Hey everyone,

My best friend is selling me his Mazda 6 for 1200. Obviously it's a 2005, and it's a fully loaded model. It has the side air bags, and Bose speakers. Theres only 85,000 miles and the interior is really clean. It could use a paint job, but I can overlook that.

Here's what I'm having trouble overlooking. I know how he has treated the car, and he treats it horrible. He had to throw in a transmission about 3,000 miles ago. It's had some reliability issues for them, but he says he's going to take it to a family mechanic and have him fix everything before he sells it to me.

I know how to take care of my cars, and I've heard if you take great care of these cars they will last, but I've also heard horror stories. I need to know opinions from owners. I know the transmission was always a big issue on these cars, but I'm glad it went on him, and not me.

What is everyones thoughts? I'm attaching some photos of the car. I've grown quite fond of it, and wouldn't mind having this as my car.

 

4cyl or 6? The 3.0L tends to be a little more forgiving than the 4cyl. I actually bought my '05 with 82K on her and it was an abused little car, 4cyl. Cleaned her up, fixed all the little stuff and she now has 118,000 and still going strong. Transmissions were an issue in '03 and '04, some early '05's, but that's been done so you should be good to go. Buy it, your still under book on it and taken care of, she'll go a long time.

 

Unfortunately it has the 2.3. It's been giving him problems lately. I just changed the plugs 300 miles ago and it runs like a champ. Im getting a good deal on the car, and he knows it. I'm planning on babying the car if I get it.

 

You should be good with it. Watch for any oil consumption and deal with any problems as they come up. You'll find plenty of help on this forum with any obstacles you run into.

 

It has it's oil consumption issue. I'm quite sure it's a PCV valve. The spark plug holes have oil in them. It's on the list of things to do.

I can't wait for the help I can get from here!

 

Spark plug holes, valve cover gasket. That's an easy one