Faults:

Nothing. Zip. Zero. The car is serviced by an independent mechanic who is great!

General Comments:

The car was bought from an elderly gentleman and has had an easy life.

Bad Points:

Reversing the car is very difficult as you sit too low, and the rear parcel shelf is high, so rear visibility is rubbish.

The car is very plain looking, apparently to appeal to a wide range of buyers as I believe Mazda as a company weren't doing too well in the late 90s. Dash is an awful grey with a hole in the middle for a (?) CD player, but actually there is a CD stacker in the boot and it works well.

A bit hard to get in and out of from the front seats, and your hands slide on the velour fabric if you hang onto the seat.

Seems to use a bit too much fuel. Auto transmission can dither at times... more so when driving the car gently.

Turning circle is huge, unlike the rear wheel drive Mazdas of the 70s that turned on a dime.

Good Points:

Utterly reliable.

Very good acceleration; particularly from rest. Don't buy the smaller 1.6L if you can. Zoom Zoom indeed!

CD AND tape player with impressive sound.

HUGE amount of rear legroom.

HUGE boot and the seats fold down!

Handles brilliantly. Absolutely no need to slow down for corners.

Faults:

ECU burnt out at about 135,000 due to a short at the alternator.

Original tappet cover gasket started to leak into the spark plug well at about 140,000.

General Comments:

I bought this car from a little old lady (gospel truth) who in 8 years had only put on 40,000 kms. I've just added another 100,000 to it and it's still going strong.

I put in a K&N panel filter for a bit better breathing, and a larger pipe for the CAI. Got it moving a bit better too.

About 10,000k's ago I felt that the shockers weren't really working so great, so I replaced them, and while at it I put in lowered King coils. This lowered it about 50mm, and it hugs in nice in the corners now.