Speed3 vs. All
 

Personally my plan is to get a speed3 eventually.

Hey I do too! I've been hard pressed on a wrx for a while now, but the ms3 value is ridiculous, and you just miss out on awd.

Rick needs to buy a Mazdaspeed forum.

Maybe when I get mine? I gotta buy a house first.

Better plant the idea seed now though so when the time comes.

Meh, I was not impressed with my other buddy's speed3 when he let me make several autocross runs with it. It feels really tall and unsporty when you drive it. It felt heavy and had significant front plow in the turns both on and off throttle. It had some torque steer when it could get traction. The stock tires were incredibly hard. I think he went down an inch in wheel diameter and put some stickier rubber on it eventually. Some front drivers are tossable and balanced but not that one. Drive one in some tight curves before you buy one. Straight lines and wide boulevards don't count.

Miata for turning fun.
speed3 for daily highway fun.

I can see that.

And it does have enough space to carry people and things around. What's the towing capacity? Track day tow vehicle for the Miata? Haha!

my thought is ---- weather dd duty, i drive the miata when its nice. and the ranger doesnt get great gas milage. the 3 and evos get like mid 20's IIRC and my ranger gets 14-18. it would be a highway car anyway, miata for track/autocross

So how many years of driving a speed3 at 25 mpg over a Ranger at 15mpg would it take to pay for itself?

all of the years.

well right now i drive 60 miles or so a day to school, and when my dad drives it its something like 120 miles a day. besides just the gas milage i like those kind of cars, im not much of a truck person.

ha. I've pretty much decided on it. I think it's the best value, just miss out on AWD. Already have house in the works, and new DD will follow shortly after that...and a new kitty of course.

Since everyone else is threadjacking pirates, I'll join in. DD a Golf R. AWD and refined unlike the MS3. Motor can handle lots of power and plenty of aftermarket adders and 30 mpg is doable with that 2.0T.

Golf R = heavy and expensive and DSG and a VW.

I could pick up a 2011 MS3 with under 10,000 miles for under $20,000, that means I even get a warrenty...

Cant say the same for the VW ('08 R32 20-35K m. ~$25,000), wrx ('08 40-60K m. ~$25,000), or ralliart. That means no warrenty and extra $$$ just for awd.

Agreed. Plus ms3 is mazda son!

That's some pretty pathetic homework. Expensive yes, DSG no, heavy yes it's 44 lbs heavier the Speed3 (3325 verus 3281). Is AWD worth it to me living up north? HELLZ YEAH.

The 08 R32 is DSG and heavier with the 3.2L. I owned one, it was a great car, but got Speed3 gas mileage and I hated the DSG. AWD seems to matter to most people as you see in your own homework, all the examples hold their value much longer than a FWD turbo hatch. To each his own. For me, I will drive my JSW TDI a few more years and then get myself another R.

In the parking lot where I am sitting there is a lowered Golf with its hood up and a fellow with shaved forearms, a t-shirt that is too small, and some sunglasses that I can only assume are quite trendy on top of his head wiggling and poking at items in the engine compartment. His girlfriend is obviously bored, standing with her arms crossed, toying with something on the ground with her shoe, and chewing a piece of gum as mindlessly as a cow masticating her cud. It is the only VW in the lot.

I bet the MS3 windows go back up :) Honestly, I know little about VWs (i didnt know the dsg was an option again), but they still have a horrible rep, and they are too expensive for what they are ($15,000 over my price range for AWD). That's why I keep saying it's too good of a value and since the R is too exspenive, I'd look into R32s. and then I'd be limited to the earlier ones and higher mileage.

I also admit I don't know much about the R32. Although as a former Audi tech I can say oh laaaaaardy the problems I don't even want to begin with. Then again I was working on Audis, and a lot of people clearly spent all their money on the car, with none left for maintenance... "Wait so I just spent 50k and now you want me to spend more to maintain it???!?!?!".

I've owned two audis b5 s4 and 4.2L a6. Both were fantastic, when they were running. That was the problem with them. I've owned three vws 08 r32 and my current JSW TDI and Touareg and i haven't had the problems I had with the Audis. Even the Treg has been fine which I wasn't sure about as it to has the 4.2L and air suspension. All I can figure is the VWs aren't as complex as their Audi siblings. It was mostly electronics that were failing me on the audis with the exception of the tranny I blew in the s4. They sent that back to Germany to tear down.

The new R fixes what I hated about my old R32 and while I love my JSW, I miss that fat little piggy. I'll wait a few years for them to depreciate and then replace the JSW TDI for one. With the new very capable 2.0t I can have power and decent fuel economy and a blast driving again.

After going to the Auto Show I also have fallen in love with new Subie BRZ. I think after the Miata becomes track only I will get a used BRZ as my summer fun/future track toy. I can't wait to see what the STi version and aftermarket will be on it. It's gorgeous in person.

Really I saw it at the DC auto show and felt the BRZ was just meh.

Tough crowd at least we agree on the Miata :)

I've always wanted a Genesis coupe with Euro tails, less power and a rinky dink interior... :jerkit:

I was thoroughly unimpressed with the BRZ. Honestly, I'm unimpressed by everything Subaru is doing lately...



Back to the R, I'm looking to purchase towards the end of this year. I can't wait 10 years for the R to depreciate enough to be worth while. I gave myself an abritray budget of 20K. This will be a DD that I won't modify whatsoever. the R is priced st $35K right now. That's rediculous. The only advatange it has over the MS3 is the AWD system, and an ipod hookup. So lets say I was to buy one new today and had 5K to put down the difference is about $150 extra a month for 6 years...just to have AWD? No way.

