2008 last year for the MS3.

 

hmm that realllly suuucks

 

From what I understand Mazda wants to stay competative in the Sport Compact market. Hence they only want to do this for a couple of model years and with different cars. I believe they did a turboed Miata for a couple of years. I am not totally sure on this since at the time I was rolling in an Integra. I have no insight to what is coming next. I guess we will see later this year as it gets closer to the 09 Models..

 

I think that the Mazdaspeed model lineup comprises of...
2003: Mazdaspeed Protegé, the first mass-produced, inhouse-tuned model by Mazda (does anyone know the production numbers on this one?)
2005: Mazdaspeed MX-5 Miata (does anyone know the production numbers on this one?)
2006: Mazdaspeed6 (2 model years, don't know how many annual U.S. units, don't know how many total units were produced)
2007: Mazdaspeed3 (remains to be seen, but apparently, there are 5K annual U.S. units, don't know how many total units will be produced)

If there are indeed only 5K annual units of the MS3, I'd guess that each one would most likely be spoken for before the end of 2008. Although no longer in production, new MS6s are still available. I wonder if this is due to its heftier price tag, lack of fun-factor marketing, or simply because it was not as much of a media darling as the MS3. The MS3 certainly earned its share of magazine covers and editorials, and continues to keep a relatively high media profile. Either way, I agree with those of you who think that limited production is the way to go for Mazdaspeed models.

 

VW's reliability sucks now though...Id never own one again!

 

strengthened chassis, 6 speed tranny, turbo charged engine... i dont kno bout the second two, but the chassis has alot to do with the weight increase.

 

agreed

 

Where did you hear/read that?

 

i wouldnt mind if they discontinued the car. we would be known as one of the 10,000 people that were lucky enough to own the mazdaspeed 3.

 

When I bought my car, I dealt only with the fleet manager. After purchasing, she had commented that the 2008 Model year is the last year for the MS3's. She said that with the Protege, Miata, and Mazda 6 that they made the cars for only 2 years and limited quanties.