So, I need a new car.

[skip]

I need a new daily driver.

I'm thinking a Mazda 3 or possibly an RX8 (I saw a late 2003 one with low kms for a bit over $30k the other day). A mate rates his 2007 MX5 too...if I could find a slightly older one for a good price, I might be tempted.

Anything bad about these cars? Anything to look out for? Any recommendations for a decent driver under 10 years old?

[JDSTAZ45]

Newer offerings by Mazda are cool. I have read that running costs are high though.

One car that impresses me for value and cool factor is the Nissan Skyline 350GT. They appear on J-spec regularly
between the 21K-30oddK mark landed and complied (2003-2006 models)
Or there's always a local import dealer with the added profit/commission...

Half the cost of 350Z!

[groupAralliart]

buy a shit box so you 'want' to get the Starion fixed asap and you will enjoy it more once you do.

[Starion_Turbo]

Depends what you want, the way things are going the mazda 3 and miata mx5 would be the best for fuel costs.

[JJH]

I've had my 04/05 (12/2004 build) Mazda3 SP23 for 3 months now and am very happy with it.
They are extremely well appointed, plenty of safety equipment and with the 2.3ltr they've got plenty of go.
I mainly do short squirts to work so I can't really give an opinion of fuel economy, but I didn't buy for that reason.
I was pretty lucky with this one; dropped into a dealer to look at one but it had been sold and this one had just been traded,
it only had 22K on the clock and they gave it a full 20K service as part of the deal.
Much nicer to drive than my hulking Nissan Patrol.

[Alspos]

How tall are you? Stay away from the MX5 if you're over 5'6" And don't hope to ever carry anything bigger than a drill in the boot. It's next to useless.