Cherrispeed3

Thanks for all the kind wishes everyone. Really sucks that this happened, and I'm prepared for functionally a full suspension replacement being needed in the front. Definitely will need LCAs both sides, struts and springs both sides, at least right side CV axle, both sides tie rods, front right fender, and front left ABS sensor wire so I can hopefully have ABS working again after the car is fixed. Really hope my Whiteline front sway bar and CS front endlinks survived. The silver lining I suppose is that the front suspension was on the verge of needing replacement anyway, with my bumpstops having mostly flaked away and the dampers feeling quite blown, as well as the lower ball joints being basically seized into the uprights and needing to be forced out. Hopefully when she gets fixed she'll be back better and more capable than ever, and even if (God forbid) she's totaled, I will do everything in my power to keep her and get her back on the road myself.

 

Depending on your move to repair, I should have a set of CorkSport adjustable struts coming off. Gen1. F/R. Also CorkSport endlinks.

Axles are inexpensive, DTA axles, axlestore on ebay.

LCAs and new bushings frkm Damond will be awesome. Also, local wrecking yards may have something.

 

I was planning on using whatever money insurance gives me and the Mazda Motorsports partner program discounts to get a lot of brand new OEM stuff for way cheaper than can be found at a dealer or even online at like edge or elsewhere. It gets anywhere from 30-60% off the standard cost, and eligibility is as simple as having competed in some kind of grassroots racing event like autocross, time trials, track day, etc in the past two years. Damond/Powerflex bushing'd LCAs would be optimal but the bushings are pretty pricey, but with the discount I can get from Mazda Motorsports for the LCAs, I may be able to afford it if insurance assumes the dealer rate for most components. Definitely getting DTA axles, easy $600 savings over a brand new OEM set.

 

Careful, insurance may total it out.

 

Insurance will likely only pay for the lca axle wheel and fender. Might not be worth turning in depending on deductible and increaed premium

 

Not much that can be done about it seeing as I don’t live somewhere that I can have a broken car that I’m slowly fixing, and I’m still on my parents’ insurance and they sure as hell aren’t going to be on board with me just fixing the car myself. Insurance estimate didn’t total it out either, but it was all over the place with what repairs were there and parts. I have to call them tomorrow because it’s got stuff like the front right suspension assembly for a 2.5L 3 instead of a speed, mentions nothing about left side LCA or tie rods which were definitely damaged, not to mention LF strut. Hell, most of the estimate is for fucking paint. I don’t care if the front bumper is the G35 special ABS plastic black for a while if it means the important shit actually gets fixed with speed3 specific parts.

I’m genuinely convinced that the current document of the estimate was drawn up at 4:30 today by someone who wanted to leave, because half of it doesn’t line up with the very clearly visible damage and the other half is replacing parts with incompatible items from normal Mazda3s.

 

Good news: The estimate from the actual insurance company instead of just the shop came back today, the car is not totaled and insurance will cover it. Extremely thankful for that!

Now the extra fun part of hounding the shop to make absolutely goddamn sure the parts they're putting on are for a speed3 and not a normal mazda3. I'm going to ask for pictures of all the parts and all of the lists they make when sourcing the parts, and I actually went on the parts finders on mazdausa and mazdamotorsports to grab all of the part numbers for OEM speed3 front suspension.

 

Car repair at the collision shop started today, estimated date it’ll be done will be June 6. Glad the car will be able to get back on the road!

 

Nice! Glad they're fixing it.

 

Insurance is paying for a rental for me to drive while the car is getting repaired, and it's a current gen Malibu. Considering I'll be driving it until at least the first week of June, I'll write a little review for fun:

If this is the state of the average midsize sedan on the market right now, I understand why the sedan market is doing so poorly. The car feels like Chevy was trying to make a midsize sedan feel as much like an SUV as possible. The interior is spacious but not in a good way, more like a way that makes it feel that any of the car behind the driver's seat is a mile away, which really messes with my perception of the road and environment around the car. Even when you know there are cars in the lane next to you near your rear quarters, it doesn't feel like there are, which at least for me in the MS3, I could always sort of perceive where other cars were around the car.
The mirrors are somehow smaller than an MS3 and have a strange shape that severely limits FOV, especially the rearview mirror on the windshield. The rear glass feels like the same approach was taken to this car as the Camaro, basically giving the car a sliver of view behind it. The A and C pillars are at atrocious angles where they restrict basically exactly where you would need to see when looking in those directions. The infotainment screen is in a borderline dangerous location, lower down and in the center of the dash (around where the CD changer is in a non-tech gen2), which requires the driver to full reposition their head and look down from the road just to check the time.

I could forgive all of this for just being new car shit that a stubborn luddite like me just doesn't like if not for once central complaint:
The maximum weight of the steering wheel with its full EPS is QUITE LITERALLY EQUIVALENT to the weight that my steering went to after my car went full slip and locked the brakes in the front during the accident. There is positively not an ounce of feedback from the tires through the steering column and when turning the wheel for more than just a lane change/gentle curve, it feels borderline dangerous.
The brakes are no better, because they're touchy in the least predictable way possible: an inch or so of vagueness that doesn't even feel like it actuates the master cylinder and then a little further down the brakes grab hard without the pedal really stiffening up all that much, so it catches you by surprise. This is possibly from me having a manual daily, but the sensation of a CVT attached to a gas engine is genuinely unsettling because it eliminates the subconscious vehicle speed reference that the gearing/shifting of even an automatic car give the driver.

