2002 Mazda Millenia Type S review from North America

I bought the car when it had 28000 miles. It was in a very good condition which is why I bought it. I now have 45000 miles after driving the car for about an year and half.

Unlike what Mazda claims (its their flagship luxury model) during its year and the car competed with the likes of Lexus, that's a bunch of BS. I bought this car after researching for 6 months on various cars, but now I regret it..

I didn't have any major mechanical/electronical problems with the car coz' of the low miles, but here are somethings that I don't like about the car.

1. I hear some rattling noise from within the compartment while driving.

2. The transmission doesn't shift real smooth which might mean some major transmission issues in the future.

3. It takes a while to shift from 2nd gear to the 3rd if the engine is not sufficiently warm.

4.My driver side weather strip have big gaping holes already. The quote to replace it was 200 + labour.

5. Trunk lid makes lot of squeaking noise.

6. The leather is not very supple..Its kinda on the rough side.

Update(12/28/08)

Heres my update again guys

I now have close to 66000 miles. The stock brakes are still good. Les Schwab said, I might have to have a brake job done in another 5 to 10k miles. I got the 60,000 mile service done few months ago. It was very expensive (about 1200$) for timing belt + fuel injection cleaning and other minor things) The parts were only about 320$ and the rest all is labour cost. I still have the transmission problem where the engine hesitates to shift from 1 to 2 and 2 to 3 if the system is not warm enough. The dealer couldn't find why thats happening. The paint overall is still holding up though I have some minor chips may be coz' of my excessive freeway driving.

In a nutshell, for the past 36000 miles, no major mechanical or any other problems. So pretty satisfied.

Overall it's an OK car.. you don't have to go out of your way to buy this one like I did. If you are getting a really good deal then go for it or else try to buy an Acura or older Lexus.. they are nicer than this one.

The Mazda dealership sucked big time. When I wanted to get my 30,000 miles servicing done, the dealer would not give me a loner car. They asked me to go for a rental car. Also the dealer servicing was not all that great and they are very pricey.