Mazdaspeed3 or Nissan Maxima

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gibbsj87

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Currently I own a Nissan Maxima. I love the car, but I have been paying 450 a month for a 2 years now and I really need to free up some money. I have looked into getting a Mazdaspeed3 and can reduce my payments to 320 a month by doing so while still keeping a sporty car with some speed and lowering my payment. I know I loose two years of payments and I am stuck with a longer loan, but I really could use the money right now. My Maxima is starting to have electrical issues that are not covered under the warrantee. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks :)
 
What year is the maxima? I would take one for a test drive, and if you like it, do it.

I was looking for one of those when I was car shopping, but I could not find any nearby.
 
The Maxima is a 2010. It only has 17,100 miles on it. The speed3 is nice, I really like the car. It's much more sporty in terms of handeling but not as comfortable of a ride. But thats ok, I am still young.
 
depends on so many things. the ms3 is a great car, but it's still based on an econobox so it's going to have somewhat cheap materials and extremely thin paint (but it's not too soft or anything). i had one from new for a couple years, an '08 i got 12/07 and it was great - no issues whatsoever.

i think the first gen GT package and second gen "Tech" packages are worth their weight in gold. you will not find a competing car equipped as well as those packages for the price, trust me.

rear passenger room is nil. the doors are really small and it's just cramped but it will work for a baby seat and short trips with average sized adults/women.

they roast tires no matter how you drive and there are a few mods that are absolutely necessary in my opinion. shifter bushings and rear mount inserts, at the very minimum.

a cobb intake and test pipe will make the car have about as much power as you can possibly deal with in a front engine front wheel drive car. that is the cars downfall - it's almost close to the realistic useable torque ceiling of an FF.
 
I know what you mean about useable torque. I can light up the tires quite easily with my 2005 3.5 altima. I did it the first few times on accident because I was used to flooring it all the time in my taurus to get it moving.
 
Don't buy an ms3- mine is currently sitting with a messed up engine. The turbo spat oil everywhere and in may need a new engine. The trans has been rebuilt 3 times from tons of broken parts, input shaft, bearings, gears, 5 slave cylinders, t/o bearing. There is too much neg. camber and the tires wear out every 15k, sometimes blow out on the highway, and they are $520+ a set. OEM brakes are $500 an axle set and they dust heavily and wear fast because they are so grippy. My shocks and bearings bump stops all went bad after 2 years. I broke all 3 motor mounts, the rear one twice, axles, etc. The car is a total POS and cannot withstand hard driving over an extended period of time. Not to mention Mazda has the absolute worst dealers and customer service. But yea they have a lot of bang for the buck and are fun to drive while they last. I will never ever buy another mazda. Get a v6 mustang camaro or fr-s, somthing of that nature if your looking for a new car in that price range. I just bought a 2012 VW Jetta TDI with a 100k warranty.
 
If it's only 2 years old, how can it have electrical problems and not covered by warranty?
gibbsj87 said:
The Maxima is a 2010. It only has 17,100 miles on it. The speed3 is nice, I really like the car. It's much more sporty in terms of handeling but not as comfortable of a ride. But thats ok, I am still young.
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Ever thought of a second hand car? You could get a nicer car that is a few years old, up to you though...
 
