Common 1st Gen issues
 

Hello all. My wife and are looking to join the Mazda 3 familly. Our first one will probably be older as we need to replace our corolla (245k mi) and can't spend a ton of money. I'm interested in the 5 door hatches. My question is what are the common problems to look for/ask about? So far the only thing I found was the first gene had defective power steering pumps that were recalled. Thanks for the help!

Wow.......uuuummm.........I'm not going to be a very good source for you as my daughter has had her 2005 hatchback since 2009(bought used obviously) and not a single lick of trouble.
However, I own an RX8 so I'm pretty meticulous with keeping up with maintenance on mine which leads to hers.
Best idea is to use the advanced search..................andpoke around a little bit. This site is not nearly as active as the RX8club site.................not by a long shot!

We also just bought this for the other daughter.................. https://www.mazda3club.com/off-topic-8/new-addition-family-56604/

There was a bad run of purge control valves for the emissions system in late '04/early '05 so that's something to keep in mind. Nothing to do about it unless it goes bad and throws a CEL.

Double check the engine mounts as they can blow causing rough acceleration or thunks when turning. Take a look at the mounts to see if there are any sings of oil leaking from them.

I'm sure there's something else but that's all that's coming to mind right now.

ha ha............you did remind me of something. her car did have a sticky thermostat(was stuck open) so it threw the "hey, I never got to temp" cel.
Went ahead and just changed it out in like ten-twenty minutes...........was no big deal.

Same here, was an easy swap (and I needed to do a DnF on my coolant anyway)