Faults:

A little rust on the front window posts.

General Comments:

After 107,000 miles, I can still honestly say that this has been the most reliable car I've ever owned.

It has a little rust, and struggles a little when packed with passengers, but these flaws are minor. It is a very useful van that is a pleasure to drive.

Faults:

The biggest problem is rust on the seams below the sills/rocker panels - these have rusted around each of the jacking points and one jacking point has just perforated three months after the corrosion warranty expired. I am currently negotiating with Mazda Canada to see if they will assist with the repair bill.

Due to frequent trailer towing, the rear shocks also wore out very quickly (at around 40000kms) and had to be replaced.

I have also had to replace the front brake rotors twice which again seems excessive for 65,000 kms of travel.

Dealer service for the MPV has ranged from excellent to awful. It seems to depend on the individual mechanic and Mazda dealerships do not seem to QA the work of their techs closely enough.

General Comments:

The MPV handles well, overall has been reliable and is reasonably compact.

Comfort for tall people is a real issue - the seat cushions are too short to provide adequate leg support and leg room in the middle and rear seat rows is not sufficient.

Faults:

Nothing has gone wrong at this time, only routine maintenance necessary, and brake pads & shoes replaced once.

General Comments:

This van has exceeded my expectations. I bought it from a dealership, the previous owner was a major car rental chain that had the van serviced every 30 days.

Gas mileage for this van has been 20 in the city, about 28 to 32 on the highway, with the air running.

Acceleration has been quick and easy to handle, no trouble getting on or off exits in tough traffic.

The flip down rear seat is a true bonus, only use it when you need it, and no taking out the seat to store it in a garage if you don't want it.

Comfortable seating, and the ability to slide the captain's chairs over to make a bench seat in the middle is great.

Faults:

Minor, inexpensive gasket problem and 1st tune-up and brakes at 95,000 miles. Otherwise, nothing mechanical.

General Comments:

Near perfect performance. We basically put nothing, but gas and oil into the vehicle for the first 95,000 miles and only logically expected maintenance since. The interior and exterior still look sharp and the engine runs like new. We anticipate driving the vehicle for a while longer.

We also love the 7-passenger capacity and fold into the floor and easily removable seating, but slightly smaller wheel-base and great visibility and handling as compared to other mini-vans.

Faults:

I have the 4 seasons package and it feels like there is no heat on the front passenger side.

At 40K miles check Engine light came on. Paid $100 to find out I needed a $10 gas cap.

At 82K miles car had trouble accelerating. It would hesitate. The computer lost its program, (how does that happen?) idle air control stopped working, carbon built up in engine and host of other things happened. They could not tell me what caused this. While this was happening the check engine light never came once. When I inquired of Mazda how to prevent this from happening, because according the service program I did not miss anything, they said there was nothing I could have done to prevent this from happening. "These things just happen sometimes." So I paid the $1500 and fixed the car.

10 Days later the car shuts off on the interstate while doing 75mph. After I tow it to the dealership, I find out some honey-comb thing in the precatalytic converter crumbled up and flew into the catalytic converter. $2100 to repair.

I have even not hit 100K miles when I need to have a "major" service on it. i.e. timing belts and hoses.

General Comments:

The middle bucket seat are not comfortable for adults. Small children are OK, but I can only take about 2 hours siting back there.

I was really excited about it when I first got it... Even reccommended it to friends. 4 friends bought them.

But right now I just want to get rid of it and keep my 11yr old Honda.

I have spent more on service and repair for this Mazda MPV in the 3 years that I have owned than I have spent on my 11 year old Honda Civic. Yes, it is a bigger car an more expensive just by nature, but my catalytic converter is operating fine on the Honda with 198K miles.