By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
But...I keep an open mind. I just bought an MPV ES for my wife and the 6 is one of the cars I'm considering when my present lease is up a year from now.
I didn't mean it that way. I meant that quoting failure rates as of yet is meaningless because not all of the cars that are going to have transmission failures have actually had the transmission fail. You won't have an accurate failure rate for at least a couple of years.
"also I would rather have a reman tranny than a new one, they are almost always better."
I'd rather have a car that didn't need a reman tranny for a long time. When you spend that much money on a car, you shouldn't have to take it to the dealership and have it torn apart in a major way. Reman trannys should only be better for older cars as updated and more durable parts are usually incorporated into the design.
I also had a 626 turbo that I sold with 144,000 hard miles on it. It had even been stolen once and joy rided. It was never low on coolant, never smelled like coolant, and didn't blow white smoke out of the tailpipe. I wouldn't have even been surprised HAD it blown a head gasket after all of the hard miles, the serious joyride, and the fact that it had a turbo. But the headgasket never blew. Anecdotal, yes. I must have had one of the 10% that didn't blow a headgasket.....
Now, I DID see quite a bit of the Ford 3.8L cars with blown headgaskets. T-birds, Windstars, Mustangs, Continentals, Tauruses (Tauri?), etc.
Also, ask if the deposit is refundable if they sell the car to someone else and get it in WRITTING! If not do NOT make a deposit.
The reason is, while you are waiting for the car something important may come up and you need the money you used as a deposit. It depends on how long the wait will be. We don't know what is going to happen after the first of the year -- if there is a war, interest rates could go up, for example, along with gas prices and other problems.
Don't be too anxious, waiting is always better. The car you want will turn up at some dealer. They are going to make a lot of them and one with "your name on it" (figure of speech) will come off the line. Be patient.
fowler3
Honda even averted the P.R disaster by coming out in advance supporting the product. So you can go ahead and talk all day about the "perceived" failure rate in the now redesigned Honda transmissions.
I understand the Sport Package means it ONLY comes in Black interior. Looking at some inventorys of dealers in the Oregon area, it looks like most of the cars are not the sports package, but they still have either black or grey interior. What happened to the lighter less depressing in my opinion, beige?
Also, does everyone like the 16 inch alloys?
I think they don't look as good as the 17 inch on the Sport Package. And what do you think about polished Chrome wheels? My local dealer only had couple cars and there were Steel Grey. I am waiting to see the blue and the redfire.
Wow, Mazda head gaskets cost about $500-1300 more than I used to spend replacing the gasket on my old Stanza. Hmmm, find that hard to believe.
Does everyone want and like the BLACK Interior?
Maybe not everyone but after owning several cars with black interiors and one with beige I will never own another car with a light interior.
Looking at some inventorys of dealers in the Oregon area, it looks like most of the cars are not the sports package, but they still have either black or grey interior. What happened to the lighter less depressing in my opinion, beige?
I'd think in Oregon with all the rain, dirt and snow (depending on region) one would avoid light interiors like the plague. I live in generally rain free san diego, I park in a garage everynight and still my beige interior shows every little particle of dirt. It's a nightmare. No thanks to that pain ever again.
So negligible that there are threads dedicated to the problem in the maintenance and repair forum. I don't see similiar threads for newer Mazda vehicles. Again, you are trying to imply some sort of low failure rate for which you don't know. Let's talk about this in a couple years.
Haven't seen the 6 yet.
Dinu
Perception is everything.
Dinu
I went and had a custom class I hitch put on my 6i on Saturday. One hour and $175 later I was back on the road. I wasn't able to find the trailer I wanted so I rented a beefy 4x6 for the day. Not knowing how it would pull, I left my DR350 at home but took the kids' PW50 and XR70 along with the gear (900lbs total with trailer) and headed out to El Mirage. Getting there involves going up to 4,500 ft and back down into the high desert. Never did the car run out of power and I easily made 10mph over the speed limit the whole trip. I can't wait to get a lighter trailer so I'll feel better about bringing all 3 bikes.
the 6i rocks...
what is it now, a SPORT UTILITY SPORT SEDAN????
:-D
Anyway, it has California emissions on it. I know this requires low-sulfer gas to be effective, but is the absence of low-sulfer gas bad for the engine? Catalytic converters? Are there any drawbacks besides the $76 initial cost? Lower power output? Anything at all I should know regarding the topic would be helpful.
