1993 Mazda 626 Estate from Australia and New Zealand - Comments

Clutch overhauled at 210,000 k's when release bearing collapsed.

Electric aerial stopped working (fortunately while it was "out").

Have no intention of getting it fixed for a while.

Cassette didn't work, replaced with CD player along with speakers.

Hinge on glove box broken, still opens & shuts OK.

I think an engine mount may be loose or worn because while accelerating it shudders slightly at 35 kph which then stops as speed increases, more noticeable when going up hills. I might get it looked at one day.

Apart from the above, nothing else.

I bought this car when we were meant to be going to war with Iraq in 2003 and I was scared petrol prices would rise, or else I probably would have bought a 6 cylinder. I'm glad I didn't. I needed a well priced and reliable car and I knew a Mazda 626 would be just the thing as my parents have one in NZ (1988 NZ built with 2.0L carby engine, also a wagon, but auto) which has proven itself to be bullet-proof over 270,000k's. Although it's slower & noisier than mine which is built in Japan. They were the most popular reps car in NZ, but in Australia they were aimed only at the private car market which prefers mainly Fords & Holdens for company vehicles, which they do very well size-wise.

Mine had to be a wagon, manual, with air-con. Not white as they rust quicker. Found a dark stormy grey metallic one. Looks great with tinted windows. No rust and no sign of any coming up.

I was (and still am) fed-up to the back teeth with the build quality & design of most locally built/designed cars in Australia. Good for leasing, but not for owning. So I looked to Japan.

The Mazda had 193,000 k's when I bought it, but so far has proven to be the best second-hand car I have ever owned.

It does not leak any fluids, uses only minimal oil and can take 2500k trips with ease. The 2.2i engine with manual transmission performs very well on the open road and around town considering it's roots stem back to 1987. Previous owner put a low-restriction exhaust system on it so it sounds quite throaty, but not too much. Hasn't shown any sign of being thrashed by the previous owner. Engine starts first time and doesn't rattle or knock.

It's not the biggest wagon around town, but it's much easier to park than the local offerings.

I can see it lasting at least another 200,000 k's so I'm going to keep it till it falls apart. Which won't happen for a while. Thanks Japan.

Good reliable car.

Well, the car has now done 241,000 k's and since writing the review it has had 2 engine mounts replaced (the top one I was able to do myself, must be common issue as the one I took out wasn't original), 4 new springs and shocks, 2 new oil seals and an air-flow meter. The air-flow meter was highly suspicious as it went bad while the car was having the shocks and springs done which tells me the suspension guys did something to it. The mechanic who did the work commented to me before that he had the same model. I reckon he did a shifty and swapped his bad meter with my good one as I don't understand how a part of the engine can stop working while the suspension is being fixed, and it's a sealed up unit. It made the car run like an old car with the choke out too far and it took a Mazda mechanic to diagnose it. Still, I have no proof that the suspension guy did anything to it (although I did rip off the advertising sticker he stuck on my rear screen). Luckily I was able to install a second-hand meter myself for $125.

It still has the slight shimmy while accelerating but has never gotten any worse and if anything has reduced for some reason. I think it may be a worn CV joint but it doesn't clack-clack-clack when cornering so I'm not touching them til they do.

The air-con is not cooling very well so will look at getting a reconditioned compressor installed as we get some pretty hot summers in Brisbane Australia.

The tappets have developed a chatter when starting (common Mazda fault) but is almost eliminated with a thicker grade of oil. This also helps reduce oil consumption.

All in all, I am still very happy with this car, but I have developed a mis-trust of mechanics so I now do the basic servicing myself and leave the safety related stuff like brakes (which haven't needed any work yet) to the mechanic.

Well, this will be the last comment for this car. I decided today to retire it after 4.5 years as I've just thrown $400 at it to fix a problem it has with missing/jerking on acceleration and erratic idle, to no avail. Twice Mazda have told me they've fixed it and twice I've driven it away to discover it's still not running right. It now has 260,000km and today I traded it on a brand new Ford Focus TDCi, got next to nothing for it, which I expected. Other things were starting to go bad, like a burst radiator hose that I was very fortunate to notice before I cooked the engine. Hole in the muffler and oil leaking from rocker cover are all small things, but need to be fixed and stuff like this tends to snowball.

All in all it has been a very reliable car, but all cars get to a point where they start costing more money than they're worth. I was going to get a new car anyway in November and was going to try to sell the 626 privately, but after the latest idling/jerking problem I decided that it was going to be too expensive and stressful getting a road-worthy certificate for it (which I need in order to sell it registered) and nobody would buy it unregistered unless I was almost giving it away, which I did to Ford anyway. So as I had the money I decided to get rid of it now (well, next Wednesday). Spending any more money on it is just throwing good money after bad.

So long old friend, I'll miss you. Whoever ends up buying you will get a good solid car with a lot of life left, after they've fixed you up.

PS, my parents still have their 1988 model, still going strong. Lucky for them theirs isn't fuel injected.