mazda3 2008 advice

[tomaso88]

I'm buying a 2008 Mazda 3 Maxx Sports Automatic.


It has 120,000km on it, is there anything I should be cautious of or get checked before buying. I've gotten carfacts.com.au report and a mazda report from a week ago saying the usual stuff oil filters been checked and break pads replaced.


also what would you value the car at?
the guy is offering to sell at $10.5k

[nas711]

Hi,

I had a sp23 for about 10 years (2005) and I had no problems at all it with. It was regularly services (every 10-12K) and was driven fairly hard some times. The most I ever had that went wrong with it was I had to replace the gearbox and engine mounts and one the headlights always blew after about a year (same one, left). It hit 260K and I traded it in for a 2010 3 MPS. Was a great car. I didn't even need to get timing chain/vvt or anything major done. I know the engine is different, but I think it could be just different bore/pistons, not sure. I had a tip tronic gearbox that was always driven in manual mode, was engine braked alot and was bullet proof! Just check service history that its had its oil changed regulary and anything else that might have gone wrong it it's history (receipts are always nice to have). Apart from that, MZR engine is fantastic!

[nas711]

Check value of others in same K's and age on carsales or something...I did that with the MPS.