This is just a general question about the heater in the Mazda 626 LX (2001). This is my wife’s car and the heater can only be described as adequate. It doesn’t really get the car all that warm even when the engine is fully warmed. Is this normal for the 626? In my Subaru , and in my sons Honda, when the heater fan is set to high it gets too hot and forces you to turn to a lower setting. She finds herself still cold after driving for an hour. Is this normal for this car?

It's a design problem that Mazda is obviously not too interested in resolving as we drive a 1988 626 Turbo with an inadequate heater. You are correct most every other mfg. heaters will require you to turn the heat down after a short period of driving. The sorry thing with this deficiency is the SAFETY factor, that is, under certain conditions of driiving snow and cold temperatures the heater is not adequate enough to warm the windscreen and keep it clear of snow.

This is a particularly hazardous condition as it occurs during the worst possible driving conditions of blowing snow, poor visibility and lousy road conditions.

Mazda should have been sued by now and required to provide a heater that at the very least matches the output of it's competitors.

It's a design problem that Mazda is obviously not too interested in resolving as we drive a 1988 626 Turbo with an inadequate heater. You are correct most every other mfg. heaters will require you to turn the heat down after a short period of driving. The sorry thing with this deficiency is the SAFETY factor, that is, under certain conditions of driiving snow and cold temperatures the heater is not adequate enough to warm the windscreen and keep it clear of snow.

This is a particularly hazardous condition as it occurs during the worst possible driving conditions of blowing snow, poor visibility and lousy road conditions.

Mazda should have been sued by now and required to provide a heater that at the very least matches the output of it's competitors.

Thank you for this reply. It will save me a lot of time and effort trying to resolve a problem that is inherenet in the car.