Tips for buying a msp!?

[vipergtsxz]

So, my wife got pregnant .. somehow.. and I had to sell my 2000 miata.. I used to own a 99 protege and loved it. Now I'm looking at them again. I found a 2003 msp about 2.5 hours from where I live. He's asking $5000. It has 105,000 miles on body with 63,000 on new engine. I asked why the engine was replaced and he said he took it to a shop to get the clutch replaced and when they test drove it they through a rod or blew a cylinder. The shop replaced it for free and he says he has the receipt and paperwork ( I'll ask him to send a photo of it later today). "What kind of test drive did they do?" Was his question. Anyways, the car looks good with no other problems according to him. I am a little leery of the engine being replaced but seems legit. And its hard finding a low mileage protege these days. Any tips on buying one? Things to look for? Problems? All suggestions and advice welcome. I have a little knowledge on protege's since I owned one but not of the msp. Thanks in advanced!

 

[Preferio]

Don't?

 

[2.0t03speed]

is it modded?

 

[vipergtsxz]

is it modded?

No, its pretty much completely stock from what I gather.

 

[pbarton14]

for 5 grand thats a pretty good buy, but since that shop fixed a cylinder i have a hard time believing they replaced all the other pistons and rods, so keep that in mind. youll want to take a look at the motor mounts, generally you can tell how the car was driven if you see how they are. torn= driven hard, in tact= easy driver! lol

 

[vipergtsxz]

The entire engine was replaced. That's a good idea of looking at the mounts, never thought of that.

 

[evilmonkeyMSP]

at the very least have a compression and leak down test done...

 

[shane02pro5]

^Compression tester cost like $20-30 at the auto parts and takes 5min. Make sure all the gears are "there and smooth engaging" oil leaks... smoke at idle from bad turbo seals. Id also look for an indication of a boost controller being spliced into the vac line on the wga to the turbo.

 

[vipergtsxz]

Thanks. I've never done a compression test, but I should be able to find a few videos on YouTube and probably a few posts on here explaining it.

 

[njintau_fsd]

Here's my two cents on this. As Preferio said, don't! Now with that said that doesn't mean I hate MSP's. I own one and I love it! the problem is (and I found out a little too late) that basically what Mazda did was take a Protege ES and slap on a bodykit, turbo and paint it a bright color. The internals are the same as the N/A version plus the FS isn't known to hold up very well to boost. If you want a car to have fun in but not mod too much then fine, the MSP is ok. the cool thing about a turbo is slapping in a CAI and exhaust can seriously boost your HP and overall fun. The problem is when you start upping the boost, then you have a pretty good chance it will blow. I'm saying this mainly cuz you mentioned that your wifes pregnant and you know as well as I do that when your kids born then your costs per month is gonna go up. It would kinda suck for you to find yourself in a situation where you have to rebuild your engine cuz you decided to boost past 8PSI.

So bottom line:

Pros:

Great, peppy car for the price
Looks great and corners well
Turbo makes it easy to gain HP with mild modification

Cons:

The FS doesn't take to boost very well (will blow if boosted past 8PSI)
You'll be forking over extra $$$ for Premium Gas
Rebuilding the FS sucks (I spent $4000 on mine but that's cuz I went forged.)
Factory tune blows too, your car will run piss rich! Only fix is to get a piggy back or an aftermarket ECU.
After 250HP or so, your Tranny will give up the ghost too
Stock LSD sucks, causes torque steer and questionable handling when accelerating quickly

If you want a car that's fun, consider getting a Ford Probe GT or a Mazda Mx6 LS. I own a Probe too and let me tell you, at times that car felt a lot better than the MSP (164HP vs 170HP for the MSP but the Probe has better low end torque.) They're fairly cheap plus the KLDE will run just fine on all three grades so you can easily fill it with 87 Octane. If you want something newer and a Mazda, go for a Mazda 3 or 6. All I'm saying is, while the car is cheap up front, you'll end up spending a lot more fixing all the little issues and a few big ones if you choose to up the boost.

 

[vipergtsxz]

All of you make good points. Maybe I should just stick to a standard protege. I'm pretty much stuck on a protege because they're cheap, good on gas and I have an emotional attachment to them, lol. I always wanted a msp, but maybe right now isn't the best time since we have a baby on the way. Plus is prefer to stick to 87 octave, the cheaper, the better. Thanks for the help. Now anyone have a 99+ protege with less 100,000 miles and a 5 speed for sale in tn for sale??

 

[hornsfan10609]

Here's my two cents on this. As Preferio said, don't! Now with that said that doesn't mean I hate MSP's. I own one and I love it! the problem is (and I found out a little too late) that basically what Mazda did was take a Protege ES and slap on a bodykit, turbo and paint it a bright color. The internals are the same as the N/A version plus the FS isn't known to hold up very well to boost. If you want a car to have fun in but not mod too much then fine, the MSP is ok. the cool thing about a turbo is slapping in a CAI and exhaust can seriously boost your HP and overall fun. The problem is when you start upping the boost, then you have a pretty good chance it will blow. I'm saying this mainly cuz you mentioned that your wifes pregnant and you know as well as I do that when your kids born then your costs per month is gonna go up. It would kinda suck for you to find yourself in a situation where you have to rebuild your engine cuz you decided to boost past 8PSI.

