Japanese vs Mexican

[Caio]

Dear members,

I am about to pick up a Mazda 3 GT sedan and was wondering if there is any real difference at this point between a Mexico made and Japan made one.
There are very few Js out there, so making that a must would make it quite difficult to find the combination I am looking for.
Should I sacrifice color / trim to get a Japanese car or just get what I want on a Mexican one?
Your help and experience is much appreciated.

[Kiewan]

Dear members,

I am about to pick up a Mazda 3 GT sedan and was wondering if there is any real difference at this point between a Mexico made and Japan made one.
There are very few Js out there, so making that a must would make it quite difficult to find the combination I am looking for.
Should I sacrifice color / trim to get a Japanese car or just get what I want on a Mexican one?
Your help and experience is much appreciated.

A 2018 or 2019?

2018 GX/GS are Mexican, 2018 GT is Japanese if I recall correctly.

According to my mechanic, the 3rd gen Mazda3 (2014-2018) are holding up well as a whole.
Have not heard of quality issues on specifically Mexican produced cars.

[Caio]

Thank you for replying.
Most 3s have been produced in Mexico lately, including GT.
So most likely it doesn't matter which one you go for, eh?

[TheMAN]

they started building GTs in mexico last year, so finding anything Japanese built will be a needle in a haystack
this is evident by the deletion of the i-ELOOP option that hardly anyone bought

there are some better build quality in the Japanese built ones, including a better quality battery... but the Mexican built cars have UV reflective glass, which is great for summers if you decide not to tint your windows... some of the trim and upholstery materials are arguably better in the Japanese built too

despite there's more defects in the Mexican built cars, they are still much better than the other Japanese brands coming from a Mexican factory

[natspriceless]

they started building GTs in mexico last year, so finding anything Japanese built will be a needle in a haystack
this is evident by the deletion of the i-ELOOP option that hardly anyone bought

I was a victim of i-ELOOP failure...car sat dead at the dealership for 3 weeks while they tried to get the replacement part from Japan.

Nobody should ever have to be told the price to fix it......I'm very fortunate to have a great relationship with my dealership and they went to bat for me to ensure I didn't have to pay out of pocket. Although all ended well, I still warn people to avoid owning a vehicle with i-ELOOP

According to my mechanic, the 3rd gen Mazda3 (2014-2018) are holding up well as a whole.
Have not heard of quality issues on specifically Mexican produced cars.

There was that whole rear caliper debacle with the Mexican built ones...that wasn't cute at all.

[Google]

According to my mechanic, the 3rd gen Mazda3 (2014-2018) are holding up well as a whole.
Have not heard of quality issues on specifically Mexican produced cars.

I think the exception might be the 2014 Mazda3s. JD Powers still has the 2014s in the lead with the most issues. I can vouch for this too because with my wife's there are some driver side front and rear bushing issues (lots of noise) that was finally "heard" by the dealer after the warranty ran out. Ditto with the intermittent freezing of the HUD.

Personally, I would avoid any model, regardless of brand unless it's Tequila that's produced in Mexico.

[TheMAN]

1st year cars always have problems... big surprise

[TheMAN]

I was a victim of i-ELOOP failure...car sat dead at the dealership for 3 weeks while they tried to get the replacement part from Japan.

Nobody should ever have to be told the price to fix it......I'm very fortunate to have a great relationship with my dealership and they went to bat for me to ensure I didn't have to pay out of pocket. Although all ended well, I still warn people to avoid owning a vehicle with i-ELOOP



There was that whole rear caliper debacle with the Mexican built ones...that wasn't cute at all.

what failed? battery or capacitor? For the battery, there's a certain way to take care of it to keep it lasting long because of it's special construction
There were i-ELOOP TSBs for the 2014s, is that what you had?

Mine has been great so far *knocks on wood*

[natspriceless]

what failed? battery or capacitor? For the battery, there's a certain way to take care of it to keep it lasting long because of it's special construction
There were i-ELOOP TSBs for the 2014s, is that what you had?

Mine has been great so far *knocks on wood*

My girl is a 2015. Truthfully I'm still not 100% what was actually replaced but I do know that my regular battery was just fine. It always had tow truck drivers scratching their heads when they would come to boost me (any time I left her sitting for more than 7 days)

Below is what was on the paperwork from the dealership. She went in with 53,000kms.

FAULT CODE: JGGHL-645FV
PART NUMBER: 00EP-18-Q85 (Battery Q85)

I'm pretty sure that I had a faulty one from the get go and I think that the power regulator on my dashcam was giving me hints for 2 years before the i-ELOOP kicked the bucket.

Sometimes the Universe works in mysterious ways and this all ended up happening at the same time the there was a huge service conference. The rep from my Dealership was able to present my case as a perfect example; I purchased every warranty that was available, have all my service done at Maple and obviously care very much for my car. How was it fair that a feature that was so critical and proprietary was excluded from the warranty? How could they in good conscience ask me to pay $600+? In the end, Mazda Canada covered the part and the Dealership covered the labour.

