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Comments
Or, as the slogan used to say: "It Just Feels Right".
Have you ever seen that 102 Dalmations ad where the puppy is playing around in the spots with "Bow wow wow yippee yo yippee yay" (Atomic Dog) playing in the background? That's me and my 626 in the rain.
BTW, if you have the automatic ES-V6, the O/D button, if you rev up an instant before you turn overdrive off, can be used like a turbo button.
Of course the local NoCal souped-up Honda's and BMW's can wail me senseless over the long haul, but it's a blast to sneak up behind one as he's doing 80 and acting as if he's mister big stuff, floor it/drop OD and scream past him at a 30 mph differential.
Try this in a BMW...74000 miles, no LEAKS, no BREAKDOWNS, no DAYS IN THE SHOP!
Coincidence, Dave - we also own a 626 V6 ES and a Miata. Small world.
Given you're in MN, I would drop the RWD choices. I love RWD, but you already have a Miata and need something different for when it's not sunny.
So that leaves FWD or AWD. IMO, my main complaint about our 626 is that it feels nose heavy and understeers. FWD is also less fun.
So I'd pick AWD. There are a bunch of fun choices for you - Audi A6 4.2, 2.7T, A4 Avant 2.8 and S4 Avant. BMW 330xi looks fun. The new baby Jag coming soon. I didn't like the XC much, personally, but try it. Don't forget the Subaru Outback VDC and LL Bean, too. Just because the price is low doesn't mean you won't like it. Benz has a 4Matic E class, too. Lots of cool choices, none boring.
Besides the 2 Mazdas, which serve us well, we have a Subaru Forester. It's a great ride, reliable and with loads of character. When it's rainy or snowing, there is absolutely no question in our minds as to which vehicle to take. I've even had it on light trails at local orchards and on the beach in the Outer Banks.
So my advice is to pick something that complements your fleet well. In other words, something very different than the Miata and Focus, like an AWD wagon.
My 2 cents.
-juice
So yeah I think I'll stick with 89.
#17
With a normal fill up from just above the E running 14 gallons that's about $2 difference in a fill up. I'll get about 300-320 miles from that and I fill up 3 or 4 times a month. Call it 4 and you have $8 a month.
$8 a month is pocket change. I'm not sure there is any darned difference between 87 and 91 and I certainly could not explain what it is and what it does to an engine beyond the very basic theory of higher ignition temps but all I know is the very clever people who designed and built the car I paid nearly $20,000 for say it's better to pay an extra $8 a month - a couple of beers at a bar - in gas to keep it running the way they designed it.
I think I'll follow their advice on this one. When that $8 becomes $50 I'll think about worrying about it.
At 15k miles per year, with an average of about 21mpg, I use about 714 gallons of gas per year, or $171 more.
But that's not the real reason. We used to buy premium fuel exclusively. Nothing but the best. Then, right around 60k miles, we started having problems with the fuel system. It was running like a dog.
They cleaned the fuel injectors and that fixed it. But that also meant the supposedly "premium" fuel diet it was on didn't do squat. I ran my Escort for 107k miles on the cheapest regular gas I could find and the fuel system was fine. Never a problem.
Warning: Conspiracy Theory Rant - could all the extra additives in the premium fuel have been the cause of my problems?
Who knows. But I'm saving $171 and have not had any fuel system issues since.
-juice
The four-cylinder, incidentally, doesn't have a sensor of this sort, but then it's tuned to run on the lamest grade of Sunoco swampwater.
Also, Amoco got smacked when they were claiming they removed "harmful impurities" in their Ultimate ads. They had to retract the ads because they were bogus.
I can't feel a difference on our V6. When we got the fuel system serviced and started using 87 octane, it got significantly faster. Though I'm sure it's due to the former.
-juice
I am the newest member of the 626 club. Bought a 626 LX V6 (4 speed Automatic)yesterday (2/28/01) for 19,700+tax and tag. It also has the LX-V6 PREMIUM PKG. I also got 0% financing for 48 months. Do u guys think that is a good deal? I am curious to know...this is my first new car.
