NEW & Need Advice :)

[Lady]

Hi everyone, im new here.
Ive been looking for a car for a while now and I'm going to check out a car tomorrow with my father and his friend. It's a 95 Gx-3 with around 138 000 km on it, theyre asking for 3750$ canadian. Its automatic, red. Sound reasonable? Im rather iffy about buying a car with that much mileage on it but it has been lady driven and she said she did take care of it. So is there anything specific we should keep a look out for when we go see the car tomorrow? anything to keep in mind? I only need this car to drive here and there, nothing too far and I dont race and all that

any input would be appreciated, thankyou!

[Tunes67]

Actually thats not bad mileage for a car that is 10 years old.. but that aside.. the one thing I would be a bit wary of is the Automatic Transmission. The ATX's in the MX-3's seem to have a higher than normal failure rate. So check the tranny fluid and make sure its a bright ruby red color. If she has receipts showing that she has had the transmission serviced regularly then it should be fine. If she doesnt have proof that it was serviced regularly.. then I would have a transmission shop or your local mazda dealer inspect the transmission. If it all turns out decent and you buy the car.. have a aftermarket transmission cooler installed.. they run about $40 + installation of around $60 US prices.. or you could install it yourself. Also have the transmission filter replaced and the fluid changed regularly and you shouldnt have many issues if you drive it sanely. Might be best to have the car inspected in anycase.. helps spot little problems before they become bigger problems. Best of luck.

Tunes67

[Lady]

Thankyou very much tunes, shall definately do that. I also read the comments about placing a cooler in other threads so i'll mention that to my father.
My dad knows a bit about cars and his friend regularly buys cars, fixes them up then sells them so i'm hoping he'll be of little help.

[Tunes67]

No worries and hopefully we will be welcoming you to the MX-3 family Cheers

Tunes67

[Lady]

so i went, and it was awful.

on auto trader the person stated on the ad "excellent condition inside/out"

as soon as i turn the car on all i hear is a LOUDDD squeak coming from the engine. He tells my father "i warned your daughter about that on the phone, i dont know why it keeps happening" but i think he had me mistaken for someone else cause he definately did not warn me!

I thought i'd give it a try nonetheless to test drive it and the gear was so hard to change from park to drive or whatever, it was like it was stuck and required extra effort to shift.

while i was driving too, the squeaky noise kept coming up, the breaks needed work on as well...

i wanted to find the ruby red fluid but couldnt even find the transmission lol my dad looked for a while too, we asked the guy and hes like "uuhh i have no clue where it is"

funny thing he kept telling me that "his dealer wants to buy it for his daughter" umm then why dont you just SELL IT TO HIM and that "if i want i can take the car to his dealer down the road to check it out for me"

all in all, it was a waste of my time and took me an hour to get there

better luck next time

[Tunes67]

Well thats disappointing.. but keep looking.. there are always nice MX-3's around.. just got to be a bit patient sometimes Best of luck

Tunes67

[lakersfan1]

I'd bet the squeal was a simple $5 accesory bearing.

[PATDIESEL]

Or a loose or old belt, but yeah if he didn't even know where to check the tranny fluid he didn't take care of it... Keep an eye out though. I see plenty of Canadians post Mx-3s for sale that look great.