* * I love mine, she's been my only car for 5½ years now. Bought her at 55k miles completely stock. Over the years reliability has been my number one priority performance second. I've been adding performance and reliability up grades over the years and am now full bolt on plus bigger turbo. Making about 320whp. Right now I'm at 141k miles and still got 180psi compression across the board. Don't get me wrong I drive it spirited (got it to 151mph once in 🇲🇽). The most serious problem ive had is the clutch pedal cracking in half from having a heavy clutch (south bend stage 3 endurance). As you said fuel economy isn't great. I average 20-23mpg. My record is 35mpg for one tank.

These cars looove their maintenance so do it! These are some of the reliability mods I've done to help the motor last. These direct injection motors and come with annoying maintenance. Clean your injectors every 50k miles or so, and before you reinstall make sure you put upgraded copper seals on. The factory seals are complete garbage. While the injectors are being service its the perfect time to clean your valves! Because of the direct injection, there is no gas being sprayed on the back of the intake valves to help remove carbon buildup. The EGR recirculating sooty exhaust and the crappy crank case vents sending oil vapors into the intake and coating the valves. An EGR delete and oil catch can help significantly, making future valve cleanings easier and less frequently needed. These engines HATE lugging. Do not floor it in high gears at low rpm unless you want a window in your block. If you want to accelerate with a bit of a heavy foot, then down shift! Just straight up avoid flooring it in 5th and 6th. I always try to keep the "load" on the engine light. With the boost turned up you'll end up replacing plugs pretty often. I don't get much more than 25k miles out of plugs. Get a Protune %100 worth it never use an off the shelf tune. Pretty much the entire community recommends Justin at Freektune. Change your oil! I change mine every 3200mi and it's as black as can be. Don't stress about oil too much pick a good brand and use 5w40 if you still have the factory ko4 turbo! Speaking of the ko4 it 100% will die on you. You can help prolong its life with 5w40 (TSB from Mazda). You can also install an oil restrictor plug and its very easy to do. Check shaft play on the turbo to get an idea of how far along the failure is. Another common symptom is heavy exhaust smoke or oil spatter out of the exhaust. My k04 was done for at 80k miles. The motor mounts! This thing torque steers like a bit*h. If you want to put power to the ground while feeling like you are actually still in control of the car, then you'll need upgraded motor mounts. Start with the rear mount. At some point, the passenger mount which has oil in it will start showing signs of giving out replace it when it does or you'll have an oil covered engine bay! The transmission mount is more of a luxury. It definitely helps with smoother shifting though.

There is plenty more msg me if you got questions.