1998 Mazda 323 ZXi review from UK and Ireland

Front offside headlight bulb needed changing.

Driver door plastic strip came off.

That's it!

This car is frighteningly fast! I'm no boy racer, but I've put this car up against a variety of hot hatches and they've all been left behind. The only thing that outpaced me the other day was a 911 turbo and I'm certainly not going to complain about that !

It isn't the best handling car on the road, but point it in a straight line and it goes like it's got space shuttle boosters strapped to it.

The extras package that comes with it is outstanding too, for your money you get E/W, E/SR, heated E/WM, dual air bags, A/C, and ABS.

The ride is a little stiff, but at the end of the day it's a sports car after all!

I picked my model up for a very reasonable 4 grand. The only downside on it was the high mileage (118,000) but after extensive research on the 'net I've found that this car is very reliable and I really have no reason to worry about much for the next 50,000 miles.

Coming up is the 120,000 service which involves a cam belt change and I've just been quoted £450 for a Mazda service (eek). Planning on robbing a bank to find that right now.

Sadly Mazda stopped making this car in '98 and theres no equivalent currently in production, and personally I think they've shot themselves in the foot there. Still it makes my car quite rare on the road now and keeps the price up. For example a very impressed Mazda salesman at my local garage offered me 6 grand in part ex the other day which I happily turned down, no MX5 could ever replace my 323 !

In conclusion this is the best car I've ever owned and I'm going to keep her until she finally dies on me, and if your wondering what that red streak that just passed you was, it was me :)