What made you buy an mx3
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**My dad had one. Oddly, he'd swapped his Ford Explorer for it…
Anyway, one day I was back home and he wanted it moved, so I hopped in. I adjusted the seat away from his old guy position (little harsh - he was an amateur rally driver in his younger days, so not the typical roadgoing pensioner, and his last two cars were an S-Type R and a Mondeo ST220...) into how I would have it. And at that instant I was sold on it and started looking.
About 6 months later he had his first heart attack and decided to slow the pace of his life down a bit. He bought a diesel Focus estate (as you can see above, the slowdown didn't really happen for long), so I bought the MX-3 off him. That was in 2003…!
Oddly, he always missed the MX-3, no matter what other car he had (though the Jaguar was a nicer drive over Sheffield's potholed suburbs) and it always cheered him up to see it again :D**
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There was an MX3 parked outside my mums house for years, it must of been one of her neighbours i always remember thinking it looked damn cool.
Then few years went by and alot of cars later and i saw it parked up there again did a bit of research and was convinced that was the car for me.
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I was looking for a change, I had been driving dull cars for years and thought its about time I had a V6 motor, I was searching Ebay + autotrader for a Nissan 300 zx as its always been a dream car of mine when I first sat in a brand new one at a nissan dealer in 1991.
While trawling through a lot of crap cars I found I was quite drawn to mitsubishi FTO's and drove one and quite enjoyed it and thought maybe the nissan would be a bit juicy to run so started looking at smaller V6 cars.
I stumbled across MX3's by accident because I just typed in V6 into Ebay and 2 popped up, I emailed one close to me that was finishing soon that if he did not get a buyer please call me and I will come over and have a look at it.
Meanwhile I looked through autotrader and found a EUNOS near me, went to test drive it that evening and found it had been in a major accident and even though it was automatic it just drove fantastic.
Then just as I was leaving from the Eunos the other owner from Ebay called and I went straight over to that one, it was a 1991 V6 with every factory extra possible and full dealer service history with one woman owning it for 17 years, the guy who had it was desperate to sell it and he knocked £350 off the £850 asking price so I bought my first one for £500 and it was fantastic, it took me all over europe and I was sad to see it go when I bought another one, I did see it on ebay about 4 months ago for spares or repairs and it sold for £120 :cry:
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My dad owned a mint black 94 se and I always loved the look of it, he wanted something bigger so asked if I wanted to buy it, so I borrowed it for a month and really liked the handling, but it was just too slow for me so I didn't buy it.
Then I saw Garfy's KLZE at Japfest, and within few months I'd researched, bought one, then bought all the stuff and did the ZE conversion. Then seeing how few people knew about the swap in the UK I setup this website to let you all into the secret.
The rest is history, I've owned 6 mx-3's, done 3 KLZE swaps, I still own 3 mx-3's.
1 standard
1 klze
1 kitted up show carSadly i'm moving soon and they will all be getting sold as there's only room for 1 car (the family car) :cry:
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well my story is a custmer had one came in for an mot it had a broken exhaust so sounded lovly had to change the rear brake hoses and it was realy easy to service then i road tested it to maker shore brakes were ok and i fell in love with it this was a wensday so that night and thursday night i was looking in to them went friday to look at one and picked it up sunday night
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I was looking for a cheap run around for work around 2k mark, was looking for a fto, ( too expensive to insure ) then like djmarcopolo typed in v6 into auto trader and looked through what came up. It narrowed down to a alfa 156 v6, mazda mx-3 v6, peugeot 205 1.9 gti ( mi16 pref ). Getting hold of a decent mi16 was near impossible, found a alfa but was worried about its reliability. Went to look at a mx-3. Wanted a black or silver one. Had to travel 100miles to look at the nearest silver one. Loved the noise and ride position, so brought it. After a few months the shock absorbers were leaking so looked on net for uprated suspension and discovered mx-3.com ( us site ) then after fitting bilstein suspension i loved it even more!. But it was getting beaten by the new craze of fabia Vrs which were everwhere at the time!. So back to mx-3.com and discovered the KLZE conversion!. And luck had it one owner in U.K had everything on a pallet ready but abondoned the conversion so i brought the lot pretty much!!. Then discovered mx6.com and hence the japfest showing where im glad ukmx3admin saw it! and inspired others to do the same. :D
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the reason i got an mx was i was actually looking at nissan 300zx n/a and i was looking for a good one for about a month to start drag racing and in got talking to a mate how had a 300zx for racing and his wife had a mx 3 for a run about and she was wanted to change it for a mx 5. so i decided to buy it until i could find a 300zx but after driving it after a week i loved it and decided to keep it and gave up looking for a z
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Well for me i love v6 engines and i was looking for something in the area of a jap motor, saw the mx3 and the fact it had a v6 so went on the hunt…
Then Wes was discovered and i snapped him up and brought him home..
