Faults:

Radiator split open

(r) front CV joint went.

(l) side rear brake caliper locked up.

Repaired A/C twice.

General Comments:

I bought my Mazda 626 as a used dealer demo in 1998. I owned the car for 12 years, and I absolutely loved it. It never broke down on me. But the radiator split open right after it came out of warranty. After it was replaced, it never gave me another problem, but I would find a coolant spot under the car from time to time, and never located where it came from.

At about 30.000 miles, while driving in a downpour, I entered a road that had about ankle high water and a lot of leaves in the water. Water was pushed up into the intake, and blew the engine. Insurance covered the cost to replace the engine with a re-manufactured long block. After it was fixed, the car never gave me any mechanical trouble, except what is noted above.

A/C repairs were expensive. Also, the trunk began leaking after I replaced a brake bulb. Discovered water was actually entering the trunk from behind the light assembly through a weld, and at the bottom of the trunk seal, were the trunk locks. I removed the seal, cleaned and reseated using a high quality silicone sealer on both locations; problem solved.

Only complaint I had was the sun visor doors, that when open, the light comes on. The door's design will almost certainly lead to them breaking off, and then you can't shut the light off.

I velcro my doors back on and never opened them again.

By the way, that brake bulb I replaced was the only bulb I ever replaced in this car. Even the headlights that were filled with water after my mishap, the headlight bulbs never burned out.

The car drove the same the day I sold it like it did the day I bought it, solid and fun.

Oh, and by the way, I don't feel like I took very good care of this car. To be honest I beat on it. The interior held up perfectly, even with piling 3 kids in it. I replaced this car with a Chevy Tahoe, and sold my beloved Mazda to my neighbor. I get the feeling he will still be driving that car long after this Tahoe is gone.. Loved that Mazda.

Faults:

I've got 420 K on my Mazda and love it. We just got a Nissan, and I'm going to use it for a winter beater.

For poor acceleration problems, check the monolithic converter (just past the exhaust manifold).

Check engine light - don't worry about it.

Transmission problems, yup, don't worry about it.

Service it regularly, and tell your wife that it will go 500 k, and you're laughing.

Faults:

Replaced brakes, slave cylinder, belts, CV joints, O2 sensors.

Faults:

The EGR valve went and was very expensive. As a matter of fact, all the parts are expensive.

Idle air control valve went.

The check engine light has been on since I bought it, $2500 later. The transmission is starting to go, which seems to be a common problem for this car.

As well as major engine problems, which are expensive to fix.

General Comments:

The car, despite the problems, still runs. Just needs a lot of love.

It is a beautiful car and is very comfortable, though a little small for a bigger family. When the car is clean,it looks beautiful, too bad the car's motor and transmission were not built better.

Faults:

Constant o/d off light no matter what I do.

Stalling out at stop lights

Terrible shacking when stopped

Recently it accelorates horrible sometimes taking almost 20-25 seconds just to get up to 40.

General Comments:

The acceleration problem alone can be rough because I never know when that's going to happen and I live on a road that I have to pull into traffic everyday. I've had so many problems with this car that mechanics have turned me away after dealing with it once. My main mechanic now doesn't even like it when he sees me pull up because he knows there's going to be a lot of work. I've talked to 4 different mechanics and had 2 physically check out the car and no one seems to know why a few months ago it started to just stall out randomly. Now I can't even drive the car a mile down the road with out the o/d off light coming on. Cosmetically it's a nice looking car and wonderful interior, but just not worth the hassles.