Anyone Want to Trade?

[erod550]

What other problems have you had that have caused this much hatred toward the car? If you get a Honda and it has some problem that costs a whopping $300-400 to fix (including the 1 hour of labor you paid for diagnosis), will you say all Hondas are crap too? I think you're getting out of this problem cheap, considering you're driving a car that cost $30k new. This is not some piece of junk Hyundai that cost $9k brand new. More expensive cars are more expensive to fix, and this seems like a pretty minor problem to me anyway.

If you've had a lot of other issues before this, I apologize. I'm too lazy to go looking through your old posts to see if you had other problems.

[Stealth01]

I've had other problems (turbo replaced, diff mount replaced, etc) with the car, but until now, they've all been warranty items. Now, 7 months out of warranty, I have a problem that's going to cost me $300, and if I'd let the dealership do it, $600. If I wasn't making payments on the car, no big deal. Or if the "powertrain" warranty actually covered the entire powertrain. But it doesn't. Only "internally lubricated parts."

Couple that with the fact that the dealership service shop is no longer what it used to be, and I'm leery about holding onto the MS6.

Am I being too hard on it? Maybe. Don't get me wrong -- I LOVE my car. Driving it makes me smile, every time. But I have to take into account the family's finances.

I'll talk to the fam tonight and see what everyone thinks and go from there.

[erod550]

Everything is a ton more expensive if you let the dealership do it. Once you're out of warranty, there's no real reason to take your car to a dealership anyway unless you know someone there and can get good deals or just really like working with their service manager or something.

I dunno, I just think $300 isn't the end of the world and a reason to get rid of a car you love and drive a car you probably hate just because you had one out of warranty issue. The major issues with the car were already fixed under warranty like you said, and there's just as much chance you'll have some other different problem on another car too.

[Stealth01]

Yeah, I know. The wife is the main reason. She's the minister of finance, and when stuff breaks like this, she stresses. And on a performance car, more stuff breaks, more often, and is more expensive to fix. For example, if this were a REGULAR 6, the fan control module costs $74 new.

We have three car payments right now. Hers is the highest, and the most upside down. Mine is the next highest, and is about dead-even, or a little right-side up.

The Jeep is the lowest and is about $2000 right-side up.

Eliminating my car payment and the insurance costs would help us dramatically pay down debt, making it possible for me to own a performance car later, without all the stress over break-downs.

We could sell the Jeep, but not save NEARLY as much $$, and we'd lose the utility of a large SUV (hauling trash, dogs, camping, etc).

Maybe I just overreacted because SO MUCH hit this month. Car breakdown. Roof repair deductible ($1000). Garage door opener. I'll give it some time, think about it carefully, and talk with the family. I know the boys want me to keep it.

[chickenwafer]

What other problems have you had that have caused this much hatred toward the car? If you get a Honda and it has some problem that costs a whopping $300-400 to fix (including the 1 hour of labor you paid for diagnosis), will you say all Hondas are crap too? I think you're getting out of this problem cheap, considering you're driving a car that cost $30k new. This is not some piece of junk Hyundai that cost $9k brand new. More expensive cars are more expensive to fix, and this seems like a pretty minor problem to me anyway.

If you've had a lot of other issues before this, I apologize. I'm too lazy to go looking through your old posts to see if you had other problems.

I agree...

I've had other problems (turbo replaced, diff mount replaced, etc) with the car, but until now, they've all been warranty items. Now, 7 months out of warranty, I have a problem that's going to cost me $300, and if I'd let the dealership do it, $600. If I wasn't making payments on the car, no big deal. Or if the "powertrain" warranty actually covered the entire powertrain. But it doesn't. Only "internally lubricated parts."

Couple that with the fact that the dealership service shop is no longer what it used to be, and I'm leery about holding onto the MS6.

Am I being too hard on it? Maybe. Don't get me wrong -- I LOVE my car. Driving it makes me smile, every time. But I have to take into account the family's finances.

I'll talk to the fam tonight and see what everyone thinks and go from there.

First off, as was mentioned, dealerships are MUCH more expensive to repair than any normal shop. A dealership service dept will ALWAYS bend you over.

I just don't know what you expect from the car...you want a fast sports car but don't want it to ever break? It's inevitable, and sad to inform you but once you start modding, the chance for breaking down goes up.

I don't know, I just think I have thick skin due to being a rotary owner. My RX-8 had 2 motors replaced under warranty, I paid outta pocket to replace 1 motor ($2k), a transmission ($1k), fuel pump and assembly ($300), and various other items. Not to mention the $17,000+ I sunk into it with aftermarket parts. I never thought about selling it until I had really maxed out what I wanted to do with it and moved onto another project.

