Ford still own Mazda. Mazda 3 and Ford Focus have the same floor pan. You'll find similar wheelbase and almost identical suspension (although not settings) in each. Drive trains are shared too in some case. The engine from the 6 is in the Mondeo (they also share floor pans). Same deal for Mazda 2 and Ford Fiesta.
You're looking at the same cars with different panels/interiors and different drive trains in some cases. It's not quite as bad as the rebadging with the 323 and the Laser but they're still very common designs. Like Skoda Octavia/VW Golf-Jetta and Audi A3 are all on the same platform too.
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Peptis
- Posts: 722
- Joined: Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:16 pm
- Location: Canberra
Mate of mine got an Astra and also had problems with door seals. Could be a real problem there...
He's had some other minor problems, nothing big, but nobody wants to buy a new car and have to keep returning it when it's still new. I can't imagine your wife liking that idea much either.
The new Lancer might be a good option too. Great value for money and for $30k you could get a whole bunch of options with it (or just get the base model and save some $$$).
He's had some other minor problems, nothing big, but nobody wants to buy a new car and have to keep returning it when it's still new. I can't imagine your wife liking that idea much either.
The new Lancer might be a good option too. Great value for money and for $30k you could get a whole bunch of options with it (or just get the base model and save some $$$).
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Exar Kun
- Sensible Mick
- Posts: 11325
- Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 4:46 pm
- Location: Canberra
You're right. New Lancer is worth a look. I think the only real answer is to test drive them all, get up to speed on service intervals/costs and then go read up on some local forums and see if any issues come about.Peptis wrote:Mate of mine got an Astra and also had problems with door seals. Could be a real problem there...
He's had some other minor problems, nothing big, but nobody wants to buy a new car and have to keep returning it when it's still new. I can't imagine your wife liking that idea much either.
The new Lancer might be a good option too. Great value for money and for $30k you could get a whole bunch of options with it (or just get the base model and save some $$$).
"If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!"
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Righteous
- Master artist
- Posts: 5235
- Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 10:52 am
- Location: Los Angeles
We went through the same thing 12 months ago Vil. We ended up with a Focus LX. It's a great little car and has done a couple of trips down to Sydney and it loved it. Nice smooth ride and has a fair bit of zip. I have heard that the Mazdas have a little bit shorter gearing compared to the foci. regardless they are great cars and you will probably be rather amazed by the space these things have these days.
If you had the coin you could go the SP23, it has a little bit more mumbo too. We got ours as a Demo model and paid about 4k less for a car that had 800km on the dial. We went in the book as the first owners of the car, new warranty all tha jaz.
Test drive them all, see what you like the most. We were seriously considering the golf too, but it has ZERO room in the boot compared to the focus. All things to consider.
If you had the coin you could go the SP23, it has a little bit more mumbo too. We got ours as a Demo model and paid about 4k less for a car that had 800km on the dial. We went in the book as the first owners of the car, new warranty all tha jaz.
Test drive them all, see what you like the most. We were seriously considering the golf too, but it has ZERO room in the boot compared to the focus. All things to consider.
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