Buying A New Car

By M.F.D.K
in The Neobahn

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M.F.D.K

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Yup, at $20k, the Mazda3 would be a good fit.

You could also look at the Camry SE. It has a nice sporty exterior and Camrys are usually a nice ride. I think MSRP is around $22-23k, so there should be some room to get under the $20k level. It's definitely a bigger car, but might be worth at least looking at.

Will have to check that out too.

could get a 2.5s altima for under 20 too (with going into the dealer and demanding best price). it would be a bigger car as well.

My colleague has a 2011 altima 2.5s and he tells me that they are not that good in gas, not very economical, maybe he's a heavy foot not sure.

Grand Master

sc302 Veteran

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that depends on your driving habits. you won't get 35+mpg in one, but you won't get less than 20 either. My 03 got 29 but I was also driving 50+ miles each way to work, some days 150miles. The 2.5 in 03 was rated 29 on the high and 24 on the low.

My 2010 v6 altima gets 25.4 currently according to the computer. But again 50+ miles one way to work mostly highway. the 2010 is rated 27 on the high and 21 on the low.

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M.F.D.K

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that depends on your driving habits. you won't get 35+mpg in one, but you won't get less than 20 either. My 03 got 29 but I was also driving 50+ miles each way to work, some days 150miles. The 2.5 in 03 was rated 29 on the high and 24 on the low.

My 2010 v6 altima gets 25.4 currently according to the computer. But again 50+ miles one way to work mostly highway. the 2010 is rated 27 on the high and 21 on the low.

My old banger Audi A6 1999 Quattro gets me somewhere 15/17 City and 27 Highway so yeah im looking to get something better, I just thing a 2.0L engine is very economical and at the same time it does provide some hp, and thats the case with those new SkyActive Mazda 3 engines.

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abysal

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Those problems sound quite serious at that early age of the car, has it been known in masses?

Haven't you taken it to the mechanic and what year is your car?

It's a 2008, and I when it started doing it the car was out of warranty. I have an idea of what needs to be done to fix the drivers seat creak, I'm just too lazy :p Same thing with the rattle from the glove box area. Either way to me they're minor issues for a car that has 108k on it.

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M.F.D.K

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It's a 2008, and I when it started doing it the car was out of warranty. I have an idea of what needs to be done to fix the drivers seat creak, I'm just too lazy :p Same thing with the rattle from the glove box area. Either way to me they're minor issues for a car that has 108k on it.

So overall what do you think! Would you recommend me to buy one?

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abysal

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So overall what do you think! Would you recommend me to buy one?

I do, did you see my other post? I have experience with 3 of these cars. Even though there were some problems, I don't think they are any worse then any other car I've had dealings with. Although the warranty is only 3 years 35k miles :/

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M.F.D.K

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I pressume thats common practice with most manufacturers! Or Is it specific in Mazda? First time buying a new car and i still havent looked into what really 7yrs or 100,000 miles power train warranty means. So I'm guess the 3yrs warranty is bumper to bumper from the manufacturer!

Experienced

pickytech

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What's up lads! I've finally decided to buy a new car, had enough of old bangers, I was on a trip to PA about 3hrs drive wih my wife and our baby girl, and about 30 minutes before we reached our desired destionation the two flex pipes on my Audi A6 1999 quattro broke. The car sounded like a jet with an unberable noise especially for our young baby, luckly we weren't far away from our destination. The point is, this car has given me nothing but problems, so I can't risk buying another used banger. I've done my research and I have come up with this car;

What you guys think

I know a lot of people that are very loyal Mazda customers. My parent's Mazda 6 (a few years old at this point) has had some issues, and it did not have the best gas mileage (~23 mpg, but that's not far off from its estimate), but the dealership fixed every problem that it had. It's a very fun car to drive, and I particularly like driving Mazda 3's myself because they handle like a dream. My only concern with them is that when I almost bought one (prior model), I found the back seats to have barely any leg room; I am not sure if that is different for today's Mazda 3 model. Just to note, I will add that Hyundai has a 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty and they make some really fantastic cars (see the Elantra for the similar class). My favorite part about Hyundai is that you either get a feature package (e.g., GPS), or just the [nice] standard features, which prevents the dealership from playing games in order to squeak the price upward by adding options that you have no interest in having.

As long as you're in the US, then use a car buying service like the one that USAA, American Express, and Consumer Reports all provide. Two years ago, when I bought my Hyundai Sonata, I saved over $3000 below MSRP when I went through Consumer Reports.

I was not a member of Consumer Reports when I did it, so it costed me $15, but it's free for members of all of the above services. Go to the car buying guide, get it, and then there should be a link (on CR) to get the lowest price; the guide only details what the dealership roughly pays for each car on their lot, while the service gets local dealerships to effectively pitch a price to you, rather than the reverse. I then used the service to play them off each other to get even lower. It really is a wonderful, and consumer-empowering service.

They both used the same service, but the service started with a "Z." It appears that it has been renamed to TrueCar.com.

