Hey all!

So after 235k miles of faithful service, my dear 98 escort wagon dropped a valve seat and I've made the heavy hearted decision to declare that it's just not financially sensible to keep it on the road any longer.

I've known the day has been coming for a while now, and had already decided on what my next car would be - a 2004-2007 mazda 3 hatch, 5 spd std trans.

As it's harder to find a std. trans hatch, i've resorted to looking all over the country, and whichever one ends up being the number 1 option I'll end up flying there and road tripping home, as I'm on break from school until the 20th.

I've compiled a pretty extensive excel doc to narrow down my choices, and now I come to you guys to ask exactly what I need to know to help narrow down the process.

Things that would be nice to know being:

- Common problems/failures
-how difficult/expensive is the remedy
- is it mileage dependent
- common rust areas

- Major service intervals and what should be/should have been done at such intervals

- Anything else that you may feel is worthwhile knowing

Also knowing what one should expect to pay for such mileage/year would be helpful.

Now please nobody go and try snagging one under my feet, thats just an ******* move

But here's such list:


I was going to gun for the first one, 51k, great cond. and the folks were only selling as they were moving to europe, but it sold this morning after being up for sale for two days. I was BUMMED. But being 2500 miles away made it kinda hard to get enough info and pics before I booked a flight to scoop it up.

Thanks all, and I look forward to being a part of this community!

Chris

 

Avoid the 2004 completely and try for something very low mileage. Problems can rack up fast over 60,000 miles and the yearly expense can be astounding.