Bought a MS3 yesterday

[di81977]

GT, Crystal White Pearl

Seems like there are good buys out there, you just need to shop around. My local dealer would not touch my price, but found the same car 45 miles away. Bought it over the phone.

I think this will be an incredible car for under $25K. Very quick and rides surprisingly well. I can already tell I will be fighting with the wife to drive the car.

Mods planned - I will be adding the Mazda CAI when available (currently being redesigned). They quoted me $400 installed. Seemed fair. Thinking about changing the shifter and cat back exhaust. I will be putting on some black wheels (have not decided which ones) and using the existing wheels with winter tires.

Since the dealer was out of town, I did a bunch of highway driving bringing the car home. I was a bit disapointed with 3,000RPM's at 75-80MPH. Clearly the car is not set up for high MPG cruising. Not really an issue, but a surprise. I will take the trade off for the quickness.

Couple of questions for you more experienced owners:

1) Roof ski rack, is there one available, maybe after market?
2) Has anyone gone with a wider tires (clearance issues??) or 19 or 20 inch wheels (ride quality issues)?

I am looking forward to visiting this forum on a regular basis. Thanks for your input.

Regards
David

 

[phillyb]

congratulations.
most people, myself included, will encourage you to replace the stock rear motor mount.

to increase the shifter feel, you can get bushings and then a short throw.

congratulations!

 

[dandydaniel]

Congratulations! Like phillyb stated, get yourself setup with a cheap yet excellent mod in shifter bushings. It will greatly improve your gearboxes feel (removes a lot of the slushiness caused by the rubber bushings). As far as the width of the tires go, I've seen people slap 235/45/18's on the stock rims and sit fine. I would have to say that you would be the first person I know of to put 19's or 20's on this car. It just doesn't make sense to put such a bottleneck on your car by going with such large and heavy rims. Most people opt for even smaller rims 17x7's because of the fact that the stock rims come in at an astonishing 23lbs per piece. If anything, mess with 18's.

Enjoy your new car as well as your stay here!

 

[PureDrive]

You know what? I'm tired of this crap! No congratulations to you! I want my own 2008.5 MS3! (flash) I hope it happens for me...








And congrats (yippy)

 

[ottawaP5]

Congrats! It sure is a fun car to drive, not to mention practical as well.

As for a roof rack, I went with the Thule Fixpoint series:

 

[60181]

I bought mine Saturday too Paid $500 over invoice which I thought was very good. Not much mark up in them and since it was through a friend, I didn't mind him making a little something.

We checked with their parts dept. and Mazda North America has been having dealers send back the Speed CAI's for some reason. The call-back on them has been in place for about 6mos. They had none left at my dealership so I'm SOL with their product. I'll likely just put another brand on anyway.

I wouldn't complain about the Freeway RPM's too much. Keeps the car in a power zone that's nice and if you watch the computer, it's still pulling down decent mpg's.

I took some nice pics after getting mine all Zaino'd up today. Will be a pic ***** later tonight.

GT, Crystal White Pearl

Seems like there are good buys out there, you just need to shop around. My local dealer would not touch my price, but found the same car 45 miles away. Bought it over the phone.

I think this will be an incredible car for under $25K. Very quick and rides surprisingly well. I can already tell I will be fighting with the wife to drive the car.

Mods planned - I will be adding the Mazda CAI when available (currently being redesigned). They quoted me $400 installed. Seemed fair. Thinking about changing the shifter and cat back exhaust. I will be putting on some black wheels (have not decided which ones) and using the existing wheels with winter tires.

Since the dealer was out of town, I did a bunch of highway driving bringing the car home. I was a bit disapointed with 3,000RPM's at 75-80MPH. Clearly the car is not set up for high MPG cruising. Not really an issue, but a surprise. I will take the trade off for the quickness.

Couple of questions for you more experienced owners:

1) Roof ski rack, is there one available, maybe after market?
2) Has anyone gone with a wider tires (clearance issues??) or 19 or 20 inch wheels (ride quality issues)?

I am looking forward to visiting this forum on a regular basis. Thanks for your input.

