Concerned Buyer

[CWPspeed3]

He'll always be the man in the wood chipper to me.

gotta love Fargo

His name is Peter Stormare, yes he was in prison break as well.

 

[Sport6]

He'll always be the man in the wood chipper to me.

also every russian character to be in any movie ever created. ever.

 

[Kain]

Whoops, meant to say, "man and the wood chipper" since it was Steve Buscemi becoming compost.

 

[Russm]

If you have a freind with a GTI out of warranty ask them how much it is costing them to keep it in good shape! You may be able to buy but can you afford to keep?

 

[ElGaspo]

1st off, i wouldn't let literally a couple of negative, horror-story type posts unduly influence you. human nature being what it is, most ppl don't post anything when everything is running smoothly, and likewise adopt a 'the sky is falling' attitude when something breaks down.

2nd, i'd do some online reading. Autoweek conculded its long-term wrapup of the MS3 and after ~25k miles, there were only a couple of minor quibbles w/ the car. look up C&D, Edmund's and others.

and after you've read up on it, test drive both cars. you did the right thing by asking Qs on an MS3 board, ppl will tell you their 1st hand experience. mine, for example, is this: car is coming up on 2 yrs anniversary, never a CEL, doesn't burn a drop of oil, and it's a pleasure to drive daily. my biggest headache is identifying/fixing an annoying rattle from under the passenger seat, where the subwoofer is. i'd call that a good deal, reliability-wise.

IMHO it's a no-brainer: 200 hp vs 263. that alone would seal the case for me. (yippy)

 

[chrisp]

my brother in law has an 07 speed he bought new. already been in the shop a few times for rattles, loose stuff, and funny noises. all cars have issues

 

[Speed3Rookie]

I am going to be buying a new car in a couple of weeks so I have been looking around forums trying to find out everything i can. So far I have narrowed my decision down to a mazdaspeed3 or a vw gti. Now when i look at the gti forums they are filled with positive things about how they all love there car, then i look on this site and there are posts about the engines falling out. Basically im wondering if I buy a brand new MS3 is this something i will have to be concerned about cause if so im definitetly going to go with the gti.

Read on brotha....
Check all three mazda forums so you have a wealth of knowledge concerning this car.
Make sure you do the same for any/every car you are considering so you have the info to assist you with your decision.

That said....
FWIW..if I had to do this again I would not buy a MS3.

Good luck!

 

[Sphincter]

I've had my 2008.5 GT for four days now, not a single problem!! I freaking love the car, the only thing is when I drive it I gotta clean those 'protein' stains off my pants every time.

 

[Young Roids]

I am going to be buying a new car in a couple of weeks so I have been looking around forums trying to find out everything i can. So far I have narrowed my decision down to a mazdaspeed3 or a vw gti. Now when i look at the gti forums they are filled with positive things about how they all love there car, then i look on this site and there are posts about the engines falling out. Basically im wondering if I buy a brand new MS3 is this something i will have to be concerned about cause if so im definitetly going to go with the gti.

The engine falling out is a problem. Here is the way I am looking at it: I am gonna drive my car till the warranty expires and then I am going to buy the $200 aftermarket mount and fix the problem myself. So if my mount fails under warranty then it's mazdas job to fix it and after that I will deal with the problem myself and fix it.

 

[F430TECH]

Whoops, meant to say, "man and the wood chipper" since it was Steve Buscemi becoming compost.

Fargo Eh?

I used to live in North Dakota, it really is like that....

 

[///M Compact]

I looked at GTIs but the Louisville dealers acted like they were too good to order a car the way I wanted it, and VW compounded the problem by not offering the heated seats in cloth and requiring that I buy a sunroof(bleah) if I wanted the upgraded sound system. The local Mazda dealers were also hopeless so I bought my MS3 from a great dealer(Kings Mazda in Cincinnati). After 27,000 miles I'm glad I didn't buy the GTI, but I also regret buying the MS3. At 25,000 miles-and just ONE HPDE I started hearing a clunk from the left front of the car. It turned out to be a bad strut, and it failed just in time to force me to cancel a week of instructing at Watkins Glen. At 27,000 miles the turbo seals died which meant a new turbo. The dealer has been great but the MS3 was supposed to serve as my daily driver and track car for the next 3 to 5 years- but at this point I'm less than confident in its long-term reliability. I still drive the car every week or so, but I no longer grin like I used to when I get behind the wheel...

 

[derspi]

Thought I'd never see the day when a VW would be considered over another car because of reliability.

Yeah, I found that totally ironic as well. VWs and Audis are notoriously expensive to fix and have continually fared worse in terms of reliability compared to other brands. My own experience has cemented this in my head as mere fact. I'm sure VW/Audi has improved but the stench is still in the air and it would be many years away before I even CONSIDER owning one. Great looking cars, awesome interiors but for me, would feel like I'm sitting on a ticking time bomb.

