Mazda2 Thread

MA$$hole wrote: I have about 12k on the car and lately I find myself getting bored of it. Been doing a lot of highway driving and think it's nearing time for something more suited for long drives. I will likely be returning the car to stock form, selling off the parts and finding the replacement in late winter.

I give you credit for bailing on something you're unhappy with. I tend to buy a new car and run it 10-12 years. If I am unhappy I suffer until I can hit the 9+ year mark and state I kept it for almost10 years.

Kudos to you.

In reply to Datsun310Guy:

I wish I could settle on a car. The longest I have kept anything is 3 years. Since 1999 I have owned 19 vehicles, I know that's nothing compared to others on here but it comes as a shock to non-enthusiasts.

MA$$hole wrote: In reply to Datsun310Guy: I wish I could settle on a car. The longest I have kept anything is 3 years. Since 1999 I have owned 19 vehicles, I know that's nothing compared to others on here but it comes as a shock to non-enthusiasts.

Between the wife and I (both 50 years old) we have owned since 1978;

10 cars.

Plus 1 car toy, 2 parts cars, and 1 truck I bought to flip. ( but my job gave me a car for 10 years).

I need to get going here......

In reply to Datsun310Guy:

I've owned 8 cars since 1970 and I still have 3 of them.

I'm OK with that...

oldsaw wrote: In reply to Datsun310Guy: I've owned 8 cars since 1970 and I still have 3 of them. I'm OK with that...

That Volvo million mile guy has owned 1 car?

List them......

Datsun310Guy wrote:

oldsaw wrote: In reply to Datsun310Guy: I've owned 8 cars since 1970 and I still have 3 of them. I'm OK with that...

That Volvo million mile guy has owned 1 car? List them......

My Dad bought a new Sprite in '68 and in '70 it was pronounced as my HS graduation present. Maybe it wasn't "true" ownership, but everyone knew it was mine. It was sold to a neighbor's kid after the next car was in the driveway.

That next car was a '74 Fiat 128SL, purchased new and kept until '83; 120,000 miles and still on the original clutch with none of the problems normally associated with Fiats.. A Honda dealer gave me a few hundred bucks trade-in allowance when I bought a new '84 CRX Dx. The CRX was in the garage before Xmas '83.

The first CRX was kept until September '85 and was traded-in for a new '85 CRX Si, an auto-x mount that eventually helped bring two regional championships.

A new '90 Civic Dx hatch was bought as a DD. I still have it with about 185,000 miles on it. Yeah, it was/is maintained and modified over the years.

The second CRX was sold in the early '90's and was eventually replaced by another '85 CRX Si. That car was totaled after a rear-ender and the settlement was enough to justify another second car.

In '2000 an '86 Prelude Si was purchased from the second owner. The 'Lude had about 190'000m on the odo; it now has about 267,000. The Civic was kept and now it has about 185'000 miles on the odo.

About 8 years ago, I bought my Dad's '96 GMC Sonoma. The truck has less than 92'000 miles on it and it's still going strong.

Vehicles are like women; find what you want, get it and keep it because it's what works for you.

BTW, I've had better luck with vehicles.

MA$$hole wrote: I have about 12k on the car and lately I find myself getting bored of it. Been doing a lot of highway driving and think it's nearing time for something more suited for long drives. I will likely be returning the car to stock form, selling off the parts and finding the replacement in late winter.

as a fellow subcompact driver i feel your pain. my accent pretty much sucks on the highway. high rpms, fuel economy goes down. I've dealt with it for 4 years now and 96k miles, I think pretty much all the time about replacing it with something else. But Im such a penny pincher in some ways, and the car has been reliable, Ill probably keep driving it till I really NEED something a little bigger. I keep eyeing CX5's lately.

In reply to oldsaw:

Thanks for the great story. You truly keep them a while.

Finally got my 2 out on track last weekend. Fun, but definitely identified some improvements I need to make to the car. It needs performance shocks really badly, and it's oversteery enough that I think a front sway bar is definitely needed. Tire wear also tells a clear story about needing front camber bolts.