Regards
David

 

[happy and angry]

Since the dealer was out of town, I did a bunch of highway driving bringing the car home. I was a bit disapointed with 3,000RPM's at 75-80MPH. Clearly the car is not set up for high MPG cruising. Not really an issue, but a surprise. I will take the trade off for the quickness.

Yes it is, just not at 75 mph. Designers tend to try and maximize fuel economy at 60 - 65 mph, because that's right about the average highway speed limit in North America. Check out your RPM (and fuel economy) at 60 compared to 75 or 80.

 

[CamelFilters]

Congrats!
As for fuel mileage i drive about 80% highway and get about 10L - 11L/100km or about 23MPG - 21MPG; i drive VERY spiritedly though. I live in toronto, canada and i only fill up with either shell vpower 91 octane or sunoco 94 octane gas.

 

[Boosted333]

If you cruise at 60 mph you will get awesome gas mileage... yeah its slow but at 75+ mph you lose a lot of MPG.

And putting 19" or 20" rims will kill that mpg even more, along with your power.

Congrats either way, I love the color and it'll look awesome with black rims!

 

[bnoon]

Congrats!!! You will be simply amazed at the power you can get from an intake on this car. I've had MS3 3.5 weeks and love it to death!!!

Just a word though, there's NO NEED for aftermarket shifter bushings. You can grind down the stock ones to make the stock shifter bushings rock solid and save yourself 40 bucks, and only takes maybe 10-15 minutes to do.

 

[phantomranger]

congratulations and welcome to the brotherhood!! enjoy your toy. as far as wheels go, i believe that 19's are okay, but 20's will require some alteration. correct me if i'm wrong anyone. the MAZDASPEED CAI is awesome. i went with a GHL CBE and it sounds great. next month i'm ordering some supplies, lol, to include a CPE downpipe. try SU. they have a lot to offer us. lata!!

PEACE LOVE RESPECT!!

 

[Nokkers3]

Congrats and welcome to the forums. I'm so jealous! I wanted a white one but they didn't have it available when I bought it T.T Oh well, I love my Black Mica MS3!

 

[Akaveli]

GT, Crystal White Pearl

Seems like there are good buys out there, you just need to shop around. My local dealer would not touch my price, but found the same car 45 miles away. Bought it over the phone.

I think this will be an incredible car for under $25K. Very quick and rides surprisingly well. I can already tell I will be fighting with the wife to drive the car.

Mods planned - I will be adding the Mazda CAI when available (currently being redesigned). They quoted me $400 installed. Seemed fair. Thinking about changing the shifter and cat back exhaust. I will be putting on some black wheels (have not decided which ones) and using the existing wheels with winter tires.

Since the dealer was out of town, I did a bunch of highway driving bringing the car home. I was a bit disapointed with 3,000RPM's at 75-80MPH. Clearly the car is not set up for high MPG cruising. Not really an issue, but a surprise. I will take the trade off for the quickness.

Couple of questions for you more experienced owners:

1) Roof ski rack, is there one available, maybe after market?
2) Has anyone gone with a wider tires (clearance issues??) or 19 or 20 inch wheels (ride quality issues)?

I am looking forward to visiting this forum on a regular basis. Thanks for your input.

Regards
David

Don't be too disappointed cause the n/a Mz3 rpms are about the same at 75 to 80mph. Congrats on the purchase.

 

[micronesia]

Ignore the dead grass lol:

http://profile.imageshack.us/user/micronesia

 

[di81977]

Thanks for the welcome. Being in my late 40's and having spent most of my life collecting and drag racing older muscle cars, I am not up on all the mods talked about on this forum. I keep finding myself refering to the "beginner FAQ for mods" thread. Sounds like the rear motor mount is one of the first changes I need to make.

Congratulations to the other recent new owners. Micronesia, good call vs the Mazda 3.

Yesterday, I had the front fascia, hood, headlights, mirrors, under the door handles, and top of the rear bumper clear masked. These guys previously did my black CTS. Very hard to tell it is even there. Great paint protection.

Finally, I am off to drive the car.