James R. said:
Don't buy an ms3- mine is currently sitting with a messed up engine. The turbo spat oil everywhere and in may need a new engine. The trans has been rebuilt 3 times from tons of broken parts, input shaft, bearings, gears, 5 slave cylinders, t/o bearing. There is too much neg. camber and the tires wear out every 15k, sometimes blow out on the highway, and they are $520+ a set. OEM brakes are $500 an axle set and they dust heavily and wear fast because they are so grippy. My shocks and bearings bump stops all went bad after 2 years. I broke all 3 motor mounts, the rear one twice, axles, etc. The car is a total POS and cannot withstand hard driving over an extended period of time. Not to mention Mazda has the absolute worst dealers and customer service. But yea they have a lot of bang for the buck and are fun to drive while they last. I will never ever buy another mazda. Get a v6 mustang camaro or fr-s, somthing of that nature if your looking for a new car in that price range. I just bought a 2012 VW Jetta TDI with a 100k warranty.
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Sweet Jesus what the hell did you do that car? I know Gen1's had turbo issues but damn! My '10 MS3 has 41,000 miles without an issue other than some nut kept loosening in my steering column that locked the telescoping. Fixed under warranty! The rear camber is aggressive but if you rotate often, I managed 25,000 on my last set of tires. The brakes aren't that dusty, hell, if you wanna see dusty drive a Saab 9-5 like my wife has. Her front wheels turn dark gray within a day after cleaning! No transmission (other than a diff whine with the current synthetic fluid), shock, bearings, axles or bump stop issues here. My car also has a 7 year/70000 powertrain warranty. The stock rear motor mount does blow and I replaced that first thing with an aftermarket version but I never heard of people having issues with their side mounts. Sounds like you had bad luck my friend but I do agree that some dealers suck and MazdaUSA customer service is not the best.

To the OP, the Speed is definitely a different ride than the Maxima. The softness you are used to will be gone. Shorter wheelbase and more sporty setup = harsher ride. I have 3 kids (10, 5 and 2) that ride in the back without complaints. Even my wife has expressed it rides better than she thought it would! It's definitely a hoot and a wee bit more than "some speed" as you put it. Yes, there is gobs of torque but so what, drive a minivan if you wanna be numb to the road I say. Take it for a spin, see if you like it, not all cars are meant for everyone. What's the old adage, you can please some of the people some the time, but not all of the people all of the time. Good luck in your car quest!

Oh, by the way, I'm 41 aka not that young!
 
I had a Mazda3 and had the motor blow at 85k, covered under an extended warranty I took out when I purchased the car. I did have a problem with the rear camber links, again, replaced under warranty. The brakes were not that expensive as James said. I paid ~$140 for rear brakes and rotors, and for some reason, my rear set was for the MS3. I did the front's previous to that, and it was ~$100 for parts. Maybe James R. had them installed by someone and that's why it was $540...:dunno: I did have to replace the rear shocks at ~65k. The front's were needing replacement when I traded the car in (100k). I did have to replace the tires at about 25k. It is honestly just all basic maintenance that I had to perform. I wouldn't buy another Mazda just based on the customer service and the dealerships being horrible.

Search cars.com for any vehicles in your price range and take it from there.
 
You can buy the oem pads and aftermarket pads online for less, but they are $280 for the front pads and $175 for the front rotors. So about $455 + installation. I.e. rosenthal mazda has them for $130 rotors, $185 pads. Parts are expensive on this car, might as well buy a classic porsche!! OEM flywheel is $1000, I had to get a lightweight one for $370.
 
James R. said:
You can buy the oem pads and aftermarket pads online for less, but they are $280 for the front pads and $175 for the front rotors. So about $455 + installation. I.e. rosenthal mazda has them for $130 rotors, $185 pads. Parts are expensive on this car, might as well buy a classic porsche!! OEM flywheel is $1000, I had to get a lightweight one for $370.
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Have you ever tried Rockauto.com? I just priced out semi metallic brakes and decent rotors for a 2010 MS3, $200 including shipping. I usually go to Pep Boys or something like that to get my parts quickly. To each his own though! :dblthumb2:
 
Well, Nissan cannot reporduce the electrical issue. The left right window won't go down sometimes and you really have to play with the button. According to them, unless they have the issue, they cannot fix it. So basically I will probabally never be able to get it there when it's not working.

Second, I wan't a sporty car that is fun to drive. I realize that the ride won't be as nice as the maxima, but saving 130 dollars a month is A-OK in my book. I have heard about tires burning up in any Mazda due to the negative camber and that you need to rotate them every 3,000 miles or so.

