1.9L v 2.0L Common problems

[Russ59]

I've never been a huge Mazda fan but at the same time they have been around a while so apart from their faults and failures, as all brands have, they must have been doing something right. I still feel that the VW your friend bought and had so much trouble with, was an exception, as the majority of VW's are usually pretty reliable and with minimal issues. Of course all brands have lemons, and I'm sure that at some stage in our lives we will all experience one and if and when it happens all you can do is try to have the problems fixed or get rid of it and move on. I'm sure that if you did a Google search using any brand of car and the word lemon in the same sentence you would end up with thousands of responses

I have been through the same ordeal as your friend on several occasions and I can tell you that neither Ford, Subaru or Hyundai are any better at resolving issues on cars. Ford and Subaru consider most issues as normal vehicle functions and Hyundai remind you (as I recently experienced) that as you have a 5 year warranty there's plenty of time to resolve the issues, all you have to do is keep taking the car back to them so they can mess around with it until the warranty runs out and then once that happens it's your problem not theirs. I've been there and I can tell you most dealers are the same but there are exceptions if you're lucky enough to find one that knows and cares about what their doing.

[Buller_Scott]

Of course all brands have lemons, and I'm sure that at some stage in our lives we will all experience one and if and when it happens all you can do is try to have the problems fixed .......

I can tell you that neither Ford, Subaru or Hyundai are any better at resolving issues on cars.

ooh ooh, by the way- that reminded me- my ex-next door neighbor had a previous-model subaru forester gt that was the beez knees.......

he got it because is standard-spec forester burst into flames on the highway one day, and it burned so bad that the compliance plate (or whatever that little info plate is) was illegible. subaru shat their pants and gave him top-spec gt forester as compensation.
so yeah. every car company has the odd lemon.

[Transporter]

ooh ooh, by the way- that reminded me- my ex-next door neighbor had a previous-model subaru forester gt that was the beez knees.......

he got it because is standard-spec forester burst into flames on the highway one day, and it burned so bad that the compliance plate (or whatever that little info plate is) was illegible. subaru shat their pants and gave him top-spec gt forester as compensation.
so yeah. every car company has the odd lemon.

Generally Subaru has a reputation as very reliable car, compared to like Toyota and Honda.
Forester is reliable and safe but ugly. Scored the best in NRMA used cars safety.
For many people inc. me the reliability is only one of the factors in decision making when choosing a car.

Yeah, every brand has a lemon. Cars made around a Christmas time and also made in July and August, I rather void unless they are fully made by robots without the human touching them.

[Russ59]

Generally Subaru has a reputation as very reliable car, compared to like Toyota and Honda.
Forester is reliable and safe but ugly. Scored the best in NRMA used cars safety.
For many people inc. me the reliability is only one of the factors in decision making when choosing a car.

Yeah, every brand has a lemon. Cars made around a Christmas time and also made in July and August, I rather void unless they are fully made by robots without the human touching them.

I had an '06 Forester n/a, I had it back to Subaru on 4 separate occasions for the same issue ( a 2 - 3 seconds die in the arse flat spot on take off ) on the 4th visit the head mechanic came out and drove the vehicle, he went to take off out of the dealership driveway and the car just sat there and wouldn't move 2 -3 seconds later off we went. The response from him, "it's normal" needless to say I traded the car shortly after that before it ended up killing me or someone else in the family. I did a lot of reading up on a Subaru forum about it as well and several people had also had a similar issue which they claim was fixed with an ECU reflash, trouble is they would be back on the forum within a week saying the problem had returned. I emailed Subaru Australia and they couldn't give a s**t, take it back to the dealer was their response, I bought it secondhand from a dealer and now I know why the previous owner p**sed it off Anyway that was in the past, now I have the GT TDI and so far I couldn't be happier.

[Greg Roles]

At least a diesel is hardly going to burst into flames. A slow and smokey burn mabey....

You name me any machine with a 100% reliability record. Given all the technology and mass production these days, I'm actually amazed just how many car's DON'T break down, despite their blissfully unaware owners best attempts to kill them.