Thanks
Also the original dealer had installed something called a Tap Lock- seems to be kind of a backup key less coed entry system ($699!!) We are not sure if our dealer knew it was there- the car was delivered at 1:00 and we picked it up at 2:00. The add on was on a separate sticker from the window sticker taped facing backward on the window sitcker so we didn't notice it. They didn't mention it and didn't charge us for it and we didn't discover it until last night -when we were sitting in the car sniffing that new car smell after the kids went to sleep ! Seems like it could be useful in some weird circumstance but not something I would have payed for. And believe me, we re checked our buyer's order and invoice to make sure! What do you think- is it worth keeping or is it just strange that they didn't mention it? Could it cause some sort of problem?
Anyway thanks for all of your help during this process- maybe I do not hate car shopping as much as I thought!
To panditchee- Sounds to me like you got a great deal!! We payed $20,099 + TT for what sounds like the same car - that was S-plan plus a $500 local rebate and the 0% for 48 months. So you beat what I thought was a really great deal by almost $400! Congratulations and have fun! ZOOM-ZOOM!
To other owners/regulars to this conference- If I am wrong and we didn't get a good deal please do not tell me until next week OK? I want to enjoy this new car/good deal feeling for a little while but then learn from any mistakes for next time! (Not for me, I plan on keeping this car for 8-10 years but my husband will probably have to shop soon!)
Thank you all already for the on-going discussion about grades of gas for this nice car. I suppose I'll experiment and see if I notice a difference in performance. Does anyone have an opinion about whether it's worth watching the gas mileage to see if I get better value for the higher octane, thereby reducing the cost difference?
I do expect, however, that the first few tanks will not necessarily be representative of the next hundred or so, as is fairly typical of new cars.
And Congrats Ray, the V-6 M/T looks like a real sleeper, but really does a number on a few unsuspecting hot rodders. Of course the real joy is being able to keep the RPMs up around the turns and launching out into the straights. I know it's a family sedan, but when I had my V-6 M/T I just couldn't resist.
Happy Motoring!
In December we bought a 2000 LX V6 from Gallo Mazda in Worcester, MA. We have been using 87 in it with no ill affects. Neither of us speeds and with 4,000 mile on the car we are getting 21mpg mixed city/highway. We still have a 1997 626 lX 4 cylinder with 96,000 miles (it is on its 3rd auto transmission, all under warranty. We bought the 2000 with some hesitation but since the engine/transmission are more robust and since we liked the car as much as a Passat we took a chance. In 1979 we bought our first 626, the 80hp sedan, which we kept until 1985 (95,000 miles) when we needed a wagon (A Colt Vista which did not measure up)And I bought a 1982 GLC Sport which we kept for 100,000 plus miles and sold to our baby sitter who used it for for more years.
For a time we switched to Toyota (Camry Wagon, Corolla Sedan and Geo Prizm GSI, my favorite).
Our Subaru Legacy with 146,000 miles is for our kids.But we have been satisfied with our Mazdas and in two years I'll get a Protege ES, the closed thing to my Geo now on the market
(or a used Miata). I've almost never used premium in any of these cars, perhaps one tankful a year if he station is out or regular.
I just extended for 6 months too. Keep in mind that your residual price for the car will decrease accordingly. You don't have too much to lose unless you got a bad deal on the lease...
I don't care - I like wagons. Should be a fine vehicle.
-juice
What's the official name?
Some say the vehicle will be officially called the Protege 5.
BTW the car is a true hatchback, not a wagon.
It used to be the MPS.
What's the current designation? MP3 or Protege MP3?
It seems they can't make their minds.
The Protoge looks like the roof extends back a bit. Not much, but enough to distinguish itself from the sedan.
Check it out here: http://history.mazda.co.jp/Archive/Lineup/FAMILIA-SW.200004/index.html
-juice
PS Familia Station Wagon - doubt they'll give it that name!
Guess it's half way between the two. Sized like a hatchback, though it does stretch a bit further back than the sedan does.
That's cool - more gear fits inside.
-juice
http://www.canadianautoreview.com/la-mazdasportwagonrear-900.jpg
Who cares, though. Looks pretty nice in that color and from that angle.
-juice
the new millenium? This was my First New Car and
am throughly pleased.Our LX has a 4 banger and a
left leg flexor.Does your 6cyl have a clutch?
