KyGeezer

I drove up to Lexington, KY on 1/12/09 and traded my Z28 for a very nice '04 TGM GT with 47,212 miles on it. It was a local one owner with a clean CarFax although Paradise Motorsports had bought it through an online dealer auction. It was one of three they had on their lot. They had been asking $12,550 on AutoTrader for a couple of months and the morning I walked in had just reduced the price on AutoTrader to $11,990. Of particular interest to me was the spare tire option the 8 had and the set of new General Exclaim UHP tires. I'd never heard of the tires before, but everybody on TireRack seems to like them.

On the 15th I went out to Champion Mazda to see if the car had been in for the various recalls. The service manager wasn't busy and she was soon looking through the history report on her computer screen. "Hmmm", she says. "This car has had two engines replaced." The first was on 5/10/04 at 20 miles!!! and the second was on 5/12/06 at 16,296 miles. (The description on the history report for the engine replacements is "ENGINE, SHORT M/T") There were 22 other items on the history report including two car rentals.

The service manager was kind enough to print the history report for me. It's an interesting document and well worth your time to see if you can get yours. It lists the options on the car, build date, previous owner and other items besides the warranty history.

I was one happy camper when I left Champion Mazda. My car with ~47K miles has an engine with ~31K miles on it!!!

I've since added a few things to the 8. The first was OEM front and rear splash guards...$90 inc. shipping from AZ Parts Express. The second was an OEM rear spoiler...$130 inc. shipping from the same place. (Hint: if you want to bargain on price you need to talk to "Junior" at the warehouse...480-463-3216. The eBay store is at http://stores.ebay.com/AZPARTSEXPRESS .)

The A/C and oil cooler screens will arrive in a week or two. I'm not looking forward to that installation, but after finding a number of squished fins on the oil coolers, I think it's a worthwhile addition. I searched the forum, but I didn't find any mention of the Stiletto screens I ordered...$89.99 plus $7 for black powder coating plus $7 shipping. ( http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mazda...mZ370173987230 )

One of the first things I did was to take the wheels off and sand and paint the ugly rusty brake rotors flat black. While I was at it I painted the calipers gloss black. Another problem was getting the suction cups on my Sensoro Traveler radar detector to stay attached to the windshield above the rear view mirror. The solution to that problem was to remove the suction cups and Velcro the support to the windshield. One of these days I'll get another power cable and get into the power supplying the map lights so I don't have to use the pair of rechargeable AA batteries in the detector. While it wasn't a problem, I didn't like the big goofy support for my new GPS stuck to the windshield. The GPS is now Velcoed to a sheet metal support I made and the support is Velcroed to the dash just above the clock readout. The GPS is now closer and less affected by bright sunlight.

I've enjoyed lurking on this forum for quite awhile. It's an amazing source of information and fun. My hat is off to the moderators and posters!

sobamaflyer

Being the first pre-owned car I've had in a while I too asked for the report from my Mazda dealer (who I purchased it from). Thankfully she's only had a new alternator and the TSB's performed in the past.

Those brake high-hats are on my list of things to do as well, a bit ooogly at this point and need to be less detracting.

Congrats on the new toy

Transam kid 01

iTrader: (1)

what year z?

KyGeezer

'93 with 107.7K miles

RxMadness

iTrader: (2)

How do I get one of these? I didn't purchase my 8 from a Mazda dealer, but when I went in to them for a "new/used car inspection" I was told that there were no outstanding recalls on it. Can I go back and just request a "warranty history report" to see what all had been done to it?

sobamaflyer

Yep, just be nice to the service person at any Mazda dealer and they should print it out for you, looked to take her about 30 seconds.

KyGeezer

Finally got around to connecting the radar detector to the rear view mirror wiring near the plug on the mirror this afternoon.