In the end, the only advice that I was given was to drive her a bit more to make sure that a full charge can be built up. LOL!

[WHO]

My 2012 was obviously Japan built, but still had plenty of issues that the stealership and Mazda Canada were no help with. Apparently, according to Mazda, a horn is not warrantied, and isn't considered a critical security component. Same goes for a bad door ajar sensor that leads to the alarm system being constantly triggered in the middle of the night or the risk of draining the battery because the dome light comes on thinking a door has been opened.

My 2018 now is built in Mexico, only the future will tell it's a worse, equal, or surprinsgly better. Only difference I can see for now is the seat upholstery seems much cheaper vs my 2012.

[TheMAN]

My girl is a 2015. Truthfully I'm still not 100% what was actually replaced but I do know that my regular battery was just fine. It always had tow truck drivers scratching their heads when they would come to boost me (any time I left her sitting for more than 7 days)

Below is what was on the paperwork from the dealership. She went in with 53,000kms.

FAULT CODE: JGGHL-645FV
PART NUMBER: 00EP-18-Q85 (Battery Q85)

I'm pretty sure that I had a faulty one from the get go and I think that the power regulator on my dashcam was giving me hints for 2 years before the i-ELOOP kicked the bucket.

Sometimes the Universe works in mysterious ways and this all ended up happening at the same time the there was a huge service conference. The rep from my Dealership was able to present my case as a perfect example; I purchased every warranty that was available, have all my service done at Maple and obviously care very much for my car. How was it fair that a feature that was so critical and proprietary was excluded from the warranty? How could they in good conscience ask me to pay $600+? In the end, Mazda Canada covered the part and the Dealership covered the labour.

In the end, the only advice that I was given was to drive her a bit more to make sure that a full charge can be built up. LOL!

that shows they replaced the battery in your car

the Q-85 batteries are known to fail prematurely when not maintained, in the JDM service field... tracking of this is more limited in North America due to the limited use of these types of batteries, compared to Europe and Asia.
the failures are due to deep cycling, insufficient recharging of the battery, and false state of charge detection by the car's detection electronics... this leads to cell degradation eventually... these Q-85 batteries are designed for constant and semi-deep cycling, but they can only stand up to this use for so long... they're not strictly for i-ELOOP or i-STOP use in Japan... they're used for other brands of cars for conventional start-stop systems, so their wear are much faster than on Mazdas... 2 years lifespan has been typical in Japan when not maintained... this isn't surprising, considering JDM cars wouldn't be driven for great distances for urban cars

anyhow, this problem became common enough (because of high warranty claims, in Japan) that special tool supplier (for Mazda and other auto makers), Kowa Seiki, worked with CTEK of Sweden to create a special version of CTEK that can recondition these start-stop batteries with a special programme, using high voltage (about 17-18 volts)... I forgot the details of this, but this was necessary to break down the sulfation on the cells and to stir the electrolyte properly in the battery to remove acid stratification... the acid stratification is responsible for the false charge level detection and cause the alternator to under or overcharge the battery, leading to damage... conventional CTEKs are not powerful enough to "stir" the electrolyte in these start-stop batteries and can only "refresh" conventional batteries.... I tried looking for this charger, but it's about $1400 new, and used ones are no where to be found

I ended up finding that Yuasa (one of the suppliers for the Q-85 battery), makes a much cheaper charger meant for home use for about $150 from Japan (it's only sold in Japan)... it has a similar built in "refresh" function for these start-stop batteries and from what I've seen, there's no way to not tell it to only recharge the battery... it always wants to "refresh" the battery, and there doesn't seem to be much of a float charge mode like a CTEK does... but whatever, for the small price paid for this charger, I'm pretty sure it has helped me prolong the life of this battery... I run it once a year with the battery caps loose (after topping up the cells with distilled water)... other times, I just use my CTEK to do a simple recharge... only the CTEK MXS 5.0 and CT5 chargers can properly detect the charge levels of this battery... other chargers sold here can't do it... but the CTEK sold here don't have the powerful "refresh" function like the stupid expensive one sold in Japan does... it only has a conventional "recondition" function that works as a stop-gap and mainly useful for conventional batteries only


the dealer's charger has these same functions, but I haven't heard of anyone really using the modes or spending the time to resurrect a battery.. they just replace it and make whoever pay for it

so, i-ELOOP is a blessing and a sin... it's helped me saved some in gas, but if I didn't do my homework and learn about this battery, I probably would've ended up getting the battery replaced sometime last year by the dealer or some time later this year... so far, it's running strong, and my battery tester (I made sure i got one that works for these batteries) is still showing about 600CCA out of the 520CCA rated from it... the time and money spent on maintaining the battery surely has already paid for itself... this battery is very expensive, so I want to replace it as least often as possible