Lol sounds interesting. guess if i get one of these cars, my friend will be getting some beer, sounds like there are some fairly inexpensive mods i can can do. I took my dad to the dealer, he test drove both. like i thought he liked the auto better but that's because it seemed to run quite a bit better then the stick shift. The auto was also a lot cleaner of a car. The stick shift had some rust, it had quite a few scratches and dings ect, the engine sounded a lot more sound on the auto. so i think the auto is going to be my target car. I talked to the service manager at the dealer ship while the sales man was crunching numbers, he only really sees Mazda 3's in for oil, tires, and for the power steering pump fluid recall. other then that he hasn't seen any bad tranys on them. he sees more clutchs going bad then he sees auto tranys going bad. He doesnt see many of either. I am going to the bank tomorrow to talk to them about getting a small loan. Hopefully by thursday (if it doesn't get sold) ill be coming home with a mazda 3. and hopefully get a 2-3 trouble free years out of it.

 

Like I said the issues I recall with the ATX were with rough shifting. I believe they offered a ECU reflash to address it but don't know if it ever really took care of the issue.

As to paying beer for mods, sure you can do it, but for some of this stuff it's simple enough to do that it's worth dipping your toes in to get to know your car a bit more.

It's possible the MTX they had had been driven harder than the ATX. Also I wonder if the motor mounts were all still good..... Mazda's have a tendency to break those.

One very important thing is to make sure the dealer either gives you, or agrees to provide to you, two working keys. The reason is if you have two working keys you can program in more (up to eight) yourself in about 15 seconds. If you have only one working key then the dealer must connect to the car's computer and manually delete and enter in new key codes. The process takes about 45 minutes and dealers generally charge between 50-150 for it. If you do get two keys then get a third key immediately. That way if you lose one of the three you can just grab another one and program it in without having to involve the dealer. Just make sure where you're buying it gives you in writing that they'll provide the working keys so that you don't get stuck programming charges down the road if they only have one key.

Remotes isn't as big a deal since you can program in additional remotes (up to 3) with only a single working key. Also since you're looking at a '04 you could get a flip key if you wanted to.

 

All this key stuff is confusing :/ I don't know how to program a key if i tried. I've only ever had 1 key for all my vehicles with no issues. My first car was a 01 focus with a chipped key. i kept a cheap non chipped key in my wallet in case i got locked out with the key in the car (it had some weird electrical problems and would randomly lock and unlock its self). The key fobs are annoying imo. i personally like not having them, most of the time i take them off and leave them in the house and just use the key. and whats a flip key? the newest car i have ever owned was my first car (01 focus) and it was a base model. had power windows and mirrors and not much else. All my other cars have been 2000 and 1998 which were also basic. Hell this would be my first car with AC.

There is one small problem i noticed with this car. when making a turn, sometimes the blinker wouldn't shut off (i think it never would shut off when you turn right and sometimes when you turn left). what would cause this? its not a big deal, having to manually turn the blinker off after a turn, its loud enough were it gets annoying so i don't think id be that person with their blinker on going down the interstate lol.

 

Well, i hope i made a good choice. I just put money down on an 04 mazda 3i. 92k miles goldish white color. I hope to get a good 1-2 years with out putting to much money into it. My dad seem to approve of this purchase (mainly because he was part of it this time) So good by ford ranger, hello Mazda 3.

Btw the way what causes a car's blinker to not turn off after a turn?

 

Basically the way the key system works is each key has a unique RFID coded chip in the handle. In order for the keys to work the codes have to be input into the computer in the cluster. You can do this yourself if you have two working keys in hand and can add up to eight keys.

insert working key 1 into ignition, turn to ACC, wait for immobilizer light to turn off
remove key 1 and within 10 seconds insert working key 2
repeat first sequence for key 2
remove key 2 and within 10 seconds insert unprogrammed key 3
repeat first sequence for key 3
repeat for every new key you wish to program

That's it. The reason I recommend getting a third key (or making sure the dealer gives you two) is otherwise getting replacement keys is expensive and annoying. This way takes about 15 seconds.

If you don't like/want the key fobs then no worries. The flip key is a single housing which has the keyless remote in one half and a key blade which flips open at the push of a button when you want it.





Incidentally here's my walkthrough on installing heated side glass

The issue with the blinker is there's a little plastic piece inside the turn signal stalk housing. It can be fixed by wrapping a little piece of wire around the offending piece. Alternately you can replace the entire turn signal stalk. HERE's a walkthrough on fixing it. The replacement part runs about $80 from the dealer. Drop bagman1 an email at mazdapart@gmail.com to get an actual quote for your car.

Congrats on the purchase and enjoy the ride.