Thanks to all!
---
For those interested, I paid $400 over invoice - $500 college grad rebate = $17,601 + $25 dealer fee. I will be the owner of the cheapest '6 on this board! I plan to put my own alloys, tires, alarm, and speakers on and in the car- BYO packages :-) I have until THURSDAY to find out if this ULEV stuff is bad- I can still get my down payment back until I take delivery. Thanks again in advance.
Happy christmas to everyone and a merry new year.
Then you may have had a hand in my 1991 white 626. She's got 137,000 miles now and sips a little oil with every other fill-up. Other than that, she's been a fine car.
I'm ready for to go for a brand new 6 but my 626 refuses to let me down.
Just call me lucky.
quick question, in your guesstimate, at least in your team, what's the ratio of output between 6i and 6s???
I'm planning on purchasing a Mazda6 s in the next month or two. I have already taken one for a test drive, and I'm sold on the car. I'm glad to hear you use the words "quality conscious" when referring to your assembly process.
I want to get a fully loaded mazda6s 5-speed manual (leather, moon roof, comfort package, Bose Audio, Sports Package and Air Bag Package). Over here in the southern California a car optioned as such is extremely hard to come by. Fully loaded with automatics are a dime a dozen, every dealer here has at least one or two of them. So my question to you is; what percentage of Mazda6s’s is coming out of the assembly line optioned like I want.
Thanks for your help and Happy Holidays...
To the ratio question I can only guess. But it is a good guess because I work on the engine and subframe line. What we have been seeing is a ratio of about three i's to every one s. I am not sure why, either. You would think more people would be intersted in the s. But I'm sure Mazda did their research.
I think the Mazda bean counters finally gave the controls over to the car people and we're starting to see the results!
Dinu
O, how about this baby. Mazda3 anyone?
http://www.brasilmotor.hpg.ig.com.br/imagens/n1314.jpg
About grey and beige interiors: I prefer the beige because it makes the car look and feel larger inside. It's easy to keep clean if you have on clean clothes when you get in it. Mazda's grey is too dark IMO, it needs to be lighter, Platinum, for better contrast with the Steel Grey and harmonize better with Silver and blue. Ditto for the leather. Look at how many Europen cars have beige with blue. Another thing about the 6, the black dash comes across as dark grey due to the light through the windshield. It doesn't look like the photo in the brochure.
A beautiful car demands an equally beautiful interior. Better choice of fabrics. Maybe Mazda figured most people buying the 6 would be dirty. Food spilled by kids and adults will show on any color -- even black.
In the old days -- 1940s - 1950s -- the first thing a buyer bought for his new car was a set of seat covers. Maybe those days are coming back.
If you are wondering why, it was to save the fabric so it would be clean at trade-in time. But with today's cleaners seat covers aren't necessary.
fowler3
fowler3
http://www.autojournal.de/nam1202/astra/DNA12_Komp_Mazda3.jpg
Here is another look:
http://www.mazda.mms.si/zanimivosti/mazda6-mps/Mazda6MPS07-s.jpg
http://websites.myweb.nl/autoscoops/mazda3.jpg
Did you just say we should see the hatch and wagon in showrooms by JUNE!
Oh, my. No, I'm not excited...
Now just when might we see Sirius Satellite Radio as a FACTORY option?
As fowler3 said, the small bumper could mean extensive frame damage and high repair costs even in a low-impact crash, like hitting a pole for example.
I love my Protege, but that MPS looks great! The bumper is low, the wheels are gorgeous and fit perfectly into the wheel well, the taillights are sporty and it's a HB!
Dinu
Yes, I like the beige or a lighter color interior.
And I have never had much problem with dirt or sports. I currently have beige leather and have not take any extra care, and they still look nice.
I do a fair amount of fast food places and eat in my car.
Now, the front carpet mats are a little different. They are a little harder because I put my dirty shoes on them.
As posted earlier, beige does seem to give a larger car feel and I think it feels more cheerful.
I do think the black cloth may look better than the black leather I saw in a steel grey 6s. I think the Black leather was just too much FOR ME, but yes it is probably what you would call sporty.
And with the Titanium center console, it may be better Black or Grey may be better in the frontal area than beige? Will have to see the beige.