[Transporter]

I had an '06 Forester n/a, I had it back to Subaru on 4 separate occasions for the same issue ( a 2 - 3 seconds die in the arse flat spot on take off ) on the 4th visit the head mechanic came out and drove the vehicle, he went to take off out of the dealership driveway and the car just sat there and wouldn't move 2 -3 seconds later off we went. The response from him, "it's normal" needless to say I traded the car shortly after that before it ended up killing me or someone else in the family. I did a lot of reading up on a Subaru forum about it as well and several people had also had a similar issue which they claim was fixed with an ECU reflash, trouble is they would be back on the forum within a week saying the problem had returned. I emailed Subaru Australia and they couldn't give a s**t, take it back to the dealer was their response, I bought it secondhand from a dealer and now I know why the previous owner p**sed it off Anyway that was in the past, now I have the GT TDI and so far I couldn't be happier.

Are you talking about delay when you shift it in the first gear when you start driving? Some car brands have much bigger issues than that, believe me.
People generally complain on the forums when they have a problem, there are many people who drive the car and don't use car forums.
I agree with you when you're not happy with particular brand - try something else.

[Russ59]

Are you talking about delay when you shift it in the first gear when you start driving? Some car brands have much bigger issues than that, believe me.
People generally complain on the forums when they have a problem, there are many people who drive the car and don't use car forums.
I agree with you when you're not happy with particular brand - try something else.

I'm talking about a dangerous flat spot, nothing to do with a delay in shifting into gear (it was a manual not an auto) The problem with this was when you went to take off and you pressed your foot on the accelerator (quickly or normally) the car would just sit there pedal to the metal for 2 - 3 seconds and simply nothing would happen, the engine wouldn't even rev then all of a sudden off it would go and generally spinning wheels in the process. It did this to me on several occasions when trying to negotiate pulling out into traffic and as you can imagine it was a recipe for a disaster waiting to happen. Subaru didn't recognise it as being a problem, but I bet if they had to experience it themselves it would have been a different story

[Transporter]

I'm talking about a dangerous flat spot, nothing to do with a delay in shifting into gear (it was a manual not an auto) The problem with this was when you went to take off and you pressed your foot on the accelerator (quickly or normally) the car would just sit there pedal to the metal for 2 - 3 seconds and simply nothing would happen, the engine wouldn't even rev then all of a sudden off it would go and generally spinning wheels in the process. It did this to me on several occasions when trying to negotiate pulling out into traffic and as you can imagine it was a recipe for a disaster waiting to happen. Subaru didn't recognise it as being a problem, but I bet if they had to experience it themselves it would have been a different story

I had a similar experience with the Chrysler dealer when we had the Jeep Cherokee Diesel. Nothing was the problem to them, every ting was normal, we had it for 3 years, than traded in on the Touareg the day when the warranty run out - I feel sorry for the pore soul who bought that Jeep. I’m sure that nobody from our family will ever buy the Chrysler or any other US made car.
So, I know what are you talking about.
I'm sure you didn't expect it (trouble like that) from Subaru - I wouldn't have.

[jacob_1987]

sorry not sure about this but
the 1.9tdi is dieselpumkeee german word
and 2.0 tdi is common rail.

Correct?

[Russ59]

sorry not sure about this but
the 1.9tdi is dieselpumkeee german word
and 2.0 tdi is common rail.

Correct?

I gather you are meaning Pump Duse or PD which is the system used on all 1.9 TDI's and 2.0 TDI's up to and including the MK V's. The new MK VI is now common rail CR.

[neil]

Its amazing what a mazda diesel can do.
Turned this thread into an interesting read.

[Buller_Scott]

dont get me wrong, the mazda 3 is a pretty nice car (my aunt has one) and the new ones look fantastic, i reckon (as well as mazda 2 and 6), but would anyone here actually BUY a mazda diesel?

not meaning "hmmm i'd certainly go out of my way for a test drive", but would anyone actually consider dropping the 30K or whatever to own one?

i wouldnt. im sure there must be tens of thousands of loyal mazda diesel followers in forums all over the world, but i cant see myself searching for those forums.....

[seno_123]

I've had a look at the mazda 3 prior to buying the golf and the styling of the golf is in a completely different league. The mazda just looks cheap inside. From the seats to the plastic. And I can imagine the re-sale value. Although they may hold their price better than a holden, they still don't stack up to a VW. I'm super happy with the Tdi golf and already considering my upgrade in a few years time to a jetta It's a little beast, just takes some getting used to.