I am interested in a 1987 base model. Was adult owned and maintained. Looks great. I have only owned first gens never a second gen. The the thing I am hesitating on is it has 157k miles on it. Owner said only thing it needs are maybe new struts and some shifter bushings. Should I pull the trigger on this car?

 

Also near me is an 89 gxl with 82k miles. But it shows it's age. Had original white paint that is flaked off in a bunch of spots and what looks like maybe surface rust on the roof. Whatcha think. They are both priced about the same.

 

Have you seen or test driven either car? If either one is unmodified then they should be fairly decent drivers. Naturally, the big question is compression on each motor. There are some electrical problems with the FC but the car is straight forward to work on. The body CPU is often the culprit for horn, signals, security alarm, and headlight issues. Finding a new one (body cpu) can be very time consuming and expensive.

Again, give each car a look over and see what features work on the car. Do be careful with any car (not just FC) that has rust. Is it surface rust or does the rust go deeper, like cancer?

Best of luck on your search and potential purchase of an FC.

Cheers,
George

 

Thanks George. No I haven't had a chance to drive them yet. I am a truck driver so I don't get home until the weekend. The nicer of the two is an hour and a half away. So I was trying to see if it was worth my time to go check it out.

 

If your interested in a car, any trip to look at it is worth it IMO

 

If I was home daily and had time then yes. But I haven't decided on what car I would like so I wanted to know if the mileage was too high. Plus when you drive all day every day for the whole week you kinda don't want to spend your weekend driving more lol. There is an fb for sale a little over an hour away that I would probably get over these two fcs but the guy won't return my calls or texts or emails

 

It sounds like the FB guy doesn't want to part with it. I would at least check out either FC. What do you have to lose?

When compared to an FB, I found the FC to be more comfortable and equally reliable when unmodified/slightly modified from stock. I mean put on a high flow cat and RB Cat Back exhaust and you're good to go! I'm sure others would argue otherwise.

Cheers,
George

 

If you're interested in any vehicle, I would definitely take a trip to see it... Unless the idea for the vehicle is that you're going to be fixing it up from the ground up anyways, know what you're purchasing before you hand over the money. You also get to figure out if the seller has good intentions or not by seeing them in person. What if the car doesn't even exist, yano?

 

What's a Cat? lol

Honestly mileage really isn't a true sign on how the good the motor is on these cars, they are 30ish years old now. I have learned that they don't fair to well sitting around too long. I recommend getting one with a body in better condition since new body parts aren't that easy to find, and I am not sure who makes aftermarket panels anymore.
I am not sure how much you already know about RX-7s in general, but I still what to help.
A S5 89-91 (92 Convertible only) is normally more desirable then a S4 86-88.
5 lug has better brakes and aftermarket wheel options.
A GXL is the Luxury trim level, a bit heavier but has Electronic adjustable Struts and shocks .
A GTU/s is the Sport trim level. Stiffer Suspension better brakes.
A Base/Sport is the lower trim level and may manual everything including steering, but you will have power brakes.
A TII or Turbo 2 is the turbo model, I have seen those with crank windows and manual steering, but you will have the best brakes and suspension.

Rust wise I would check out the rocker panels under the doors, and under the car by the floor pan behind the seats, those seem to be the biggest trouble spots for rust body wise. the Sunroof panel is also a trouble area but you can replace it better easy as long as you find a replacement.