Mazda 3 - Purchasing a car with low mileage covered recently

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
View Threaded
Thu 21 Feb 2019 21:15
Mazda 3 - Purchasing a car with low mileage covered recently - George89

Hello!

I'm looking to buy a used car (2016 Mazda 3 2.0) and from looking at an HPI check and service history, I can see it's have two owners - the last owner brought it in August last year at 17,110 miles. Fast forward to today and I'm looking to buy it from a dealer (Suzuki - I think it was a part-exchange) - it has 19,500 miles. It looks like the dealer has had it since January.

Should I be worried that it's done so little mileage recently?

Thanks.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 21 Feb 2019 21:24
Mazda 3 - Purchasing a car with low mileage covered recently - badbusdriver

2400 miles in 6 months is low, but not worryingly so, i think i'd be more curious about why the last owner kept it for such a short period of time?.

Edited by badbusdriver on 21/02/2019 at 21:24

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 21 Feb 2019 21:33
Mazda 3 - Purchasing a car with low mileage covered recently - George89

Thanks for the reply.

It's an area where the population is mainly retired people - the garage has even said they deal mainly in small 1L automatics for the locals - so my guess is it was maybe too much for someone and they've part ex'd it for something simpler.

I'll push the dealer though to see if they can tell me anymore.

It's always been main dealer serviced - and is pretty tidy inside & out - so looks like it's been looked after.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 21 Feb 2019 22:10
Mazda 3 - Purchasing a car with low mileage covered recently - badbusdriver

They are a very nice looking car, great handling, and up to a point, nice to drive. What i mean is that although it is a 2.0 petrol, it does not have that much power. This is because it has been optimised towards economy, with Mazda bucking the trend for down sized turbo motors which you get in nearly all of the competition. I haven't driven one myself, and the lack of power wouldn't be a major factor to me, but i have read that the engine can feel rather strained and strangled if you push it. I'd have to try it myself to see if i'd find that an issue, but as long as you are not the kind of driver to thrash it all over the place, you should get on fine.

One other thing, they don't come with a spare wheel (just a can of the goo). You can get one from Mazda, but apparently very expensive. Though you could get a 2nd hand one should you wish.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 21 Feb 2019 22:33
Mazda 3 - Purchasing a car with low mileage covered recently - SLO76
Bit concerning that it’s changed hands so quickly so a bit more care is required. It may be that they wanted to down trade or possibly they gave up driving altogether. But there’s always the possibility that something was wrong with it or it had a bump and the owner wanted it away.

Take time to really look over the service history (you’ll need to ask the local Mazda dealer to print it off if there’s no receipts in the car) and carefully look for any signs of poor paint repairs.

It’s highly possible this dealer has bought it at auction and not taken it as a part exchange but they’ll almost always tell you otherwise. Not the end of the world but again extra care is required. Great cars though and a good one will be an enjoyable to drive faithful family hatch.

Edited by SLO76 on 21/02/2019 at 22:40

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 22 Feb 2019 12:48
Mazda 3 - Purchasing a car with low mileage covered recently - Engineer Andy

See my general comments on the other Mazda3 thread from today - they will relate to this just as much.

www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/128813/mazda-3---m...3

I would say that I often see off-loaded Sport models seemingly because a good number of people don't like the firmer ride quality (on 18in rims) compared to the SE and SE-L models. To be honest, it's not a Mazda problem - I see this a lot on other makes too, especially where the 'Sport' models are no more (like the Mazda3) powerful or quick than the mid and lower trim ones, using the same engines.

Never used to be a problem when most Sport models on the gen-1 and 2 Mazda3s were the more powerful 2.0 petrol and diesel and the 1.6 petrol and diesel were mainly on the mid spec TS and TS2 (equivalent to the SE and SE-L) models. You got brakes and tyres that were 1in bigger; the 18in rims, tyres and flashy brakes were only available on the properly quick 2.3T MPS model. If only they had stuck to that formula...

If the service history and lack of crash damage/major problems checks out, then its worth a look, just be mindful (I made a mistake by talking about this in the other thread, thinking I was commenting on this one) that the car has done low mileage and may have sat around doing nothing for ages - so unless they've changed the batteries (including checking out the i-Stop system and/or warranted (in writing) both for at least a year, I'd be a bit wary.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link