[Stealth01]

As far as dealerships service places go, I understand they're more expensive and I'd be winning to accept that added cost if I felt it was fair, and I felt they were doing good work. In this case, that part was $50 more expensive than Mazda of Lakewood (another dealer) and $100 more expensive than it is at Med Center Mazda in Georgia. That tells me Penkhus is marking that part WAY, WAY up. Unfair. And then to be condescended to, lied to, and all-around treated more like a child than a customer was just unsatisfactory, and NOT something I'm willing to pay for. I also understand that performance cars break more than regular cars, but I look at my friends who drive modded subies, Mustangs, Bimmers, and so on, and I see far fewer problems. I just wonder about the quality of some of the Mazdaspeed parts. But the bottom line isn't about the car specifically. It's about whether I can afford a car that's likely to break down right now, and whether it's right for my family if I have one. That's what we have to decide.

[~Barn~]

Good lookin' out Talbot. Sounds like you should be breathing a healthy sigh of relief, Stealth!

[Stealth01]

Good lookin' out Talbot. Sounds like you should be breathing a healthy sigh of relief, Stealth!

Yep, Talbot came through for me again. I owe that man a few drinks.

And yeah, some relief. Now just gotta decide what to do and how much to spend.

[erod550]

Just beware getting rid of the fun car now to be able to get one "later." You already have one now so why give it up just to get one later? Debt is inevitable, especially if you want to have any fun toys. If you give in on this and get rid of the fun car, I wouldn't hold my breath about ever being "allowed" to get one again.

Then again, I don't know your wife, so maybe that's not the case. Just seems like if she's pressuring you to get rid of the car then she's of the mindset that a car is a car and the extra money for a fast one isn't worth it. My wife does feel this way but understands that I do not and she'd rather spend a little more than listen to me complain about how much I hate my car if I was driving some slow, unfun piece of crap lol.

[Stealth01]

Just beware getting rid of the fun car now to be able to get one "later." Y

Yep, that's EXACTLY what I worry about. I was asked to give up Karate lessons for a year to fix our finances -- that was four years ago, and I'm still not back. I was asked to give up NFL Sunday Ticket to help with costs...never got it back. So your point is spot on.

Then again, I don't know your wife, so maybe that's not the case. Just seems like if she's pressuring you to get rid of the car then she's of the mindset that a car is a car and the extra money for a fast one isn't worth it. My wife does feel this way but understands that I do not and she'd rather spend a little more than listen to me complain about how much I hate my car if I was driving some slow, unfun piece of crap lol.

She would LOVE for me to get rid of the car. She thinks it's a mid-life crisis thing and I should be driving something more practical (even though I think the MS6 is very practical). She also, as the budget person of the family, gets VERY stressed out when stuff like this happens, but she also knows we cannot survive on two vehicles (which was my plan) right now, so she's going back and forth.

THen again, my dad bought his Mustang GT350 when he was over 60, so you never know...

[I`m Batman]

3 car payments? Holly $%*!, how did that happen?... Isn't your wife's car payment highest? Lets get rid of her car and have her drive the Jeep. So what if you're upside down, just roll whatever left into something else. You're still cutting the huge payment and insurance. WIN!

[mOOsE]

MS6's seem to be as reliable as a rotary. Otherwise Mazda ranks very high in reliability and resale, save for the rotary or MS6. If you are able and willing, then get out now. It's not a good car for mods and unfortunately it seems every MS6 owner finds this out the hard way.

[erod550]

Moose, that depends on what your goals are with the mods. If you're trying for 500hp then no, it's not a good platform for that. But if you just want to bolt on a few mods and have a fun, quick daily driver, it's a great platform. These cars respond very well to minor bolt-ons, you're just limited as to how far you can go with them.

[chickenwafer]

As far as dealerships service places go, I understand they're more expensive and I'd be winning to accept that added cost if I felt it was fair, and I felt they were doing good work. In this case, that part was $50 more expensive than Mazda of Lakewood (another dealer) and $100 more expensive than it is at Med Center Mazda in Georgia. That tells me Penkhus is marking that part WAY, WAY up. Unfair. And then to be condescended to, lied to, and all-around treated more like a child than a customer was just unsatisfactory, and NOT something I'm willing to pay for. I also understand that performance cars break more than regular cars, but I look at my friends who drive modded subies, Mustangs, Bimmers, and so on, and I see far fewer problems. I just wonder about the quality of some of the Mazdaspeed parts. But the bottom line isn't about the car specifically. It's about whether I can afford a car that's likely to break down right now, and whether it's right for my family if I have one. That's what we have to decide.

