Hi Scotty and friends my first question is how good are Mazda’s ? A friend of mine wants to buy his wife this 2016 Mazda 6 with a 6 speed for $10000 with 35,000 miles He also had 98 Protege with a 5 speed that he loved. According to consumer reports reliability rank this year Mazda got first place higher than Toyota at 2nd place.
Second part question his wife has a 2007 Chrysler Town and Country with about 140,000 miles with a blown head gasket that even his mechanic said he would not even fix because 1. It’s not worth doing on a Chrysler that old with that mileage. 2. Something else will break eventually and 3. The cost of repair will be more than what the van is worth. Getting to my next question my friend has his own maintenance business he works for himself. He has a very old Ford rust bucket van that he says things fall off as he’s driving it. He wants to fix the Chrysler van himself so he can use that for work since he can’t afford another vehicle because he just bought a car for his wife. Right now he’s driving his mother’s 25 year old Corolla that’s in very good condition with very low mileage but he can’t keep using it for work plus he wants to give it to his son who’s getting his license Overall is this a good idea? What should really be done here in this situation? Thoughts? Thanks!
Next time, please make separate posts for each question, and be more specific in the title.
I’m sorry I didn’t realize it was such a big deal. I tried to make it as specific as possible for people to understand and the title was not just about the Mazda it was also about the van also that’s why I said 2 part question. So if I have a 2 part question next time and If I really have to write 2 separate posts then Fine but I don’t see I did anything wrong and I personally don’t think I needed any corrections
The Mazda, its an alright car and if a mechanic says its been maintained then haggle and it could be a good car.
For the Chrysler, I don't think its worth anything. Any money he puts into it will go into the pit of endless money that you will never get back. I think its time to start looking for a new vehicle...
He is very optimistic about fixing it to a point just to get it running. Now if it were me on a $10k budget I would of took the price of that Mazda he just got for his wife for $10k divide that by 2 and buy a Toyota for $5k for the wife or Mazda if she wanted and got a Sienna or better conditioned Ford van for $5k for me to use for work. That’s what he should of done in my opinion but I don’t know his wife either.
That sounds like a smart idea but hey all we can do is give advice, its up to him if he wants to sink money into lets be honest a van that is on borrowed time if he manages to get it running.
$5k can get a nice Sienna like you said, and the other $5k could get a 2010or so Corolla/Camry or if they wanted a Mazda 6 (which I wouldn't recommend for that year but thats another story).
First part; Scotty doesn't like CR, and I don't trust anything CR puts out either. Depending on how much $$ they get and from who are the ones that they rate favorably. Have the Mazda 6 checked out and if a mechanic checks it out and says its ok, then yeah not a bad price. Similar cars in my area are going for more than that....But what it has going for it is it's a manual transmission.
2nd part....eh, I still like working on cars, but I wouldn't want to touch the T&C with a 10 foot pole.
He really wants to fix the head gasket in the Chrysler van because it’s safer and newer the body is in much better condition with no rust oppose to his Ford van although it runs and drives ok the body is so badly rusted parts are falling off he’s afraid to drive it because he doesn’t wanna be on the side of the road. He’s currently driving his mother’s old 90’s Corolla because she can’t drive anymore anyway but he needs something much bigger than a little Corolla for his type of work and tight on money
Well...if he knows what he's doing mechanically and has all the tools to tackle the head gasket job, what the heck... The T&C is already screwed up, what's he got to loose?
I wouldn’t fix the engine on the Chrysler because I can guarantee you not long after the transmission will go. My sister owned 4, and every one between 125-140k lost the transmission. And she replaced them everytime. Her last one she replaced the engine at 120k, 6 months later then trans went. And finally she had a light bulb moment and hasn’t bought a Chrysler product since. They’re junk. Tell your friend work vans are a dime a dozen out there and can be bought cheap. Older chevy astros/ gmc safaris can be picked up cheap and that 4.3 V6 when taken care of can last a long time. Ford econoline vans aren’t bad either.
Your first question: The Mazda6 is a pretty good sedan with the 2.5L NA engine and 6-speed manual, and worth buying. I can’t comment on what price your friend should pay as that is not my forte. That being said, while Mazda’s overall reliability has come up it’s not on the level of Toyota’s reliability, and here I am talking more about long term reliability much greater than 150,000 miles. That Consumer Reports survey should be taken with a grain of salt and that ranking was more short term. Either way, the Mazda6 is still a good sedan and as long as you are on top of the maintenance and because it was well designed it should last a while.
CR rates some of the German cars high and ‘recommends’ them, but we all know long term they are endless money pits. Those are better to lease, but CR doesn’t say that. Someone that knows nothing about cars and buys their next car solely on CR’s recommendations and rankings is potentially asking for trouble.
The Mazda 6 is an excellent choice so go ahead and buy it. Don't bother fixing the Town and Country as they are biodegradable. He should just buy his mom's Corolla instead.
He was actually given his moms Corolla and He’s just going to drive that for the time being until he can get another van. He might just scrap both those vans .
He should just keep driving the Corolla if it was given to him.
Mazda 6 is a good car and the newer ones are better made than they used to be even though they were all made in Japan, but I would stick with 2014 models and up since it doesn't have any of the problems that the older ones had. Also, don't put any money into that Town And country, they were piles of junk with no resale value.
He already bought the Mazda his wife loves it and he doesn’t know what he’s doing with the van he may just scrap it and his other van and drive the Corolla for a little while until he can get another van as he just bought his wife that Mazda