Got my 2004 in Feb of 2004. I am past 47K and approching past warranty. Not too concerned about reaching 4 year 50K, but I am about 5 year 60K extended powertrain warranty. I don't want to keep the car if it's going to cost a lot to maintain and fix problems. I still have one year of payment to make on the car, so I will definitely keep it until then, but after that, should I keep it or get rid of it? I just flooded the car, so got few standard things taken care of. Haven't had real problems with the car, yet, but I am afraid that things will start to fall apart soon. Any thoughts?

 

you wouldn't get **** for it, so keep it and bite the bullet if things go wrong.

 

Yeah, you would most likely get less than $15,000, so I would keep it for a while until something major goes wrong.

 

If money is your main concern, paying for repairs is a lot cheaper than paying for a new car.

 

Got a point there buddy!

 

if you still like it, keep it. if its been reliable til now, odds are it will be good for some time (given continued maintenance). And yes repairs are definitely cheaper than a new one.

 

What repairs!

there's no moving parts.

Pistons/valves suck.

 

I guess, my main concerns are the major repairs. I understand that a new car is always much more expensive than fixing an old one, but cost is never an only concern, at least for me. Although a big concern. How much does it cost to replace an engine or a transmission? I am guessing those would be the biggest repair cost. Love the car, by the way.

 

Expensive rebuild by Mazmart is like $2,000. There are cheaper ones but may not be as good.
6-Speed transmission repair by the Dealer was less than $1,800 with parts and labor for 2 broken gears and related parts. Non-dealer would be around $1,000.

Not really all that bad.

 

You could always see if the dealership would be willing to sell you an extension on the warranty, if you're scared of needing something gigantic like an engine replacement.
Though, in all reality it'd be cheaper to just dump the amount you'd have to spend for warranty / new car payments into a savings account and then just tap in if needed.

 

try repairing one of those 5 speed or 6 speed automatics they have nowadays.

5 or 6 grand.

 

I have a 2004 with almost 70,000 miles on it now. I had been through the engine replacement and the such.

I purchased an extendend warranty for it for $2400. Which covers all major components of the car. Electrical to engine.

I am going to keep mine, even after all the baloney I had through. I love the car too much. Too much fun to drive.

Good luck with your decision.



p.s.

DO NOT purchase the warranty from the dealer. It barely covers anything. I went with a third party warranty company that was cheaper than the dealer.

The dealer uses third party warranty company also.

 

Well... If its paid off, you get $15k for it, thats $15k in your pocket which is pretty nice. Put it towards a new one and get super cheap payments.

 

How much was your engine replacement or was it covered through the warranty? The dealer said most engine replacements were ATs. Is that true? If I am going to have to spend more than 4K on fixing the car within two years of extended warranty runs out (purchasing extended warranty or not), I rather get a new car.

 

Yes, that is true. The dealership told me the exact same thing when I brought my 6spd MT in for some engine noise.

 

I went tot he dealer when the car had like 40K on it and requested an extended warranty and they told me they only offer the warranty when u first purchase ur vehicle so i had to go aftermarket. I went with warranty direct. I got the highest coverage they offerd for the rx8. So far i have no problems but in case something does happen at lets im covered. Hopefully i wont get the run around

 

4 Years / 60,000 Miles 12/31/2011 60,000 Miles $1,236 $986
4 Years / 75,000 Miles 12/31/2011 75,000 Miles $1,354 $1,079
4 Years / 85,000 Miles 12/31/2011 85,000 Miles $1,477 $1,177
4 Years / 100,000 Miles 12/31/2011 100,000 Miles $1,588 $1,288
5 Years / 60,000 Miles 12/31/2012 60,000 Miles $1,272 $1,022
5 Years / 75,000 Miles 12/31/2012 75,000 Miles $1,396 $1,121
5 Years / 85,000 Miles 12/31/2012 85,000 Miles $1,523 $1,223
5 Years / 100,000 Miles 12/31/2012 100,000 Miles $1,663 $1,363

 

The dealer I went to was going to give me one.

WHen you buy the car the extended warranty is still a third party supplier. Mazda doesn't offer extended warranties.

 

My car is a 6MT.. My engine was replaced under warranty because of the recall for the engines.


If you haven't had any power problems or idle issues then you are probably ok.

 

There was a recall for the engines? What power problems and idle issues did you have? My idle was never really smooth from the beginning, but it wasn't that big of an issue and dealer said it was normal. Just want to make sure that I am aware of what to look for...

 

Congratulations on owning the car!

 

mine shakes a little, it is normal.

if you have good power and good response from the engine now. it sounds like you'll be fine. if you want (i live 2 miles outside of NE d.c.) we can meet up and i can take a look at it. i dont know too much, but i can compare it to mine and mine runs great. send me a pm if you are interested.

in all likelihood, you will not spend 2k on repairs in the next 2 years. much less 4k. have you already replaced the coils? from what i gather, thats usually the first to go. even if you do replace them, they dont cost that much.

 

Mine shakes a little as well. But those shakes are few and far in between. When it doesn't shake, it's smooth like rotaries are legendary for.

 

If you still like the car and you look after it why sell it? There are numerous examples of people from this forum having the car over 110,000 miles. (e.g. expo1)

I'd hang onto it.....

 

If it's yellow keep it, if you want a newer model I'd trade for a new year...