Buyer's guide/advice

[Ging]

I have been offered a trade of an Mx-3 for my 5 series
i was planning to sell my car for about £500 and the guy said he was looking at advertising the MX-3 for £800-900, so as a straight swap it certainly seems a great deal
but i have no real idea on the real values it's a 1.6 auto with around 100k on the clock and is apprently in good condition but i dont know what year it is, but i'm guessing a fairly early model which i have been told means it probably is an 8v engine
I'm going to take a look at it tommorow

I have a few questions that i hope someone may be able to answer, but any general advice on lookin at an mx-3 would be great too

What is a average price for an early mx-3 with that sort of milage?

How many miles will these things do before the big repair bills start to come in?

Are autos worth more less or the same? and are they harder to sell?
same question about the small engine

would it make any difference if it was an import?

are there any common faults to look for specific to a mx-3 or on this engine (16v or 8v could be either)?

Is rust ever an issue with this car? are there specific places i should look?

[fowljesse]

I'm new to this car, too, so don't want to give advice, but... Use the search engine. All of your ?s will be ansewered. Why so little $$ for the cars?

[LooseChangeRacing]

first off do a http://www.kbb.com it's the kelly blue book value, there are no 8v, it's 16v's, if it's a SOHC it's got 88hp DOHC has 110, read around with some pics and some more details we could give you a decent price...

[Balhirath]

I'm new to this car, too, so don't want to give advice, but... Use the search engine. All of your ?s will be ansewered. Why so little $$ for the cars?

Because it's not $$$ but £££

My advise would be (this is a personal opinion) that you should buy the 1.8 V6 version of the MX-3 instead. The 1.8 engine is just so must better than the 1.6 and there are a lot of 'extras' in the 1.8 V6 version.

Also (again a personal opinion) i would go for a manual trans and not the auto.

As for the rest of the car, they simply dont get much better
My car have 315.000 km on it and just keeps on rolling.
There's no rust to speak of (and it parked outside all year) and starts at the first try, every time.

Repair bills? None to speak of, except maintainance (New brakes from time to time.) The great thing about the car is that even that it is a rare car, it shares a lot of parts with the 323, which makes replacing most parts fairly cheap. Ofcause there are some parts that are for the mx-3 only (like the front window) and that can be expensive.

All in all it's a very, very good car

[PATDIESEL]

The 1.6L SOHC and DOHC are both longer life motors than the 1.8L V6, but all are good motors. I've seen V6s last longer than the 4 bangers, it is really about how well it was taken care of.

I'd also suggest a manual trans over the auto. Mazda auot trannnies seem to be heat prone and thus if you do decide to get the auto install a trans cooler right away. It will keep the trans running longer.

Also, they are not rust prone, but I've seen rust in the cowl area and at the bottom of the inner fender (you can see this spot by opening the door and looking in the hole that is just under the loom that goes into the door. Dirt piles up in there and causes rust. I've had a pine tree growing in there at one time No joke, then I learned to clean it out every now and gain.

The auto seat belts stink, but I don't think that the Euro cars got auto seat belts. The distributor on the V6 is prone to fail too, but doing a HEI mod will sove that. (more info on he HEI can be found in the V6 FAQ section).

Other than that I spend less money on maintenance on this car than any other car I've owned.

In the 10 years I've owened it it only didn't crank once.

[alleycat29]

DOOOOOOO IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT