Thinking of buying one

sierradiamond · Post by **sierradiamond** » May 8th, 2005, 8:49 am

Hey,

Would like a moment of your time, please.

I am thinking about buying a 1992 MX-3 from a car salesman. This will be my first car and I know VERY little about cars. There has been a problem with the transmission (it's automatic) recently but that appears to have been sorted. It's a 1.6l with all the standard stuff but alloy wheels which seem to be there only to raise the cost of my insurance! Just wondering if anyone's aware of any problems common to MX-3s and what in particular to look out for.

Clueless girl in need of help, thanks.

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » May 8th, 2005, 12:45 pm

The automatic trans can be troublesome.. there are more than a few people that have had them fail on them. If the car does not have maintenance records and is higher mileage then from what I have read.. I wouldnt trust the Automatic transmission.. especially if its known to already have had problems.. Though when you say thats been sorted out.. I dont know what you mean by that.. what did they do? Replace the trans? Rebuild it? What was the problem with it?

As far as the rest of the car is concerned.. it would be best if you took it too a Mazda mechanic (either dealership or private garage) and pay them to do a thorough inspection on the car. Yes this will cost a bit of cash.. seen inspections cost as little as $75 and go upto $200 depending on the shop. But this is money well spent and will tell you what overall condition the car is in.. better to be out $200 than to buy the car and have it die on you because the salesman wasnt honest or didnt know about a potential problem. Oh and if the salesman/dealership has any problem with you taking the car to have it inspected prior to buying it.. walk away.. the only reason they would object is if they are hiding something. Best of luck.

Tunes67

mitmaks · Post by **mitmaks** » May 8th, 2005, 4:27 pm

problems with auto? be prepared to pay for rebuild on it.

sierradiamond · Post by **sierradiamond** » May 9th, 2005, 8:28 am

Thanks for responding. The guy has taken it to a mechanic who has put in another gear box which he says should solve the problem. Do you think this is the correct action to take? He has also thrown in a years motor plan meaning free minor repairs and call out service plus courtesy car because of the hassle. It sounds kinda good to me although I'd appreciate any advice you can give me.

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » May 9th, 2005, 10:12 am

If it were me, I would not even consider an ATX, I'd walk away and keep looking. Lots of rides for sale on this BB. Don't rush yourself. Why do you think the salesman is throwing in that minor repair carrot anyway?

jrors · Post by **jrors** » May 9th, 2005, 3:23 pm

I have a 93 auto RS and I had to replace the tranny since it was blown when I bought it anyway. $400 for a used tranny in good condition with about 89,000 miles on it + $75 to have it shipped + $50 for the must have tranny cooler + $500 to have it all installed for a total of $1025. I have placed over 1500 miles on my car since and everything is still smooth and I doubt I'll have any problems, but if you can find a non auto MX-3 you'll have a better peice of mind....... but if you do buy it.. GET A TRANNY COOLER....plate and fin style works the best

snellgrove · Post by **snellgrove** » May 9th, 2005, 5:26 pm

get a manual, much more of a drivers car.. much more engaging, more fun.. and thats what the MX-3 is all about. its a real drivers car IMO, I wont be selling mine for a looooooooooooong time!!!

Post by **Custommx3** » May 9th, 2005, 5:38 pm

You can say that an auto goes out before a manual though.

If you get a manual, be prepared for syncros to go out in 3rd, maybe 5th.

My friend paul.. went through 3-4 trannys already.
mark, 2 trannies.

Both are using manuals.

My RS, 181,000 miles on its auto tranny. never had an issue.. yet.

ManoWar · Post by **ManoWar** » May 10th, 2005, 1:06 am

Custommx3 wrote:You can say that an auto goes out before a manual though.

If you get a manual, be prepared for syncros to go out in 3rd, maybe 5th.

My friend paul.. went through 3-4 trannys already.
mark, 2 trannies.

Both are using manuals.

My RS, 181,000 miles on its auto tranny. never had an issue.. yet.

No offense but i think that either they where really unlucky or that they dont know how to drive stick. I've never in my life seen a manual tranny brake from my friends cars with them driving them. And this is a huge bunch of people that owned pretty much every sports car there is. I only know of 2 cases where the the car was bought with a screwed up tranny but i heck dont know how they managed to do that. My dad put in his life over 1,000,000 km/s on cars and never had tranny probs.

