84RX_Se7en

If he wants to be replacing the transmission and diff every few years.

ray green

iTrader: (14)

We have a Mazda Protege 5, predecessor to the Mazda 3 wagon, for 4 years and it's been a great car, 80,000 miles and no repairs no problems, just oil changes and gas. So I'd look seriously at the M3 or in your case with the kids the M6 wagon or that other crossover SUV Mazda just put out. And of course there are the Mazda sports versions if you want to pay extra, but with a 1st gen 7 in the garage I wouldn't bother, you already have that.

The thing about Mazda is that you get the quality and reliability of a Honda or Toyota but you don't have to pay that extra premium that comes with cars that are habitually at the top of the ratings (Honda, Toyota), which are really just beauty contests when you are talking about the top 5 or so. And styling and sportiness comes standard in a Mazda, you don't have to pay extra for a bunch of options.

legokcen

iTrader: (8)

I'd say RX-8 like I did, but you want to sit 5.

You should enjoy the Mazdaspeed 6. AWD for the snow and large enough for the family too. Comfortable and fun. I've driven them and enjoyed it. They are heavy though, but a great car.

My wife has an '05 Altima and it really is a wonderful car. Wonderfully reliable, great engine, ample room, and an all around great car that should last forever. If you don't want an Accord, the Altima is a great choice. Even the 2.5 which she has is a great engine and great on the highway when the car is loaded to the brim for holiday travel. The 3.5 VQ engine is phenominal and Nissan has had a lot of time to refine and prove it's greatness.

The new Camry is also a great car. My wife rents these for work. Fantastic company and Toyota reliability is bullet proof. You will be a lemming like the rest of the million+ Camry owners in the world though. (I can say that because I used to have one before the RX-8).

There is also always a Subbie. If you want one big enough though, the Legasy Wagon is more than likely your best choice. I saw one racing at Grand Am competition last year at Barber and it did well. I was very surprised. The Impreza's are a little small.

Please keep us informed. I'd love to know what you end up with and why.

speedracer_not

Aztec, get the GM Aztec, you'll have it all!! It is roomy for your three to be big sons, and has that legendary GM styling , reliability, and quality.

And when GM goes out of business, you will have a cult car!

legokcen

iTrader: (8)

That **** made me laugh out loud. My wife had to ask me what was so funny on the internet.

speedracer_not

working at GM's new product development department must be really really weird

DAVID GRIMES

LOL Perfect timing for this... and I'm serious.

Go drive a Isuzu I350 or the Chevrolet Colorado Supercrew. Hear me out. Loads of room for what seems to be a little truck. Will seat five adults. Get the leather seating. More room than the Ford explorer or any of the other mid-size trucks or SUV's. 220+ hp from an inline 5 cylinder. Surprisingly fast and strong. I get 23 mpg every tank and I drive the **** out of mine. The xtreme edition is awesome out of the box, but even the base edition looks like it has some ground effects going on. And on top of all this, you got a five foot bed in the back of all that cabin space. A man's just got to have a truck.

hanman

If you are looking for reliability you have two good choices:
Toyota or Honda
Nissan is having quality/reliability problems lately, so I would pass on them.

Buying a lexus is just plain silly if you ask me. Buy a Toyota and put a L on the front and you have your lexus without the stupid price tag.

The statement about buying a Mazda and getting the reliability of a Honda without the price tag is only half correct. You indeed don't get the price tag, but you don't get the reliability either. Don't get me wrong, I love Mazda's, and I have owned a **** ton of them. But, they are not anywhere near the reliability of a Honda.

My personal choice was a Toyota Highlander. Drives like a car, but can seat 8 people. That's right 8. Granted the two way in the back may not want to ride there for a thousand mile trip, but it will seat 8. I love the car. No, it does not inspire passion to drive. But, that's why I own five RX-7's.

Buy a Toyota and don't worry about buying another car for ten years.

Kentetsu

Thanks again guys. To tell you the truth, Mazda kinda scares me a bit. I had an MPV before that I really enjoyed, but then it fell apart right on schedule at about 100k miles. The final blow was when I had it idling in the driveway while checking the tranny fluid, and it moved itself into reverse (tranny was a piece of crap) and took off for a little drive on its own. Ended up taking out two garages and made a damn fine effort at a large oak tree before she gave up.

Most of all though, I have had to deal with the guys at the mazda dealership on about a dozen occasions. I'll tell you straight, they are idiots.

I will however go and drive some of their cars, and try to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Next stop will be the Nissan dealership on Monday, to check out the Altima w/v6 engine. After that, maybe Toyota to check out their suvs (I hate their cars, can't say why but I do).

