# Bought A New Car



## Andy (Feb 23, 2003)

Well not new.

96 N reg but only two former keepers and a genuine 18,000 miles backed up by the most comprehensive service history I've ever seen and all the old MOT's.

Dealer friend of mine sourced it from a Mazda main agent who'd taken it as a P/X.

Right here's the interesting thing about it.

It's a Mazda 121 ZXi 1.25 auto.

When I first saw it I thought, that looks a lot like a Fiesta.

I just assumed it was just anther case of the Japanese copying European design.

Anyway I bought it and then found out that the Mazda 121 is, in fact a Ford Fiesta









Exactly the same car built on the Dagenham production line and re-badged for Mazda.

I don't have a problem with this as the car is a little gem but have you ever heard of anything so bizzar as a manufacturer getting another one to re-badge cars in their name ?

Well I haven't but then I'm no car expert.

Anyway good thing is that I can buy cheaper ford parts.

Here's a pic of the car, and this is the Mazda 121.

Not the Fiesta.

Er no, it's both but this pic is the Mazda 121


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

Andy it happens a lot

Ford Galaxy, VW Sharran, Seat Alhambra all the same just badged differently in the factory

Citroen and vauxhall and renalut do it with a van (Mervano) I think.

The Mazda 323 and Ford escort shared a lot of the same development the fiesta / 121 was the next step ie build exactly the same car and badge it differently.


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## Boxbrownie (Aug 11, 2005)

You got a very good buy there......people tend to look down their noses at the Fiesta-Mazda badged 121, but that particular Fiesta is probably the best car in its sector for most things, reliable too. With that low mileage I would tend to check things like tyres, belts and fluids for age realated problems, but otherwise everything like bearings, bushes and springs/dampoers all should be like new, well done.

Nowadays there are many manufacturers colaborating and sharing platforms, so many in fact I can't list them all.......suffice to say without it half of the makers would be going under or gone already!

Best regards David

BTW Andy, my Galaxy was the best made Ford that ever rolled of a VW line LOL.....or was that the best made VW that Ford ever got SEAT to make?

Gets real complicated even for insiders! LOL


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## Andy (Feb 23, 2003)

Boxy.

Cheers.

It's everyone's dream used car.

It had two owners.

The first had it serviced by Mazda and the second by a non franchised garage but every service was carried out.

Every piece of paperwork is in a ring binder.

I also have all it's MOT certificates.

It's a gem.

Unfortunately, I bought it right at the interval specified for a cam-belt change which is, believe it or not, 100,000 miles or ten years.

Bitter pill to swallow as the cars only done 18,000 miles but best play safe in view of it's age so I had a ford dealer change it.

Anyway thanks for the comments and I really had no idea this was such a common practice amongst makers.

I knew they often shared engines but I never knew borrowed whole cars off each other


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## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

Sounds like a great buy Andy ... I like Fiestas good little cars.

Ford own about a third of Mazda they have done a lot of rebadging and shared technology over the last 15 years or so.


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

funnily enough I see a lot more Fiestas than mazda 121's, I know ford sell far more than mazda but even propotionally the mazda is a far mor reliable car. If I had enough money not to care I'd have an RX8 and the wife an MX5.


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## Griff (Feb 23, 2003)

The Fiesta I'm told has had more face lifts than Nancy Reagan


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## Nin (Jul 16, 2004)

Is there somehting about Mazda owners?

A couple of years ago I bought a 626 estate from an old guy who had insisted on getting the oil changed by the dealer halfway between service intervals.

Needless to say it is still going strong ...


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## Boxbrownie (Aug 11, 2005)

JoT said:


> Sounds like a great buy Andy ... I like Fiestas good little cars.
> 
> Ford own about a third of Mazda they have done a lot of rebadging and shared technology over the last 15 years or so.


I think (we) own 49%......its a lot whatever.......I should check I suppose!









We always got lots of our fellow little chappies running around where I work, great guys they are, very friendly and polite.

Its one big world getting smaller everyday.

And I've had enough wine now......gotta go to bed, get some sleep, off to Japan tomorrow night need to make up 9 hours somewhere!









best reagrds David



pg tips said:


> funnily enough I see a lot more Fiestas than mazda 121's, I know ford sell far more than mazda but even propotionally the mazda is a far mor reliable car. If I had enough money not to care I'd have an RX8 and the wife an MX5.


