Instapundit Glenn Reynolds writes some positive words about Mazda. I believe they reflect his experience with the marque.
My one brush with Mazda was the purchase of a Ford Probe. If you unscrewed a small Ford nameplate on the rocker cover, underneath it said “Mazda” as the drivetrain was of that brand.
I have owned 2 other Ford cars and 3 Ford trucks and the only lemon-ish experience I had with any was the Mazda-based first generation Probe. It was plagued with problems large (transmission) and small (power window failure). If these were Ford’s fault, they were an aberration in my history with the blue oval. Thus I’m inclined to blame Mazda.
I will admit when the Probe was operating properly, it was a very pleasant little car to drive, fast and smooth. I recollect one day I drove it solo 500 miles down the length of CA and enjoyed the ride.
What is Mazda’s problem? Reynolds opines:
The Mazda 3 2.5 Turbo offers a hell of a lot of car for the money.
In my opinion, Mazda tries harder to offer extra “goodies” at a price point than they do to make sure what they offer works reliably. This is something we also encountered on a Montana RV back in the early 2000s.
It turns out unreliable goodies aren’t truly good. Both Montana and Probe were traded in early as their underlying unreliability became manifest.
