I am looking to buy a Mazda3 as my first car and i am just wondering if some of the ads that I have found are worth the price.

My price range is $9,000.

I have found 2 models that are both not damaged and are the sedan model.

There is a 2005 Mazda3 i with 88,932 miles for $6,995.00

There is a 2004 Mazda3 S with 90,450 miles for $9,950.00

 

Manuals or automatics? The biggest difference between the two is the 3i model has the 2.0L engine while the 3s has the 2.3L. The 2.3 will have a very slight increase in power/torque but not all that much. The 2.0 will get vastly better gas mileage however. If we were talking about a 2006 3i I'd say go for it since they added VVT that year and it bumped it's power just a tad.

The only big question would be what options each model has. IIRC in 2005 the 3i model didn't have ABS or side airbags available. In 2004/5 they were optional on the 3s...... if one of them has them I'd highly recommend you buy that one simply for the side airbags. Otherwise I think the only other options the 3s could have had was HID/TPMS, leather, and the 6CD/Moonroof. I think.