OK the BIG DEBATE!
 

I got tired of threadjacking, so here's the debate. What is your situation, and how do you feel about it?

Since it's my post I'll obviously go first. I feel the 1st-gen RX7, purchased used, is not a good choice for a daily driver. It simply needs so much upkeep, and a lot of things can go wrong very quickly. Unlike a piston engine, a failed seal pretty much means a complete rebuild. Given the age and mileage of these cars, any un-rebuilt cars are beyond their life span, especially if you don't have service records. This means it is only a matter of time before the inevitible happens.

I wouldn't trust my 7 on a daily basis for just that reason. I'd rather have my car break driving somewhere unimportant than break while driving to work. Once I have a fresh rebuilt motor, sure I'll trust it a lot more, because I'll KNOW the condition of it's innards.

EDIT: And of course, me being the retard I am I voted for the wrong thing... so will someone who WOULD have voted for option 3 vote for option 4 for me? Thank you.

sorry i didn't read before i voted :P, but i use my car as a daily driver, and well no back-up, and it hasn't really left me stranded, only once and that was my fault lol. i was cleaning up the engine bay a little bit and left some wires hang loose and they came near the exhaust and they melted lol and shorted out the system. other than that and the usual maintenance that goes along with any other car, my car is awesome. i've had to do some work to it yes, but change clutch, and the little things it took when i first bought it but that's it, nothing too big lol.

I have to disagree slightly, My father had a '79 RX-7. When I turned 18 he gave it to me and the motor had over 600,000 miles on the original 12A. The most reliable engine I had ever seen. The only reason it blew was because Mazdatrix sent me a set of oil coolant lines and one of them busted at the fitting and dropped oil all over the road. That seized up the motor, oil starved. But the motor still ran, just had a knock in the motor.

I would love to see another gasoline engine do that!

I disagree that they're not reliable at this age also. My '85 is running strong as ever and I daily drove it (during summer) for 8 years and it only gave up on me once. I think that if you are looking for an only car to DD that it's not a good choice but more because it's a 2 seat RWD car which is crap for moving any amount of people/cargo or driving in the snow.

i drove 1st gens from 94 to 2005, daily with no backup. after 2005 i switched to piston engines.

ive been stuck more times since 2005, than in the whole DECADE before that.

i agree with you in spirit, but in reality the 1st gen is better than most, even at 25 years old.

the other thing is 1st gens dont require upkeep, put oily stuff in the oil pan, and dont run it hot, and it'll run for 10-20k miles without you needing to open the hood.

For me, having my car down here without a place to work on it isnt an option. Not only that, but my car isnt good on fuel consumption whats so ever, so I got a new daily driver that can get me home to my 7 once a month with no trouble. To me, regardless how reliable your car may be, I don't think its a good thing to daily drive the first gen anymore, especially now its getting old. Oh yeah, forgot to mention ppl like us that live in the salt belt, which means drive your RX7 in the snow/winter daily, watch it rust apart. Thats the biggest reason right there for me.

I daily drive my 7 from the time they clean the streets after the snow melts to the first snow of the year. Then out comes the pissed-on car. Generally that's 8-9 months lately. I only ever drive my winter car if the 7 has to come off the road for some work that can't be done in a day, or if im in the middle of work and I need to run to get something. The 7 gets wrapped up in tarps in the winter and no salt gets near it. After 24 years of being on the road, I've still had mechanics mention how clean the underbody is. In fact the most unreliable part of the car is not the engine, which I beat the hell out of, but the oil cooler. It has been leaking on me twice now, and I doubt I can fix it this time, so I'm just going to have the AN fittings welded to onto it.

i believe that the SA/FB is an EXCELLENT daily driver. you do however have to take into consideration that it is a 20-30 year old car(depending on the model year you are driving). you have to keep up on the maitenance. replace parts that are worn before they break. i restore RX-7's. i have for years. i have NEVER had one leave me stranded anywhere any time. i've blown one engine better than 20 miles from my home. i drove it home on one rotor. i drive an 85 S that i restored every day. its a wonderful car but it requires upkeep and needs a couple of things to be perfect. i alternate between my SA/FB's (i own 9 RX-7's plus a plethora of piston engined vehicles) and my 88 10th Annivesary and my 88 TII. i am thoroughly pleased with my 7's as daily drivers in the summer. i will not drive them in the winter. the reason is because i do not want the salt eating my 7's. i drive a 4wd 88 F-150 with a 5.0 and a 5spd when the weather turns to snow. you just have to know your 7 and know what you need to replace before you can fully trust it as a daily driver.

Oh yeah, I dont know if I mentioned, but the engine is far from being unreliable. Its all the little stuff like rear-end leaking, gas tank rust and steering gear worn out.. All that take time to fix...

600,000 thats a um.....kinda hard to believe.

