Opinion on used SP23 (for the wife)

[Rickman]

Thinking about snagging either a Mazda3 Hatch or Mazda5 for the wife. Seems to be pretty slim pickings when it comes to both right now (in charlotte, nc anyhow).

What do you guys think of this SP23? She actually loves leather and that fugly color combo. Should the high mileage concern me?

It's seems pretty rare to find a 3 or a 5 with leather. My sub $15k budget does not help matters.

 

[MGMgrand]

I have an 08 with black leather. Not sure about the brown looks kinda cowboyish. lol! But I wouldnt worry bought the milage and snag that dude.

 

[cali_axela]

If she likes the saddle brown leather, and the engine and transmission sound and feel to be in good shape, I'd say go for it. With proper maintenance it'll go for another 100k easy...98k miles isn't much at all for a well-engineered Japanese engine. I would be more worried about the transmission at that point, so make sure that's in good shape.

 

[Rickman]

I just drove it. It wasn't as peppy as I thought it would be, but then again, the only 3 I've ever driven was a Mazdaspeed. It seemed to shift fine, and it does have the manumatic transmission.

It was very solid and I think would be a good driver for the wife. I was expecting the leather to be in worse shape for that age. I don't like that the PO changed out the factory radio.

 

[cali_axela]

From what can be seen in the pictures, it looks to be in amazing shape all around. And at least they used one of the nicer dash kits available for that Pioneer deck.

The only weird thing I saw was in this picture:

There's supposed to be a little cover over that shift-lock override hole, which appears to be missing. I've never even had to take off that cover to use that feature, does that mean they had to for some reason?

 

[TRUE]

From what can be seen in the pictures, it looks to be in amazing shape all around. And at least they used one of the nicer dash kits available for that Pioneer deck.

The only weird thing I saw was in this picture:

There's supposed to be a little cover over that shift-lock override hole, which appears to be missing. I've never even had to take off that cover to use that feature, does that mean they had to for some reason?

true story. i would definitely look into that

 

[MGMgrand]

Ive moved someones car without the key before. But Ive always put the cap back.

 

[sanblaster]

for another couple g's dude you can get a new one or one with less mi. 100k is a ton of mi. i do love the color on it, but hate the brown leather in it.

 

[burgmo3]

It looks like the last owner took really good care of it. If you feel comfortable with it then you should go for it.

 

[Rickman]

Didnt end up getting that one. Now I'm looking at this one.

 

[MGMgrand]

I think they wanted you to know for sure it has NAVIGATION!!! lol. I'm not a big fan of black because of the amount of work to keep it looking good. But sounds like a good deal.

 

[Rickman]

I want black because I'm going to put my company graphics all over it.

 

[TRUE]

good price/good mileage/looks clean! id do it! (if you have the money lol) and the black leather looks great to! way better than that brown stuff lol

 

[cali_axela]

Hard to say for sure since those are pretty low quality pictures and there are none of the engine bay or interior other than dash, but looks like a great condition car and very low miles for the price... if nothing is wrong, that's a great deal.

 

[Rickman]

She decided she wanted something a bit bigger, so we ended up with this:

2009 w/ 15k miles. Loaded with everything except Nav.

So, that's Mazda #6 for me. (P5, MSP, NB, RX8, NA, M5)

 

[TRUE]

nice! glad you stayed in the mazda fam!

 

[cali_axela]

Awesome! Looks good, congrats!

 

[shilo0687]

I've got the brown and it actually hides wear and tear a little better than the black... My buddy has one with similar miles and black leather. But the car you are lookin at looks pretty good.