Having only had the car for ten thousand kilometers I was quite dissapointed. Having been an owner of a V8 it was time to get something a little more fuel efficient, why not a supercharged diesel wagon?
Within the first few months of owning it the cylinder head needed to be replaced, and these are not cheap, as it is an import and a diesel. The price to fix this including new injectors was just under $3500 AUD!!!
After this was done the car ran a little sluggish, then the supercharger AND the fuel pump died, and this was another $3000 AUD!!!
The supercharger could not be replaced, as rebuild kits are unavailable, so we had to engineer a whole new forced induction system (a turbo), which took a whole two months to do.
A few other things had to be replaced, and I spent a lot of money upgrading the cooling system.
The car is very comfortable to drive, has a very responsive and intelligent power steering system, and comfortable velour seats.
The supercharger was very sluggish (not sure if it was just cause it was on it's way out), but after the turbo was installed it became highly responsive and a little better with disel.
Fuel economy is VERY VERY good, last recorded on a 42 litre tank was 640 kilometers, which is twice as good as gas.
I'm a very tall person and I find that leg room all around is very good, the rear seats being almost as comfortable as the front!
All in all, if you want a family car that's very good on fuel and very comfortable and built stronger than an aussie family car, this is for you.
Just make sure you get one that has had all the above done to it, as these job are the most expensive, and once they are done you will have smooth sailing for a very long time.
These cars are imported and are subject to import problems:
- Hard to find parts
- Insurance
- Damage in transit (namely mechanical as these cars don't like to sit for months on end)
- Generally not user friendly.
Happy motoring all.
If I were you I'd get all my spare parts for this car shipped over from New Zealand. This is a very common model over there and a lot of parts dealers will courier stuff over. I've got the 626 2.2L petrol model here in Australia and even the petrol ones are fairly rare here (in wagon form). So anything I can't get from a wrecker here I bring back with me from NZ after visiting family there. The price of parts from there are a fraction of what they cost in Australia and there are a lot more of them. PS, is the most reliable car I've ever owned, even with 240,000 k's on it now.
I just bought a Mazda Cronos 1994 Pressure wave Supercharger, nice car to drive and full lux with ABS and climate control love the car, but I am having problems with exhaust leaking into the outlet of the supercharger making the car smoky basically to much carbon on the supercharger. Supercharger needs replacing, but there are no parts for them. So I like your idea of a turbo conversion my questions for you are;
* What kind of turbo did you use
* What kind of boost
* better performance or worse
* less smoke
* any major problems than bolting it one
* was it worth the effort
* do you have any picks
* are you in Melbourne are
Sorry about all the questions I love the except for the supercharger.
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