18 months in 1.6 petrol Takuya

[speedy mazda]

well I was lucky the stone or flint had just made little hole on inside so a patch plug curred it £18 was better than another £90.

[StevenRB45]

Well I've just discovered a nail in the Michelin's on the ds3 if it's not repairable that'll be the 4th pilot exalto we've lost on that car in 8000 miles.. so it's not just a Goodyear problem.

Anyway back to the 3 which continues to amaze...all I can see is my brakes and tyres must always have been marginal to poor as every time I turn onto a back road I've not travelled since the change over I'm surprised all over again. Torque steer has gone, tramlining has gone, braking is not only is improved by new discs and pads but it no longer pulls the wheel with the cambers. Rather kicking myself for not doing it sooner...

[StevenRB45]

Still not got a Goodyear puncture *touch wood*.


However bent a wheel, broke a drop link and a tie rod all on the same corner...

I hate pot holes, but the wheel is hardly bent (bead where the tyre sits is a little out) and the rest of the damage was fixed for 70 odd quid.

[StevenRB45]

So 48 months and 32k miles in (car is slighlty under 70k miles now and 7 years old in September).

Still on original battery, been topped up with distilled water a few times. Monitoring it with an AA car genie and it's happy with it.

Drivers seat bolster is starting to come to bits, cover is fine but foam particles are starting to come out of the bottom. Could probably do with a trip to a trimmer if I was that precious about it.

3 of 4 anti roll bar links have been replaced now, and it made a large difference, especially the rear ones when the tired ones were swapped out despite them being capable of passing an MOT.

Otherwise underside looks a bit second hand these days with a lot of surface corrosion but this is northern England and they salt the roads six months a year. As do the wheel centres.

In terms of mechanical reliability it's still got a blemish free record including all the toys.

Few things I've noticed recently, if you have a rear facing isofix car seat in it then the front passenger has to have their seat back fairly upright. Also the isofix points are well hidden in the seat making it a bit of a faff to install. That and shopping + buggy requires careful packing.

No plans to ditch it for pretend off roader just yet though..just requires a little thought if you are going out for the day. However if you had 2 young kids I can't beleive I'm saying it..but it might be a bit small!

[StevenRB45]

Still keeping on keeping on after 60 months and 43k.

Drop link number 4 died, it's showing signs of the dreaded iron oxide in the rear arches but it's just so bloody faithful can't be really angry with it. It's on basically 80k now, recently fitted a new set of tyres which along the droplink has made it feel like a new car again.

Never underestimate the effect of tyres and worn suspension components in making a good car feel paggered. Otherwise it's suffered a bit at the hands the elements and my family but best car I've ever owned.

[Engineer Andy]

Still keeping on keeping on after 60 months and 43k.

Drop link number 4 died, it's showing signs of the dreaded iron oxide in the rear arches but it's just so bloody faithful can't be really angry with it. It's on basically 80k now, recently fitted a new set of tyres which along the droplink has made it feel like a new car again.

Never underestimate the effect of tyres and worn suspension components in making a good feel paggered. Otherwise it's suffered a bit at the hands the elements and my family but best car I've ever owned.

Don't worry too much about the rust - my gen-1 car started to get the odd spot about 5 years ago, but has barely got any worse since.  Just keep the area reasonably clean and it should be fine.  Mine also (lower mileage though) has had the odd suspension part changed (links, bars, bushes) and I also noticed the significant improvement new tyres had (especially with my recent 2nd change going to higher profile tyres as I needed to change the alloys, and the 15in ones were far cheaper) on ride quality, hopefully putting off me needing to changed the front springs/dampers for a few more years at least.  Admitedly some corrosion on the front springs was identified as a minor item on my last MOT, so I'll be keeping an eye on that. £600+ if I recall the estimate to change them out.

I'm glad your gen-2 car has been similarly well engineered to last.  Let's hope Mazda keep this going with the later versions.

[StevenRB45]

At the miles/age I'm expecting more and more little jobs to pop up.

Things like trackrods, bushes, wishbones, dampers and springs don't last forever with the state of the roads. Then there's stuff like CV boots and brake pipes which time takes a toll on.

It's still in the main dealer network currently because I can usually guarantee it'll go in for a service and MOT and come out with a clean bill of health. If it started needing repairs at service time I'd stop using them cos although they are reasonable for the service, parts prices are brutal.

But through the year I look after it, all new noises get investigated..by my local independent garage for about a 3rd of the cost. So generally it turns up at the dealer and they find nothing wrong with it *touch wood*.

The reason I don't use the independent for everything is that while repairs are cheap the servicing costs the same as Mazdas (once they put the old car incentive on) if not more!

They are not the cheapest in the area but having used most of the cheap ones in my time with Fiats I prefer to take it to somewhere I trust to do the job correctly, first time.

[speedy mazda]

I’ve had  two problems this year ABS unit needed sending away to have a new motor fault code c0020:1c-68. Cost over £500 at an Indy garage . Recently had a front near side brake calliper stick on rust under the perished rubber seal.Replaced the calliper myself cost £37  off eBay from a local company in Norwich plus a bottle of brake fluid .The abs unit is not made in Japan by Mazda think they are German , and the old brake calliper had fomoco on it 😀

[StevenRB45]

Everything has Fomoco on it, even the Japanese stuff.

But think my 2 fears are Abs pump and something going wrong on the climate control system. As both would be expensive fixes.

Abs pump was industry standard at the time and is fitted to most VAG cars of the same era, its similarly crap in them too.

Both are things that might happen at any time..or not so no point worrying especially given theres not really anything you can do to reduce risk or mitigate it.