Veteran

M.F.D.K

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I know a lot of people that are very loyal Mazda customers. My parent's Mazda 6 (a few years old at this point) has had some issues, and it did not have the best gas mileage (~23 mpg, but that's not far off from its estimate), but the dealership fixed every problem that it had. It's a very fun car to drive, and I particularly like driving Mazda 3's myself. My only concern with them is that when I almost bought one (prior model), I found the back seats to have barely any leg room; I am not sure if that is different for today's Mazda 3 model.

As long as you're in the US, then use a car buying service like the one that USAA, American Express, and Consumer Reports all provide. Two years ago, when I bought my Hyundai Sonata, I saved over $3000 below MSRP when I went through Consumer Reports.

I was not a member of Consumer Reports when I did it, so it costed me $15, but it's free for members of all of the above services. Go to the car buying guide, get it, and then there should be a link (on CR) to get the lowest price; the guide only details what the dealership roughly pays for each car on their lot, while the service gets local dealerships to effectively pitch a price to you, rather than the reverse. I then used the service to play them off each other to get even lower. It really is a wonderful, and consumer-empowering service.

They both used the same service, but the service started with a "Z." It appears that it has been renamed to TrueCar.com.

Wow thanks a lot, yes i do live in USA and thats a lot info there, regarding the leg room, saddely its present on Mazda 3 2012.

Experienced

pickytech

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Wow thanks a lot, yes i do in USA and thats a lot info there, regarding the leg room, saddely its present on Mazda 3 2012.

No problem. And FYI, I modified that post twice after posting it. Whenever people mention getting a new car, then I always have to add in that car buying service because it definitely "did right" by me. It saved me a lot of time, money and effort haggling with the dealerships.

Not completely unrelated, I had also created a new email address that emphasized I was picky about cars (and technically savvy enough to make it), which seemed to help during negotiations, while also providing myself a "car only" email address that made it easy to figure out when I was dealing with car people (in gmail, you can use "[email protected]" so that you can automatically filter by "+car" but some websites still choke on the + sign in email addresses). Conveniently, I was also able to throw it away after buying my car to avoid any spam that the dealerships might try to sign me up for, particularly when I did not buy from them.

Best of luck with whatever you get!

Grand Master

ILikeTobacco

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....

I drive a 2011 MazdaSpeed3. Had a 2010 and a 2008 M3 before that. Never had any problems and the gas mileage has always been very good. My Speed gets 50 mpg on the highway and 35 in town. It doesn't have SkyActiv though so you should see even better depending on how you drive.

Mentor

abysal

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I drive a 2011 MazdaSpeed3. Had a 2010 and a 2008 M3 before that. Never had any problems and the gas mileage has always been very good. My Speed gets 50 mpg on the highway and 35 in town. It doesn't have SkyActiv though so you should see even better depending on how you drive.

There's no way you're getting 50 mpg on the Speed 3. The car is rated for 18 / 26. I get 26.5 with all highway commute each day. If you changed your wheels to a different diameter it will through that reading off.

Grand Master

ILikeTobacco

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There's no way you're getting 50 mpg on the Speed 3. The car is rated for 18 / 26. I get 26.5 with all highway commute each day. If you changed your wheels to a different diameter it will through that reading off.

I have stock wheels and I get 50mpg on average on the highway. Not hard to do if your not constantly using your gas or the breaks. Get to around 75, throw it into neutral and roll. The thing doesn't like to stop for anything. You actually believe the rating? It is designed to be sue proof and is done simulating bad driving behavior.

Grand Master

Astra.Xtreme

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I have stock wheels and I get 50mpg on average on the highway. Not hard to do if your not constantly using your gas or the breaks. Get to around 75, throw it into neutral and roll. The thing doesn't like to stop for anything. You actually believe the rating? It is designed to be sue proof and is done simulating bad driving behavior.

That's a pretty strange driving habit. :huh:

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abysal

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I have stock wheels and I get 50mpg on average on the highway. Not hard to do if your not constantly using your gas or the breaks. Get to around 75, throw it into neutral and roll. The thing doesn't like to stop for anything. You actually believe the rating? It is designed to be sue proof and is done simulating bad driving behavior.

I dunno about that... on mine there are several modes on the trip meter to toggle through. One displays current average, and one will display overall average. You want to go by the overall average. Although I didn't trust it either to be honest so I just did the math. I get about 320 miles until the fuel light comes on, I fill up for about 12 gallons. That ends up being about 26.6 fuel economy.

With your numbers you're saying you can go at least 600 miles without needing a fill up... there's no way :/

If I clutch in and just coast, I also get great mileage; 99.9 mpg to be exact, unfortunately my commute isn't all downhill :p

Still you seem fairly sure, so if you can in fact prove you are able to get 600 miles to the tank, then I'd love to know how :whistle:

Mentor

abysal

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Very dangerous as well. Leaving yourself with no control of your vehicle.

Yeah it's fine to do that, you don't loose power steering or hydraulic break pressure. I've done the exact thing he is proposing, and unfortunately, unless going down hill, the car will begin to decelerate, then you can put it back into gear, and spend fuel to get back up to the speed you were at. Although I admit, I have not tried this for a full commute. It would be interesting to see the fuel economy this provides. I could see it being 30, maybe 34? But 50 mpg, just seems outlandish?

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