New-to-Me 2002 P5

Selanda

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2010 Mazda CX-7 s Grand Touring Sport Utility AWD
I finally decided to upgrade to a newer car from my 1988 coupe. As much as I enjoyed Cadillac comforts, it was costing too much to keep running. So last week I went to see a 2002 P5 in black mica with ~150k on it. It looks like it's in great shape leave for a key mark down the driver's side and a roughed up arm rest on the driver's door panel. Both very minor and you almost can't see the key mark unless you're looking for it. I bought it for $3,500 + tax/tags/title/etc..., my bank's loan department quoted it as being worth around $5,300 with the options it's has installed.

I test drove it and I knew it was the one I wanted. It drives beautifully! The automatic shifts smoothly, the steering feels very responsive, the brakes didn't make any noise when applied, and all the interior and exterior lights work appropriately. I tested all four windows, the sunroof, and the hatch - everything opens and closes smoothly. I checked under the hood and it's very clean - no errant fluids or rust. There's *zero* rust around the wheel wells and the underside looks just as nice. It's got a Pioneer DEH-1100MP in it so I have an AUX port, I didn't test the head unit but if it ends up not working or I don't like it I'll just throw in the Sony that's in my Caddy.

It's got an alarm system and after-market remote starter but I didn't think to ask if he had the original instructions for that or not. He's got the after-market key fob that came with the remote starter - it's got buttons for lock, unlock, alarm, start. He demonstrated the remote start and it worked so I'm satisfied but I've never had a car with that feature before so I'm not quite sure how the whole thing works with regards to how it's installed, any fail-safes it's got, the range on the transmitter, any cautions I should be aware of, etc...

The only things I forgot to check was the A/C, the power mirrors, the fog lamps, the horn, and the cruise (were I test drove it didn't have enough open road to test if the cruise functioned or not). I'm going to pick it up and do the title transfer this week, is there anything else I should check before complete the sale?
 
Do you have the history on the car/the maintenance records? Given the mileage of the car, I'd want to know what all has been done since some common issues arise at 100k-150k. You might want to know if they've been handled already or not.

As long as it's been well taken care of, these cars are fun. Congrats! :)
 
The last owner drove it so little it has an exempt sticker. He put just under 2,000 miles on it over a 2 year time span. By contrast, I put about 600 miles per month on my last car so it's in for a workout.

Short of some paint dings and normal wear/tear on the exterior it's quite nice (considering some other ones I looked at). I've never seen another one with the "Protege5" decal on the driver's side rear door so I'm not sure if that's an indication that the paint's original or not but the color matches the code on the door panel. It hasn't rained yet so I'm not sure the condition of the seal on the sunroof but if the headliner is any indication, it may have leaked previously. The interior is immaculate with the exception of the driver's door panel where your elbow would rest is a little tore up, nothing some black fabric tape won't cover. The overhead light behind the sunroof flickers if you slide the switch from "door" to "on". It works just fine if the switch is left on "door" so so it is way low on the list of crap I care about.

This weekend I'm planning to replace both fog light bulbs - the driver's side is out and I don't want to replace just one - and re-align the headlights. I also need to find a touch-up pen and cover two long key-marks that are on the driver's side before it causes a rust issue. The previous owner did a great job of covering up the areas that started to rust like the bottom of the hatch and the front edge of the hood. The underside is pretty rust-free from what I could see, but I won't know more until I get it up on some ramps this weekend. I'm also going to do a complete fluid check and make sure everything's the right color/smell/consistency/etc...

I got the ever-popular P0421 on the way to work yesterday morning, but the guy warned me about that (and it was part of the reason he wanted to sell it, the parts shop quoted him an insane amount to replace the cat) and I expected it from something with that many miles on original equipment. I ran it through a drive cycle with Torque connected and I'm showing normal/acceptable values for O2 Bank 1 but I've got no readings from O2 Bank 2 at all. I looked at the service manual and I see where H02S (rear) is located so I'll give that a look while I've got it up on ramps. My county doesn't do emissions testing so I'm lucky in that respect, but I don't want this to foul up my gas mileage.

Also, forgive me, I came from a V8 so I'm still on the learning curve. When I start it in the morning it idles high at ~1500rpm until it warms up then it drops down to ~575rpm. If I don't wait for it to warm up it idles down properly the very next time I come to a stop. Is that normal?
 
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