Hell hath frozen, LSA bought a car and it isn't german... or old...

[land sea air]

Ok to be fair my wife and I did buy a Dodge Dakota about a year ago, but we both still drove old gerries. Long story but her car (Mercedes 500SE) has been in and out of commission for almost a year and she was getting tired of driving the truck all the time. One of my birthday presents this year was to go car shopping and eventually we made our way to the local Mazda dealer, we both liked the Mazda 2 but saw this gem during our test drive and decided to go a bit bigger, older, and cheaper.

2005 Mazda3 sport with 87k
power everything, key-less entry, touring seats and wheels, cruise control etc. The only things missing are a sunroof and an aux input (the sunroof isn't a big deal and I will install an aux soon). It also seems to be missing one pedal and the trans has a mind of it's own (there's some sarcasm there). It will be primarily my wife's car and I'll keep driving the BMW (which I prefer) but it will be nice to have something with space and modern options for once (even if new cars are evil). Since it's primarily her car I'll keep changes to a minimum, probably a K&N filter (maybe an intake later), HIDs, and the aux input.

 

[land sea air]

took some pictures in Rome

 

[Joey D]

Nice purchase 👍! Hope she treats you well!

 

[Rotary Junkie]

Nice 3! The missing pedal is a bit of a shame but that 2.3 is a sweetheart of a motor once you uncork the intake (do not pass go, do not collect $200, go straight to SRI or CAI, a K&N alone will do nothing for you) and the old 4-speed auto isn't that bad of a trans... A bit long and wide-ratio'd but holds up to abuse reasonably well and manual mode is properly manual mode aside from not letting you downshift to a gear that would put you above about 5500rpm.

 

[Punknoodle]

How was the trip to Rome? Haha, I can only take pics of my car on race tracks - it's a standard lol.

Nice car though dude, but do the zorst 2!

 

[JCE]

Nice choice. You picked the best color too!

 

[Rotary Junkie]

I don't know about the 3 but I know the 6 gains absolutely nothing from an exhaust change unless you do a header and decat along with it... And even then, the cat-back isn't much of a restriction at all.

 

[land sea air]

How was the trip to Rome? Haha, I can only take pics of my car on race tracks - it's a standard lol.

Nice car though dude, but do the zorst 2!

Axela is standard as well, I just parked it on the track to get some good shots, having a bit of trouble finding the correct maz color in gt5. Our dealer said our car was sunlight silver which it isn't. Admittedly I haven't searched in earnest yet but the titanium gray I have it painted currently seems a bit too dark.

 

[Kylehnat]

I don't know about the 3 but I know the 6 gains absolutely nothing from an exhaust change unless you do a header and decat along with it... And even then, the cat-back isn't much of a restriction at all.

I can't vouch for each piece separately, but CAI + exhaust gives ~10 whp, and if you install a header, about 10 more (and a lot more noise). CAI is a no-brainer...it's pretty inexpensive and easy to install. Just be careful with the MAF sensor wiring. After three years, a wire in mine worked itself loose and caused the car to lurch, sputter, and stall. CAI kind of stretches the wires a bit from where they are on the stock box.