New member from near Newbury Berkshire, Mk3 Sport Graphite

[Ade72]

Hi,

After a couple of years away from Japanese sports cars (previously had an MR2, an FTO then an RX8) I decided to treat myself to something fun.

Found this Mk3 Sport Graphite in Blue Mica after popping into the local Mazda garage just to have a look to see what was around. Instantly fell for it on a test drive so bought it there and then.

Had it about a month now and other than the TomTom sat nav being a pain (it gets lost!) I’m having great fun in it.

[PaleRider]

Welcone and enjoy mate👍

[Thousandislander]

Welcome car looks great enjoy

[captainhaddock]

I have the sport graphite too and am very pleased with it. If your satnav fails to lock on or loses the satellites, you need to get the dealer to move the GPS antenna from on top of the unit to higher up under the dash, they moved mine to under the speedometer curved cover. Once that was done, my satnav has been flawless. Also, it is possible the maps haven’t been updated (which is expensive!!).
Have a look at a couple of my other posts for the satnav.

Missing SD card in Sat Nav

I also have the Sport Graphite in Aquatic Blue Mica, such a lovely colour and have kept my satnav maps updated year on year at a disgustingly expensive subscription of around £50 a YEAR for maps PLUS £55 a YEAR for Live services (which gives traffic and speed cameras) The tom-tom link posted above is for a full Europe map, you can save money by selecting UK only or as I do, the Western Europe Map. Also, if you add a map to your basket and then hit the back button in the browser, it sometimes p…

and

Mk3 USB port

I have had a play with my usb stick and mp3 filename formats. This is what I have discovered: First, if you want the albums to be played in track number sequence then when you rip the cd to mp3 you need to have the MP3 tag for the track name begin with the track number (zero filled if 10 or more tracks per album ie 01_Track1, 02_track2 etc) otherwise it plays the tracks in Alphabetical order. Second, if you want to use Playlists (ie m3u files containing lists of tracks to be played) then you m…

[Wilier1]

Welcome.
That looks like a good trip to the garage!!!

[Sabine770]

Welcome I think this is the best colour combo I’ve seen. Very nice indeed!

[unclefishboy]

Forget the sav nat and use your phone instead

[Mad_McAdder]

Nice paint job .

[Ade72]

Thank you all for the welcome.

[Thibor]

Welcome to the club!

[Juan27]

Welcome. I too have a Sport Graphite, never liked the stereo so fitted a Pioneer Double Din with DAB and Android Auto.

[DonDon]

@Juan27 Which model of Pioneer please?

Was it to replace the Alpine double DIN?

Did you need any other bits and how difficult was it?

[Juan27]

SPH-DA160DAB. Connects2 do all the leads etc you need…patch lead from the car to ISO, FM aerial adaptor and steering wheel controls interface. You might need a fascia plate depending on what stereo you have now. “Sanyo” fascia can be made to work with the new Pioneer. Pretty much plug and play apart from you need to connect up the aerial amp power supply. I soldered that the (audio) amp power lead on the Pioneer loom.

It was the stock sat nav screen I replaced, It’s branded as a Panasonic, but as the model number is C850-V6-600C I believe it’s a “Sanyo” rather than an Alpine.

I took the centre console out - pretty much necessary on later cars, which isn’t too difficult, there’s a good UK YouTube. The infamous under dash 10mm security bolt is fairly nasty but probably easier if you’re smaller than I am.

[Miklar]

For a silly moment I thought you were going to say you hated it and wanted to sell! Beautiful looker!