21st Nov 2006, 05:10

Wow - this car is just amazing. I have the 1.5l model also (5 door hatchback). I bought it in May 2005 (its now Nov 2006) and it just keeps going and going. It has 150,000 mile on the clock and from what I can see (and hear) performance is great, I'm still getting about 35mpg (and I drive it fairly hard).

It starts first time, every time, without fail. My mum had the previous model (1.6l, with pop-up lights, great car too) and I just love the looks. The only thing that I have dome with this 11 year old car is replace the radio, but that's because the original had no CD player, there was nothing wrong with the original one. It's fairly amazing if you think that an 11 year old car had electric windows, speakers in rear doors, and loads of other gadgets which all still work perfectly. Some higher end cars with all these fancy gadgets, well lets face it - the fancy gadgets kept breaking - but not with the old reliable, affordable Mazda.

Some people say that a problem with Jap cars is that the parts are more expensive than others (Reno, Ford etc) but here's the thing - Nothing ever breaks - so in fact the Jap cars are cheaper to run and service.

The only negative thing I would say is that if you are over 6 foot tall, it might not suit you as it's a sexy low car that suits my round 5.4 figure perfectly. I for one am going to keep this Mazda for as long as possible and then buy another one after that.