Mazda Verisa

Thread bump.I might be getting one these very soon :)

The Versia is a Demio with a slightly different body,same engine and gearbox(come in 1300 and 1500) etc.Just looks bigger but its not.

I think you need to drive some more vehicles. For what they typically want for those you can get a LOT more car.

Don't get me wrong they are not terrible but are just not good value for money. I am pretty sure they have all got that horrible 4 stage auto in them (unless manual of course). Economy/Power is not terrible but far from great. that pretty much describes the car overall actually. In fairness I am basing my opinon on the Demio (same platform) not the verisa which I have not driven. That said. its a fair call to base and opinion of a Golf on an A3 and its much the same deal here.

If you could pick them up for around 6K they would be a good little car for the money but they are usually twice that and just don't deliver enough for what you pay.

Compare it to a MK5 Golf for the same money and you should quickly begin to see what I mean. The Golf of the age/price can hold its own against even most brand new cars. Whereas the Mazda is built to a budget transport thats 5-10 years behind in technology.

But hey. if you like it, its your money go for it. but you asked for an opinion and thats mine.

BTW, not just knocking the Mazda for the sake of it, its just that "last of the old" technology stuff is showing its age. The new Mazda/Ford stuff seems to have caught right up and is even leading the way with some of their technology.

This thread is 9 months old now, I think they may have had their baby (o:

Good point :)
I like my Demio (and Mazdas in general) I just wanted something with a little bigger engine, so am looking at the Verisa. This is a 2006 I'm looking at, btw, so it's not too old.
Speaking of VW, I bought a 2001 Golf in 2008 for around $10k. Eighteen months after I got it, the car's computer died - $4500 to replace it. No thanks.lesson learned after that experience.

and visa versa

The edge-- I sell verissa's and demio's
The drivetrain is identical to the demio as is the chasis. The differences are "kinda" only cosmetic.
Without exception everyone that drives a verissa back to back with a demio coments that the verissa feels more "solid" or "robust"
In my opinion the verissa feels more roomy for the front seat passengers. with little difference to the back seat passengers.
Yep you can fit a kiwi radio and incidently if its got one of those silly satnav "lumps" on top of the dash you can either use it to fit your satnav or for about $150 you can fit the factory cover.
One negative with the verissa is that there is a 100-150mm lip for the back hatch. this means unlike the demio its harder to get big "stuff" into the back of the vehicle.
Noone case come back t me with mechanical issues with a versiisa

Thanks for that info, very interesting. I have a Verisa on hold for me, will take a close look at it when it gets here. If I get one it will be nice to have a real radio in it :)

Remember some people *LIKE* their old high-mileage cars to contain simple old proven technology, rather than all the latest newfangled wet dreams of a computer programmer.!

Never seen let alone driven one.

LOL at how the vendor talks it up. It is a neat little car, but all it is, is something in between a Yaris/Micra and a Corolla/Tiida.

It won't be a fast car! I would imagine you would need to keep the revs well up if you wanted to make any sort of rapid progress. (Most 1800cc and even 2 litre cars have no bottom end torque in this VVTi age, so this thing certainly won't.)

Small Mazdas of the 1980s and 90s were pretty good little cars as long as you didn't crash into anything.

if it's a Mazda it's probably ok. they just seem to go & go(zoomzoomzoom) & as long as it's got a service history it should go for a long time after you buy it.
if it's what you want buy it.

I'm toying with getting one too, once my Demio is paid off.
Partly for the slightly bigger engine, but mostly because I want to fit my own custom radio - I listen to the radio a LOT in the car, and with (most of) the Demios you simply can't change the radio from the factory one. Major downside to the Demio with me.
The Verisa does *look* a little roomier than the Demio - are they in real life!