CassiesMan...

[CassiesMan]

Now with 100% more turbo.

Ya know that feeling ya get, when you get a brand new car? Like, when everything is all cool and stuff.

Well I have that right now. Because I just got boosted. Yes, I finally have forced induction. Its amazing. I love it.

Oh. And the turbo...its attached to this:


Yup, got a new car. 2008 Mazdaspeed3, Grand Touring Edition with Navigation. Priced perfect for what I want. Cassie will be gone tommorow, giving her back to BMW to let them do what they want. It works out for me just fine. Motor pulls strong, boost feels great. The ride is real comfy, well, it was from the dealership. We'll find out tommorow on the drive to work for sure. And yes, its a stick. Tranny feels great, slots in real nice, and thats comming from only driving five and six speed BMWs all summer. She's gonna be stock till the first service check, then after that, intake/exhaust/ecu, and I'll be fine with that. The only thing I want to toss off a bit earlier are the wheels. Other wise, car looks dead sexy to me. More pictures comming soon, a few here and there, then I'm doing a shoot this weekend with a friend's IS300.

Yay.

I HAVE BOOST!

[-The Stig-]

Nice buy Rob.

[VR43000GT]

Nice buy. Although I will have to say I am shocked with you being Mr. Anti-FWD though. Should be a decient runner agianst the skittles.

[CassiesMan]

After the test drive, I can say, you really can't tell its a front driver unless you let it all out in first. Then you can feel the torque steer. Otherwise, its fine, it pulls through the turns much better than Cassie did. LSD=Great control.

[DinanM3_S2]

1 less AF bimmer owner

It will be interesting to see how those compare to the upcoming 135i with the biturbo.

[CassiesMan]

Most likely not at all. The 135i will most likely be real nasty on the highways and in the 1/4 mile. In a coned enviroment, the Speed3 might have a bit of an advantage. But on an open road course, I think the hats will tip to the 135i. But then again, lets be honest. No matter what they say in the buff books, you'll be hard pressed to get a 135i off the lot for under 40k. However, I don't think that matters.

The cars are in slightly different markets. The type of people (young, fresh outa college, not that rich yet, lol) that will go for the Mazdaspeed3 aren't the same type to go after the 135i. Now, vs a 128i, I think it will be a much much closer match.

Also, for those of you wondering, I have official named the car.

After much deliberation, it was decided that the Speed3, will from now on, be known as Sophie. God I love this car, lol. Now I just need to get a bit better on the clutch, and we will be golden.

[CassiesMan]

Hmmm...might need to change up the sig and avatar now. And yes, this post has been a worthless act of post whoring so I can post up this piccy:

[-The Stig-]

You can whore your car all you want in your own threads... we allow that here.

[Gotian]

grats on the new purchase, awsome car, though one thing you should look into is make sure it had the recall work done, they recently had a massive recall to replace the motor mounts, apparently the car has too much torque and breaks them.

You know what this means right? you cant bash on the 8 anymore, cause you've got the baby of the family, respect your elders.

Also, take that thing to an autocross and test out the handling, it has a very good suspension on it, that what mazda is good at, so be proud of it, cause that is an amazing car there.

Grats!

[VR43000GT]

The baby is also faster than most of it's elders lol.

[CassiesMan]

Originally Posted by SL3000gt

The baby is also faster than most of it's elders lol.

Lol, I was just about to say that.

Gotian, no worries there. First thing I did when I decided on this one (the purchase process was long, ardous, and full of bullshit from one dealership, short, painless, and pleasing from another...) was check the VIN. Falls far outside the VIN parameters for the failed engine mount.

Though I do find that funny. For the first time ever, and import with a 2.3 four banger is being criticized for having too much torque.

[Gotian]

Originally Posted by SL3000gt

The baby is also faster than most of it's elders lol.

