The used car hunt has finally ended ... and this is the resulting find. It's a 2010 Mazda3 with the 2.5L 4-cylinder (port fuel injected, not DGI like the Skyactiv) and 5-speed automatic. I drove a 2012 with the 2.0L Skyactiv and 6-speed auto and I didn't like it, and the 6-speed auto acted more like a CVT than a conventional automatic. Not sure if that's how they are, or if something was going wrong with it. Bottom line, didn't like it. The 5-speed auto in the 2010 is much better feeling while driving ... shifts very positively like a good conventional auto should. Plus the 2.5L seemed more powerful and sounded good with the dual exhaust.
This car is actually for my GF, but I'm the car guru and told her I'll find you a good car. So we tried to find the most reliable car with lowest possible miles in the best possible shape, and within her budget. Not to mention that only a few colors she liked and some other criteria in the mix - like a local non-salt car, clean title, no accidents etc that we used the Carfax for, which this car satisfied. When you put all those factors on top of each makes it a virtual needle in a gigantic haystack adventure. This was a well taken care of car, and a trade-in at the Chevy dealer and not an "auction" or dealer "wholesale" car like ones that show up on no name used car lots. Sales guy who we worked with said it almost sold that afternoon, but the guy couldn't get financing.
This one fit all the criteria by some miracle and we popped into the Chevy dealership that had it 20 minutes before they were to close at 7 pm. I looked it over pretty good and we took it for a test drive, then hammered out a deal in about 30 minutes that was fair to us and the dealership after seeing prices for others in this condition. This car was a 1-onwer and has 73K miles. Graphite gray metallic with black cloth interior which was like new. Always in the PNW and has zero rust anywhere. I looked down the oil fill cap on the engine and it was clean as a new engine. Has new tires and brakes are at least 50-60% left. Came with both keys, the owner's manual, all the factory floor mats and all the spare tire, jack and other tools were all intact like it was brand new. You wouldn't believe how many cars we looked at the were missing lots of that stuff, and only had one key and no owner's manual. The wheels don't even have any curb rash on them ... all other cars we looked at had at least a couple of curb rashed wheels. I wouldn't mind owning this car myself ... I liked it after a 15 minute test drive.
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