Cars like this make it crystal clear why so many drivers with newer cars and all these driver assists are still so inept behind the wheel: the cars they're driving have literally zero feedback and feel like driving a simulator on the lowest settings, while the bodies work very hard to make you feel like you're in this huge, invincible tank of a car. It doesn't feel dangerous to them because they don't know/remember when it was different. I feel similarly about other newer cars I've driven, namely the 2022 Corolla sedan, 2023 RAV4, 2018 XC-90, and 2023 Traverse, most of the complaints are the same. The only newer cars I've felt that don't succumb to these issues nearly as bad are Mazdas and some BMWs, as the ones I have driven ('21 CX-9, '20 mazda3 hatch, '15 mazda3 hatch, '14 mazda6, '18 330i GT) have always had decently responsive suspension, ample feedback in the steering, and the car feels like the exterior is appropriately compact/visibility and perception of other cars is not a concern.

TLDR the Malibu sucks donkey balls, if you're in the market for a newer midsize get a used 3rd gen Mazda6

 

Small update: Car is back in St. Louis, as am I. Absolute dolts at the collision shop wrote a phenomenally ridiculous estimate which ultimately got insurance to total the car over what is completely repairable damage. The estimate they quoted me somehow managed to hit $7113 for the damage, which is more than a little outrageous. Regardless of anyone's potential suggestion, I'm keeping the car because A.) there is no frame damage, and B.) I love this car. They valued it at $7668, which compared to other gen2s in the midwest that are in good mechanical condition and between 115k and 160k miles is a little low, and I fought tooth and nail for the car, even writing detailed reports about why the estimate was bogus and the valuation was inaccurate (three of the comparison vehicles were normal Mazda3s!) but all I ended up with was a few hundred more dollars and couldn't get the total reversed. I don't plan on getting rid of my car unless it's completely unrepairable, so it doesn't matter to me the resale value hit of a salvage/rebuilt title.

Insurance is giving me around $5600 to keep it and with being able to now source parts myself and choose what labor is done by shops vs. done by me, and knowing/being friends with a trustworthy mechanic here in St. Louis, I'll definitely be able to repair the damage and replace some more parts for well within the money insurance is giving me. Started ordering parts yesterday, and being able to use the resources of both Rockauto for OEM equivalent stuff and Mazda Motorsports for a significant discount on genuine Mazda parts is an absolute lifesaver.

So far, the list of things that I'm going to replace are as follows:
- Front LCAs both sides (OEM Mazda)
- Front Struts both sides (Monroe from Rockauto, have had Monroes on the rear of my car for 3 years now and I like em)
- Front Bumpstops, Strut Mounts, Strut Bearings, Dust Boots both sides (OEM Mazda)
- Front Sway Bar Endlinks both sides (Moog from Rockauto)
- Front Inner and Outer Tie Rods both sides (Moog from Rockauto)
- CV Axles both sides (DTA)
- FR Fender (OEM Mazda)
- FR Fender liner (OEM Mazda)
- Right side skirt car-side tabs (OEM Mazda)
- Will need to reapply seam-sealer on the rearward inner fender seam on the front right corner because it got rubbed off by the fender liner during the accident.

The Rockauto parts are estimated to arrive next Wednesday, and I will be ordering the OEM parts from Mazda Motorsports later today. Excited to finally start repairing the car as it's been an agonizing month without it.

 

Sounds like a good game plan. Can't wait to see the progress!

 

If your doing front struts I would upgrade to a coilovers kit at the same time not much more money and obviously much better. If the fender liner isn't torn I would just reinstall and let the summer heat straighten it out

 

I'd love to reuse the fender liner, but unfortunately it got cut up pretty good and torn in a couple of spots. Coilovers would be nice, yeah, but that means getting an upgrade for all four corners when the rear end was unharmed in the accident save for probably getting a little out of alignment. Currently pricing out what I've ordered parts-wise, including the fender, I've got $1333.02 into basically refreshing the entire front suspension and steering on both sides, and of course bodywork and liner on the right. In comparison, the cheapest option that's on my list of considerations for coilovers is the Bilstein B14 kit, which costs $1004.79 before tax on rockauto, roughly 3/4 of my entire parts cost thus far. I want to have enough money left in what insurance is giving me to make sure the bodywork/underbody area around the front right is sealed/painted/dings repaired well by a good body shop, so as much as I'd love coils, it would put the parts cost way out of proportion considering that the struts and associated mounts/bumpstops/boots/etc cost me $147.20 per side.

 

Just a few pics of the car that I took in April on my film camera to keep the vibes good before she's back on the road:




If anyone else is a film nerd, the camera is my dad's old Pentax P30t and the film is just generic Fujifilm 200