klapamos

Hey all,

I was considering picking up a 2008 or 2009 Mazdaspeed 3 as a daily driver since they can be had for about 10K with just under 100K miles. I of course would keep my beloved 2001 S2K! Any thoughts or experiences with these cars? I like that the car is a sleeper! I plan to avoid the 2007 due to some known turbo issues. I have also considered a WRX but used prices are high and buying new is a little more than I would like to spend. I also plan to avoid the 2nd generations MS3 due to subjective looks and poor rear driver side visibility. Looking forward to your opinions!

Billj747

I really like them. Great cars and a lot of fun to drive and quite useful as a DD.

fusionchickenleg

Expect torque steer and IIRC the gearing is quite short. Also stock exhaust sounds great but surprisingly drones pretty significantly for rear seat passengers.

It's been almost 5-6 years since I've driven one but these are the things that stood out in my memory. Always loved the way they looked.

I would do a WRX wagon IMO, there's a reason Subarus hold their values pretty well, just gotta do a pre-purchase inspection like you would with any cars around that price range and make sure you're not buying someone else's problems.

Billj747

The torque steer is a bit over exaggerated IMO. I've driven 450whp MS3s and they were hardly uncontrollable or tried to yank the wheel out if your arms. MS3s are tuner friendly and quite convenient. If I'm not in the snow, I'd probably pick one over an understeering WRX.

Nerd-Vol

I had a 2007 for about 5 years. I LOVED it. The car will put you back in the seat and it handles nicely. Get an intake, stiffer rear motor mount and call it a day.

Damn I miss that car.

shrykhar

hey, are you on opposite lock too?

Nerd-Vol

Ive been known to dabble on Oppo.

budgy

Still have my 2008, car has been solid, 165,000 km mostly city driving and I drove this car hard when it was new, 2nd gear clutch dumps @ redline for fun. Raced a lot, aggressive shifts into 3rd grind easy. Had two purge valves fail $20 replacement part, takes 1 minute to replace. Valve cover gasket leaked a little bit, replacement was easy and cheap $100. Clutch slave cylinder leaked, replaced for $150. Rear dampers are known not to last super long, good to replace them with aftermarket dampers, I have Koni yellows in the back that are doing great and were pretty cheap $250. I would say the biggest design flaw with the 1st gen cars is just rear wheel well rust. If you live in a place with salted roads I would inspect that to make sure its been reasonably well maintained.

Other issues are just that the car makes a fair bit of rear suspension noise but its not worth attempting to fix most of the time.

Pro's: Cars are cheap, cheap to maintain and own. Reasonably good on gas, I usually get close to 500km on about 47 litre fill ups and again mostly city driving. They handle great, are torquey and have excellent passing power, faster than stock Evo X's (with 5 speed) on highway rolls. Sounds good for a 4 cylinder turbo. Interior is excellent for a cheaper, now older car. Bose system honestly sounds better than a lot of higher end car audio I have heard.

suprmonky73

I have a 2nd gen, which has the same drivetrain. It's been a really solid car for a daily driver. Which is saying a lot coming from an s2000, which both of mine were very reliable.
The torque is really nice once you hit 3000 rpm. If you're not prepared for it, the car will point you off the road when the torque comes on.
My wife drove it for the first year of my sons life, while the back seats arent very roomy, it got the job done. Trunk is also pretty good size.
MPG is decent, but its at turbo 4 cylinder so if you drive it like you stole it, you're gonna be getting 20mpg or less (like me).

We also had a 2007 mazda3 sedan which shares the same interior as the gen1 you're looking at. It's nothing special but its decent enough to get the job done, same as the s2000 was IMO.
I would recommend getting one if you test drive it and like what you see.

asrautox

I had one. Loved it!! Look for a 2008.5 or 2009 with Bose as those are more desirable. Intake, Fuel pump, DP, Tune and they are solid 320-340whp cars on e40. Very easy to tune and keep the torque low to save the rods. Great, fun, cheap cars!!