idlechoongster
Member
Hello everyone -- my first post here.
Recently, I had my car (99 Civic Si) stolen, then found completely stripped, so I'm planning on adding a few extra K's on the insurance reimbursement to purchase a Mazda3s hatchback, in 2004-2006 range.
There seem to be many listings in cars.com for my area (Chicago), and the prices seem fairly consistent with edmunds.com guidance, so I'm trying to find cars with lowest miles, hopefully closer to 2006 than 2004.
My question is, are there particular things I should look for in inspecting used Mazda3s that will provide some telltale signs or particular known defects that I should pay attention to? For example, in my old Si, the rubber seals around the door were known problems, and I could tell if a Civic was garage kept or not by looking at how badly it eroded away.
Also, Carmax seems to charge $1000 extra for their cars. Have anyone had any problems with Carmax cars? Not being very mechanically inclined, paying that extra $1K for a comfort in mind doesn't seem to be a bad thing...
Any help would be greatly appreciated, guys.
Recently, I had my car (99 Civic Si) stolen, then found completely stripped, so I'm planning on adding a few extra K's on the insurance reimbursement to purchase a Mazda3s hatchback, in 2004-2006 range.
There seem to be many listings in cars.com for my area (Chicago), and the prices seem fairly consistent with edmunds.com guidance, so I'm trying to find cars with lowest miles, hopefully closer to 2006 than 2004.
My question is, are there particular things I should look for in inspecting used Mazda3s that will provide some telltale signs or particular known defects that I should pay attention to? For example, in my old Si, the rubber seals around the door were known problems, and I could tell if a Civic was garage kept or not by looking at how badly it eroded away.
Also, Carmax seems to charge $1000 extra for their cars. Have anyone had any problems with Carmax cars? Not being very mechanically inclined, paying that extra $1K for a comfort in mind doesn't seem to be a bad thing...
Any help would be greatly appreciated, guys.
