Buying used Mazdaspeed Protege with 165k miles. Good or bad idea?

[salmonella]

Hello, I’m 22 and I’m looking at an 2003 Mazdaspeed Protege with 165k miles to upgrade from my 99 celica gt as a commuter to drive 6-70 miles a day to work. I know its high miles but I just love the car and I believe mazdas are very reliable. I’ve already had a look at it but not a drive, the interior and exterior is in 8/10 shape, and no rust (I'm from California).

My question is, when I go for the test drive this monday, what should I look for? Especially big ticket items that could be in the four figure range to fix? Especially things thay would leave stranded with a strike on my attendance, which id very important at my job. What would be something that would be a red flag or dealbreaker for you? Some additional info: he said it burns a bit of oil, its got a cold air intake, he has had the tranny rebuilt within the last 2 years, he is only selling it because he is older and wants to go back to driving a standard. He’s always used valvoline restore & protect in it, however, theres little info about the previous owner before him. And second question. Its listed for $5,000 but im thinking of offering 3,800 and standing firm on 4,000. Should I go lower due to the high miles? Or is $3,800 a reasonable offer to stand my ground on, and why?

I’m just hoping im not opening a can of worms buying this car and of course before a final sale I’ll be having my dad's mechanic do an inspection. Thanks in advance, I'll post some pics.

 

[stevie5189]

I bought my msp around the same miles and it's been pretty reliable engine-wise, but I don't drive it anywhere near 70 miles a day. Most of my issues have been fixing cheap mods/repairs that the previous owner did (mostly suspension, btw if the shocks are bad you probably won't be able to source struts for the rear that have oem fitment). A lot of the unreliability comes from the turbo, if it's pushing more than the oem boost (7psi), I personally wouldn't expect it to be reliable - unless the internals were upgraded.

The most expensive engine components that might be bad at this milage would probably be the turbo or cats, btw the car has 2 cats, so it would easily be over 1k to get it past smog if they are bad (considering it's burning oil it's worth checking). The paints pretty nice for a cali car though, so imo 4-5k is a fair price if you want an msp, but I wouldn't trust it to be reliable for a 70 mile daily comute in the long term.

 

[misnblu]

I agree with the above and the shifter looks a bit awkward. Manual gearbox or auto on this car?

I'd also pay the $40-$50 on a Carfax to ensure what you're getting, how many owners, and a general look at any issues the car has had.

I did that with my 2002 Mazda DX and found a great report from Carfax on the car and was the deciding factor to buy.
I'm very happy with the car.

As rare as the MazdaSpeed cars are I'd jump on it for $3,500 firm and keep it for a project car and basic restoration car like I'm doing with mine.

Mileage is crucial with the car you're looking at and turbo cars are finicky to own especially later in their life but can be a fun drive when properly maintained etc.

Tough choice for you wanting it as a daily driver and reliable.
Good luck on your decision and let us know what you inevitably wind up doing.

 

[duffbuster243]

The big issue with these cars is the weak connecting rods (not a huge issues if running stock turbo and boost) and the factory LSD is weak where it connects to the ring gear (It will separate and fail at any given time, for me it happened around 160k doing a casual shift into 2nd gear while going up a slight incline). If it has been welded or replaced with an open differential you will not have to worry about it too much. Other than that you'll have little quirks here and there that any 20 year old car will have.