1986 Mazda 626 GT review from North America

Original digital gauges replaced by previous owner with analog gauges from another turbo 626, so actual miles unknown (MOST LIKELY OVER 175,000).

New exhaust at 173,000. The exhaust it came with was original and falling off. Being a teen, I thought it would be awesome to take the exhaust off completely and make it really loud. But I got tired of almost getting gassed to death at every stoplight, and the drone was getting annoying.

New spark plugs and wires after car was broken into at church and the thieves thought it would be hilarious to remove them and hide them in the long, wet grass (they were dried, but never worked right again).

The right oil pan gasket leaks slowly, but not too bad.

Pulled to the right badly. Turned out it was a slow leak in the crappy tires from a nail. Pretty much drove it that way for 3-4,000 miles before repair.

Windshield is terrible. Even though its 20 years old, it could very well be the original. I say this based on how many scratches there are (you can hardly see when sun shining). I'm too broke to replace.

The seal around the windshield is terrible, so much condensation, not even fog. And the blower motor is crap so you must always carry paper towels when it rains (I live just south of Seattle, so this is a very annoying problem).

The previous owner prided himself on the fact that he replaced the bad alternator with a brand new one, not a rebuilt one.

The windshield washer sprayers don't work, never have. Probably a simple fix, but don't care too much. I carry a large bottle of water with me t spray on the windshield when needed. Totally ghetto fabulous.

The lock on the trunk is seized, so you have use the inside release, fine in the summer, but in cold weather 50 f or below, the trunk won't really open.

The rear window defroster never worked, but doesn't bother me too much, I just use a scraper.

The car has this stupid problem with the engine. If the engine is hot when you park the car and leave it for between 10 minutes to about an hour. You start up the car again and it will idle extremely low and die if you don't rev it up and drive it immediately. But once you get out on the road and drive it will go back to normal. Weird.

MY STORY

I am 17 years old currently, and this was my second car, my first stick shift, in which I taught myself. My first car, a 1987 Chevy Nova that I got when I was 15 was a good car, but I killed it after like 6 months. This thing was seroiusly slow, and I tried too hard to speed it up all the time.

The Nova died a week before my junior year in high school last year, and I ended up having to drive my 1992 Chevrolet Astro AWD to school. After a month and a half of of being teased by everyone and poor gas mileage, thst was it. A minivan doesn't look good on a teenager. I had a job, so the search for a new car was on.

In October of 2005, I was searching for VW GTI's in my low price range unsuccessfully. Then on one of my daily searches on craigslist, I got desperate and broadened my searches and found this interesting little car. A white 1986 Mazda 626 GT turbo sedan with 165,000 miles, fully loaded and in very good condition (no dents or big scratches). And fortunately for me and many car buyers out here in the west coast, we use no salt on our roads. So there was absolutely no rust whatsoever on this Asian beauty.

This looked like a pretty interesting car, I've never seen anything like it before, and the price was right, $1,200. so I met with the seller the same night, and test drove it. I was love at first drive.

The next morning I bought it with cash (which I paid for all by my proud self). I don't think there was a better or faster deal for the 1,200 I paid for it.

ABOUT THE CAR

In the year and three months that I have owned I have actually been quite impressed. The thing is very reliable. Not once has it left me stranded and always starts even in the rare cases that it gets below freezing here in Seattle.

The performance on this car is pretty damn great, especially considering how old and cheap it is. I've beaten a few civics, my friends brand new audi a4 1.8, an old supra, a celica, and a few others. I attend a high school full of well-to-do kids with whom if there parents were any richer, they would attend private school. So naturally they drive newer if not brand new cars. My friends and I have pretty much the oldest and cheapest cars in the parking lot, and we actually bought them ourselves. But my car actually has a shot of beating most of them (except for the M3's, brand new mustangs, and lexus GS's, and a few others). And when you compare price to performance, mine was a clear winner.

This car is surprisingly fast. An old car and driver mag tells me that the 1/4 mile new was like 15.8 seconds and the top speed was 120mph. I have never taken it to top speed, but I have taken it to 100 and above a few times. On one occassion on Pacific hwy s. (speed limit 50) when there was no traffic, I blasted to 105mph, with three others while accelerating up a 2-3% grade. I could have gone faster, but a stoplight came up too quickly. Not bad for a little Mazda with "120" horsepower.

Gas mileage is decent, but not as good as I would hope. The lower gearing (GT only), while good for acceleration, is not particularly good for highway MPG. At 70mph, the engine speed is around 3,000 rpms, which is halfway to redline. This makes fuel consumption higher and the engine noise increases the noise in the car drastically. This and the already loud road noise can make long highway trips unpleasant. This car would make it cross-country easily, but it wouldn't very comfortable.

The interior has held up remarkably for the fact that it's a 80's Japanese sedan. Only one rip and a cigarette lighter burn hurt the seats. Heck, even the original digital clock still keeps good time.

The exterior was damn near perfect when I bought it. Even the stock aluminum 15's have no scratches or curb rashes, and the paint was just faded. Just 2 months ago, I was taking through a crazy, one-way, windy, down-hill road near my house. It was wet, and as was turning down a section that I've turned through a thousand times before, apparently I was going too fast, because my brakes locked up and I slid into a guard rail at about 15mph. Damage wasnt too bad, amazing actually. Only hit the 1/4 panel section between my hood and the bumper right in the front, pushing the headlight in a ways. Not even a scratch on any other body part, and the headlight survived, it just points down to the right now, oh yeah and the blinker was crushed, but the 1 on the bumper works great. But what the hell, i'll just fix it later.

This car hates the some what cold winter weather we receive here in Seattle. Nothing likes to function. Only the drivers window rolls down, the trunk rarely opens, the whole car fogs badly, the door locks are a pain to unlock and the passenger one won't lock from the inside and the power locks don't work at all. The already dangerously slow windshield wipers get slower, and on very icy days the doors sometimes won't even shut completely. The carpet on the drivers side and behind the passengers seat stays permanently wet until about March-April, and the trunk seems too have bad seals so it is always damp when wet or cold (bad for subs), and finally in cold weather, the car loves to grind when shifting into reverse, and usually you have to shift into other gears before you can make it go into reverse. Everything works just dandy in the summer. If the car is this sensitive here, I can imagine how bad it would be in other places where the winters are harsh and it actually snows. Maybe this car is from SoCal, who knows.

The electronic suspension works great right now and is a cool feature, but makes the ride rough and I imagine it would not be easy or cheap to replace. Parts for this car are difficult to find since the turbo model is not common.

This car was a great bargain and is relatively rare (I have only seen one other on the streets in my area) and people don't believe it has a turbo until they get blown away :)

I would recommend that if you see one, buy it and just like any other car, make sure its well maintained. It has its faults for being a 20 year old car (i like to call it personality) but they aren't debilitating and could be a lot worse.

I love my Mazda and would not sell it. I will drive it until the wheels fall off or the engine engine just quits. Hopefully, that will be very far in the future.