Here's some helmet cam footage of my best session. I get passed a lot by faster cars, but my best lap was actually mid-pack, pretty good considering the group was largely composed of S2000s, M3s, and seriously prepared Miatas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Z_UzaBU_0

In reply to Max_Archer:

I'd love to watch this but I have a thing with music playing in track videos. Prefer the sounds of the environment.

I will say camber bolts made quite an improvement on handling and feel on mine street & autox wise. I ordered the SPC ones through Amazon, maybe $25 or so.

MA$$hole wrote: In reply to Max_Archer: I'd love to watch this but I have a thing with music playing in track videos. Prefer the sounds of the environment. I will say camber bolts made quite an improvement on handling and feel on mine street & autox wise. I ordered the SPC ones through Amazon, maybe $25 or so.

Sorry about the music, the camera just picked up wind noise and not much else. I tried to tweak the EQ to reduce it but didn't get anywhere so I just put music over it, otherwise I would've had to just make a silent video.

oldsaw wrote: In reply to Datsun310Guy: I've owned 8 cars since 1970 and I still have 3 of them. I'm OK with that...

My mother has you beat - on her 5th car since '72:

72-85 used '71 Dodge Demon (was going to be my car when I got my license, but due to a number of circumstances, it was towed away in '88 - still regretting that...)

*honorable mention: some car she had for about 6 months when we lived in Okinawa in 1975 while my father was in the Air Force. We think it was a Toyota, but she doesn't remember (I was 4 at the time and barely remember the car at all).

85-93 - new '85 Subaru GL wagon - met its demise in a low speed lane dispute with a tractor-trailer. The Subaru lost.

93-94 - '93 new Dodge Intrepid - spent more time in the shop for electrical problems than in the driveway. Was eventually bought back by Chrysler.

'95-09 - new '95 Subaru Legacy wagon - she tired of the nagging repairs and just wanted a new car; donated to her church, who passed it along to a fellow who fixed it up and is still driving it.

09-present - new '09 Volvo V50 wagon. Unless it starts nickle-and-diming her, I doubt she'll switch anytime soon.

Hell, I own as many cars now as she's had for my entire life (not counting the Okinawa car).

After much consideration, I recently purchased a new 2013 Mazda2 Sport. I got rid of my 2007 Sentra SE-R Spec V because I didn't really feel particularly "involved" when I drove it - I'm looking forward to enjoying the simplicity and honesty of the Mazda.

Automotive Resume

2007 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V with I/H/suspension: Daily driver, TSD rally car, people taxi

1997 Mazda Miata with BEGI GT2860RS/FMIC/hard top/Hard Dog/suspension/Azenis/blah blah blah: Solo II car, TSD rally car, weekend car

1992 Plymouth Colt Wagon: Daily driver, cargo van, had planned on completing a 4G63 turbo swap for a sleeper setup but ended up leaving it alone and selling it

1992 Eagle Talon TSi fwd with Evo III 16G and all the supporting mods, moderate weight reduction to around 2600 lbs, a little over 300 whp on the dyno, debadged: Drag car, daily driver

1990 Toyota Tercel: Long-distance commuter

1966 Karmann Ghia with 1641cc with dual carbs, Empi wheels, Cal look: daily driver

1969 Ford Torino Convertible with 351W, ridiculous gas mileage, sold after a few months

ccrelan wrote: Can you let me know what you all paid for your 2's? We are considering one for my wife. Thanks!

17050 with 0 down and no trade in, license, title, tax, rear bumper guard (w/ install), touring trim and 0% apr :)

v8exocet wrote: if you guys could do the fiesta ST or 2 touring what would you do? Both are within my budget, im trading in my '11 Corolla S for one. too bored with it

you would be bored with the 2, unless you plan on tracking the 2 EVERY weekend. I hate it on my highway commute.

v8exocet wrote: the price difference is about 4k or so, so the question is, could the 2 be a better car with that 4k?

short answer, no.

long answer, supercharger kit.

chandlerGTi wrote: I love this thread ; my 5 has the same clutch and boy is it annoying. 56k miles later and I still feel like an idiot taking off from a stop light sometimes.

THIS drives me nuts! I dont want to dump it from 4k evyerwhere I go, especially when I'm tired at 8am on my way to work...

I had the opportunity to blast down some curvy roads today at about 6/10ths - I only have 250 miles on it, so I'm still going "easy" on the revs and throttle (but not so much on the corners and braking.)

