I'm a Mazdaspeed 3 owner who has a chance to buy an 88 RX7 convertible with 185,000 km (115,000 miles) that seems to be in very good condition. All the electrics work (everything-guages, radio, antennae, mirrors, wipers-everything), paint is excellent, no rust, always winter stored, top seems perfect, immaculate engine bay. I just drove the thing for about 1.5 hours at varying speeds and it runs smoothly and reasonably tight. The owner is my girlfriend's father and he is asking $1500 for it. It struck me as a good deal but I thought I would come to the pros to find out.

Any thoughts? Thanks

 

Sorry if I posted in the wrong thread but I only have a brief period of time to decide because there is another guy in the wings waiting to put down his $1500 if I don't jump on this in 24 hours.

 

Yes good deal, you could use it for a year and still sell for a profit

 

Kind of what I figured...yup...getting my post count up too!

Anyone else?

Thanks

 

how many people you need to tell you its a good deal?

 

Ha!...guess I'm a little nervous never having bought an older car before and knowing very little about RX's.

 

Very good deal, do it.

 

i've owned every year and model of the FC, and the convertible is my favorite.

$1500 for an 88 is a great deal.

 

anyone else?

 

Great deal. I own an 88 convertible and I way overpaid for it and it was in worse condition than that. I still love the car, so yes, great deal.

 

Its a steal. Just make sure you don't over look things. It may drive good and all but, there can be some flaws that may come by. You can't expect the car to be 100% perfect, after all the car is 20+ years old.

 

Im not going to say its a steal since i cant see the car but it sure sounds like a good deal! I been daily driving a coupe for years but i just put my first vert on the road, i love it! Even if you dont like it you still can sell it for more money.

O yeah and if the top have zero rips in it then thats a BIG plus, tops are expensive.

 

Ok...thanks very much for all the input. I'll post up a follow up with some photos...I'm going to cook him and his wife a very nice dinner tonight. Maybe I can get him to come down a bit!

 

whoa whoa whoa- whats going on here? Cook them a meal?

 

Make it a good dinner and then throw down the cash!!! SOLD. Let's see it

 

That's a damn good deal. I've got an 08 Mazda 3 for my daily and a 88 vert as my toy and I love it.

 

Well, it's taken me a little while to get things all figured out but with all the encouragement from this group I'm going to buy the car. Here are a few shots of it...it's pretty clean.

Thanks again for all the input guys.

 

Pretty clean? Looks mint from the pictures! Even has the battery box cover. Daaaaamn. I hate you now, always wanted a clean white vert.

 

I got my S5 vert in the same condition for $500. No battery box cover though.

The vert top dind't start tearing until after I bought it, and then the ******* paint started flaking off the trunk lid.

 

I've had 4 FC's, one of them a vert. The 3 coupes weren't nearly as much fun as the vert is. Very good deal, go for it

 

the battery box cover alone makes it worth $1500

 

looks very minty, nice car!

 

Ok...being new to the RX7 thing...whats the big deal about the battery box cover?

 

it's like the FIRST part to get thrown out. who wants it really?? it serves no purpose other than to pretty-up the engine bay. your car's 25 years old, and has 186k miles. thats a long time for it to get thrown out, yet, there it lays! I'm shocked it has the factory radio too, even more awesome!!

Last item of rarity, always missing: The odometer reset push button

 

The car has been safetied and emissions tested and it has passed everything without any hiccups. In fact, the mechanic doing the safety test described it as "pristine"!

He did however comment on the frame channel, located pretty much under the seats, as having a some rusting that should probably be looked at at some point in the future. Can any of you guys comment on this? I've done a search through the forum and can't find anything specifically about frame corrosion. I wasn't at the actual inspection to get clarification but I intend to drop by the shop today just to ask about it.

In the meantime, now I just need to have it appraised so the government can determine how much provincial sales tax I need to pay...yes we need to keep paying sales tax on items sold in Ontario, over and over and over and over.....

Oh, and working hard to make space for her in my garage...I should be able to move her there this weekend!