Fiestsa/121.....they are mechanically exactly the same.....but the one thing that everybody forgot about was the fact the Fiesta then had one year warranty where as the mazda 121 had a three year warranty!!!!!!!!!

Literally the only difference between the two vehicles was the badges, minor trim changes and the dealers...aha theres the important bit....THE DEALERS







BLOODY DEALERS!!!!!!!!!

Paul you wouldnt believe the number of RX8's and MX5's we got in our company car parks







assesing the competition eh?









Now I really have got to go to bed xzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Best regards David


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

reminds me of the honda rover tie up.

I used to see loads of the rovers with broken timing belts but none (and I mean none) in the same engined Honda's.

2 points

1. if you had the Honda you are the type who'd go through dealer servicing forever. Therefore the belt didn't get forgotten like it would with the Rovers.

2. The Honda dealers were changing the belts at earlier service intervals than the Rover dealers just to be safe, not telling anyone and not charging the customer.

You work for Ford then BB?

We just got the breakdown contract (from Oct 1 05) as your probably aware. So far i've seen 3 Fords under warranty! Not bad going. long gone are the *F*ix *O*r *R*epair *D*aily days!


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

I've got a Ford KA that's just over three years old, it hasn't missed a beat so far, it handles better than my series two Golf GTI did.







Not as quick though. 

Seems like Ford is building some sound motors these days.


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## Boxbrownie (Aug 11, 2005)

Indeed I do Paul, your story about the servicing reminds me what I was told by mercedes engineers years ago, all about the great reliability reputation they had......it was common practice (directed to do so by the company) that when a merec came in for a routine service if anything, and they meant ANYTHING was slighty amiss or seemed to be going that way, the item was replaced or repaired without question, whether the vehicle was in or out of warranty!!!!

But the important bit was the customer was never told of these repairs......they just thought tha car had been in for normal servicing....a very clever strategy, but one that is not practiced now by merc.

Hence any long standing customer owning a merc in the past always had the story of " I've owned this merc for XX years and its only ever needed servicing, never goes wrong"

They certainly had the idea right then.

Ford KA.....love'em.....the true Mini replacement, not like this BMW/MINI which is almost as wide as a Range Rover!!!!









best regards David


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## tom (Jun 2, 2003)

Many moons ago I had an Escort MK1 tough as old boots and it only went to the scrapyard when the body rusted away.The old Kent pushrod engine just went on and on indeed untill quite recently the KA had a version of that engine.Anyway Found On The Road Dead and Mazda share quite a few parts ie Mazda engines in the Mondao ,Ford engine and floorpan in Mazda 3. I have owned a Mazda 323F and now have a Mazda2 which is a Fiesta clone and yes they do seem to be much more reliable than Fords.

Tom


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## Roger (May 17, 2003)

Some years back I bought a brand new Escort Turbodiesel which I quite liked.

I had many, many problems with the central locking.

Some days you could not lock any of the doors and sometimes you could not unlock any door.

For one month, I had the dubious honour of having the most-often-returned car toi Bristol Street Motors.

It went back 19 times in one month!!.

They did fix it eventually.....but I did quite like that Turbodiesel.......until a friend loaned me a VW turbodiesel....I didnt want the Ford after that.....


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## DavidH (Feb 24, 2003)

Another one is the Ford Ranger pick up, double cab etc, A Mazda with an oval badge.

I would take a mazda with a Ford badge but not the other way. That is only if there was no more VW Diesels left


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## Nin (Jul 16, 2004)

I've just ben looking for a new company car.

I looked at a Mondeo, a Passatt and an A3, then a Skoda Octavia, just to humour a mate of mine who kept raving about them. I order the Skoda.

I dont get it. Volkswagen Audi Group gear, in an extremely well assembled package, with a bigger boot than a Mondeo, and more spec that you can shake a big stick at. Cheaper than chips.

D'you see many of them PG?

Nin


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

Nin said:


> D'you see many of them PG?


No Nin, they are proving very reliable, I nearly bought a Fabia myself when we recently changed cars, wanted the sdi but couldn't find one at the right price / age and was in a rush to change so didn't have the luxury of time to hang on for one, ended up with a honda Jazz!


