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Hi there,

I'm looking to buy my next car (moving from a sturdy, yet expensive to fix old VW Polo!) and have heard good things about the Mazda Axela.

Currently I'm looking at purchasing a 2009/2010 model and would like to know if there are any things to watch out for with this car? For example, I test drove one recently which I loved... except for the melting dashboard which I discovered was at one point a manufacturing issue - something the car salesman was never going to point out of course! So I am currently looking for one that doesn't have this issue - does anyone know if this is relative to the year of the car?

Any advice would be much appreciated! I'm looking for an economical, roomyish car that would comfortably drive around Auckland and to/from Tauranga every so often.

Thanks in advance :)

Hi there,
Correct, the Mazda Axela is a very popular Japanese import vehicle, and I believe the dash issue is around this year period and also affected some Toyota models of the same years. As with vehicles of this age, they have generally had their most trouble free life before you buy it. So I recommend a pre-purchase inspection before buying and a good service after.