Ofcourse a manual tranny will go if you forget to press clutch to many times or if you put it in reverse while going 50 but other then that only a design flaw or bad maintanance will get in ur way.

sierradiamond · Post by **sierradiamond** » May 10th, 2005, 5:59 am

Well the transmission has been replaced and I'm gonna go test drive it again today so I guess that'll be the clincher. Thanks for all the great advice and I'll let y'all know if the beast is mine or if there are any other issues.

Thanks

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » May 10th, 2005, 9:10 am

Just a note for buying a used car from anywhere or anyone, although this is not Mx-3 related, after this happened, i recommend to anyone buying a car to get it inspected:

My sister bought a 1993 Honda Prelude SR (2.3l) in fall from a private seller, her first car. When she was looking at it, she brought my dad along to make sure it was alright, I couldn't tag along, but for what he said, he asked if the timing belt was replaced, since the car has 180'000kms on it, and he said it did. It was sold safetied and certified

Well about a month ago, not even owning the car for 6 months, her timing belt snapped, bent 10 vales so she needed a new head. With further inspection, she also had a broken spring in the front drivers side and the oil pan was very rusted out, certified my a--. Not a good experience for a first time car buyer.

There one thing if he would have said if it wasn't changed, or if he didnt know, but he said it was, and it was an original Honda belt too, so more likely it was the original belt.

She was very discouraged and wanted to sell the car, but not that's it's running, with a new oil pan and her spring getting fix this week, she's really happy. My dad said when he and my cousin (a licensed mechanic) took off the old head, they said the inside of the engine looked mint. He has some ticking lifters before, but with the new head on, they adjusted it and you can't even hear the thing run, it scares her sometimes when sitting at an intersection with the music down cause her car just died that way when the timing belt snaped.

I know the Mx-3 V6's are non-interference, where nothing happens if the timing belt snaps, I'm not sure about the b-series i4's though...but just to say, never trust their word, bring it to a trusted mechanic and get it looked over.

barbarino69 · Post by **barbarino69** » May 10th, 2005, 10:58 am

I bought my mx-3 from a buy-here-pay-here place down here in florida. They wanted 5000 for a 95 rs. I laughed at them and told them no more than 3500. The engine is in mint condition, whoever owned this car before really took care of it. and it only had 50000 miles on it. I bought the car thinking, its a good car and it will last me, and it did, for about 7 months. I noticed some slipping when i first bought the car from the transmission, but I thought it just needed a tune up and some regular maintenance. So I did that, and then drove it some more, and then right arouhd march (bought it in august) the tranny wouldnt shift past 2nd gear and it just neutraled out. This pissed me off. I drove the car nicely too and I even put on a plate and fin cooler. Well, as you can see my thread in the auto tranny forum, it cost me about 2500 dollars to replace just about everything that has to do with the tranny...yea I probably got ripped off, just about every shop down here rips you off. But the point in all this is now I have a working tranny, practically brand new. So, when you buy a used car, make sure you have the mechanic check the tranny too not just the engine.

Oh and one other thing, LOOK FOR A MANUAL. Im not going to wait for my current auto to crap out on me again, im doing a atx-mtx swap when I do my BP swap, just becuase I love the car and do not want anything else to happen to it. So if you do buy the car and ur auto goes out on ya, hit me up, ill have a rebuilt one for sale here in a few months.

sierradiamond · Post by **sierradiamond** » May 10th, 2005, 6:43 pm

I bought the car. I really couldn't resist. I got it for £1500 (approx $800 but the going price in England) which I think is great, as it has some beautiful alloys on it as well. Brought some guys along to have another look at it including a mechanic - although briefly. So with maintenance they reckon it should be cool. The main problem now is keeping my man's hands off of it! Thanks for the advice, it did prove to be very useful and hopefully I'll get just as great help if the car misbehaves on me.

Thanks, a new MX-3 owner

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » May 10th, 2005, 6:50 pm

Well then a proper welcome is in order

Welcome to the board and enjoy your new toy

If it does come about that you need help.. there are lots of good folks here with enough combined knowledge to build a fleet of these cars from the ground up..

And probably enough spare parts around to do it too

Tunes67

jrors · Post by **jrors** » May 11th, 2005, 3:17 pm

WELCOME TO THE CLUB LADY!

MX-3.com

Thinking of buying one

Thinking of buying one

Tranny sucks.