Hello, I am talking on behalf of my brother in law. He wants to buy a 2014 Mazda 6 with a stick shift. We wanted to know if they are pretty reliable cars as long as maintenance are properly done on them. Thanks!!
Yes it can be a very good vehicle. Please have a trusted mechanic inspect it first.
Perfect. Thanks for the heads up. I have a scan tool and the dealer also showed us the carfax. My scanner can check for all modules and live data and so fort. Thanks again
2014 is the first year of that generation (usually best to avoid 1st years of a generation) and the automatic transmissions had issues but he is looking at a manual transmission so it bypasses that. There were also some electrical issues reported. If he can get a 2015-2017 model year those seem to be better years especially 2017 as more of the bugs were ironed out. For 2018 model year the naturally aspirated 2.5L Skyactiv-G engine came with cylinder deactivation, so I would stop at 2017 model year. Overall, the engine itself (2.5L naturally aspirated Skyactiv-G engine) has been pretty good so far. I am not sure how many years and additional miles he plans to put on the vehicle, but as long as he does all the maintenance and stays on top of all the engine oil changes then it should last to at least 150,000 miles. Jury is out on long term reliability beyond that, so if he intended to keep the vehicle to 200/250/300,000 miles - it’s hard to say if it would make it (a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord would be a better bet in that case), but one can certainly do worse. See below for heads up on what previous owners have encountered:
https://www.carcomplaints.com/Mazda/MAZDA6/
https://www.carcomplaints.com/Mazda/MAZDA6/2014/
https://www.carcomplaints.com/Mazda/MAZDA6/2014/tsbs/
https://repairpal.com/2014-mazda-6/problems
Thanks for that. The dealer only has that and they are discounting him 3.5K of the price since they haven't sold any cars for a couple of days due to the shortage and the pandemic. He intends to keep the car long term but he drives conservatively and it will travel mostly highway for work. We were looking at other choices and there was a 2013 chevy sonic (we know GM so that's a no) and a 2019 Mirage G4 manual tranny with 12k (around similar price as the discounted Mazda6) so I told him if he is gonna make around the same payments might as well get the Mazda since it will outlast both in the long term. Manual tranny saves him from a lot of the issues that the automatics have so I am confident he can squeeze it to 200K perfectly fine!