So bottom line:

Pros:

Great, peppy car for the price
Looks great and corners well
Turbo makes it easy to gain HP with mild modification

Cons:

The FS doesn't take to boost very well (will blow if boosted past 8PSI)
You'll be forking over extra $$$ for Premium Gas
Rebuilding the FS sucks (I spent $4000 on mine but that's cuz I went forged.)
Factory tune blows too, your car will run piss rich! Only fix is to get a piggy back or an aftermarket ECU.
After 250HP or so, your Tranny will give up the ghost too
Stock LSD sucks, causes torque steer and questionable handling when accelerating quickly

If you want a car that's fun, consider getting a Ford Probe GT or a Mazda Mx6 LS. I own a Probe too and let me tell you, at times that car felt a lot better than the MSP (164HP vs 170HP for the MSP but the Probe has better low end torque.) They're fairly cheap plus the KLDE will run just fine on all three grades so you can easily fill it with 87 Octane. If you want something newer and a Mazda, go for a Mazda 3 or 6. All I'm saying is, while the car is cheap up front, you'll end up spending a lot more fixing all the little issues and a few big ones if you choose to up the boost.

The MSP is a perfectly reliable car, with an EBC, FMIC, SSAFC, and exhaust it is a FAR better car than a 3 (don't even mention a first generation 6 those cars are a joke) as well as a KL probe or MX6. As hard as finding a clean MSP is, finding a clean KL car is probably even more difficult. I drive N/A proteges all the time and even with a manual I would never take one over my MSP which has never let me down in over two years of ownership.

 

[njintau_fsd]

Well you're lucky hornsfan lol. Around the Nashville area, there are plenty of PGT's to choose from and for me, my MSP's been pretty mediocre with respect to reliability. Once again, I think the problems start when you try to increase the boost and once again I love my MSP to death and definitely have a lot of fun driving it. Its the 93 Octane and the occasional issues (cough P0300 cough) that's my gripe.

 

[hornsfan10609]

I know what you mean I have read all the blown motor threads too... I drive my car hard and it holds up well, I just hate to see the car get bashed it deserves better.

 

[vipergtsxz]

This is why this is such a hard decision for me, as it should be easy. I really like the look of the msp, plus its like my old protege with a little more pep. If I were to get one, I most likely would not mod it all. It would stay stock. Probably won't have any spending money, lol. With that in mind it sounds like it would be a decent, reliable car. The problem is that I am buying used and I, for the most part, would have to trust that the previous owner(s) took care of it. So, this car would have to run 93 octane? Even though its the same 2.0l in the n/a? Could it be tuned to run 87, without much modification?

By the way, here are some pics of the car I'm looking at.

 

[BOOSTR]

Original owner here and my car has been nothing but reliable. Just rolled 96,000 miles yesterday. Original engine, transaxle, clutch and turbo. It's just plain BS about what some people say about upping the boost. Most of them are the people who drive like **** nuts and their FSDE-T was going to blow up regardless of the psi ran. They are also the ones who bash the MSP afterwards. I've been around long enough to see that.

I can tell you that I have also ran numerous tanks of 87 octane. Stay out of boost and the car runs fine. No tuning required. That is just not as fun as running a full tank of 93 or Sunoco GT 100 race gas. But it can be done reliably with no ill effects.

 

[evilmonkeyMSP]

Definitely not stock...Running an aftermarket intake, front mount intercooler, BOV (which is set up as VTA with no MAF relocate), oil catch can. From what I can see in those pics... Chances are with the BOV set up the car probably stalls at times... If it was me, I wouldnt buy it....but only because if I was buying a used MSP I would only do so if I could ensure it is and always was stock...

This is why this is such a hard decision for me, as it should be easy. I really like the look of the msp, plus its like my old protege with a little more pep. If I were to get one, I most likely would not mod it all. It would stay stock. Probably won't have any spending money, lol. With that in mind it sounds like it would be a decent, reliable car. The problem is that I am buying used and I, for the most part, would have to trust that the previous owner(s) took care of it. So, this car would have to run 93 octane? Even though its the same 2.0l in the n/a? Could it be tuned to run 87, without much modification?

By the way, here are some pics of the car I'm looking at.

 

[vipergtsxz]

Yeah, I didnt realize that until after I posted the first post. I got to looking at other msp noticed that it was aftermarket. The guy told me that it has a cold air intake, turbo and bov installed. I assumed that since this car is a msp maybe he just thought I didn't know a msp had a turbo already installed. I have never owned a turbocharged car so I didnt realize anything else was aftermarket other than the intake. Hmm.. I guess my search will continue. I would rather have a stock car that has always been stock like you said. Thanks for pointing it all out. Also since I didn't put it together myself, if something went wrong, I'd have a heck of a time.

 

[hornsfan10609]

That car doesn't have any radiator tie downs and it looks like they used the stock MSP fan on the full size n/a radiator. If the motor is healthy you could always buy it cheap and put a little into it.

 

[mazda3gboostin]

that car also looks repainted