Well, I'm looking at a 2001 Mazda Millenia S w/ 2.3 miller cycle supercharged engine. The car is silver w/ leather interior, has two faint door dings on the pass. side and some paint wear on the "necks" of the rear view mirrors, otherwise in spectacular condition inside and out. It has 72,900 miles on it and has been owned/driven by a 60ish year old woman for the last four years who seems to have taken really good care of it--garaged, reg. maitainence, etc--she also apparently is afraid of the interstate, so she didn't drive on the highway or interstate much at all--could that pose a problem for the motor/supercharger, having not been "opened up" much?

One month ago she said the CE light came on and she took it in and had two sensors replaced and hasn't had any issues since. I'm going to take it to our local Mazda dealership for them to perform an inspection on it--$$??. My gut tells me that it is a nice car and has been taken care of. Unfortunately I do not know much about the vehicles or the motors so I was hoping one of you wonderful people can give me some advice and some things to consider or look for. The car will be purchased as a family vehicle for my wife and two young children. We are both students and only I work right now, so repairs will be an issue if they should arise, especially sooner than later. By the way, she was asking for $6000 and we settled on $5500. Thanks a bunch to anyone who reaches out.

 

see my answer to bt5150. on the plus side, i think they are great cars. excellent build quality, excellent power. very nice interior, excellent heater/ac, excellent brakes. i used to sell parts for mercedes and bmw, and i think the build quality of the millenia is as good or better.
BUT-if you cannot do a LOT of the repairs yourself, it will eat your lunch. some things i have done so far, and i GUARANTEE you this car will need them is, both front axles. seat heaters. spark plugs-this is one pita. shops have never done this, expect the plugs to be original(mazda says change at 60k), or, the left bank has been changed, because it is easy to get to, but the right bank is original. vacuum tees-VERY common problem. 5 hours labor to change out a 2 dollar tee-and there are several. coils-this is a coil on plug system. a new coil is like 174/each. used can be had for pennies on the dollar. i have 12 spares. fuel injector(296/ea). this is rare, but also labor intensive. power steering pump. again, rare, but about 10 hrs labor. motor mounts. there are 3. 362/ea, and the ebay ones dont work. radiators on both cars. several other jobs i cant remember. if you cannot do any of these, look elsewhere, because the cost will break you. if you can do the work, i think the car can easily go 200k.

 

i think he might of changed his mind....... lol just stick to a freikin neon those cars are cheap and easy to repair and if it wont work just remember to recycle