99 Mazda Capella Wagon. Ok or shite?

zoopa, Apr 1, 6:09am
Never owned a Mazda, but am looking at one of these. Do these generally have any known issues? Anything to look out for? Or are they a decent vehicle? TIA

intrade, Apr 1, 6:11am
shite no spare parts and its not even a 1 year wof item mazda are knowen to have 10 different parts on the same make model and year so forget about finding even secoundhand parts that would fit. its a nightmare better not to be had.

beno, Apr 1, 10:02am
its a fantastic car and cheep to buy. theyre really reliable and good on fuel. wont win any prizes for performance tho. service parts are cheap and the wreckers hold heaps of bits if you need other stuff. take a look on here there are many with high mileage. nuff said

franc123, Apr 1, 10:17am
No reason to not buy one, the big plus is they are cheap to buy as virtually everyone wants Atenzas these days and the old 626/Capella gets bypassed. This makes them harder to sell but if you are simply after a cheap runaround, who cares. They're pretty robust BUT as with all Mazdas check for evidence of good service of the cooling system and auto trans, dirty fluids or even worse, signs of overheating are a no no and are grounds to not buy that particular car, there are plenty of good ones at good prices so don't bother with neglected dogs as they WILL bite. They were also available much less commonly as a Ford Telstar which was used import only by that stage, that particular model series wasnt sold here new as a Ford

kazbanz, Apr 1, 7:21pm
They were a model that gave really good service with no major issues.
But the vehicle is now 16 years old.
So That particular vehicle may have been looked after its entire life or may have been totally thrashed.
Get a full independent PP inspection carried out.

intrade, Apr 1, 7:57pm
i got a capella outside waiting on parts from europe for a simple electronic parts, we can only get the denso part yes denso! because opel! use the same denso part. Or this capella had to go to the crusher as 4000$ was the mada price for a whole new unit with this electronic part on it.
Ah yea the part cost 99 euro his perants in germany will ship it over as they dont sell international.

joanie32, Apr 1, 8:00pm
awsome cars. I had a few that never gave any serious problems. Not sure about the parts saga, I got what I needed off the shelf or from pickapart no worries

intrade, Apr 1, 8:41pm
if you can do this then ok the problems seems from imports the telstars all seem to have the same parts , the naigbour had 4 sedans and they all had loads of differences from the cooling system components he could not get a thermoastat for it and the other 3 had different housings and hoses on the same engine and car.
i have found rear brake pads supplyed by owner of a 1998 capella station wagon rear disc brakes the suposed mazda pads did not fit so i had to get the right ones from my parts supply and the packet said subaru on it , this car outside same thing we had to match the pads the ones in the book did not fit. all parts seem to be what ever was cheap the week they built these mazdas at the time used for building them.
Also the phone just rung the part for the mazda is here 6 days sent as gift from germany by his mother for shipping. The fastest i have ever seen something get here. it was 12 days for the tensioner from mazda ordered in japan so we beat them as it was 2 days DHL to his mother so that be 8 days from germany

zoopa, Apr 1, 8:58pm
Thanks for every ones input.

ceebee2, Mar 31, 1:57pm
My daughter owned one for approx 4 years and I had the pleasure of regularly servicing it every 5000km. It was very reliable, not an overly powerful 2L. She notched up well over 100,000km in it herself. I must admit when I flushed the transmission when she first bought it with approx. 70,000km on it, the gear changes (Although smooth before) were even better. Average on fuel. Easy to get parts form Pickapart.

The only thing to really check well are all the water hoses tucked behind the thermostst housing and manifold as they are neglected and likey to fail first.