Looking at Mazda3 Again
- Thread starter ZeeOSix
- Start date
Not that I have heard of. The previous owner driving routine will have the biggest effect like lots of short trips.
Was that 2.0L MZR/Ford Duratech engine made by Mazda and put in the Focus, or made by Ford and put in the Mazda3 ?
The finished engines were made by their respective companies, I'm not sure if the short blocks were made at the same place or not, technically they're different engines since the heads and ecu are specific to their respective manufacturer.
Our 2009 Mazda5 with the 2.3 has various Ford- branded components.
I've heard the engine is a Mazda design. If built by Ford, it would have to cross the Pacific twice.
It's been a very good engine paired with the 5-speed manual.
Yes
How many miles do you have on her?
203,000 km - about 126,000 miles
The only vehicles I've owned that broke 200,000 miles were both Mazda MPV vans - the '90 (2.6 l 3-valve SOHC inline-4) was written off after an accident at 326,000 km (c. 202,000 miles), and the '97 (3.0 l 3-valve SOHC V6) went to the boneyard at 344,000 km (c. 215,000 miles) due to rust and vandalism.
The drivetrains were still good in both vehicles. I did a head gasket in the 4-banger at 256,000 km (c. 159,000 miles).
That's cool. I have an 09 Mazda 5 with ~130,000 miles. It has been a great car.
Found this 2010 Mazda3 Touring ... going to check it out tomorrow. 99K miles, but it looks to be in decent shape from all the dealer photos. Here's a few outside shots. It's "Liquid Silver Metallic" with black cloth interior. 5-speed auto transmission. Engine compartment photo looks good from what I can see - no rusty strut mount bolts like I see on some I've looked at. Alloy wheels. Should be no rust on this car since it always lived on the west side of the Cascades in the PNW.
The 2.3 in my 07 has got fomoco stamped all over it. I have my suspicions its not the original engine that came with the car as the engine bay has the "everything has been touched" look. Been a reliable car regardless.
My issue with these cars isn't the car. It's the excessive pricing that they are asking for a vehicle with that many miles.
Yep, supply and demand. The used Mazda3 seems to be a used car that's highly sought after. The nice ones I see are ushally sold in a week or two at most. Looking at KBB dealer listing prices, the dealers are typivally listing them for about $800-$1000 above the high "fair value" range. So if the high side of the KBB dealer fair markwt price range was $8000, the dealers would be initially asking $9000. Im sure most would come down some. I won't ever pay initial asking price.
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I inherited a 2016 Mazda 2 with a four cylinder engine and a FOUR speed automatic transmission. To tell the truth, I don't even know what size motor is in it! But all I can say is that it runs, and runs and runs! We seldom used it until the price of gas hit $4 about 2 years ago but since then I've been driving it almost exclusively and I now PREFER it over my F-150 or any of my other cars for driving in town. I've heard a lot of complaints about Mazda's six speed auto being sluggish but the four speed auto certainly isn't. Even with the small engine it drives like a sports car; you punch it and it GOES! I love driving this car in town, it's peppy and it's small enough that I can park it anywhere and it's short enough that I can turn 360 degrees in the middle of the street if I need to. Other than replacing the battery I've had zero trouble with anything in the car and there is no sign or rust of other problems. The motor revs pretty high at highway speeds and the car is noisy and sort of bouncy at high speeds so I wouldn't necessary recommend it for someone that does a lot of highway driving but for around town, it's been great!
My 2 cents worth,
Just curious - 2.0, 2.3, or 2.5?
Edit: Duh! I see that you said it's the 2.3. We have the same in the '09 Mazda5.
I also loved the 1.6 in our late great 2001 Protege.
That's what I recall but I will check the OM when I drive it again. And it is a 1.5 liter engine. To tell the truth, it's not a special car to me so I never paid any particular attention to the specs. I just get in it and go.
For simple basic transportation, it's been a great little car and much more fun to drive and more useful than I expected. I would recommend one.
In case anyone wants clarification: Although FoMoCo had a stake in Mazda at the time, the Duratec line of 4-cylinder engines were nothing more than tweaked versions of the Mazda MZR engine family. Yes, many under hood components are stamped with FoMoCo part numbers however the basic 2.0/2.3/2.5 Duratec engines are all MZR. The main differences: Mazda utilized a physical coolant temperature sensor, while Ford chose to use a cylinder head temperature sensor.
Also, Mazda utilized an electro-hydraulic power steering system in most of their MZR equipped models. Ford, OTOH, stuck with a traditional belt driven system.
Engine aside, the Ford C/D platform underpinned MULTIPLE models spread across several brands. Volvo, Mazda, Land Rover, Jaguar... each produced a model based on the same platform at one point or another. That's why there's Land Rover LR2's sporting Volvo 3.2 I6's, Range Rover's equipped with AJ-V8's, and Ford Focus' and Fusion's running Mazda MZR engines.
