1997 Mazda 626 GXi review from UK and Ireland

Engine shutdown while driving - caused by a dodgy wire, which had been dislodged during a service.

No other issues at all, in over 20,000 miles!

I bought this car 12 months ago, in something of a rush, as my previous car had just had a clutch-bearing failure, which wouldn't have been cost effective to sort out.

It wasn't quite as quick as some I looked at (e.g. Peugeot 406 2.0T), but in terms of the interior and general feel, it was head and shoulders above the rest. So I went with it!

12 months later, I've been looking for a replacement, and it's been hard finding anything comparable to replace it! If it weren't for my high mileage (20'000 miles in the last year), I'd have kept it, but petrol hasn't been getting any cheaper (and it's been averaging 32mpg even on long runs on 97-ron fuel), so I've reluctantly moved onto a diesel.

So: it's got a nice interior, and reasonable acceleration - I suspect it's capable of getting to 60mph a bit quicker than the official 10.6 seconds! Top end isn't anything special, but it will steadily creep up past 70 on the speedo on it's way to the ton.

Handling has been fine - I've seen a lot of criticism of the handling, but I've never had any issues with it, save for the fact that the turning circle is pretty huge. But hey - it's a big car: parking and turning are never going to be as easy as when in a VW Polo!

Reliability has been superb - except for the issue noted above (ironically caused by the service - though this did mean that I got it diagnosed and fixed for free!), I haven't had a single issue.

All in all, I've done a lot of driving in it, and I've enjoyed it. Time will tell if my new 130bhp Mondeo TDi will enjoy a similar reputation...