Never buy a Mazda

[stuartpaul]

I suppose it's no consolation that our 7 year old Mazda 2 is totally rust free?

Quite often it's just one model rather than the whole brand.

I did have a Toyota Corolla years ago and when changing a wheel the jack just kept on going into the bodywork!

 

[Droogs]

Ah :shock:

 

[Graham Orm]

Had2Mazda's, both smaller models one from new and a second a couple of years old. Superb cars, bullet proof. My son's just bought a Mazda 6 on the strength of my experience. Can't fault them.

 

[WoodMangler]

My car is a year 2000 Mazda MX5 Mk2, which I've had since 2003. It's spent most of its life out of doors, the last 6 years near the sea. Apart from new sills it's holding together very well, and my local garage reckons it'll be good for several years yet.

 

[DennisCA]

My parents have had only Mazdas since the 1980s, they still swear by their 1997 Mazda 626.

 

[Matt@]

Re the RX8 I am amazed at this. 53 plate is relatively modern and I guess I thought severe rust was a thing of the past. Certainly we had a 1999 Bora and it was totally rust free. But perhaps harsh to treat all mazdas with the same rust brush

 

[n0legs]

I bought a 2005 MX5 a few years back for the good lady.
It was a cat d with extremely minor damage to the rear bumper and rear cross member which had upset the geometry. What had pushed it over the edge was excessive corrosion, according to the assessors report.
Repairs and replacements were made, then the rust was inspected, prodded and poked, brushed off and cleaned, primered and painted, coated with 3M underseal , good to go.
There's good and bad in all the brands. The brother in law had a 15 plate Hyundai in with a tailgate looking like it had been sat in a field for 20 years, then he's got another customer driving an A plate Metro ( WHO!!!!!!!!!!!!!) still wearing it's original wings.

 

[devonwoody]

My Mazda 2 is a 2007 auto model and the best car I have had in over 50 years of cars.

Roger perhaps the first owner of your model went cockling at Morecombe Bay?

(to Mazda 2 older models I note after rain the front doors load up with water if the drains are not cleaned out at bottom of door.)

 

[Eric The Viking]

Land Rovers (Defenders) frustrate me:

They all rot in the same places, in the same ways. It's very predictable.

Land Rover could easily have altered design and production processes to largely eliminate corrosion years ago. Given how the vehicles are used it would have been very sensible, and probably resulted in the design still being profitable for them today. Other brands can be long-lasting, e.g. Mercedes, Nissan, (and even Isuzu), but that doesn't seem a commercially stupid thing.

Mine died because of aluminium rot, rather than rust. It wasn't economic to repair, although I sold it to the garage that used to service it, and they refurbished it over a quiet week, and sold it on (sigh!).

I loved driving the thing, and it was very useful too, but the poor build quality was a constant frustration. Mine was from the late 1980s but still had the design-for-manufacture of the 'use up odd bits' of the 1940s. Later ones were worse, as they added complexity and frills without addressing some of the basics.