Excellent
Other than general maintenance, nothing has gone wrong.
Very comfortable and spacious interior.
Tons of fun to drive, handles very well.
Extremely reliable.
Great fuel mileage.
Peppy V6 with great response.
Very nice to look at.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 10th March, 2011
All the fun you can get out of it is PRICELESS!
Mechanical:
When I first bought this car, I brought her to my garage and did a nice tune up. Spark plug, wires, oil change, gas filter change, air filter, etc. 300$ of parts.
And the car ran perfectly for almost a year until one of my front bearing started to make a lot of noise. I replace the front passenger side bearing (90$) and unfroze booth of the rear caliper. Replaced caliper booth (9$ ea.), disk (20$ ea.) and brake pads (had a spare set).
And then a few moths passed before something else broke down. I had a leaky valve cover gasket. I replaced the gasket (30$), the spark plug (20$) and the wires (100$).
Now a few weeks later, what I've been expecting to break down finally broke down. Distributor failure! Replaced the distributor with a 3 months warranty rebuilt one (250$) and cap + rotor (50$).
Interior/Exterior:
I had a leaky trunk. But it took 20 minutes to fix and 5$ of material.
My antenna broke at 130MPH. I should have turned off the radio I guess.
The radio started to go wrong.
The passenger side window motor is slowly dieing.
This car only has common and expected problems. I do all the repairs myself, and it's really cheap to fix anything on this car.
Makes a decent noise, and also has a nice acceleration. Pulls very hard, no matter what RPM and gear you're at.
It handles quickly around the corner, and outruns most Civics and Mustangs.
It's really comfortable for the front passenger, but the back seats are not made for tall people. However there's still enough place for 2 kids.
This car is a head turner. Always getting mistaken for a 2000+ model, and getting great comments about it.
Don't bother asking me if she's for sale. The answer is NO!
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 17th June, 2008
Very sexy and sleek ride, but..
Had to change CV boots on both sides along with one of the trans axles @ 125 000 km.
Needed new 2 rotors replaced along with passenger side wheel bearing @ 130 000 km.
Replaced passenger window motor.
Replaced water pump and timing belt at 135 000 km.
Head gasket blew 2 months after water pump was fixed.
Near the end of my ownership of the vehicle the car would have an overheating problem. The fan that cools the engine was not coming on in time, and at stop lights it would gradually start to overheat. Had to run the heater to cool it back down to a normal temperature. Also the check engine light kept coming on and off at about 155 000 km and eventually stayed on until I got rid of the car.
I bought this car because of its looks, also because I didn't want to buy the typical sports car that millions of other teens had already. I had a previous MX6 (1989) and fell in love with the MX-6 and Mazda as a brand.
It is a very sexy sleek car and the ladies love it! Its quite fast and leaves most sport coupes in the dust. It handles very well in the summer or in nice weather. The MX-6 comes with a great stock stereo system. It is a seriously hot ride, but at a price...
With that said the car was a mechanical nightmare. Everything that could break practically did. I omitted some minor work because the list is so large. I must have poured at least $5000 into this car while I had it. I suggest that you be pretty well off before you purchase one of these baby's.
I still loved the car and enjoyed ripping around in it, but now that I look back at it I think think that it was'nt worth all the stress I went through. It was quite tough as a student to keep up with the repair bills. I would suggest this car to a young professional who has money to spare and enjoys little sport coupes.
Pro's - Fast, good looking, pretty good fuel economy, Sporty, nice paint job, big trunk, great stock stereo, Great engine and transmission.
Con's - Very dangerous in the winter, practically no back seat leg room, only one cup holder, rusts underneath heavily, Costs a lot for parts and repairs, not too comfy on trips over 2 hours long, would not like to be in a serious accident in one (the car is very low), stick shifter is too long,
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 21st July, 2004
I didn't know about the steel in the doors and this helps a lot because I worried about a side impact in a 95 car that is somewhat small. So now I'm leaning to keeping my mx-6 and putting some money into repairs vs putting a lot of money into buying a comperable new auto.
I'm glad I found this discussion since I am seriously considering buying a 97 Mazda Mx-6. The car looks attractive and it handled well on the test drive, but I'm unused to driving low cars (I've only driven 2 small SUVs and a large sedan). I am also worried about traction during the winter since I drive in the Pennsylvania mountains where the snow can get tricky. The car is in great condition with 95,000 miles, and its priced under $4,000. This seems like a pretty good price for this car and its fully loaded in the inside too. Is this a good first car to get for a student? Thumbs up or down?!
Interesting to read the comments above about repair bills etc. I've just bought a '97 MX6 having had one as a company car when they first came out ('92?) and really liked it. Clearly a new car will have far less problems than a 10 year old one, but I would have thought that if it was prone to excessive mechanical problems they would show up even on a new car. Mine never had any problems other than a few annoying build-quality things - e.g. things working loose, strange whistling apparently from the windscreen that turned out to be a loose rear spoiler (!). I have since discovered that they are manufactured in the US, not Japan, which obviously accounts for it.
14th Jan 2005, 21:32
After reading this review I found myself wondering if the reviewer had actually driven an MX6!!! It would take too long to comment on every point, so here is the concluding para...
"Con's - Very dangerous in the winter," So is any car!!
"practically no back seat leg room," it's a sports coupe show me a sports coupe that has decent leg room, at least you can get 2 adults in the back!!
"only one cup holder" Oh please : (
"rusts underneath heavily" Mines 10 years old only a few spots.
"Costs a lot for parts and repairs" Only if you're stupid enough to go to a Mazda dealer, personally I use a local mechanic, who is the DB's.
"not too comfy on trips over 2 hours long" Eh??? and the rest is total drivel this review needs deleting. So have about it Steve???
Richard Boyd.