General impressions: This car reminds me a lot of an early Miata on the stock suspension. Driving fast relies upon managing weight transfer on and off the bump stops.

The tires are not my favorite. They are smooth, quiet, I'm sure they are fine in the rain, but the sidewalls are far too soft for anything resembling spirited driving. Cornering feels like this: Weight transfer onto bump stop, continue turning, feel the sidewall begin to roll over. It is disconcerting to have your steering line changing like that when you are committed to a corner.

The shifter is an A+ with extra credit bonus points - I don't even think I want to change the shift knob. This thing was an absolutely supreme joy to row - easily better than my old '97 Miata.

On curvy roads I didn't really notice the lack of acceleration much. On straight roads, the gap between first and second gear is noticeable and somewhat annoying. If the rev limiter were about 500-1000 rpm higher, the engine would better fall back into the limited torque range on upshifts much more readily. You must constantly pay attention to what gear the car is in to manage the limited torque, but the shifter makes this a fun job.

The brakes are okay (even with rear drums) and I managed to get into the ABS briefly when I misread a corner. No complaints today.

Also: this car is too quiet! I think that it needs an intake or an exhaust so the driver can hear what the engine is doing when they are flogging it.

That's my preliminary 250 mile summary. Overall, I really enjoy driving this car.

Sounds very much like the conclusions many of us have come to with this car.

The tires make a huge difference, but the second you get anything moderately grippy on the car the stock suspension is out of its league.

The rev limiter is a common complaint. Other markets have higher redlines and there's an ECU remote flash coming out sometime soon that will rectify that problem as well as giving us a bit more power. Andy Hollis is (was?) running an earlier version of the same flash and had pretty good things to say about it.

The intake definitely makes a big difference. For $150 or so and the 45 minutes it takes to install it, the Corksport Short Ram is a great mod and really opens up the car's sound.

Hmm, the local dealership has a 2013 manual sport they're willing to deal on...

Do any of the sport owners on here wish you'd held out for a touring model, or not?

I would rather have cruise, actual wheels and the spoiler and fogs...but I'm pretty sure I'd be fine without them.

I have a base model and the damned locks drive me nuts. As much as a I hate a key fob it would be more convenient with the kids. Otherwise I don't miss any of that stuff.

Which is weird, because the 2013 sport I just drove had a remote keyfob.

The sales dude said AFAHK, all the 2's came with keyless entry.

I may make a slightly ridiculous offer and see where it gets me. There's a dealer about an hour away who's willing to deal on a '13 manual Touring model...but it's red.

Not that it's a dealbreaker, but I would definitely prefer almost any other color the 2 is offered in...besides green.

Cruise is the big one. I wish so much that the car had cruise.

Racer1ab wrote: Which is weird, because the 2013 sport I just drove had a remote keyfob. The sales dude said AFAHK, all the 2's came with keyless entry.

since so many of the new cars come with keyless entry ... what happens when the battery in the fob goes dead ? I assume there's a way in ... but if no door key hole ????

mazdeuce wrote: Cruise is the big one. I wish so much that the car had cruise.

I won't buy a modern car w/o cruise control. Too many knee injuries... I use it pretty much every day. Hell, every time I drive one of my classic cars I think of adding cruise control...

wbjones wrote: since so many of the new cars come with keyless entry ... what happens when the battery in the fob goes dead ? I assume there's a way in ... but if no door key hole ????

Umm... so far I haven't seen a car that doesn't have a normal key hole on the driver's door. My Jetta doesn't have one on the front passenger door.

ah ... so there's at least one actual door keyhole ... I had been led to understand that there wasn't any door key holes anymore on some cars ... I should listen more carefully

There is a keyhole. I don't use the keyless entry fob because it's huge and I just don't lock my car very much. The cars come with a regular key too and it works just fine. The only hitch with opening the car is that the trunk release is electric and the battery has to be in to pop the hatch. It has already caught me once when I was mucking about with batteries.

Racer1ab wrote: Which is weird, because the 2013 sport I just drove had a remote keyfob.

Mine is a Canadian market car and our base car is a little more basic than the US version. Mine has black door handles instead of body coloured for example.