I've had one since May 2010 following a written off Mazda 323 Astina SP20, there is a chalk and cheese difference between the two and if I had my time again I would have pushed for the ST170 from new over the SP20.
Just be prepared to have expensive replacement part costs as there isn't any generics available in Aus, I've had bad luck with mine following it's purchase with an average of 1 problem every month for the first 5 months but things have settled down now.
To give you an idea of the problems I've had:
CEL - Downstream O2 sensor dead
CEL - IMRC stuck open, still to be bothered to fix this as it's intermittent meaning it's just a contact problem
CEL - Upstream O2 sensor slow response
Driver power window motor died
Clutch started to slip, and slip more, then really slip
Pax rear wheel bearing died
Minor annoyances:
Occasional rattle, believed to be the cat heatshield (common problem)
Rear wiper comes on in reverse automatically when wipers are on, sometimes my car does this when the wipers aren't on
Front wipers sometimes stop as soon as they are turned off rather than settling at "home"
It's a 7/8 year old car so things are bound to go wrong, but I've had a particularly bad run. If you hit any problems be sure to check out overseas options for parts if you aren't in a hurry, locally it would have cost $3000+ just for an OEM clutch kit but I got it shipped from the US for about $800 and $800 local fitting.
Overall, I love the car. It's a really well constructed thing and you can tell that a lot of thought went into making it. I would like more low down up and go, but that's not what the car is about, once it gets up to ~5000rpm it really starts to scream (particularly if you are running a Typhoon).
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