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My story…........ Me and my best mate are petrolheads and wanted to start doing track days so we started to look for some cheap track cars, after a few weeks (march 09) my mate rung me and said he had found a V6 MX3 on pistonheads. At first I thought nah! Then he said about the 2.5 litre engine conversion we could do, he said it was a straightforward transplant, did not need to think about it anymore, we got on the ferry and drove up to reading, the car we were looking at was a red 1992 uk one. The bloke selling it was a mechanic, was getting married and did not want to sell it, but he needed the dosh! After haggling with him we got £0 knocked off! But it was still the best £1000 (£500 each) we had ever spent. The car had 75000 miles and was already track ready (stripped out, buckets, harnesses etc etc...) Then me and my mate got on the net, found an engine, found this site and US one and completed the 2.5 litre (KLDE) swap over easter. We was chuffed to bits with the power increase, sadly this lasted about 200 miles until the big end bearing decided to go. Luckily during the swap, I made contact with Stu, AKA 'the hamster' told him about our bad luck with the KLDE, (ford probe, fucking fords!), he said he was breaking a MX6 KLZE,
so it was back on the ferry, drive up to lincolnshire and pick up a KLZE engine, take KLDE out and put in KLZE and here we are now with a near 200bhp track car!! :D
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All very nice stories. So here is what happened for me:
My car history is my my mums daewoo matiz, a crappy old fiesta and a crappy old 205.
I got a decent job so decided to save about a grand to buy something that didnt look old and was more than a 1.6 preferably japanese and reliable hence looking at mazdas, looked around saw a black mx3, I have never noticed seen or heard of one before but i just had to have it, I know the 1.8 isnt that fast but it was faster than any of my other cars by a mile and with a decent induction kit and exhaust the V6 sounds awesome!
About 3 months after getting that i found this site and learned of the KLZE conversion and desperatly wanted it. I started saving not really knowing where to even begin by swapping an engine but god damn i wanted it.
Luckily for me not too long after this mechanic put his car up for sale and i bought it, BEST THING I EVER DID….. BAR NOTHING!!!!!
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my wife ALWAYS wanted an MX3 but when the kids were young it wasn't very practical (daft as it sounds i had a uno turbo back then) anyway, a couple of years ago we were shopping in Driffield when there it was for sale outside a tyre garage in unbelievable condition bright red MX3 V6 so i bought my wife it there and then. unfortunatly though she may have to go soon (the MX3 that is not the wife) but thats another story
fantastic cars and the V6 sounds well good :D
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keep the car its cheaper :lol:
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HAha ha you may be right matey :lol:
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Passd test and wanted the 323F, mate said about the MX3, didn't even see one until I googled it and the second I saw the rear lights I want one.
Another car I WILL own at some point is the Jap MR2 Turbo.
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I've been crazy about cars since I can remember and my Dad always had a few interesting cars knocking around when I was young(er), Classic Fords, Pontiac Firebird, MG Midget, Citroen BX GTi etc. so over last summer when I was turning 17 I got a job and saved up every penny I could get for a car, and after a while I'd whitled my list down to a Nissan 100nx or an MX-3….
I went for a 100nx, and really enjoyed it tbh, I really don't know why I chose it over the 3 at first, but I did...was a nice enough car really, marmite styling and being based on a Sunny it didn't really set the world on fire, but I liked it a lot, and still want to own an SR20DE powered one!
