Hello everyone. I am contemplating whether or not I should buy a Mazdaspeed 3. Any owners out there? Would you recommend it? How is the ride/gas mileage? Thanks for any replies in advance. Also, I hope I am posting to the right category.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

Well Ryan, you're not giving us much to go on. We don't know you or your circumstances. 'Pretty hard to advise under those conditions.
If you are under 25, your insurance rates will likely be sky-high. The car requires @ least 91 oct fuel, as it is w/all boosted cars. It will get 20+mpg under the best conditions, but not much more under normal conditions. You do know that it only comes as a 6-sp?
And if you are 15-18, definitely NO!! Too much car for one so young and inexperienced. Get familiar w/the ins and outs of driving first, before you attempt to kill yourself, or worse, someone else.

 

Virgin1,
Thanks for the response. Sorry for my lack of information. I am 26 years old. I am an experienced driver. My past 3 cars have been manual, two of which were 250+ hp, so theres no problem there. I'm not really concerned with the performance of the vehicle as I just test drove one. I am more concerned with any common reliability issues that it may have. I'm just trying to ask the public the questions that a salesman would bull**** you on. For example; I mentioned to the sales guy that I wasn't fond that the car took 91 octane and he tried to tell me that I didn't need to. I knew I wouldn't get real answers from this guy. Thanks again for your response.

 

if you are concerned with reliability, get a 2008.5 model. by rule of thumb, the first year or two of any generation of car is subject to review. the second or third is where the bugs are worked out. (this coming from the guy that owns the first year turbo rx7)

 

Ryan,
The biggest problemI know of, besides having all that power in a FWD car of course, is engine mounts. The RS is prone to going away. The good news is that there are several AM suppliers that are frantically making stronger ones... at a price.
A few have had clutch problems. Most that I know of had it replaced under warranty. Only one poster I read said that his dealer refused. It was probably obvious that he was inexperienced w/a clutch or racing the car mercilessly?
Some have complained about the vagueness of the shifter also.New bushings and/or a short shifter can solve this problem too.
The last thing I would say is that much of this information has been culled from, as Wes said, first and second year ('07-08) cars, and mostly '07's at that. I'm sure Mazda doesn't want any more problems than it can handle either and have worked to alleviate these problems. But I will say that motor mounts do seem to be a weak point on the NA 3 also. The RS is hydraulic to reduce vibration and is prone to springing leaks.It's basically an oil filled bag. I have had my own replaced once.