Good Afternoon. I purchased a new Mazda5 for my wife several months ago, I'm looking for a used car as well. I'd like to spend about $6000. I'd like anti-lock brakes, traction control and a manual transmission.

I'm looking at a craigslist ad and have the following questions:
If a 2005 mazda 3 s has 4 wheel discs, are they anti-lock brakes?
Was traction control common with the manual transmission in 2005?
I the 2.3 engine an interference engine? Does this vehicle feature a timing belt, or a timing chain?

I read an article somewhere else the stereos might be difficult to swap. The stereo in my wife's 2014 Mazda5 remained in her car for about a week until I replaced it with a double-din unit from crutchfield (seems mazda wanted you to upgrade to a more expensive model in order to have a bluetooth stereo). The steering wheel control adapter was inexpensive and fairly easy to install as well.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts

Pretty sure the car has abs and from what I remember stability control (maybe not traction hopefully somebody else can give input). The 2.3 is a great engine and it has in fact a timing chain.

That being said for 6000 you can find a newer model closer to an 07

In 2005 ABS was a package option coupled with side airbags and side curtain airbags (ABS/SAB/SCA). This was before Mazda switched to packaging a ton of features into different trim levels, and so it can be a bit hit or miss to find them on '05 models. Look at a picture of the car (or the car in person). If it has the "SRS" logo on the side of the front seats, or on the A-posts then it has all three features.

AFAIK traction control and stability control were not options in 2005 (at least in the US)

The MZR motor is an interference engine, and as noted has a "lifetime" timing chain.

The stereo isn't particularly hard to swap. It does require installing an installation bracket as the stereo leaves a roughly inverted trapezoidal hole in the dash vs. a standard 1 or 2 DIN hole. Once you put that bracket in installation would be no more difficult than any other car. Depending on what you want to do (i.e. have BT audio) there are adapters which connect to the factory stereo and provide a BT input. I just installed a grom audio kit in my brother's car and will likely be getting one for my car as well.