But in December the nx was stolen from outside my house and burnt out with most of my sh1te in it, so 2 months later I had my Insurance money in my hand and was adamant about getting an MX-3, and did, haven't looked back since :D
I've only the 1.6 one, but it pulls well, looks great, handles brilliantly and I love it! Can't see myself changing it for a while, but I'd like to sample a V6 MX-3!
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some great stories here. keep um coming :)
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@e886716be5=Ryan:
but I'd like to sample a V6 MX-3!
Come to japfest i will take you out in mine :D :D :D
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well when i was in college doing mechanics i was well into jap cars, mate had a civic coupe with a moded vti lump which was quick enough..so when i finally passed my test i wanted a civic coupe, fto or something like them cars so i narrowed it down what i could insure, i called a guy up for a black fto..he didnt answer so i got my mx3 k8…first car 1800 second driver insurance but had sooo much fun! being a student im always broke but my aim is a ze itb or a de turbd....got both lumps..we'll see what hapens :)
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I was looking for a short (had to fit in garage with motorbike) reliable, fun, cheap and cheap to run starter track car.
I narrowed the list down to the mx3, almera gti or civic vti. Im glad i went for the 3, and has surprised many a more powerful and expensive car on the track. It can carry so much pace through the bends, its 1.8 doesn't seem that bad..
Been tracking it for over 3 years, with very very few problems. It has been superb, and everytime i drive it, i convince myself to keep it on..!!
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Being as this is my first post here, I thought it would be fitting to give a little history, and by little, I mean essay time :D lol
I first found out about MX-3's by accident when I was looking for a new car when I was about 23. I was on a car search after getting hold of some money and wanted something sporty, nice looking, fairly cheap to run and a bit different!
At first I was considering a Toyota Celica, or a Honda Prelude, hoping for a GT4 Celica or V-Tech Prelude as you do but after the insurance company wanted £1200 a year to insure the GT-4 and £2600 ( I kid you not ) for the V-Tech I gave up on that and decided 2 litre versions would have to do.
I had a friend who knew I was looking for a car, and said he'd seen some strange little red thing for sale nearby and I should take a look at it, so off we went.
We arrived and what was there to greet us was, well to be honest I wasn't sure what to think or even what it was. I knocked on the owners door, and after a quick chat we had a closer look and this strange little almost quirky car was totally different to anything I had ever really seen before. I gave the car a look over, inside looked very nice and comfy and snug, I loved how you almost felt tucked away inside it's big chunky doors like a cocoon, it even had cup holders which for a coffee freak like myself is a must :D
Next we popped the bonnet and got one hell of a shock, V6? where the hell did that come from?! After having another look around the exterior of the car and deciding that I liked the looks of this car ALOT the owner gave me the keys, and all 3 of us set off for a road test.
The owner told me where to go, and after a while we found a nice long straight stretch of road, and he told me to slow down and put it in second, which I did, then he told me this is where the fun part happens, and said to give it a little bit of welly, and wait till we hit about 4000 revs, so I did.
The acceleration was pretty rapid and I was quite impressed, then we hit 4000 revs and BOOM we shot off like lightning! it was like someone had pressed the NOS button, at which point I was grinning like a Cheshire cat and from then on I never looked back. GT-4? V-tech? They may be faster and have better performance figures than this little beast, but are they anywhere near as fun? well I think we all know the answer to that one!
So begins the best 2 years of my driving life, my 1993, red 1.8 V6 MX-3Sadly though, after those 2 years of having the most fun in any car I had ever driven other than my 1990 Suzuki Swift GTi, which to be honest came pretty close fun wise, my Little MX-3 was taken away from me by a lorry down the A12 in Essex, England, as the driver swerved and smashed me against the central reservation and totally wrote her off :(
That was 4 or so years ago now, and since then I have owned a battered old Ford Escort, a Proton Persona, which by the way I would AVOID like the plague!, and my current car, a 1995 Toyota Celica GT, none of them have been able to come close to that little red Mazda.
But there is a happy ending! Rejoice fellow 3 lovers, for this coming Saturday I take delivery of my brand new (well new to me at least) 1996 Mazda MX-3 1.8 V6 coupe! with just shy of 100,000 miles on the clock, and finished in a rather unusual turquoise paint! And so I join your ranks as a proud owner of one of the greatest cars ever made, and I couldn't be more chuffed :D