I DD a 2001 Ford Escape in the UP of Michigan, and my FB is my fun car. I would have no problem DD'ing my FB during the warm months if my rear end was in one piece, but it's blown right now. Once the snow starts to fly though, it's 4WD or bust in the UP. I've seen 27" of snow fall in 8 hours with 60 mph winds and the roads were drifted shut with 4' deep drifts for about 30 hours. 2wd sports car FTL in those conditions.

 

I have to say I love my FB as my daily. I drive about 100 miles a day and with some mods like exhaust and emissions removal, im getting close to 30mpg. Now as far as reliability, Its been more reliable than any of my newer piston powered cars. Its simple, and easy to work on. I have over 170,000 miles on the motor without a rebuild. So make sure you stay up on maintance and youll be find. Obviously there will be a few lemons but id say it trust it.

 

I do not think that this is a debate at all. The rotary engine is one of the most reliable engines ever made. I think most of us would agree with that. I do not know what you mean by a lot of upkeep and a lot of things that can go wrong. I have 126,000 on my 84SE and haven't replaced a single thing. Original everything is on that car except tune-up parts. Throw a rod in a piston engine and you will go nowhere. Blow a seal in a rotary, and you can still get it home.

 

I don't know about that. My original motor had 1 bad seal and it wouldn't run, but I've driven cars with rod knocks (for a while) without issues. I know several people who have driven home with holes in their engine blocks.

-I regularly go 6-8k on my DD without even checking the oil.
-When I had my '69 Beetle as a DD, I blew the fan belt on the freeway and was getting no cooling on my #1 and 3 cylinders, which burned all the high-temp coating off the exhaust and baked the oil to the point it was the consistancy of pudding. After it cooled off, it still started and drove OK. I fixed the belt and kept driving it, and after I changed the oil a few months later it was fine.
-When I had my Plymouth Horizon DD, I was a delivery driver for a taco joint. It blew the accessory belt regularly, because I think the water pump was bad. I still used it as my DD and delivery vehicle. It would always be steaming and I was forever putting water in it. I ran it out of oil once too, and the motor stopped. I let it cool off, and drove it home with no oil. Try that with a rotary.

Maybe I just got lucky, or maybe piston engines like my abuse and neglect. I don't plan on doing my rotary this way, because I know it won't take it.

 

I drove first gen beaters as winter cars for 10 years. I would run them till the rear axles let lose then buy another car with a good body and transplant my engine. By far the most fun winter car I have ever driven! It's become difficult finding usable chassis in Wisconsin so I no longer have a winter 1st gen. I did pop a couple of motors but always managed to get home on one rotor. Once you know the vehicles and keep an eye on common problems, reliabilty was great! I have a very nice black 83 GSL that I would drive anyplace and was my primary daily driver (summer only) for years.

 

The first-gen is pretty reliable, with proper upkeep... but it's still 30 years old, and even when new, the required upkeep was far more than modern cars need.

I just turned 81k on my '03 Z DD, and thus far all it's needed was fiulds, filters, tires, and brakes.

I drove my SA for many years as a DD... but I also spent a lot more time maintaining it than the Z needs.

They're a fine DD if you are mechanically inclined, and can affrord to buy parts when needed.

 

The first rx7 I bought was my "winter beater" I liked the car so much that I bought another one and got rid of the car that was the summer car '86 Honda Civic SI.
The sa I have now is to moded to run on the street daily. I will drive to auto-x's close to my house but most of the time its on the trailer.
I do have a pretty good DD now '07 MazdaSpeed3 its fast in a straight line but doesn't corner very well compared to the sa or the Miata I used to DD.

 

my 83 gsl is reliable to boot. blew a coolant seal, poured radiator stop leak in it, and can drive it 130 miles to the racetrack, race all day (about 20 laps) around a 1.4 mile track and averages 18 while racing. on the highway she's getting about 28. and leaks oil like a mother XD

but its still reliable enough where i drive it everytime the weather is nice

 

It is a 25-30 year old car.... What do you expect? If you dont have the financial means to have someone fix it up for you, or the expertise to do it yourself.... Buy a new car! Dont complain because your car that is over two decades old breaks down. Of course it will need upkeep, a 30 year old piston engined car would need a hell of alot of upkeep too (I know from personal experience).

That said, if you dont want to deal with the problems of daily driving, then by all means dont. Put money into it, make it nice, drive it when you want to drive it. There will never be a consensus on whether the 7 is a good daily or not. Its like the streetability of a huge bridgeport, or a lightweight flywheel. There are those that wouldnt drive a car like that everyday, or even on the street! I personally would, but my definition of streetable (and tolerable lol) is a little broader than most. All of that said, I have owned N/A rotaries with well over 200,000 miles. There are piston engines that dont make it that far.



Any un-rebuilt cars are beyond there life span? Service records... sounds like you should stick to new cars. a 30 year old car, probably isnt going to have service records. And if you are smart, listening to an engine, watching and smelling the exhaust, checking the coolant and oil. All of those things tell me more about an engine than any service records will. I have brought rotaries back to life that had the factory mazda oil filter corroded in place,and sold them to people who still drive them. Sure rotaries can blow up, but if you keep the from detonating, keep them well lubed, drive them often, and hard, and always let them fully warm up before shutting them off or running them hard. You can pretty much avoid 90% of your seal breaking engine overheating scenarios.