I would disagree with the sentiment that BMWs are reliable. While they have improved, I had multiple friends in Phoenix with modified BMW's and they had issues. Every car does. Subaru's are far from reliable once you start pushing 450+whp. It's inevitable.

MS6's seem to be as reliable as a rotary. Otherwise Mazda ranks very high in reliability and resale, save for the rotary or MS6. If you are able and willing, then get out now. It's not a good car for mods and unfortunately it seems every MS6 owner finds this out the hard way.

The MS6 has issues, no doubt, but NOTHING compared to the problems that plagued the 3rd Gen FD RX-7. An array of those issues were related to the overly engineered twin sequential system, and not the motor itself, but there is a metric butt load of issues with the FD. I don't really think you can say that until you own a rotary LOL.

Now, naturally aspirated rotaries (with the exception of the RX-8) like the SA/FB and FC, run forever. I had a friend from high school who's first car was an 86 NA FC. He bought it with 212k miles on the clock, on the original engine, and sold it with 270k miles IIRC, still on the original engine and running like a champ pulling great compression.

While rotaries LOVE turbos, they make an already thermally-inefficient motor a ticking time bomb...

[Stealth01]

3 car payments? Holly $%*!, how did that happen?... Isn't your wife's car payment highest? Lets get rid of her car and have her drive the Jeep. So what if you're upside down, just roll whatever left into something else. You're still cutting the huge payment and insurance. WIN!

We ended up with 3 car payments because instead of buying a clunker for my sons to drive, the wife decided she wanted them in a safe, reliable vehicle, so we ended up with the Jeep through CarMax.

And yeah, hers is the highest payment, but it's also WAAYYY upside down, and she needs a reliable vehicle because she drives for her job.

MS6's seem to be as reliable as a rotary. Otherwise Mazda ranks very high in reliability and resale, save for the rotary or MS6. If you are able and willing, then get out now. It's not a good car for mods and unfortunately it seems every MS6 owner finds this out the hard way.

You know, this fan module is, according to Mazda USA, a VERY low-occurrence thing. I am the sixth one they've heard of, so of course my car had to be the freak of nature.

My old 6 was reliable as hell, but there are parts of the MS6 that just weren't engineered right. Diff mounts suck. Engine mounts are horrible. Turbo seals are terrible. Apparently, the fan control modules suck too. lol. And of course, there's zoom-zoom-boom.

But my subie-driving friend pointed out that at least the tranny holds up, and the AWD system seems reliable.

Moose, that depends on what your goals are with the mods. If you're trying for 500hp then no, it's not a good platform for that. But if you just want to bolt on a few mods and have a fun, quick daily driver, it's a great platform. These cars respond very well to minor bolt-ons, you're just limited as to how far you can go with them.

My goal is around 330-350 AWHP SOMEDAY. Most power mods would happen after I was done making payments.

I would disagree with the sentiment that BMWs are reliable. While they have improved, I had multiple friends in Phoenix with modified BMW's and they had issues. Every car does. Subaru's are far from reliable once you start pushing 450+whp. It's inevitable.

But Subies are rock solid up to that 450 mark. And I'm not looking to go even that far.

The MS6 has issues, no doubt, but NOTHING compared to the problems that plagued the 3rd Gen FD RX-7. An array of those issues were related to the overly engineered twin sequential system, and not the motor itself, but there is a metric butt load of issues with the FD. I don't really think you can say that until you own a rotary LOL.

Now, naturally aspirated rotaries (with the exception of the RX-8) like the SA/FB and FC, run forever. I had a friend from high school who's first car was an 86 NA FC. He bought it with 212k miles on the clock, on the original engine, and sold it with 270k miles IIRC, still on the original engine and running like a champ pulling great compression.

While rotaries LOVE turbos, they make an already thermally-inefficient motor a ticking time bomb...

And I think the DISI motor was just under-engineered before Mazda released it. Notice how reliable the 2009 and 2010 MS3s are? They had time to work out the issues.

As far as not buying a Mazda again, that goes to issues we had with the CX-9, the lack of ANY meaningful incentives, and what has happened to the MS6.

Either way, since the wife thinks we can't survive with only two vehicles, I think I'd rather have the MS6 than put the boys in a clunker.