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Jazz.......

Nice..


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

every time I see my brother he goes into his Jazz club impression, How's the car? OK. Nice.

Actually as I hardly ever drive it the mrs had final say on what we bought and as she pays for the petrol I thin the average 43 mpg on the to and from work run was what swung it for her.

On the run up to newcastle and back we were getting 56 mpg from a petrol! who needs oil burners or hybreds?


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## Nin (Jul 16, 2004)

> No Nin, they are proving very reliable


Great to hear that PG.

I'm getting really hacked off with my Audi (A2, on a 53 plate). For a Â£16.5 k car it's not the best put together or reliable in the world.

It squeaks worse than a room full of toddlers. The Aircon had to be replaced after 500 miles. The airbag light goes on and off at will. Audi's quality service advice was "Oh, we don't kow why it does that Mr Hughes, bring it back if it does it again". The drivers window won't close unless you give it a shove, and yesterday after 3 days in a station car park the battery was completely dead. And no I didn't leave the lights on. If it was an Autin Allegro, I wouldn't mind so much!

Rant over. Skoda arrives in 6 weeks.

Nin


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## JonW (Mar 23, 2005)

Nin, Audi have lost their way recently... we had an 04 plated A3 sport TDI whos rear shockers were rattling over bumps from almost day 1. Audi said " we can replace them under warranty but its a problem with the sports suspension and we have no fix yet" 18 months later we gave the car back to our fleet people when we left the UK, Audi still didnt have a fix... er its the top of the friggin range suspension Audi! not what you expect from a Â£23k car... Also the sports seats were so poor they gave you a bad back. we thought it was our bed and then my mate whod recently left the co said how much better his back was once hed got his new job... oh and also given back his A3 TDi sport he got a month after we did... over a beer we finally put 2+2 and realised that was the problem.. sports seats that give you a sports injury... nice one Audi...!

In the 45k miles we did, we had a new turbo as it had an oil leak and also we needed a new full aircon as it just stopped working. it had a number of rattles (not just cos it was diesel!) and it kept needing to be topped up with oil as all VAG group cars seem to need these days...

I was a long term VW fan (Golfs and Jetta 16vs, Carrodo and my Dad has 80, 100s and A6) but I wont buy another mostly beacuse the seats nearly crippled us... very unimpressed we are staying japanese from now on.

My mum has a Honda Jazz auto... she and my dad love it. they even drove it half way down france from Chester on holiday, leaving my dads Merc at home! I drove it and its kinda fun but gutless, good mpg but not my thing at all...


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## novatron1_2 (Jun 23, 2005)

JonW said:


> kept needing to be topped up with oil as all VAG group cars seem to need these days...
> 
> has anyone else noticed that a lot of modern cars seem to need the oil checking more often than say cars around 10 years old do. I had a 94 corsa, hardly ever needed to check the oil, i replaced it with a 99 astra sport, needs the oil topped up every other week. I thought i'd bought a bad 'un, till i read on the net and in the motoring section of the times, thats its a common 'feature' of that engine!!!!
> 
> Makes you wonder why?


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## JonW (Mar 23, 2005)

at least on modern cars when the oil light comes on it means "please top me up", on older cars when the light came on it meant "please fit a new engine..." as the light was usually accompanied by the sound of the big end going...


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## r1ch (Feb 2, 2004)

Very true Jon. I did 85K miles in my previous Impreza, (from new in 3 and a bit years). Despite spirited use of the performance it never used a drop of oil, ever. Being much loved, it was checked every week of course but I couldn't tell you if it even had an Oil Warning light







.The turbo bearings were on the way granted  , but the "up and down, bang and spark" bits of the engine were absolutely bullet proof.

Rich


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## Mothman (Oct 11, 2005)

Nin,

Bought an 'Octavia' deisel when they were first introduced (about 1998) for the sales rep at work. Kept it for 5 years over which time it did about 150k miles, only part replaced (other than the usual consumables) was an aiflow meter (cost about Â£220). I then sold the car to my step son and it's still going strong though he reports that it is just beggining to be a reluctant statrter ( he thinks the Glowplugs need replacing).

Great cars, would certainly buy another if in the market









Richard


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