Yes a rotary generally needs an entire rebuild, but piston engines are not without their own expensive repairs. Rod knocks are fairly common in neglected piston engines, blown headgaskets, warped heads, bent/broken valves.
Lets say your on your way to work and the timing belt breaks, well you might have just (depending on make and model) bent a 1/3 or more of your valves, the whole top end of the engine will need to come apart.

My point above, is a piston engined car, is every bit as good as a rotary at breaking down at the WRONG time. Just because it isnt a rotary doesnt mean its going to be nicer to you and pick a less important time to self destruct. Any used piston engine car comes with the same gamble that a rotary comes with. I have been left stranded halfway to work in Hondas (Hence why I like Toyota better now lol)

That said, my daily driver is a 1986 Toyota MR2. It has required alot of maintence, but you wont here me complain about it once. It is something that comes with ANY old used car. I expect it, I take care of it all myself. Why do I drive my MR2 instead of the 7? Ohio winters are brutal, I needed something fun to drive, and RWD, for the snow. My 7 is incredibly nice, and I want to keep it that way. Besides the MR2 does something the 7 cant, it averages around 35 mpg. And it handles better, so I like it as much as I like the 7.

I dont have a problem with you not daily driving your car, but you should expect that kind of trouble from an older car. Even with all the problems that arise in owning to old used cars, my annnual cost of ownership (mostly because I do my own work) is NOWHERE near the cost of owning and insuring one new car. And I do all major repairs, no matter how big of a job it is. And for me, thats how I like it, I thought about getting a new car for years. The warranty would keep me from doing all the major work, well all the work really. But I just cant stand the thought of someone else working on my car. If that doesnt bother you, then more power to you.

 

I fall into a different category. I daily drive my RX8 which is completely reliable. I have two GSL-SE's but since my 8 is reliable I don't consider either 7 a backup. One 7 I am doing a complete restore, the other 7 I got for free and I'm trying to get it running so I can keep the 8 out of the rain. All rotaries though, so I guess that somewhat applies to the topic.

 

except for a pissedon yamaha?

 

RoXanne is my DD and my wife has an 03 Shitsubishi Diamante, so I guess you could call it my backup, but that's like saying the backup gun to your .45 is an airsoft pistol...

 

Wouldn't recommend it. Sure they are great cars. I have DD'd mine for the past few weeks.

I DD my 02 protege, but it is in the shop. I would rather DD that than the RX, simply because I would rather the Protege get hit than the RX. Too many stupid people out there. Drive 110% safe, and then you get the bozo who thought he could make the yellow light.

 

I forgot to throw the Yamaha into the mix. I usually car pool with my roommate so I don't ride it that much. I take the Yamaha anytime he isn't with me though. If I didn't carpool I would take the Yamaha most of the time.

 

I voted other. I drive a Toyota 4runner and a 528i daily, and my rx7 is my hobby car.


..however its piston powered to... (runs and hides)

 

I have a RX as a daily then I have an RX as back up that hasnt run for over one year and I have my wifes mazda 6 as back up for the back up

 

Well I daily drive my saturn as it gets 2-3x the gas mileage and I drive 20+ miles to work daily. Also, I wanna get more than a year out of an engine....lol

 

I DD my -7 for about 14 of the 20 years I've owned it; it was 10 years old when I bought it, and was still on it's original engine at that time. The original motor lasted me another 3 years before succumbing to seal-wear compression loss.

So, 13 years on the first motor. The first one I built, lasted about 8.

I screwed up the second one (insufficient endplay; measured it wrong ) and it 'only' lasted 4 years.

The third one's been in almost 5 years now, but it's not driven often, so I've no idea how long it'll go.

That's an average of about 7 years per motor.

 

84stock, you have a 13bt right?

 

I bought an 83 gsl with around 220,000km on it last year with the idea of it being my summer DD. The only times i did not use it last summer when i was doing rust removal on it, which was my choice. The engine runs great, with no issues what so ever.

It started with 0 issues after being parked for the winter and i am back to driving it now. I plan to sell it as i got 2 new rottery hobby cars, but till it sell plan to drive it none stop.

Very good cars.

 

My GSLSE is my backup car, although I will switch it to daily driver duty for weeks at a time, depending on the weather since it has no AC. I'm too nervous to let it be my only car, but the car has never left me stranded in the years I've owned it, although I would let it go down for months at a time if it needed a part I didn't feel like paying for (most recently a clutch.)

The DD is a Miata, and I drive it more mostly because it gets better gas mileage, and it has AC if it's really hot outside. The Miata is actually better than the SE in many ways- convertible, more reliable, better handling... but when I get into the RX-7 something just clicks and feels right. The Miata is my transportation, the GSL-SE is my car.

 

i daily it when it runs or when its not snowing. if its not my 7 its my escort gt hell yea!

 

I daily drive my FB and i hate it. It's too loud, too fast, and too expensive. Get's me in too much trouble, and you just shouldn't daily drive a highly modified Sports car. I'm either getting an Rx-8 to daily drive, a new Mazda 3, or a Honda soon.

 

I DD my SE as well. The far has its own "personality" for sure...it does not start all the time as the tranny is kinda messed up and grinds...but hell once it starts..the runs perfect. Never over heats is peppy..and yeah super reliable. I totally trust it.

I have a back up...and I plan on doing a full restore as soon as this damn recession ends!

 

I dd the 7 right now with no backup. Planning on getting an F150 this summer though, just as a hauler/dd to keep the miles off Roxanne

edit: Wanted to say that I've owned the car a year, and aside from the clutch going out and my *stupid* mistake, the car has not given me a single problem.