What do other 626ers think? It would be nice to get some discussion going via this forum. It's been very quiet here lately.
http://www.detnews.com/2001/autos/0103/21/b01-201985.htm
http://www.latimes.com/business/20010321/t000024407.html
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20010321/3159469s.htm
A few notes on the articles proffered:
Who finds the 626 "disappointing"? It's still the top seller in the entire US line, and if it's not moving as many units as a Ford F-series pickup, well, neither is anything else. The current 626 is, however, getting old, and Mazda has been replacing them on a five-year cycle all along, so a new car in 2003 has always been part of the plan. The biggest problem continues to be that Mazda needs a four-cylinder car to draw bargain hunters, but nothing in the company's current box of four-bangers - not even the 155, um, I mean 143-hp Miata mill - is sufficient to motivate the 2900-lb (more or less) 626 with any degree of authority, which definitely casts a pall over the entire Zoom Zoom thing. Of course, with two sixes in the model designation, it should be obvious what the engine offerings should be: a six, and another six. Not going to happen, though. The new 2.3 in the B2300 truck is good for 150 hp, which should be considered the minimum number of ponies acceptable. I like the current 2.0, but I think it will serve out the rest of its days in the Protegé.
The Millenia looks to be dead, and it's perhaps just as well; this platform was conceived about ten years ago and nothing else is going to be built on it anyway, and with the rotary coming back, Mazda doesn't need two gee-whiz engines.
I haven't been in any of the rebadged Ford Rangers that Mazda passes off as B-series trucks these days, but there's a decent amount of differentiation between the Escape and Tribute siblings, even with quasi-identical powertrains. And the current 626 has about 70 percent North American content, suggesting that a lot of these parts are showing up in Fords also, but hardly anyone who's driven a 626 seems to find it particularly Fordlike. (My old '93 had a mercurial temperament, but that's another issue entirely.) Even the CD4E transmission baked into these cars (and the Tribscape) seems to act like a Mazda slushbox, though I miss the old HOLD button. So I'm not that worried that the Essence of Mazda, whatever that's supposed to be, is somehow going to be diluted in a sea of Ford blue; if anything, we may actually see a Taurus learn to, um, Zoom.
Don't believe everything you read on a forum, especially if it doesn't have references. Also make sure you have the latest Ford plan and not the previous version of it. I expect Ford to use some common platforms for Fords and Mazdas but they could use a Mazda platform for some sizes and a Ford platform for other sizes. The Tribute/Escape vehicle was developed by Mazda. The B series pickup was developed by Ford. The Ford Aspire was developed by Mazda and built by Kia. The other products sold in the U.S., at least for Model Year 2001, are still separate. There is no more Contour platform since the Contour is out of production. There is a new Mondeo platform in Europe which is supposed to be a big improvement over the previous Mondeo platorm.
In a way, I think windowphobe6 is right that Mazda has and probably will continue to rub(bed) off on Ford. The problem is ensuring that Mazda is influenced by the good things about Ford (and not the bad). The problem with the auto transmission in the 4-cylinder 626 (93-97), which Windowphobe6 is very knowledgeable about, is a debacle that should not be allowed to repeat itself. This problem, which hurt Mazda's reputation, has since been fixed in the ewer models.
There's no doubt that Ford stepped in when Mazda was drowning and faced extinction; they've helped to keep the company afloat. Nonetheless, consumers who have had problems with American cars in the past tend to regard the link between Ford and Mazda as being problematic.
Could anyone further elaborate on this platform business? Are Ford platforms inherently bad or good? What's the difference between Ford's and other platforms?
On this Contour business: the Contour/Mystique was in fact built as a US version of the '93-up Ford Mondeo, a European product. (And they, too, got the CD4E tranny.) Speculation has been rampant - I know, because I've done some of it - that the next 626 would be cloned from the next Mondeo. The Contour, regrettably, has been allowed to die, and the Mystique put out of its mysery as well, so if Mazda is really going to do the sixth-generation 626 (or whatever it's called) at Flat Rock on a platform to be shared with Ford and/or Mercury, the only thing North America may get out of the next Mondeo would be the new entry-level Jaguar. (And doesn't that sound funny?)
Come 2004 or 2005, the Protegé and Focus will likely share a platform. I don't consider this a problem, since both of these cars are worthy. (I got some seat time in two Foci last year, and they can Zoom Zoom just fine, thank you very much.) Still, I don't expect them to be identical. Consider the one thing the cars currently share - the automatic transmission design, to which both companies contributed. Ford's 4F27E and Mazda's FN4A-EL have the same case and some of the same design parameters, but you can't bolt a Focus tranny into a Protegé, or vice versa.
