I just bought a 2000 black/gray 626 for my Son and I. It will serve as a spare car/winter car so that he does not have to drive his prized Eldorado in the snow here in Mass. It was going to be donated by my neices boyfriend because it had 117k miles on it. He gets a car allowance for work, and he felt the car owed him nothing. I bought it for $500.00.
It needs a couple of things to be perfect, but I will put the money in the car because he maintained it so well. He handed me a stack of oil change receipts from when the car was new. He never went over 3k miles with the oil. And of course the transmission is suspect. I googled Mazda 626 transmission and saw how much bad luck some people have had with them, but I am prepared to put $1900.00 into
a tranny, the car is so nice. Also, the front sway bar is banging like crazy !!!! I have to see what is up with that, wow it bangs like crazy over any small bump.
Now a few questions:
Is $1900 what I should expect for a rebuilt transmission ?
My car has a factory rear spoiler, was that an option on the LX 4cyl. model ?
Are these engines 200k mile engines as I would expect, with the proper maintenance ?
I hate the original hubcaps. Can I put 16' rims on it, will they fit ? and where is the
best place to get them ? I want to put stock alloy rims on it.
Or, did they make a 15' alloy wheel for my car ?
The body is truly an 8.5 out of 10, and the interior is about an 8 out of 10, how was
my purchase price considering I do have to fix some stuff ?

Thanks in advance,
Mark and Mike