Faults:

- My rear wiper is not working anymore.

- Sometimes my fuel pump would make weird noise on rare occasion. BTW I've never ran out of fuel or got extremely low on the tank.

- Premature rust under all 4 doors.

- Excessive wear on shift knob.

- Excessive wear on driver seat.

- Spray nozzles gone bad.

General Comments:

Pro:

- Handling is almost spectacular for its class

- Steering feel is sharp

- Good suspension compromise

- Room space is good

- Exterior and interior design well done

- Smooth shifting

- Good clutch feel

- MSRP cheaper than rivals like Accord & Camry

- People dig my Blazing Cooper color

Con:

- Thirsty for a 2.3 4bangers

- Low on torque

- Road noise

- Interior not cheap, but so so materials

- Oversensitive TCS

Probably not the finest piece of engineering, but more than the overall car with very few flaws. I wouldn’t say I love this car like my previous Prelude 98, but I appreciate every single quality out of it...

Faults:

Was making a weird fan noise, and shifted very poorly when we first got it. Took it to the dealer; they updated the transmission software, and replaced the fan control. Problem solved; never came back. Shifts great now.

General Comments:

This has been a great car.

It comfortable seats five adults, and has a plenty of room in the cargo area.

Great power when going up hills and over the mountains.

Steering is light and predicable.

Seats are very comfortable, especially in the back.

Ours has leather, sun roof, heated seats, Bose stereo, and all the bells whistles, all the accessories have held up well.

The dash and some of the trim pieces are starting to show wear, but nothing that needs replacing.

All in all, this has been about 90% of what our 98'Audi A4 was, but without the issues, and roomier.

Faults:

Front brake pads worn out at 39k miles. Other than that, it has only needed the routine maintenance that would apply to any car. The brake pads were the only "issue" in the 15 months that we've owned the car.

General Comments:

Very smooth power, and nicely optioned too. Ours has leather, sunroof, and a Bose stereo that will peel the skin off of you if you turn it up loud! The in-dash CD changer is a GREAT option for long trips as well. I love the looks of the car, too. The only thing that I would change about this car would be for it to have rear wheel drive. If that were so, it would be the perfect! The only ergonomic flaw that I've found is the atrocious rear-3/4 vision. Backing up, or changing lanes, can be dicey due to the car's high rear haunches. I've simply learned to be careful when backing or changing lanes! Nice car on the whole, though... glad we bought it.

Faults:

Nothing (yet...knock on wood)

General Comments:

It's exactly what we were looking for, and for the price, we've got options and comfort that would cost much more from other manufacturers. A very nice, sporty looking car, that makes me a bit nervous because I know thieves are on the lookout for these types of models! We just gave it a good 1400km round-trip to NYC, and it performed really well. Great passing power, especially if you drop into 3rd instead of 4th, which is safe up to about 120km/h (73mph). I just wish the speed limit on I87 was higher than 65mph. If anything, I wouldn't mind a little better acceleration at lower RPM, and possibly slightly better gas mileage (my last '95 manual 626 I4 got about 33 miles a gallon!). After a great experience with this '95, and a horrible experience with an automatic '96 626, I was willing to give Mazda another chance. So far, so good.