The CD4E story deserves more attention than it's gotten, and we may never know all of the horrible details, but this isn't the first transmission (not even the first Ford transmission) that had teething problems, and both Mazda and Ford could have done more, I think, for the customers who got stuck with version 1.0. There is a small community of '94-'97 Ford Probe owners who have dumped the CD4E and replaced it with a stick, something which is supposed to be next to impossible, but which I find curiously gratifying. And as for current CD4Es, well, I have one, so obviously I don't think it's a time bomb. On the other hand, I don't think much of Mazda's nonadvice on tranny maintenance, and I've said so more than once, and both Ford and Mazda know it.
What makes a platform good? To my way of thinking, it has to be designed in such a way that the buyer of the stripper version isn't made to feel like a cheapskate for not having spent the extra seven grand (or whatever) for the higher-lux edition. A tricky business, but it can be done. Right now, a 626 with the V6 will blow right past my lowly four-banger on the straightaways, but I bet I can stay with it through the twisty bits; more money buys a bigger motor and (sensibly) bigger brakes, but decent handling is baked into this chassis. GM, on the other hand, would have made suspension upgrades optional and probably would have had the option-package designation painted on a quarter-panel somewhere. Ford knows better than that; even the low-end Contour was a decent ride. The Focus with the SPI engine is slower and grumpier but no less tossable than the Zetec-equipped version. And surely no one thinks less of the Lincoln LS for not being a Jaguar S-Type.
Second, when asked by the press who has the best built cars, Jac Nasser said, "the Japanese do".
The original post mentioning all the platform sharing woes was just way off base. Don't forget that the Ford group includes: Ford, Linc-Merc, Mazda, Jaguar, Volvo, Range Rover and Aston-Martin. With Mazda and Volvo having hot beds of excellent engineering, expect some very nice platforms to emerge. Also, a platform sharing doesn't mean that the vehicles will look, handle or brake the same. It just means that that there are many shared components and it doesn't mean that Ford DNA will be in every vehicle.
Platform sharing means that with higher volume, a maker can build better cars for less. I don't think anyone should fear the 2003 626 as I am sure it will be superior to the current version and it won't have the CD4E.
On a side note, it would be nice to see a mx6-like coupe in the future, just in case any Mazda officials monitor this forum. Although I like the extra space in the 2000 626, I really don't need all that room. Since I like compact cars, I would have bought the protege, but since it doesn't offer a v6, I went for the 626.
Wheels falling off? C'mon, is this normal for a Mazda?
Also, it seems like we'll have fewer choices.
We'll trade our 626 in for a non-Mazda if the new one is basically a Ford (owning two of those in a life time is enough for me).
-juice
Cross-platform sharing is something that should be done. The Jaguar S-Type and Lincoln LS are built on the same platform. The upcoming Jaguar X-Type is being built on the Ford Mondeo platform. The 1991-2000 Escorts were built on the Protege platform. The current Protege is built on the Mazda Capella platform, and the upcoming RX-8 will be built on a modified Miata platform. Cross-platform sharing reduces cost significantly. And just because two cars share the same platform, it doesn't mean they'll use the same engine.
Although I would love to blame the Tribute/Escape woes solely on Ford, I cannot. The Tribute/Escape are built on a Mazda platform, with most of their bodies and mechanicals designed by Mazda. The current MPV has gone through more than it's fair share of recalls, again a Mazda design with a Ford powerplant. One has to realize that these vehicles are all-new built in all-new factories with all-new equipment. Mistakes are expected, but not accepted. At least Ford/Mazda are recalling the vehicles right away, unlike some other companies which sit on the problems (GM and Mitsubishi come to mind) until a government agency forces them to take action.
From some of the more recent reports I have read, the new 626 will ride on an all-new platform and serve as a basis for the next redesign of the MPV and the upcoming Nextourer-based cross-over vehicle. Besides, even if the 626 moves to the Mondeo platform, it will be all the better for it. The current Mondeo platform is a world-class platform, as is the Focus. Mazda can still bolt-on their own engines and suspension to them.