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Update: Bought '11 Mazda 3 s Hatch. Looking for a new(to me) car

S

saratoga172

Golden Member
Edit: just got a new 2011 Mazda 3 s Hatch in liquid silver. Got the extended warranty. Bumper to bumper for 72 months or 75k miles. 5-spd auto suited me best so that's what I went for.

Was in the middle of moving so my computer was down for the past few days. Here are some pics I took with my iPhone the day I got the car.











http://www.flickr.com/photos/53475614@N02/5311196129/
 
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Lol i've got a V8 Thunderbird in that case. And I like the way the engine sounds. Honsetly I want something newer. Hopefully with less things to fix.
 
I like the Mazdaspeed 3 hatches, but there aren't many in my area. There's a 2010 at a dealership for $20k with 6k miles. Manual. I don't know much about the GTI. And other other hot hatches. Enlighten me please. I like the coupes, however.


Edit for spelling.
 
haha, I'm trying to think of other hot hatches in the US. MS3, GTI, WRX, Lancer Sportback. What about a Genesis 2.0T? Might even be able to get the v6. Man, there's a lot of choice.
 
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Doesn't need to be a hatch. Not sure I'm into some of the VW's. Don't know much about them.

I like the G35, Fusion, Mustang GT, MSpeed3.

Thoughts on that RSX Type-S I looked at earlier?
 
IronWing said:
My 88 Olds Custom Cruiser is still available, 307 V8. It's very sporty, like a refrigerator on wheels.
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And it gets approximately 1 mile per gallon?

My mom drove something like that. 86 Pontiac, 5L engine (~305 cubic inch). A whopping 150HP. 0-60 in about 5 minutes. Impossible to pass on the highway. Highway mileage was about 22mpg (US gallons). It's like it was designed by high school students and that why's the efficiency is so bad.

I say get the Subaru. Much better winter performance. My pile of fuck FWD car has hardcore torque steer in winter just because it's a pile of fuck. FWD cars suck.
 
I used to drive a '96 Buick Riviera SC and it was actually a pretty nice car. I miss it now incomparison to my Thunderbird, which I can spin the tires on a normal or rainy day. Fuck me for winter.

Main question was what do you all think about that RSX? Might go tkae another look in the morning before work.
 
The Hyundai Genesis Coupe is essentially a poor man's G35. Not a bad car at all.

The RSX is, AFAIK, a jazzed-up Civic. It's not a bad car by any means, but the combination of a less than impressive engine and cheaped-out suspension (MacPherson Struts + FWD = fail) means it's just not all that fast.

If you don't mind something a bit wonky, there's always the Subaru Impreza WRX. The engine is a dinosaur, the fuel economy mediocre, the styling horrific, but if you want a cheap car that's practical, fast, safe, and absolutely epic at tackling ice and snow (AWD FTW!), the WRX is hard to beat. The Mazdaspeed3 is nice too - some people like it even better, but lacks the AWD and is harder to find.

You can get a surprisingly good one for $10k. Just stay away from anything that's had modifications.

And, should you have the cylinder head off, don't let anything get inside the cylinders under any circumstances. Just trust me on this one.
 
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If you look at Subaru -- 04+ WRX STi, 04+ Forester XT, and 06+ WRX have the 2.5l turbocharged engine (WRX goes from 224hp in '08 to 265hp in '09). 2002-2005 WRX have the 2.0l turbo; not necessarily a bad setup, but the 2.5 is better.
 
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saratoga172 said:
I used to drive a '96 Buick Riviera SC and it was actually a pretty nice car. I miss it now incomparison to my Thunderbird, which I can spin the tires on a normal or rainy day. Fuck me for winter.

Main question was what do you all think about that RSX? Might go take another look in the morning before work.
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Meh, I was mulling it over when someone in town got one. 200hp isn't a big deal anymore for a sports coupe. Yeah, you can wind it up every. single. time. you want to accelerate like you mean it, but you're still driving a torqueless car. And nobody likes cars without torque.

<--loves his V6 very, very much.
 
