So how are you enjoying the car? I went on a 8 hour round trip to take my wife to Stansted last night and I had forgotten what a wonderful motorway cruiser the car is and returned me near 36mpg so was happy with that, the car just eats the miles up, , I did play a scary game in trying to get to the next services before filling the tank up and drove 12 miles when the computer was showing zero! Then when I filled up I only got 58 litres in so it must be a very over cautious warning, but I don't think I will do that again!
Andy
Loving the car. Remember I had a 2.3 Sport before (07 reg, one of the last of that shape) and I was expecting the 2.5 newer shape to be quite familiar but while some bits and pieces are, the car feels intrinsically different. It's quieter and more refined yet there is a more sporty growl from the engine. I wonder if Mazda did some work on the balancing of the engine as it's basically a bored-out 2.3 but it's much smoother and free-revving. At first I thought the gear lever was too high and the knob too small but the gear-changing is actually a delight. Today I did find the rev-limiter (oops)
The car seems noticeably more powerful although on paper it shouldn't be. Of course my old one had done nearly double the miles. The wheels are much easier to clean than the facelift Mk1 petrol Sport wheels too - and keeping the wheels clean is the key to keeping the car looking great.
There have been a couple of issues; one of the front inside brake pads had worn prematurely low because a pin in the mechanism was sticking because of corrosion. The garage cleaned it up and lubricated the pin but they say it's still not moving as freely as it should and you can't get the pins on their own, so a new caliper is being recommended at some point. The rubber 'request' buttons on the front doors don't work. I understand this is quite a common problem with my age of car and the fix I am looking at is to solder in a replacement microswitch. The finish on the silver of the steering wheel plastic on the rhs is wearing to black plastic underneath but is not very noticeable.
I'm also wondering if the self-levelling of the headlights is working because they don't nod up and down like they did on my old Sport when they are switched on - do yours, out of interest? There are no error indicator lights though. The lights are fine at night.
With my wife commuting this week plus some shopping and errand trips this weekend for our first full week of having the car it amounted to 264 miles and managed 28mpg average (29 indicated on the computer). I know I can get an indicated 40 on a leisurely motorway run, so prettty similar to my old 2.3 Sport.
I was lucky enough to find someone local to me who happened to be selling an identical alloy with a tyre (£45) so that's now in the boot instead of the emergency gunge kit.
A couple of the wheels will need repainting reasonably soon with bubbling and some paint actually having come off completely but only one has some very mild kerbing. I might make that the spare as the one I recently bought is marginally better.
My wife loves the car - especially the heated seats - everyone seems to think it's a great looking car and our cherished number from the old car should be going onto it soon.
How much more do you need to know?!
Oh yes - seriously thinking of doing the Nexus 7 tablet head unit fascia transplant that is described elsewhere...