Faults:

Brakes: needed new calipers, and rear brakes need a total overhaul.

Front end makes a crunching sound when I turn the wheel to the right. As to be expected, considering the high mileage. Guess I need new bushings.

Tranny slips slightly. Was rebuilt years ago. Still performing its task for the most part.

The heat shield located below the spark plug cables gets very hot and burns the spark plug wires. They are still elevated (not directly laying on the heat shield), however I keep a close eye on this.

General Comments:

The seats to me are very comfortable. The 4 cylinder still has decent acceleration and runs strong. To my surprise, the engine does not overheat here in Alabama with our heavy summertime humidity, and having almost 160,000 logged on the odometer.

I change the spark plugs each year using NGK. For some reason when it idles, the RPM bounces around between 500 and 800 occasionally.

It has air conditioning, but I don't use it, and I'm not willing to pay the outlandish fees to have it upgraded.

It's been a decent car, and is still running strong considering its age and mileage. From reading in other forums, this was probably the last year for decent built Mazdas. This car's reliability has been great.

I bought it used 10 years ago. I would say that's a pretty good track record with no major breakdowns, other than the tranny needing to be rebuilt not long after I bought it. Still, it gets me from point A to point B, and for now that's all that matters.

Faults:

Radiator leaked at 12500 miles, clutch main cylinder leaked at 132000 miles. Dashboard cracked and over all the interior is deteriorating due to sun damage. Paint coating came off on the doors. Rear lights leak water into the trunk during the rain (common problem for this model). Left seal is a little bit leaking transmission fluid. Hydraulic lash adjusters (HLA) showing wear and started making tapping noise, especially in cold weather and with cheap dirty gasoline. The car consumes oil, about one quart per thousand miles.

General Comments:

I liked the car since it is roomy and it never let me down and the AC still works! But the maintenance costs are a little bit high. The good feature of this car I that it has roomy trunk and rear folding seats which are good if you transport a surfboard or pieces of furniture. Another good feature is that it has high road clearance, and it is not so problematic going over the speed bumps. Over all I invested a lot of money in this car and then sold it for $1000 since I got a new job.