FirebirdSlayer666

iTrader: (3)

I'd say go with the Mazdaspeed 6. It's an incredibly fun car, handles nice, smooth ride. Plus like said, it's AWD for snow and no wheel spin. I would pass on the CX-7. It felt really cheap and uncomfortable. Even a nice Mazda 3 sedan with a 5-Speed is pretty nice. An Altima SE-R sounds like it would fare well as well, I like them. I pass on the Mazdaspeed 3 only because it's FWD IIRC, and it may be small for what you want. All in all it's your decision and I know you'll be happy with whatever you choose

dbragg

iTrader: (7)

im with hanman, if you want reliability honda and toyota are the way to go. IMO toyota is top of the line.

dont get me wrong i thinkg good things about mazdas and nissans, but they just arent up to par with reliability as the other two. my friend was researching buying a nissan and his dad works at a dealership. he told them theyre having issues with getting the alighnment right. a lot of their cars are going through front tires rapidly.

if you wanted mazda, and you consider used, id HIGHLY recommend the protege. you can get the ES, which has all the goodies but is a tad slow. the protege 5, same as above but hatchback. the mazdaspeed which has all the goodies, a turbo and a lot of suspension changes. theres another that has all the suspension stuff as the MSP but is NA. these cars are very reliable and very room. two of my friends have one, one is MSP one is the ES. neither have had issues out of their cars and both drive the **** out of them. the MSP has 80k on it now an drives fine. the ES has less, but i assume would last longer due to being NA.

id go test drive the new camry. i think thats where it is. while youre there, id also look at the 4 door tacomas and tundras. that way on down the road when you need to start pulling your rx7 to the track, you can.

7aull

iTrader: (2)

Subaru Legacy Wagon-
07s are pretty cool looking (IMHO) - have a 99 myself which has been absolutely mechanically bullet proof
Rented an 07 wagon on numerous occasions for some very high-speed touring and it is a rock on the road- great tourer, lots of great features, nicely bolted together (hey, its Japanese...), unstoppable in winter conditions. Lots o' space for people and stuff without going the big SUV route. I'd get the NON outback model, rides lower, handles better. Subie makes several Legacy versions including a 260+ Hp version - don't know if the wagon is available in your price range
This will be the next year-round car we buy-
Alt:
Mazda 7 mini-SUV looks slick
'Luck!!
Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

Kentetsu

I'll have to find some user reviews on the mazdaspeed6. I mean, it sounds great, but I don't have much confidence in Mazda since Ford got their greedy little fingers into the mix. And the thought of squeezing all of that power out of a small 4 banger, well I just don't know. I think if I was going to go with a turbo 4, then I'd look at a Subie first. But like I said, I'll start some research on it because it does sound nice. If that car was built by Honda, Toyota, or Nissan then I'd probably jump on it.

Also, for Toyota; I used to own a '95 4runner that I bought with 95k on it and then sold with 120k. I never had to do a damn thing to it other than change the oil. Then we replaced it with a '94 supercharged Previa when the wife started up a daycare business and once again, I haven't had to do a thing to it other than replace the battery and brake pads. We've owned it for about a year now. But for whatever reason, I've just never fallen in love with either of those vehicles, but they're great for the wife...

Kentetsu

Okay, I've been doing my homework and found some good news concerning the MS6. This car is completely built in Japan, and is totally unpolluted by Ford. This has moved it to the top of my "list of cars to drive" along with the Altima...

Rogue_Wulff

Mazda 6, Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan all share the same platform. The MS6 is a totally Japan built version though.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

yeah if you park it next to a regular 6 they arent even the same size. except for some dumb things like power window switches, they are totally different

ssteve

LOL I love when people say that about the evo's cause it shows they have no clue. If you use it as a regular drag car yes you will need a new diff other then that the only problems evo owners ever see with the standard 5spd is 3rd gear synchros if you shift like crap and even then its cheap as heck to fix.

My vote goes for the evo 9. tbe+flash+meth= 11sec daily driver getting over 20mpg

ray green

iTrader: (14)

Kentetsu, what do you think of the Mazda6 Sportwagon? Way better looking and less common than the sedans, in my opinion, and more practical for hauling cargo/people around, if that's an issue. My wife loves the MP5 wagon, she routinely brings home three bails of hay plus several bags of dog/cat/goat/horse food and loading/unloading is real easy. Best of all it probably costs several hundred dollars less than the Mazdaspeed6.

Also it seems that Toyota, Honda and the rest have gotten out of the wagon market in favor of SUV drones, making the Mazda wagons a bit more unique.