In straight line only, it falls short in handling capabilities when compared to the speed 6 and falls further than the 8 and the miata, but regardless of that the speed3 handles like a beast. I went head to head against one in ft. myers weekend competition and the owner was pushing that thing hard, while I was still taking it easy since I was still learning the car and he came within a second of my time. so seriously take it to the Autocross, you will see how well it takes corners and pulls out of them, really wonderful suspension on it, just wait till mazdaspeed makes some suspension upgrades for it, tat thigh should be on rails. Since with the rx-8 if I upgrade to the MS shocks and springs the car becomes about 70-75% stiffer I can only imagine the MS3 since the speed 3 does have some body roll on it.

[Gotian]

Oh and the long and annoying process is for all dealers when you buy the speed 3, cause since mazdaspeed vehicles are limited production they put a dealer mark up fee on them. It's much easier to buy a speed 6, even the RX-8 is a long and I wanna kill the dealer process, speed 6's you just walk in and say I want a speed 6 and they are like oh take one!

[CassiesMan]

Well, one dealer I had been negotiating with had set the price of the GT Speed3 at 23plus TTL. When I went in to sign the papers, they had tacked on a nice 2500 finders fee, and a $200 detail/full tank fee.

Forget that.

I ended up going to the dealership where my mom got her CX-9 (which I should have done in the first place, but no, I HAD to be independent), and within an hour, had signed all the papers off on this one for $24,500, got the navigtion and door ding/wheel/window chip protection warrenty tossed it an no extra cost, and got a much better financing rate, a full point and a half better. So I basically got more and paid less. Awesome.

Suspension bits, when I get them, will most likely be Mazdaspeed, same for exhaust. Intake is a toss up right now.

Interestingly enough, when I was talking to the salesman, he says they are all having trouble moving the Speed6s, and in my area, they have some nice incentives on them. RX-8s don't sell fast but they sell steady, which they prefer.

[Gotian]

Originally Posted by CassiesMan

Well, one dealer I had been negotiating with had set the price of the GT Speed3 at 23plus TTL. When I went in to sign the papers, they had tacked on a nice 2500 finders fee, and a $200 detail/full tank fee.

Forget that.

I ended up going to the dealership where my mom got her CX-9 (which I should have done in the first place, but no, I HAD to be independent), and within an hour, had signed all the papers off on this one for $24,500, got the navigtion and door ding/wheel/window chip protection warrenty tossed it an no extra cost, and got a much better financing rate, a full point and a half better. So I basically got more and paid less. Awesome.

Suspension bits, when I get them, will most likely be Mazdaspeed, same for exhaust. Intake is a toss up right now.

Interestingly enough, when I was talking to the salesman, he says they are all having trouble moving the Speed6s, and in my area, they have some nice incentives on them. RX-8s don't sell fast but they sell steady, which they prefer.

you had the exact same problem i did when i bought my rx-8, i went to the dealer they were being impatient and they were constantly lying to me, they told me they could get the car i wanted from another dealer as long as they could trade cars, but they then told me the car was sold and tried to sell me another one, I told them no after 2 weeks, then i called the actual dealer who had the car, told them what happened, they said they still had it and it will be waiting when i got there. I got there and took it home the same day and delivered the check from the bank 2 days later. And I got it for less than what the other dealer wanted and the financing was alot lower cause I did it through my bank.

Also that same dealer had 8 speed 6's collecting dust that had massive rebates on them.

Oh and here is a pointer for you to know about mazdaspeed accessories, basically what you should/be worth it to buy :

1) If you want to make the car at like its on rails, you wont find better bang for you buck than MS suspension

2) If you want a deeper sounding exhaust with some nice power gains while still under warranty, nothing beats the MS exhaust

3) don't buy the CAI available from mazda, they use the AEM Intake but just slap Mazdaspeed on it.

4) Though they dont offer it yet, a flywheel, mazda makes high quality flywheels for the same price as the other aftermarket ones, it wont be the lightest flywheel but they take the weight off where it counts resulting in a very high quality steel flywheel with less weight on the edges making it very easy and quick to spin. you could look at the rx-8 MS flywheel as an example. And...it has factory warranty

Wish they would offer turbo upgrades and stuff like that but unfortunately they don't....yet