Newbie- Considering this purchase...

[tomk17]

Potential new Mazda guy here. I'm considering the purchase of a 2005 Mazda 3s. Has the auto my daughter wants, ABS and side air bags that I want, 16" wheels which I like for ride quality and cheaper replacement. Car is in good condition always garaged, adult owned, but 97,000 miles. Guy is asking $8200 but I would consider as much as $7700. What are your collective thoughts?

I do a lot of maintenance work myself on my 3 cars like tranny fluid changes, spark plugs, coolant, oil, filters, etc. and generally get / expect to get at least 150K miles out of them. Have a Honda CRV that will soon see 175K miles.

My question is haow many reasonably trouble free miles can I expect from this car? I know they have a timing chain so that's one biggy out of the way. I know coil failures happen which I can handle. For brakes my local indy guy does them cheap. Anything else I should be concerned about?

[redneck4Christ]

My 07 Speed3 only has ~65k on it so far (and doing great).
But as for Mazdas in general, my '96 626 has 270k on it. The auto trans was the only weak link. 9 years more developement and a different car, this 'Probably' is not an issue for you.

Others may know better regarding the mz3 auto trans?