1996 Mazda 626 DX review from North America

Burning some oil during start up in very cold weather (-10 to 20 F) past 100000mi.

Control Arm bushings worn and cause wander of the car 100000mi.

Noise from some plastics in the dashboard and glove box when weather is cold. 100000mi.

Clutch went out 110000mi.

Valve stem seals 115000mi.

I bought this car to be my warrior during my university life. Picked it up at a local dealer. Fortunately it was manual tranny.. Changed fluids, filters, sparkplugs, distributor rotor, brake pads rear brake pistons and the car ran good for about 2k miles. After that clutch needed to be replaced, replaced it my self for $100 with the entire Exeedy clutch kit. Not too hard if you have a reapir-manual handy, took about two days.

Then the oil burning problem was getting worse, thanks to some advice I realized it was not oil being burned through the piston rings, but because faulty oil seal at the valve stems. So decided to replace timing belt, head gasket, and most engine gaskets and o-rings and valve stem seals. Did it myself purchasing a rebuilt head and a gasket-timing kit, total $400. One of the valves had too much carbon deposit so that is why I bought the entire head. Note that in the FS engine, the sleeves are made of very hard alloy and in my engine the honing marks were still visible, proof of good quality I guess.

After this repairs the car has been great, the power was completely restored and no more oil burning. The engine starts right up in cold or hot weather. Everything works fine and is a completely reliable car. The problem now was a little wandering of the car past 60 mph (I am picky about handling) so decided to change both control arms ($140) which include bushings and ball joints. After that the car is perfect. Considering I only paid 2300 for the car itself, some $800 is very reasonable for reconditioning. I plan to drive this car till it dies, probably it is going to be long time, I've seen these engines gone up to 250000mi. I've made trips kansas-louisiana and back several times, and have done lots of travel. The car is compeltely reliable and hasn't failied me once, all repairs I did were preventive. And after that I am sure the engine can be rebuilt and work very good again. There is no rust anywhere, and all trims and upholstery hold up very well, the only complaint is that the cloth in the doors gets too dirty too quickly. Now I am planning on buying a Mazda 6 s (manual of course), but keeping my 626 for the daily driving. On top of that the 626 handles very well and feels like a smaller car, it is predictable and fun to drive. Also after all repairs I get about 30 mpg on highway and about 23mpg city

I can recommend this car with either the V6 or L4 engine, but with manual transmission. I wouldn't recommend to anybody the same car with auto tranny. So please walk away when somebody tries to sell you one. But hey, those cars are great and cheap for parts anyway.. so there is a good side to it.

Also if you plan on modifyfing springs or anything else in the suspension make sure you get something that is good quality and "stock-replacement". I put coilovers in my car and even though the handling is go-kart-like it is just too rigid for daily driving. There are poly-U bushings out there, but they are hard to replace on the existing base and not cheap, so probably the best option is to buy the entire new control arms.