At $35K, I'd rather have something else completely, that's a completely different class of car. At around $25K the MS3 [and WRX] makes sense to me, especially considering what you can get them used for--I don't buy new. So as of now, the R is not on my radar, but the R32 would be, and it's really not much cheaper. But honestly of all the cars, the VW is last on my list...it just doesn't do it for me.

I'd really like to own a "widebody" '10-11 WRX, but again due to the cult following, they are priced too high for what they are. I've been looking and it takes an ugly ass boring plain jane base '08 WRX model with 50K on the clock to get it below $20K; that sucks. That means no warrenty and I'm left with a cheap-looking boring car with a heafty price tag. I was really deadset on an AWD turbo car, but it seems like I'd have to compromise on other things to get it, like spend more or get a boring car without any umphf or pizzaz. Like a legacy GT or Volvo T5 trim or an A4 or something. And I don't want to get an 06-07 model--I want something newer that I plan to hold onto for a good 10 years or so.

And while the AWD would be nice, it's not nessecary, I've got along just fine in my FWD cars in winter...there's only 1 big snow storm a year here typically and while I have got stuck a few times, I can just get a set of snow tires if I really care. I just thought AWD would be cool to have the one car I know we could at least make it to town in a snow storm...but even then I'd have to buy a set of All-Seasons in the least.

So for me, considering I want an unmolested DD that could possibly have a warrenty period, the MS3 makes sense. Who knows, I might drive the WRX and think otherwise...but I haven't got to that point yet. I've driven a few M3 hatches and was impressed, just not a MS3 package, and they one thing I didn't like was simply the lack of power.

I'm curious to see what the Focus ST will be priced at...that's another option...but I think it will have the same problem as the VW...too new and expensive for what it is.

I like the Focus St as well Brain. I was looking at it last night. I really like the styling and am glad they are giving it some balls.

If I was smart I'd just get a Sonata Hybrid or something.

I am annoyed they put prius tires on it. Pretty sure I was the only one on CR who gave two shits that toyota sounded like total pricks when they said it doesn't need sticky tires.

Beyond that, I am all 100% for more rwd sub 25k cars. We sure could use more of them.

No turbo, no care.
no awd, no subaru.

It's unclear whether the STi version will come out with a Churbo or not. I think Subie would be very dumb not to Force induction that little monster. I am a bit disappointed in the RedLine on that NA engine though. But, Brain, if your can turbo a Miata, surely you can turbo a Subie/Toyoda.

Sure I could, but I'm not going to. I don't need to ruin a brand new car with thousands in aftermarket parts and deal with ecu bs on an odbII while still under warrenty on what would be my DD.

I'd rather just buy a genesis, which looks EXACTLY the same [with a nicer interior mind you], and turn up the boost and blow the Light BReeZ out of the water.

what bro? you no likely the new ae86? you are not a true enthusiast. hehehe. I personally can't afford a new car, although I did buy an MS3 new at one point in my life...

Subaru rep at DC auto show said no turbo ever for BRZ. Something about engineers mounted the engine too low for a turbo lol.

You know what other car has 200hp, macpherson struts, doesn't weight a lot, and won't have a turbo?

the civic si. :)


You know what the BRZ will have? a soft top.

MS3 is serious win. They sound fantastic, make good power, easy on the eyes,etc.. Can't go wrong.

VW...I'd rather walk everywhere than own on.

i was at the mazda dealer the other day and they had a new speed3 sitting in the showroom. i was about half tempted to see if they would let me test it. but then i remembered im broke and unemployed. :(

Brain... My brother owns a gen coupe 2.0T. He actually just made the most bolt on hp on stock turbo yet. I think it was something like 265whp and 315 torques... Quite honestly I thought his gen coupe was a dog till his last tune and intercooler install. My MSM could keep up fairly easy.

But since his upgrade to the latest reflash and intercooler being installed, I'm quite impressed. It pulls pretty hard in 4th-5th. I think his mod list is something like intake, downpipe, strait catback, injectors, intercooler + pipes, reflash, stage 2 clutch and light flywheel.

As much as I do not like Hyundai and want to hate them, he bought his car brand new in early 2010 and has put around 60k miles on it already. He's not had any mechanical problems with the car so far besides some recall on the 5th gear synchro that was warrantied.

I did see the new gen coupe at the autoshow and the new veloster or w.e... both are piss ugly and I think Hyundai killed the gen coupe's potential.

yeah, I mean the turbo only makes 200hp, So i wouldn't expect it to feel incredibly fast without tweeking. Consider my miata makes 240rwhp/240rwtq.

I think that new coupe is a special verison, it's a little ugly...pulled styling from jaguar/aston martin. Pretty much the same interior.

the Veloster is stupid teenager crap. Even the turbo verison. Nothing is really impressing me too much this year.




I dunno if I'll get a 2-dr DD. If I did it would need to have more room like GTI or C30 or Clubman or something. My wife has a prelude, and if we replace it we'll probably get a CLK or G37x or alike, so I need something slightly practical when we travel or have passengers. That's why I was considering the MS3, R32, WRX, and the Ralliart. The fact they are all hatches is something I'm drawn too...I've grown up in wagons and minivans and understand how handy they can be. Plus they are still "small" in spirit and you can have plenty of fun in them without going overboard like an EVO or STi trim.

Otherdays I just want a big S60 sedan or MS6 or something, but then I think how they won't be as nimble and easy. Somedays I just want a corvette or genesis coupe or something.

But all in all, the MS3 makes sense for my needs. I have the miata to have real fun in, my wife's car wil almost always be a 2-dr coupe, so I need something somewhat practical but still a fun car to drive. My altima is the most unimpirsing thing in the world.

I didn't know these came AWD and turbo:

http://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/cto/2834208567.html

"I'd rather than walk then own a VW." LMAO.

they do according to wiki