Mazda2 Thread

Dealers are selling base Sport models for $13.2k. Tempting....very, very, very, very tempting....

In reply to Stealthtercel:

I just went out and checked. Three positions for the lights.
Off: lights off, gauge lights off with the exception of the digital odometer, that glows.
Running lights: dash lights on, rear lights on, front corners on.
Lights on: everything on.
If his tail lights were off then either something was broken or he didn't turn anything on. The gauge is funny, the digital part is lit all of the time, but the actual sweeping parts stays dark until you turn things on.

Klayfish wrote: Dealers are selling base Sport models for $13.2k. Tempting....very, very, very, very tempting....

That's a grand less than I paid which makes me a bit jealous.

mazdeuce wrote: In reply to Stealthtercel: I just went out and checked. Three positions for the lights. Off: lights off, gauge lights off with the exception of the digital odometer, that glows. Running lights: dash lights on, rear lights on, front corners on. Lights on: everything on. If his tail lights were off then either something was broken or he didn't turn anything on. The gauge is funny, the digital part is lit all of the time, but the actual sweeping parts stays dark until you turn things on.

DRL lights like Stealthtercel mentioned you cant turn off. I think they are mandatory on new canadian vehicles, but not in the US, so the cars sold here don't always have them. I know my Accent doesnt, but the ones in Canada do.

I see that a lot though, folks not realizing their headlights (and all other external lights) are off, because of the stupid DRL's are on and lighting up the road ahead. Stupid design, really. Might as well at least have the taillights on too.

Tires mounted! Yay!
I told my wife that it was going to take a while to get tires mounted on good Friday, people off work would be getting stuff done and it would be busy. She told me not to worry, just hang out and read car magazines and don't worry about the time. Awesome. It took about two and a half hours to get 4 tires mounted, but it's done and I'm happy. First, some numbers. The stock tire, a 185-55-15, on the stock steel wheel weighed 29.5 lbs. The naked 195-50-15 Star Spec weighed 18.5 lbs. Mounted, the Star Spec weighed 34 lbs. Ouch. Messing around with numbers to check the accuracy of the whole situation, I calculate a wheel weight of 15.5 lbs which correlates well with the published weight of the steel wheels of 15 lbs. That's a lot of numbers, the short story is that the Star Spec weighs about 4.5 lbs per corner more than the stock tire. That's not cool, but it is what it is.
How about width? I pulled out my square and some aluminum tube and strapped everything together so I could accurately measure the mounted width of the tires. Interestingly, they both measured at 7.75 inches. The difference in width comes with the shape of the tire. The Star Spec is a much more square tire.
Stock Tire:

Star Spec:

Performance? Hard to say really. They are a bit louder, and they feel stiffer. I can't really drive close enough to the limit on public roads to make any real statements about grip. I can say that on my usual curvy drive I could get the stock all seasons to the squirmy stage pretty easy. Not close to the limit really, but to the point where the tread starts to move and sidewall flex comes into play. At similar speeds the Star Specs don't do anything, they just go around the corner. At slightly higher speeds, faster than I would go on the stock tires, the Star Specs still just go around the corner. No drama, no sign that I'm near anything like a limit. I'm going to have to get these on an autocross course before I can decide how much more grip they have. I think I'm going to be a very happy man.
The only other update was my front license plate mounting. My car came from the dealer with the sweet plastic block off plate for those places that don't need front plates. When my plates came in I popped it off (and will save it in case I ever need it) and went to screw the plate in. Problem. The threaded holes were farther apart than the holes in my plate. Weird. A little searching led me to the conclusion that there is a Mazda factory bracket that mounts to the holes and then the plate mounts to that. Pffft....this is a race car, I'm not bolting on any 2 ounce bracket. A few allen screws from the hardware store and a few seconds with the drill and I've modified my plate to fit perfectly.

Now I've just got to hope that I don't develop into a national championship contender and have a competitor protest my lack of a factory bracket. I'm not that worried.

Man, those Star Specs are looking pretty dang good to me. You've got 'em on the stock steelies? I guess that means I could put them on my Touring wheels. I want to stiffen the car up a little bit before I get them, though, and I haven't got anywhere to put the perfectly good stock tires.

In reply to Stealthtercel:

That actually happened to me the other day in my 2. It was just at dusk, though, so there was plenty of light, but I thought they were on and they were actually just on the first click. I probably would have noticed had it actually been all the way dark, though.