Theknifemaker

I know people will probably scream on this, but, buy a classic like a 70 GTO. Get one with a frame up restoration for 21K to 25K. Will hold up, fun to drive, after 10 yrs of driving it and enjoying it, sell it for more than you paid for it (of course take care of it). Only problem is generally financing it. I bought a new Chevy stationwagon (For the family) and bought myself a 68 convertable Mustang. Drove both vehicals daily. Kept the wagon for 10 yrs got 750.00 in trade in (dealer really just knocked of that from sticker) kept the mustang for 15 yrs and sold it for 3 times what I paid for it and the motor needed rebuilding and some paint and body work. This started in 1985. Just another way to look at things.

wrigh003

I like the way knifemaker thinks, but I see a problem there. I think the golden age of the classic/muscle car being an investment opportunity is over for two reasons:

A) In 15-20 years, a good portion of the baby boomer generation (widely credited for driving up the prices of "collectible" cars) will be dead or so old they aren't thinking about reclaiming their youth via the car they had in high school. My dad and uncle will be 75 and 78 in 15 years, granted they are kinda on the very leading edge of the baby boom, but still. I don't think the cars have the same pull for folks of my generation, generally speaking.

B) Gas prices. I dunno where they'll be in 15 years, but I am guessing it won't be cost effective to fuel a Hemi Cuda or the like, even for non-daily occasional use.

Whether continuing attrition (crashes, rust, people shipping them overseas) will decrease supply enough to make them scarce enough to continue to support that demand curve is anybody's guess, but I for one kinda doubt it.

Kentetsu

Ray- I have not looked at any Mazdas yet. And to tell you the truth, the only reason I am considering the speed6 is because of the lack of Ford involvment with that car. However, when we go to check out one model, I'm sure we will look over the others as well. After that I will do more research on any that I like.

Knifemaker- That is an interesting thought. But financing it would be impossible, and I really doubt something like that would make a very good daily driver (especially once the snow starts falling). It would require more maintenance too, I know this because up to a few years ago I had a '71 LeMans that kept me very busy. Drive it for an hour, and you'd be left with three hours of maintenance. The simplicity was nice, but I swear they built those cars so that they would wear out the parts quickly. Another thing is that I'd be losing all of the newer car creature comforts, safety features (gotta haul the kids sometimes you know), brakes, etc.

Keep the input coming guys, especially if you have any first hand experience with any of the models discussed.

Also, am I wrong to question the quality/reliability of Mazda? They scare me, but I'm not really sure if this is justified or not.

speedracer_not

Mazda b210 vs. Ford Ranger, while they come off the same assembly line, guess which one has the higher ratings???

The import owners tend to feel a need to justify their not buying American. What happens as a result is that import owners will take better care of their cars, and develop a stonger sense of loyality.

What I'm saying is, that unless a car is a total POS, buy what you love, buy what you will like to take care of.

And of course, check under the hood! I chose the RX7 over a pretty CRX based on where the sparkplugs and oil filter were.

Kentetsu

Well, spent the day driving cars. Went to the Toyota dealership first, and they just didn't have anything that I liked. They weren't bad, but just didn't set off any fireworks for me if you know what I mean.

Next stop was Nissan. Took an Altima for a spin. They didn't have one with the manual 6 speed, but to tell the truth the auto version was pretty damn slick. Very nice car. I left there feeling like I definitely know what car I was going to go for. But for the sake of being thorough, I kept on looking.

Last stop for the day was Mazda. Took a 6 for a drive and just about fell asleep, even though it was the V6 version. Just about the most boring car I ever drove. They didn't have a Speed6 for me to try, which is what I really wanted to check out, but they did have a Speed3 available so off we went for a test drive. HOLY ****!!! What a car! The power and handling were just unbelievable, and the car was so well laid out that I felt like I had driven it before. By the time we finished with the 20 minute test drive, I was driving and shifting and heel/toeing like I had been driving the car for years. What a great fit! I'm still going to hold off until I can drive a Speed6, but I think I've already made my choice. The back seating is pretty tight, but like my buddy said "you won't be the one sitting back there".

Now I'm off to yet another forum for research, along with any reviews I can find on this little beast. Wish me luck....

FirebirdSlayer666

iTrader: (3)

"HOLY ****" was the exact same reaction I had to driving the Mazdaspeed 6. The regular 6 is okay but nothing at all like the Mazdaspeed version. I haven't driven the Mazdaspeed 3 but I can imagine they should be pretty close, the Mazdaspeed 6 has a little more power and AWD and handles like a dream. The car does what you want it to do on command. Just for the hell of it, I was pricing both the Mazdaspeed 3 and Mazdaspeed 6 last night and it just makes me want one If I had the money LOL

Cowboyfun

yeah, mazdaspeed 3 is just awesome. I love the car. Where the wrx beats the **** out of your kidneys, the speed 3 is just as tight in the corners, but you don't need to wear a kidney belt. The speed3 will be my next new car. Besides I get it below invoice (s-plan baby!)