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Closed a deal on a low mileage 2003 sedan yesterday. I love it, got a great price. Car needs pads/rotor resurfacing, and a 90k mile service (has 92k miles), but aside from that is in pretty phenomenal condition. This is my first "grown up" car, I've been a car enthusiast forever. Past cars include a first gen rx7 with a 13bt swap, chrysler crossfire, turbo neon, 240sx with an sr20, a Mazdaspeed 3 that I just sold. I also have a built s2000, hence the reason I purchased the G. I needed a daily driver and this thing is a really quality car. The build quality is phenomenal, handles well, makes good power, quality materials throughout, I love it.
I was just looking for something nice but fun to get to and from work, but I've had it for 24 hours and am already ready to start doing some light modifications. Springs will be first, then I'll be looking through the faq section of this site (which is very, very thorough, great site btw) for some minor power mods. Excited to be a new owner of a great car and really like this site!
You don't feel like the Mazdaspeed 3 was a "grownup" car? My buddy has an 07 MS3, and while the style is a bit immature, I was impressed by the build quality. I thought it'd be more like the neon, but the MS3 has super decent seats, nice big dash..I dunno, I feel like its a really decently built car. He sure does have a lot of suspension clunking problems tho. It really handles well tho, and its pretty quick from a roll.
I can say, having owned both, that the build quality of the ms3 is nowhere near that of the g. I put 120k on my ms3, it was a good car, much much nicer than others in it's class for build quality (except the gti, I'm talking material quality and that "solid" fell, obviously gti's have electrical issues and what not). The "feel" of the MS3 is noticeably cheaper that the g35's. The door closes with that nice lexus style thud on the g, the steering is about as heavy as a 3 series, might not be as quick as the ms3's, but it definitely feels more connected.
The MS3 was a great car, but any car you have for 8 years is gonna makes you crazy eventually. I had the sport, the GT mazda with leather might feel a little different.
The suspension is a mess. The stock ones blow all the time, the geometry of the car even blew my koni yellows up front, both sides, and those are nearly indestructible, lifetime warranty though.
I went through 7 sets of strut bearing in 4 years, pretty annoying.