They will fit fine on your alloys. If you want to save the stock tires the either try to pick up a set of steelies or a set of 15 inch miata wheels. I just pitched mine and considered it part of the cost of driving on better tires. When I had a MK1 focus I decided that I would wait for the stock tires to wear out befor I upgraded. 60k miles later I decided I should just upgrade the wheels at the same time and I found a set of lighter takeoffs, with brand new tires on them. It took me another 60k miles to wear those out. With this car I decided not to repeat that and just dive it. I'm happy.
As far as stiffening the car, the problem is the lack of shocks. There's just nothing out there, not better or worse, nothing, that isn't part of a coilover. You can get some slightly stiffer lowering springs, but nothing but the stock shocks. That's an issue. Koni yellows would have been the first thing on the car if they were available. I've decided to wait until fall and then reevaluate.

Man, those Star Specs are looking pretty dang good to me. You've got 'em on the stock steelies? I guess that means I could put them on my Touring wheels. I want to stiffen the car up a little bit before I get them, though, and I haven't got anywhere to put the perfectly good stock tires.

If you're leasing, find somewhere to stash them until you turn it back in, but if you're keeping it, just sell 'em. Perfectly good practically new tires are always in demand on CL. Just got the star specs on my Miata (195/60/14) and they're delightful.

This thread kills me. I want a 2 so bad, but I can't quite get rid of the bigger family hauler for long trips, obviously can't ditch the Miata, and it'd be emotionally difficult getting rid of the E36 and being without a german car for the first time in 18 years. But gawd, I miss the feel of a flyweight FWD hatch.

Selling the stock ones isn't a terrible idea I guess. Maybe in a couple months when it's all dried up. I actually want to get some aftermarket wheels and be done with it, I wonder how much I could get for the stock alloys + tires. Those $99 TRMotorsport 15x7s from Tire Rack look pretty good and they seem to be well-received by the Miata community. They're also pretty light which is nice, probably not the lightest out there but I'm not planning on being competitive in anything in this car.

Racing Beat makes a big deal about their springs being OK with stock shocks. I'll probably get some aftermarket ones when they're out as well, though.

Word is that Corksport is working on a matched set of adjustable shocks/springs that should be available the end of summer/early fall. It looks like they should have a standard seat and should (maybe) take a stock spring. That should really open up a lot of options. I'm sure that RB springs are probably fine with stock shocks, but if that's true, then you're not gaining much other than lowering. Not that that's bad, but it is what it is. I'd probably give you enough for your stock wheels to cover most (75%) of the cost of the new wheels. I'm not sure I need the tires. My long term plan is to have three sets of wheels. Steelies with rallycross tires. Some sort of alloy with Star Specs for daily driving/backup track driving. And a third set of 7.5 inch wide wheels with whatever the hotness is for STF and track work. I'm not in a hurry, but if something came up.........

The RBs only lower by about 7/8" and are about 20% stiffer. So you get a decent handling gain but it's still very daily driver-oriented. I think it'll basically feel the way a factory performance model would, if one existed. I'll probably be putting Corksport's rear bar stiffener on it as well, which should be a decent match.

My big concern is that every really performance-oriented suspension is going to drop me to the point where I can't open my doors next to a curb or get over speed bumps. I'm not into the look of a "slammed" car and I'm not going for an autox title so a 2" drop isn't gonna do me much good. I suspect Corksport's will be at least that.

I'm a bit worried about that with the upcoming corksports as well. I really need to sit down and calculate (as close as I can) roll centers and such and see where I should be aiming for mathematically. I just got Tune To Win in the mail today so that should get me thinking. In truth, I'd probably be better off just waiting to see what Andy Hollis comes up with with his AST shocks. I'm betting that he'll be right in the ballpark geometry wise. I really do want to go fast, and this isn't a road trip car for me, it's mostly just around town, so I think I can deal with going quite stiff if need be. It's all theory at this point. I do like to think about it though.

I hate this thread. You've all put the idea in my head to trade in my 08 Si which I've been trying to sell for 4 months & selling the 325ix I bought in January & finally registered last week on one. I really can't stand the Si for many reasons, and I just don't feel like wrenching on an E30 & a Starion.

In reply to MA$$hole:

Sell me your e30!

In reply to MA$$hole:

I say do it. You might've already seen my post but I traded my '09 Si for my Mazda2. I'd say you should keep the E30 (I still have a 325is) but if you've got a StarQuest, they're pretty awesome too.

