1996 Mazda Xedos 6 Sport 2.0 V6

Summary:

Extraordinary reliability

Faults:

In 10 years and 100,000 miles of driving this car, the only thing that has gone wrong is at 90,000 miles, the battery went flat. When I managed to jump start the car and attempt to recharge the battery by doing some drives around the block and on A roads, the engine would turn itself off when the revs reached idle speeds - if I took my foot off the accelerator, the revs died down but didn't hold the idle speed of say 700rpm. Revs would drop to 0 and the engine would stall. After another 10 miles or so of driving, the engine seemed to cure itself of this problem. Haven't experienced any problems. The reliability has been extraordinary.

General Comments:

Nice V6 engine, but tends to get 'tappety' at high mileages. Engine very responsive on the motorway in 4th and 5th gears.

Franchised dealer costs are expensive, as are parts.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 29th January, 2006

1996 Mazda Xedos 6 SE 2.0 V6

Summary:

A very smooth motorway cruiser

Faults:

The rocker cover gaskets seem to leak at around 80,000 miles or so.

Noisy tappets on cold starts when miles are above 100,000.

General Comments:

This car is amongst the best bargains you can get with a V6 power plant and silky smooth performance.

Its as fast as its competitors were and has a nice set of leather seats and comes fully equipped with air conditioning, vanity mirror lights and many other useful features.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 10th September, 2005

1996 Mazda Xedos 6 Sport 2.0 V6

Summary:

V6 engine is stunning!

Faults:

Nothing, apart from an occasional squeak from the left side of the glovebox.

General Comments:

The 2 litre V6 engine is absolutely stunning. It's so quiet, sounds superb at the top of the rev range and allows for superb mid range overtaking. As good a V6 engine as anything that the Germans have produced. Best thing about the car.

The car is quieter and more refined than a BMW 318.

I don't know whether it's me or just the particular car that I've got, but the drivetrain is slightly jerky in traffic. Either the clutch or accelerator (or both) are too sensitive. You have to be really gentle in letting out the clutch and applying the accelerator in order to progress smoothly in traffic and without a slight lurch. The drivetrain is more suited to fast A roads and motorways.

The Sport version has a rear wing - it would look better without it!

The steering is far too light.

Low speed ride quality could be slightly better - it's a bit knobbly and no where near as soft as a Citroen Xantia, although the handling is reasonably good.

The car is quite rare - unlike a BMW 3 Series which are more almost as common as Ford Mondeos!

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 27th February, 2001

6th Apr 2001, 03:24

Yes I agree that the steering is too light, cannot feel the road.I have auto 2.0 v6,1993 I find g/box a bit jerky when changing gears.

Also very thirsty indeed,.

Cool shape indeed but needs some attention to handling I think.

The car is even thirsty with a/c on.

Anyway, a nice ride.

12th Apr 2001, 00:27

I've managed to put a 99% cure for the jerky drivetrain on my car. Apparently, you need to change the clutch and gearbox oil but use a special type of oil (Dexron 3 or something like that) which makes it smoother - I've been told by my local Mazda garage that some franchised garage do not use this oil which makes the gearchange slightly jerky. A change of spark plugs and ignition leads also smoothed out the throttle.

The jerk has been cured! Cost about £80 in total.

11th Sep 2004, 06:44

Re Xedos 6 and 9. The preferred gearbox oil weight is 75w90. Don't use Mobil GL-5 because it contains sulphur. You need to research to find an appropriate oil - I use Redline MT90 75w90 GL-4 which is a genuine synthetic.

Oil that contains sulphur rots the bearings and synchromesh because they contain bronze/brass and the sulphur reacts and becomes acidic. Hence, Mobil confirm that their Mobil 1 GL-5 isn't appropriate for the Xedos gearbox.

Shift can stick if the wrong oil is used. Synchro and diff needs different viscosity which is difficult for the Xedos box. Redline MT90 copes and cures the problem across full temp range. Non synthetic oils are bad news because cold viscosity interferes with synchros.