Used Mazda Mazda3 for Sale in Virginia Beach, VA

First of all, a Mazda 3 was not our first choice. We only considered it because Ford bought Mazda, and the prices were good. After a test drive, and a little haggling, we were on our way. The car itself handles good except on ice. For some reason it likes to play slip-n-slide even though all the weight is on the front end and it's front wheel drive. Keep a close eye on your antenna as well. Ours has been stolen five or six times. Ours came with a 6 CD changer, sun/moon roof. One thing you HAVE to do is change the oil regularly. See, it doesn't have a regular oil filter, but a cartridge that fits into a plastic housing. The next thing to remember is that once something goes wrong, there's a cascade effect. Ours started a short time after a leak in the valve cover gasket popped up. It appeared to be in two places, but you won't see that unless you check under the plastic engine cover - where the coil packs are located. We kept changing the oil, and putting more in as needed - it's not cheap to have the valve cover gasket replaced - mostly because of labor. Until the engine gave up the ghost after 7 years the car ran great. There was no indication the engine was about to die until a few days before the upper and lower camshafts went. Even then it still started with a loud banging. Still we got almost 160,000 miles (at over 1,000 miles per week in the final 6 years) out of it before we had any major problems. We replaced the engine, and it's still running.

I have a black Mazda 3 I purchased from a friend who was moving away and unable to finish his car payments. I'm a fan of the car. It has amazing gas mileage. I've taken it up and down the country to visit family and friends, going to concerts, 12-13-14 hour road trips. The trunk has an amazing amount of space for something so small. One of the downsides is the onboard media center can be a little finicky, which in the long run ends up being a very minor thing, something as simple as pulling over and resetting it usually fixes the problem. Other than that, it's a smooth ride with great control and great space. The tires seem maybe a little thin, but I was on the stock tires for another three years after the fact before they needed any replacing. Great dash system that tells you if your tires or low/need attending to, which has saved me on occasion. I recently ran over a nail and had no idea until the alert on my dash informed me that my tire was not in correct pressure.