My thing is that the 88 325ix was to replace the Si. I don't need a car payment as public transport serves my daily commute into Boston. However having just a Starion is a bad idea around here. After listing the Si for 4 months on CL, eBay & Autotrader I'm just sick of lowballers. I had kept the E30 at a coworkers house until last week, wasn't planning on putting on the road till the Si went but said "screw it". Generally I don't like new "compact" cars but the 2 interests me a lot, although power wise I'm no too sure. The Si bores the hell out of me to drive, will the 2? I had a stock 91 Miata but although it was slow I didn't mind.

MA$$hole wrote: My thing is that the 88 325ix was to replace the Si. I don't need a car payment as public transport serves my daily commute into Boston. However having just a Starion is a bad idea around here. After listing the Si for 4 months on CL, eBay & Autotrader I'm just sick of lowballers. I had kept the E30 at a coworkers house until last week, wasn't planning on putting on the road till the Si went but said "screw it". Generally I don't like new "compact" cars but the 2 interests me a lot, although power wise I'm no too sure. The Si bores the hell out of me to drive, will the 2? I had a stock 91 Miata but although it was slow I didn't mind.

It depends what your driving situation is like. I find it slightly more interesting around town than the Si. However, driven back to back on the same twisty roads, the 2 is worlds more fun to drive. There's a lot of Miata DNA in there. Yeah, it's down on power, but the driving feel is excellent. I drove my friend's before buying mine, and a 15 minute drive on one canyon road turned into almost an hour nonstop on all the roads in the area, that's how enjoyable the 2 is.

Why is the Si boring but the Miata wasn't?
I'm not sure what makes a car great to drive, I honestly just don't know. My favorite car ever was my 82 Volvo 245. It pitched and wallowed and was slow, but it talked back to you as a driver in a way that made it an absolute blast to drive. Every, single, time.
The two is a bit like that, though not completely. As soon at the little blue temperature light goes off (no temp gauge) I'm shifting out of first at 6K and out of second when I hit the speed limit at 55. I give myself distance behind cars when there are corners because I always gain on the car I'm behind. I'm looking ahead when I drive, shuffle steering, carrying momentum. None of this is outside the flow of traffic, at least not far. I'm nowhere near the edge of grip, I've got a ton of reserve braking if I need it. I'm accelerating at nearly 100%, but in this car that's just not fast enough to be disruptive. I can feel the road. I can feel texture changes. I can feel grip changes when it's wet. I can feel sand in a corner when it's dry. The lack of power means that you feel when the road goes up, and when it goes down. I really like this car. It's not perfect, it's slow, the electronic throttle intrudes, it buzzes at 70mph, there are issues. Having never owned a truly great car, this is how I imagine a great car makes you feel.

You summed up a ton of what I wanted to say about the 2. It makes daily driving feel a little bit sporty, but doesn't make it such a challenge that it's crazy. You can easily use less than 50% of the power and get around fine, but even if you punch it you're still not doing anything dangerous or disruptive.

Out on an open twisty road, it gets better. The gear ratios are really well selected for that kind of driving, what power it has is available over a pretty wide RPM range, and the level of feedback is excellent. The car is balanced just right so that you can carry momentum into a corner and it just goes around it like a kart. Evo mag in the UK did a big group test with the 2 and a whole bunch of performance model "hot hatches", and the main thing they said was that when the "sportier" cars were cornering full force on back roads, the 2 just followed them through them like it was nothing.

The Si is everything the 2 isn't. It's got a decent amount of power and grip, but it never feels like you're getting anything out of them. There's no driver feedback, it always feels slow, and there's something about the car that doesn't make you confident at all when driving it on a good road. The engine is also completely gutless below 6000rpm, which doesn't make driving it any more enjoyable. The Si would probably be a great race car but as a street car it's really disappointing.

/\ That & the sheer size of the Si makes me feel like I'm driving a 90's full size Ford. The fact that it's supposed to be a compact car & doesn't feel that way is a major flaw I find with it.

Driving the 2 is like driving a happy flea .

Hey,

Great thread!

I am looking for this size car as a DD. (Probably no AutoX)

Can anyone comment on the Auto trans driveability?

Thanks,

Rog

So, it's a modern MKI golf?

In reply to chandlerGTi:

I have never driven one but from what I have read, YES!

I found a much better walk around of the suspension on the 2 than I did in this thread, if anyone is interested.
Mazda2 suspension walk around