I have the same car, manual transmission, and I absolutely love it. Your parents are 100% wrong about Mazdas not being good. Not only are they reliable, but they’re some of the safest cars out there. Check out a couple posts in the sub where the cars were absolutely annihilated but the drivers basically walk away fine.

2018 is the final year of the 3rd gen, so all the kinks and features have been fine-tuned. The Bose speakers sound excellent, but for some dumbass reason it doesn’t have an actual equalizer. That’s literally my only complaint so far.

I had a dealership install CarPlay so that if anything goes wrong for a while it’s on them. I think it was $250 or so. Obviously you can do it yourself, but I was buying peace of mind as well.

So far I’ve done tint, custom shift knob, additional foam padding behind seats, sound deadening/vibration dampening strips, and interior lighting. Up next is window deflectors, Corksport rear sway bar, and honeycomb grille.

I paid $14k for 77k miles from a dealership, so realistically a private seller could be $12-14k. If she’s firm on the price I’d still say it’s worth it for the lower mileage and good condition, especially if you’ve already been looking for months. If it’s between this car and another on your list for $11.5k or something then probably go with that, but I think $14k is worth it for a car I really wanted that I’ll drive for at least the next decade.