I am looking for something reliable, but a few people apparently have had problem and others have not. I guess any car is a gamble when you think about it.
 
rddmxmeth10 said:
I had a Mazda3 and had the motor blow at 85k, covered under an extended warranty I took out when I purchased the car. I did have a problem with the rear camber links, again, replaced under warranty. The brakes were not that expensive as James said. I paid ~$140 for rear brakes and rotors, and for some reason, my rear set was for the MS3. I did the front's previous to that, and it was ~$100 for parts. Maybe James R. had them installed by someone and that's why it was $540...:dunno: I did have to replace the rear shocks at ~65k. The front's were needing replacement when I traded the car in (100k). I did have to replace the tires at about 25k. It is honestly just all basic maintenance that I had to perform. I wouldn't buy another Mazda just based on the customer service and the dealerships being horrible.

Search cars.com for any vehicles in your price range and take it from there.
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Did you drive the car hard? Also, did you use synthetic oil and change it regularly?
 
I went from a Buick to a 3 recently (not a MS3 though). I haven't noticed the ride being uncomfortable. It's definitely firmer but that's for the better as far as I'm concerned. I can't comment on the reliability though as mine is a month old and has just over 1000 miles on it only.

As far as the dealers being bad, I don't know. I thought mine was one of the better dealers I've been to but then again, before that I was at Buick dealers and let me tell you, they are terrible.
 
Maxima. I'm a bit biased, I have a 1995 Maxima that I am dropping a 2002 Maxima motor and transmission into this weekend (VQ35 :) ). I have heard of a few problems on the Maxima forums with +2009 Maximas, although not anything a Nissan guru couldn't figure out. There's a huge gap imo between a 2010 Max and a Mazdaspeed3, but I'm not the one paying the bill lol.
 
What makes me nervous is all the problems I have been reading about online. There where 20 or more problems being posted about speed3 on one particular forum in a few days! Anywhere from shifting to leaking oil into intake.. Many of these cars have < 5000 miles!
 
Couple of perceptions or opinions here:

1) If you browse car based forums you will literally see the best and the worst represented no where near the average car is talked about. That opinion comes from years of being on make specific forums

2) My son is a tech for Hyundai and young(21) a lot of his frineds drive the econo tuner cars (MS3, EVO, STI, GTi etc) they all break and blow stuff up because of how they drive and the stress they put on them daily, 0 to redline constantly hot or cold they thrash them and the result is they work on them a lot, some even complain when the mfg'r denies warranty work after they've modded them.

3) Given the fact that you will take care of the vehicle, do the maintnence and not drive like Sebastien Loeb all day long it most likely will last.

Buy what makes you happy, if lowering your payment is key along with getting into a sporty type car go for it. Mazda has long had complaints over their dealer network and customer service so go into with an open mind and they may surprise. Hell when I had a warranty I got along just fine with my local BMW dealer and they have been known to be finicky about things as well.
 
bobble said:
Couple of perceptions or opinions here:

1) If you browse car based forums you will literally see the best and the worst represented no where near the average car is talked about. That opinion comes from years of being on make specific forums

2) My son is a tech for Hyundai and young(21) a lot of his frineds drive the econo tuner cars (MS3, EVO, STI, GTi etc) they all break and blow stuff up because of how they drive and the stress they put on them daily, 0 to redline constantly hot or cold they thrash them and the result is they work on them a lot, some even complain when the mfg'r denies warranty work after they've modded them.

3) Given the fact that you will take care of the vehicle, do the maintnence and not drive like Sebastien Loeb all day long it most likely will last.

Buy what makes you happy, if lowering your payment is key along with getting into a sporty type car go for it. Mazda has long had complaints over their dealer network and customer service so go into with an open mind and they may surprise. Hell when I had a warranty I got along just fine with my local BMW dealer and they have been known to be finicky about things as well.
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You have a good point. I am 25 and want something sporty, I would drive the car hard at times but most of the time not really. IDK one part of me says keep the Max, the other part says have some fun and get the Speed3
 
If you have had your car for 2 years you only have $16,200 left to go on a 5 year loan. The Mazda which my daughter has and is an ok car would cost you $19,200. I test drove the Maxima and was very impressed with it. Your Maxima is rated as an upscale sedan and scored the same as a Lexus HS 250 premium while the Mazda 3 scored lower than a HYUNDAI ELANTRA.
 
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