RSX-S is something i would love but in chicago its a theif magnet. Great car overall, has minor rust issues, i'm sure in OKC it doesn't matter. Good solid engine, easy to work with.

If your looking at RSX, consider a TSX. To me its an upgraded 4 door RSX, you get OEM HID with one of the best projectors out there. Similiar 200hp but more torque with the K24 engine VS the K20. These are more often found in AT and not a 6 speed. Solid cars maybe 1-2 MPG less then what a RSX-S would get. TSX to me isn't remotely fast but handles pretty decent for what it is. Some fun can be had but not all out speed.

G35, i own a AWD g35 sedan. Low MPG i get 18 on average, RWD guys seem to get around 21 mixed driving. I normally see sedans go for $9k if they are 100k range. 12k should get you a 60k.

newer MKV GTi, VW gotten better at making a solid car. I would say these things are nice in either DSG or 6speed. With a $500 ECU flash you would be making somehting like 260hp/260tq. More power then most would need to drive around town. These guys are getting priced low $12-15k

If you give us more needs and wants, we can give you a better list. Seems right now you want something RWD 2dr, MPG is a factor and you like sporty. Your looking at the GT and v6 versions so maybe a little power... And i assume you like all this out the box, not something you modify into.
 
cheesehead said:
The Hyundai Genesis Coupe is essentially a poor man's G35. Not a bad car at all.

The RSX is, AFAIK, a jazzed-up Civic. It's not a bad car by any means, but the combination of a less than impressive engine and cheaped-out suspension (MacPherson Struts + FWD = fail) means it's just not all that fast.

If you don't mind something a bit wonky, there's always the Subaru Impreza WRX. The engine is a dinosaur, the fuel economy mediocre, the styling horrific, but if you want a cheap car that's practical, fast, safe, and absolutely epic at tackling ice and snow (AWD FTW!), the WRX is hard to beat. The Mazdaspeed3 is nice too - some people like it even better, but lacks the AWD and is harder to find.

You can get a surprisingly good one for $10k. Just stay away from anything that's had modifications.

And, should you have the cylinder head off, don't let anything get inside the cylinders under any circumstances. Just trust me on this one.
Click to expand...

I like the Genesis coupe's but there aren't a lot to choose from at any of the dealerships around here. Most of them are either new, or used with 10-20k and a bit out of my price range. I'll take a second look though.

Same with WRX's around here. Not much to choose from except some '08+'s or a few '03-'06's all with lots of mods. I'd prefer to go stock on something like that.
 
T2urtle said:
RSX-S is something i would love but in chicago its a theif magnet. Great car overall, has minor rust issues, i'm sure in OKC it doesn't matter. Good solid engine, easy to work with.

If your looking at RSX, consider a TSX. To me its an upgraded 4 door RSX, you get OEM HID with one of the best projectors out there. Similiar 200hp but more torque with the K24 engine VS the K20. These are more often found in AT and not a 6 speed. Solid cars maybe 1-2 MPG less then what a RSX-S would get. TSX to me isn't remotely fast but handles pretty decent for what it is. Some fun can be had but not all out speed.

G35, i own a AWD g35 sedan. Low MPG i get 18 on average, RWD guys seem to get around 21 mixed driving. I normally see sedans go for $9k if they are 100k range. 12k should get you a 60k.

newer MKV GTi, VW gotten better at making a solid car. I would say these things are nice in either DSG or 6speed. With a $500 ECU flash you would be making somehting like 260hp/260tq. More power then most would need to drive around town. These guys are getting priced low $12-15k

If you give us more needs and wants, we can give you a better list. Seems right now you want something RWD 2dr, MPG is a factor and you like sporty. Your looking at the GT and v6 versions so maybe a little power... And i assume you like all this out the box, not something you modify into.
Click to expand...

Pretty close to what I'm looking at. I'd like a little sporty or I'd go something like a Fusion, but I'd like the V6. Gas mileage would be a plus but isn't a necessity for me. I get about 17 mixed right now so anything on par or better is fine by me. The main thing is that i get a whopping 1-2mpg better on the highway than in city right now. Most newer cars have a bigger disparity and I'll be doing mostly highway trips of 15 or so miles with 2-3 mile city trips on either end of that drive.