I drive my FB as much, or more, than my Nissan truck during the warmer times of the year. Both have well over 200K showing on the odometer, while the truck is 7 years newer.
I do not drive the truck hard, like I do the car. I do not drive the car in snow/ice, like I do the truck. The car gets used frequently for both autox and open track, while the truck is hauling stuff, general driving, and teaching my 16 year old son how to drive.
So far, the car has never left me stranded. The truck, on the other hand, has. I had a fuel injector stuck open in the truck, they won't run like that. It later stuck closed, which allowed to pinpoint the faulty part, and replace it.

For the record, I also own a 1980 F150 that I purchased over 10 years ago. I still drive it on occasion, when I feel like spending the $40 needed to go to town and back. I thought about selling it, but my ex really tried to get it in the divorce, so it has great "Piss-off power", which is reason enough to keep it forever.......

However, any vehicle that is over 10 years old, or has in excess of 200K miles on it, will need stuff replaced, sometimes rather often. This makes them less desireable for use as a daily driver, compared to a newer vehicle with far less mileage.

My 85 GSL-SE is "semi-retired" now but was my daily driver for 13 years with no back-up ride. I bought it from the original owner in Ventura, CA in 1994 and it was my only car until 2007. Always ensured that the preventive maintenance was done, used OEM replacement parts when replacing worn/broken parts in most cases. This car "never" left me stranded anywhere and never failed to start in those 13 years. Drove from San Diego, CA to Jacksonville, FL in 1999 without a problem. I would have no problem pulling it out of the garage and driving it cross-country today. If you keep oil in it and the engine cool these things are almost "bullet-proof." I must admit it's nice to own a car with a cup holder now. Plus after almost 30 years of shifting various transmissions it's nice to have an automatic transmission do the shifting for a change.

I'm disappointed. I thought this would be about efans vs fan clutches.

I DD my FB. I have a REPU that isn't in drivable condition, so it's not much of a backup car, but I can drive our minivan if I need to. Haven't needed to yet, except when upgrading.

if mine drove, or even ran, i would drive the balls off it until it blew up so i could rebuild it. but right now, i drive a rusty old 1992 honda accord (it's for sale by the way).

i don't know, the way it runs when it does, i might not even have to drive it to have to rebuild it, we'll see ;)

I daily drove my SA for the last 10 months. Had a blast. I also have a turbo FB, '94 BMW, '98 Chevy Z71 (7" lift w/35" tires), '06 Lancer, '00 Harley, '07 Buell XB12R. I could drive a different vehicle every day :D

What I find funny is that the voting does not at ALL reflect the posts. Almost everyone that posted said they drive their SA / FB daily, yet the majority of VOTES tell a different story.

I'm not saying a rotary CAN'T be reliable. But, like many of you also said, it is a 20-30 year old car, and unless you know how good the previous owner(s) took care of it, it's surely a gamble.

I guess I can brag a little that my '06 Focus is quite a bit more reliable because it's new, and still has a warranty. If it ever reached the point to which I was unsure if it would get me to work or not, I'd either do a rebuild on it or buy a different car.

OK, my White One (84 GSL) is a daily driver. I put 110 miles on her every day commuting from Jefferson GA into work in Atlanta.

My back up is The Silver One, an 85 GSL "project". This Silver car is going to give me a whole lot of miles, well into 2012, I figure.

So, according to the poll, I probably fit one of the categories above about driving a rotary with a rotary backup. Is there any other way?

Plus we have a couple of boingers for nostaligic value and getting goat grain, they are a 2002 MP5 and a '93 Jeep Wrangler.

But the 7 is the only one I like to drive, especially at the end of the day around mile 100 as I pull off 85 into Jefferson.

Mr. Project, you need to do better work and get that buggy on the road!

And an '06 Focus? Gag me with a spoon!

The car in my sig is my daily driver; no backup car for me.

well right now i daily a piston. but i dailied a rotor for 10+ years, and would happily do it again.

i dont fit your questions very well

right now have six rx 7's only one in drivable condition so use it as my daily driver come winter this will be a different story my 81 has never left me stranded give her what she needs and she will kill herself for me its the most reliable car I've ever owned (and it has 213,000 miles without a rebuild)

213k miles, that's impressive :)

not as impressive as 600,000... but it is believable

the guy who had it before me took extra special care of her so the running gear is in great shape

I drove my FB daily for a year and a half with no issues before it blew the front rotor, and I still drove it daily on one rotor for another month and a half or so. Now I drive my SA daily with only footpower as back up and no issues. It's never left me stranded anywhere. I think SA's and FB's are just as good of daily drivers as any other vehicle of the same age. Yeah things are worn out and need replaced, just like any other vehicle. I'll put it this way, I put more money into my FC in the time I owned it than I have my FB and SA combined. I've driven both in winters with no issues either, and I've never had any further rusting than was on the cars when I bought them. The key is to wash the undercarriage after every snow fall. Although I will admit, in the next year or so I will be buying a new car to DD for better fuel economy and to keep the miles off the SA. The SA will be promoted to the fun toy car while I rebuild the FB.