As for the MS3, all I can say is that it offers the best combination of practicality, performance and reliability. It's surely one of the best values IMO. It will also be relatively cheap to repair after the warranty runs out compared to any German marque, the GTI included so keep that in mind. I've had mine for about 9 months now and it's been mechanically sound, zero problems except for a couple of TSBs that were done as preventative maintenance. The colder climate has brought about a couple of interior ticks and rattles which is relatively minor although annoying considering it is a relatively new car.

 

[chrisp]

Yeah, I found that totally ironic as well. VWs and Audis are notoriously expensive to fix and have continually fared worse in terms of reliability compared to other brands. My own experience has cemented this in my head as mere fact. I'm sure VW/Audi has improved but the stench is still in the air and it would be many years away before I even CONSIDER owning one. Great looking cars, awesome interiors but for me, would feel like I'm sitting on a ticking time bomb.

As for the MS3, all I can say is that it offers the best combination of practicality, performance and reliability. It's surely one of the best values IMO. It will also be relatively cheap to repair after the warranty runs out compared to any German marque, the GTI included so keep that in mind. I've had mine for about 9 months now and it's been mechanically sound, zero problems except for a couple of TSBs that were done as preventative maintenance. The colder climate has brought about a couple of interior ticks and rattles which is relatively minor although annoying considering it is a relatively new car.

seems like alot of speed3 owners have rattles and annoying noises on a car thats not even a year old. If you ask me thats not good. Ive put 2 sets of tires and a set of front brake pads on my wifes 02 civic. thats it! never had a single problem. My 06 sti is 2 years old and has been stage 2 for a year and not a single issue. have to start to wonder....

 

[coyfish]

seems like alot of speed3 owners have rattles and annoying noises on a car thats not even a year old. If you ask me thats not good. Ive put 2 sets of tires and a set of front brake pads on my wifes 02 civic. thats it! never had a single problem. My 06 sti is 2 years old and has been stage 2 for a year and not a single issue. have to start to wonder....

Most are related to the cold weather. Im yet to see a car in 10 degree weather that doesn't make a few noises

 

[Wehrmacht]

Aye but a few are apparently occuring in my dash and windshield of an 08.5... they started showing up closer to 60 degrees in TX.

 

[///M Compact]

Aye but a few are apparently occuring in my dash and windshield of an 08.5... they started showing up closer to 60 degrees in TX.

My driver's door and seat belt retractor now rattle @80% of the time- regardless of the ambient temperature...

 

[Young Roids]

I woulnd't mod my car if I were you. These are very good stock but modding them has proven unreliable. Many engines are blowing up at around 300hp.

 

[ajd116]

wow i expected to maybe get a few hits of people helping me out but this respose is great thanks alot everyone. Big reason im considering the vw is that my mom had a 97 jetta that got handed down to me and ended up having like 120000 miles on it and the only thing ever wrong with that was that i killed the clutch driving it like a 16 year old since thats what i was.

Have looked at another forum for this car though and seems like there are alot of people who have racked up miles on their car and have had few problems. If i get the car i would probably do only basic mods if any at all just simple things like exhaust or intake.

My biggest concern is that im buying the car at home in maryland then will have to drive it all the way back down to mississippi to come back to school and would hate to have a problem in the middle of nowhere alabama or tennessee.

 

[BillTheCat]

Seems like there is another person considering GTI/MS3 purchase on here every week or two. Says a lot for the draw of both cars.

I bought an '09 MS3 Sport in September. I actually nearly bought the GTI without ever having driven the MS3, just because they had great deals on the GTI, but I am glad the deal fell thru.

I am a subscriber to Consumer Reports' web services, and the cars do match evenly in most of their tests, with the MS3 getting better marks for both wet & dry braking & driver seating position/comfort. GTI gets .1 second faster 0-60 in their test, and slightly better rating for cargo area.

Here is my ONE BIG WARNING to you... the reason my GTI deal came to a screeching halt. I was trading in a 2005 MINI Cooper S, on which I was paying about $800/year for full coverage insurance with $250k limits with State Farm. They wanted $1,800 for the same coverage on the GTI. And they only wanted $800 for the MS3.

So yeah... make sure you do your insurance homework, because that was a game-changer for me on 2 similarly priced cars with similar performance.

Oh, and after the GTI deal fell thru & I went MS3 shopping, I was glad I did. The MS3 is just a more enjoyable car to drive, IMHO. That was clear to me after just the test drives of each, and I have no regrets 4k miles later.

 

[skylar2ups]

seems like alot of speed3 owners have rattles and annoying noises on a car thats not even a year old. If you ask me thats not good. Ive put 2 sets of tires and a set of front brake pads on my wifes 02 civic. thats it! never had a single problem. My 06 sti is 2 years old and has been stage 2 for a year and not a single issue. have to start to wonder....

Yeah but it's still just a Civic.