I actually had to think pretty hard about Monday’s Autopian Asks question. The early-mid 2000s were just a great time for cars in general. My favorite, though, was the Mazdaspeed Protege, the winged and turbocharged version of my humble white DX sedan. That’s one car I’d have to seriously consider if the right one came up for sale for the right price. There were a lot of other really good sporty sedans for sale back then, and it’s strange to think that that entire genre of cars has all but disappeared in the last 20 years. So today, we’re going to look at a couple of them.
Our focus yesterday was on vans, and I was surprised by the result. I thought for sure you all would see a Toyota and a Volkswagen, and dismiss the Volkswagen out of hand. But as it turns out, the VW Eurovan won, and not by a small margin. The Toyota’s homebuilt nature didn’t do it any favors, I don’t think; we’ve all known that one guy who built his own camper van, and most of us didn’t want to ride in it, let alone buy it.
The Volkswagen is an easy choice for me. It’s in much better cosmetic shape, even with the faded paint, and I like starting out with a stock vehicle. Plus it’s half the price. I do wish it had a five-speed manual, though; VW automatics aren’t known for their robustness.
Compact sport sedans were all the rage in the 2000s, but far too many of them ended up with dumb modifications due to the influence of Those Damn Movies. Loud exhausts, short-throw shifters, and lowered suspensions found their way onto way too many cars. Luckily, however, all that stuff just bolts on, so if you have access to the stock parts, or replacements thereof, you can put them back to factory spec with a weekend or two of work. Both of today’s cars have been lowered, and at least one of them has a loud exhaust, but they’re both manuals, and they both started out as pretty nice cars to drive. With a little love, they probably could be again. Let’s check them out.
2003 Mitsubishi Lancer O-Z Rally – $4,800
Engine/drivetrain: 2.0-liter OHC inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Grants Pass, OR
Odometer reading: 189,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well, but aftermarket suspension is “shot”
Car names are funny things. The Mitsubishi Lancer nameplate goes all the way back to 1973 in Japan, but we didn’t get it here in the US until 2002. That doesn’t mean we didn’t get the cars, though. The car known in Japan as the Lancer was sold here as the Dodge Colt, or later as the Mitsubishi Mirage sedan. Meanwhile, Dodge sold its own car called the Lancer twice, once from 1955-1962, and then again from 1985-1989. When we did finally get the Mitsubishi Lancer under its own name, we got a few fun versions of it, including at long last the mighty AWD turbocharged Lancer Evolution. But what if you couldn’t afford one of those? Mitsubishi had you covered: witness the O-Z Rally edition. It’s just a regular Lancer under all the ground effects and spoilers, but that’s not entirely a bad thing.
The Lancer is powered by a 4G94 four-cylinder engine, displacing 2.0 liters and making 120 horsepower, about in line with other small sedans of the time. This one has a five-speed manual, and the seller says it runs great. It does, however, need some suspension work. It has what the seller describes as “cheap eBay coilovers” on it, and that they’re “shot.” From everything I’ve heard about those cheap shocks and struts from eBay, I’m not surprised. The seller says they plan to replace them with a “race suspension kit” before the car is sold, but I wonder if you couldn’t convince them to knock off a few bucks and just order some nice stock replacement struts from RockAuto instead.
The interior looks decent, and it’s more or less stock, but I’ve never understood those cylindrical shift knobs. How is that more comfortable than a nice normal round knob? How are you supposed to hold it? I’d replace it with a ball immediately, I think. And I own a shop vac, so the rest of the interior issues could be remedied pretty quickly as well.
It’s hard to tell, since the seller apparently took the photos from the next town over, but I think the exterior is in good shape. Those aren’t the original O-Z wheels the car came with and was named after, though, and a closeup photo in the ad shows some curb rash on the rims. And the low-profile tires can’t be doing the ride any favors. I bet with stock suspension components and wheels (if you can find them), this car would be a lot more pleasant.
2006 Mazda 6s Liftback – $4,500
Engine/drivetrain: 3.0-liter DOHC V6, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Gresham, OR
Odometer reading: 145,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Mazda was on a roll in the 2000s. The NB Miata and BJ Protege were excellent, the RX-8 carried on the tradition of fragile, high-strung rotary sports coupes, and the humdrum 626 was finally put out to pasture and replaced by this car, the Mazda 6. These were the cars used in the “Mazda Rev It Up” autocross events in 2003, and thousands of enthusiasts, including me, had a ball tossing them around a bunch of orange cones. Zoom-zoom, indeed.
Like the Rev It Up cars, this is the sporty 6s model, with a 240-horsepower Ford Duratec 3.0-liter V6. Unlike the Rev It Up cars, however, this one has a five-speed manual. I’ve never driven a 6 with this drivetrain combination, but the four-cylinder with a manual is excellent, and the V6 has plenty of power, so I’m sure this one is a hoot to drive. The seller doesn’t say anything about the suspension, but it has obviously been lowered. How much of a problem that is depends on how it rides, I suppose. They do say it has an aftermarket exhaust, which is “not obnoxiously loud,” but obnoxious is in the eye – I mean, ear – of the beholder. Personally, I think I’d go back to a stock exhaust just on principle.
It looks pretty good inside, but again, it needs a vacuuming. I’ll never understand why someone chooses to try to sell a car with crud all over the floor. The only thing wrong with the interior, according to the seller, is a droopy headliner, which could be fixed if it ends up being annoying.
The 6 came in three body styles: a regular four-door sedan, a wagon, and this five-door liftback, similar to the old 626 Touring Sedan. It doesn’t have any more cargo room than the sedan, really, but it’s easier to get stuff in and out of. It also has a rear wiper, which is a nice bonus. It looks like it’s in good shape outside, and since it’s a Pacific Northwest car, it should have escaped the Mazda rust curse.
I still maintain that we didn’t know how good we had it with cars twenty years ago, and we probably won’t ever have it that good again. These cars are modern enough to be reliable, but still analog and mechanical. They just feel better. And if you don’t believe me, go drive one, and then go back to your modern car. You’ll probably think the prices of these are a little steep, and I agree, but they aren’t making any more of them. And as more of us get fed up with the numb feel and software-related bullshit in new cars, good older cars are going to be in higher demand. These both have some bullshit of their own that needs to be undone, but they’re both fundamentally good cars. Which one is worth a little tinkering?
Mazda, but I’d bring a magnet and take a look at the underside. The drivetrain on those is pretty solid, but that’s the “rusts away in under a decade in wet climates” generation.
Lowered = nope to either.
I had that identical Mazda6, right down to the Radiant-Ebony colour scheme, so I simply *have* to go with that one.
It was a lovely car to drive and I eventually on-sold it to my son in law when I bought my next car, a soul red 2015 Mazda6.
Ooh ooh! My first car was that exact Lancer, but in metallic green. I’ll always have a soft spot for that car, but they do need tender loving care.