of the car after a thorough inspection, test drive etc. I personally think it was substantially underpriced for the condition after getting stuck into the market for those cars for many weeks.
The big issue came up when we sat down to talk numbers and sign papers. I saw online that all their cars come with 3 months AA warranty but I've heard from a number of people that they're not worth the paper they're written on and can be used to muddy the waters of liability if there is an issue so I asked for the dealer to take it off. I wasn't bothered about whether it would give me a discount or not, I just wanted it gone.
The dealer kicked up a fuss asking if I'm absolutely sure I want to give up my protections. I know my consumer rights and said yes thats fine. He says ok and rips up the contract and starts a new one, omitting the warranty but also writing 'ISSUE WITH GEARBOX AND ENGINE' under the notes which raised some serious alarm bells. After interrogating the dealer about this they eventually admitted that they wanted me to agree to acknowledge a fictitious issue so that if something does go wrong with the powertrain then I can't make them fix it, because it was 'pre-disclosed'. Something I knew was dodgy at the time but later learned was very illegal.
I was obviously somewhat inclined to walk away from it at that point but I'm only human and I thought the car was pretty perfect at that price so I caved and agreed to take the 3 month warranty for an extra £100 and retain my consumer rights. I signed and paid £7,000 total for it. As I was getting my insurance and tax sorted etc the salesman came over and said that as a gesture of goodwill he'd extended the warranty for 3 additional months which I think is slightly bizarre given I didn't want one in the first place.
They also incidentally failed to inform the DVLA of a change in registered keeper for over a week and only after I pestered them which meant I couldn't sort out my parking permit. Annoying. I gave them a fair but critical Google review saying the car and service was great but they had some serious issues with their policies and procedures. The salesman had the gall a couple weeks later to call me and ask me to change the review on the grounds that they gave me an extra 3 months warranty lol.
This hasn't actually escalated to a real issue yet because the car has had zero issues over the last 6 weeks/2000 miles.
My questions for those in the industry:
I see so often used car dealers heavily marketing their cars have a 3-6 month warranty but it was my understanding that if something goes wrong with the car in the first 6 months then the dealer has to fix it anyway by law? Why do people pay extra for these warranties? What added value do they have. People say they often don't pay out but what are they even for in theory?
I hear many reports that the later versions of these engines are significantly improved in terms of reliability but I can't seem to find evidence of a list of changes and any identifying characteristics to tell them apart? Does anyone have any official documentation on this?
We all know about service history, clean interiors, panel gaps, paintwork, tidy paperwork, matching tyres, few owners, CARFAX etc. Theres tons of advice online about subtle hints a car might be in bad condition, but not much of the opposite.
What are some little things you've noticed on cars you bought that made it desirable that not everyone else would notice?
We all know about service history, clean interiors, panel gaps, paintwork, tidy paperwork, matching tyres, few owners etc. Theres tons of advice online about subtle hints a car might be in bad condition, but not much of the opposite.
What are some little things you've noticed on cars you bought that made it desirable that not everyone else would notice?
We all know about service history, clean interiors, panel gaps, paintwork, tidy paperwork, matching tyres, few owners etc. Theres tons of advice online about subtle hints a car might be in bad condition, but not much of the opposite.
What are some little things you've noticed on cars you bought that made it desirable that not everyone else would notice?
We all know about service history, MOTs, panel gaps, paintwork, tidy paperwork etc. Theres tons of advice online about subtle hints a car might be in bad condition, but not much of the opposite.
What are some little things you've noticed on cars you bought that made it desirable that not everyone else would notice.
I'm trying to think of what cars of the last 20 years meet almost all needs as a daily and a fun car both sporty, comfortable and practical.
If you had to have just one car to both go out on track, do the school run, go on a long road trip etc what would it be?
My first thought is something like a BMW M3 but interested in some ideas?
The Skyactiv-G platform has been lauded for over a decade for its reliability. Can the same be said for the Skyactiv-X? Does anyone have experience with these engines over 100K miles yet? Are used options now with 50K+ miles worth buying?