I've found a few 08-11 plated Mazda 6 estates within my budget at a reasonable distance. All of them are 2.0l petrols, which have surprisingly low road tax and good MPG figures. Any things I need to know about Mazda?
As a long-time (18yo) Mazda 3 (1.6L petrol) owner:
Avoid the diesels because you cannot guarantee their reliability;
If you choose to have your (petrol) Mazda maintained at a main dealership, do a decent amount of research first to see what those locally to you are like. In my experience on the Mazda3 owners' forum, (and IMHO) the post-sales quality of main dealers varies like Ford and Vauxhall. Some can be great, others poor.
IMHO, Mazda Head Office in the UK doesn't have a great reputation for being the friend to customers, but if you own a (non-rotary) petrol car that's been well-maintained and you use a good maintenance outfit, you shouldn't need to deal with them.
Hopefully either you local(s) have good reputations for the maintenance side of things and/or you have enough decent (trustworthy and highly competent) local indie outfits that can look after such a car easily and well.
The Mazda petrol engines of the era when they were tied up with Ford should be easy enough to work on, many that shared components with Fords and Volvos at that time.
Older Mazdas did suffer from corrosion problems, but normally this is relatively easy to spot, and mostly confined to cars from the 1990s and early-mid 2000s. Hopefully a 2nd gen Mazda6 should be no worse for its age than most rivals. My 18yo Mazda3 really only has rust on the wheel arches, seemingly fine underneath.
Useful if you can get the car with a spare wheel and tyre, assuming the one(s) you look at have the space in the underboot area to take it. Some high spec models *may* (others can confirm or not) use that for the audio system guff. Hopefully in the earlier cars, spare wheel/tyres (may be a spacesaver) may be a lot cheaper than those that 'fit' the 3rd gen Mazda3 etc, which cost £400.
The HJ review section has a 'God & Bad' subsection which highlights issues, though from looking at it, most are diesel-related
www.honestjohn.co.uk/mazda/6/2008/good
Make sure any car you look at has seen regular fresh quality oil on schedule (preferably a FSH, even more so a good main dealer or revered indie), especially the chain-cam engines. Other than one faulty sensor that precipitated the exhaust manifold being also replaced, my car has had zero engine problems in its lifetime.
Buy the lowest spec you need - with any old-er car, pointless buying a high spec cars where you don't use many of the gadgets. I personally like mine with its climate controlled A/C - worth the extra money. I suspect that most Mazda6s will come with it as standard.
Like most second hand cars, best to buy something that's been well cared for, even if that costs a little more. I would be impressed if it was a one-owner car and that owner had an entire fully documented maintenance history and a very good MOT history.
Low overall mileage can be an issue only if it was mostly short trips from cold - battery issues, brake discs warping and pads seizing, but is fixable and a good owner should take care of that. Mine's done only 75,000 miles, but mostly trips over 12 miles, so the car warms up.
They should be capable of decent mileages if well cared for, so don't overlook higher mileage examples if well maintained. Maybe if the seats / trim are very worn or a grubby interior, as that might indicate a hard life.
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