I might be going to take a look at a 2010 Mazdaspeed3 once I find out if Mazda does a first time buyers program and what exactly that entails.
 
Also my Googling sucks this morning. There is a website that details what new cars dealer invoice for and what the average selling price is for the country and particular zip codes. They've got a fancy little graph. Any ideas?
 
saratoga172 said:
I like the Mazdaspeed 3 hatches, but there aren't many in my area. There's a 2010 at a dealership for $20k with 6k miles. Manual. I don't know much about the GTI. And other other hot hatches. Enlighten me please. I like the coupes, however.


Edit for spelling.
Click to expand...

I had to travel a bit to get my MS3, but I felt it was worth it, and fun too. I'll give you my $0.02 on my MS3 and a buddies GTI.

MS3- 1st gens, (2007-2009) are pretty raw. Especially with torque steer it's a handful to drive, especially with their stock clutch being essentially a "stage 2". Decent creature-comforts, though no sun roof. Suspension is good, you can tell you're driving a FWD car with a little understeer when pushing it hard, but it's not bad. With a few intake mods and an upgraded TMIC my MS3 can spin the tires in 1st and 2nd gear at around 5,000rpm on UHP summer tires, that's FWD for ya. FWIW I get 30-33mpg on the highway and 24-28mpg combined.

The GTI feels like a tamed and refined MS3, doesn't quite measure up in terms of performance (a comparo even showed an MS3 beating an R32 GTI in 1/4mile and track times) but the clutch/transmission is definitely smoother. 200hp/207tq in the GTI vs 265hp/280tq in the MS3, so it definitely is not as potent, but it's still fun. Slightly better interior quality, but not by a huge amount. The DSG option might be fun, but it adds weight and from what I hear it isn't that fantastic. The suspension is softer, so lower performance but a smoother ride.

Good luck.
 
alkalinetaupehat said:
Meh, I was mulling it over when someone in town got one. 200hp isn't a big deal anymore for a sports coupe. Yeah, you can wind it up every. single. time. you want to accelerate like you mean it, but you're still driving a torqueless car. And nobody likes cars without torque.

<--loves his V6 very, very much.
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Why would anyone care how much torque it has? My little shitbox compact car is great up to 60mph.... then it sucks balls because it runs out of power. Power = force * speed, so at constant power at high speed means low force pushing the car to accelerate. Regardless of the engine's rated torque, torque at the wheels is still power / speed. Rice car at 20,000rpm with a lot of power will still accelerate hard.
 
ShawnD1 said:
Why would anyone care how much torque it has? My little shitbox compact car is great up to 60mph.... then it sucks balls because it runs out of power. Power = force * speed, so at constant power at high speed means low force pushing the car to accelerate. Regardless of the engine's rated torque, torque at the wheels is still power / speed. Rice car at 20,000rpm with a lot of power will still accelerate hard.
Click to expand...

As the age-old quote goes: "horsepower sells cars, torque wins races"

Cars with more torque tend to be more pleasurable to drive. Where the Crayola falls short after 60mph I can comfortably accelerate and pass in 6th gear in my MS3 on the highway. There's a lot to be said for comfortably and smoothly speeding up to pass rather than dropping a gear or two and winding out your engine. Having driven a Corolla to Detroit and back, and driven my MS3 to Detroit and back, I can say without hesitation that I'd prefer the MS3.
 
JCH13 said:
As the age-old quote goes: "horsepower sells cars, torque wins races"
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It's merely a coincidence that all of the people who say that don't know what power and torque actually mean 😉

There was an episode of Top Gear where Clarkson was testing a diesel BMW vs a gasoline BMW. It's the same basic car but the engine is different. The diesel had significantly more torque (as usual) but the gasoline had more power (as usual). As high school physics class would predict, the high power low torque gasoline engine won the race.

I can't view youtube at work so I'm going by a quick google search. I think this is the video I'm talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU4f_NwAfUs
 
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