The plastic covers which are located on the front-floor area were broken after 12,000 km!
The steering wheel is very heavy, and the mirrors are too small!
The seats are uncomfortable.
A Mazda is 10 times more reliable than Volkswagen.
What do you mean 10, they're 1000 times more reliable than VW. Learned that from my experience with a VW Polo, Nissan Almera and a Mazda 323 1.5 (290.000 km)!!
How can you compare a Volkswagen with a Mazda? There's a big diffirence between these car builders. The motor of a Mazda for example: the 1.6 has a higher performance than a 1.6 from Volkswagen. The seats of a Volkswagen are a bit stiff, the seats of a Mazda feel good when you have to drive long distances.
And a lot of more.....
I totally agree with all the comments!!
My experiences with VW polo 1.4:
8000km - rear brakes.
12000km - plastic console (around the radio) fell out from its holders.
60000km - new clutch (could not believe it, because the car was mainly driven on highways).
85000km - new front discs.
100000km - while driving on the highway the transmission oil ran out!
Many, many lights inside have burnt out.
The suspension at 110000km was totally soft.
A lot of strange noises inside (plastic)...
And it is not just that I have had bad luck, a lot of my friends have had similar problems with VW cars (Polo, Golf).
Now I drive a Nissan Almera (50000km, 2 years old) and this car works great - not a single thing has gone wrong.
I would ask the guy (or girl?) who wrote that he owned a Polo, Nissan Almera and now has Mazda 323, how the Nissan Almera worked for him!
It's clear to me why this bad opinion is merely a rare exception.
I have second Mazda 323 1.5 since 1994, and there's been not a single problem with both the cars!
And all the time I had to look at my less lucky friends with their VWs, Opels/Vauxhalls, Fiats and Fords, how often they had to visit their dealers for warranty repairs.. not talking about the later problems...
All the above and also, Mazda won the most reliable car in Europe award in 1998 (I think or it may have been 1997), oh yes, they did beat VW (which to say the least totally surprised them because their slogan at the time was 'if only everything in life was as reliable as a Volks Wagen').
I had a new shape 626 at the time and the auto gearbox failed, just as it was outside of warranty. Those good chaps at Mazda were really annoyed that one of their parts failed and agreed, at their cost in full, to replace it with a brand new one. I have no complaints at all, they gave me a car whilst mine was in the garage. It was even valeted upon my collection. My dad had a merc at the time, not even he got as good treatment.
Mazda gets my full vote.
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