The dealership down the street had an '88 RX7 SE, 5 speed, 99k miles and I finally found some time to go over and take it for a test drive.

Now I'm screwed, because I'm going to have to buy one. Driving it was like the first time you saw your girlfriend naked.



Ignore the price, I know it's retarded, but the story gets better later. I have a few questions that I didn't get answered by the guides I've read here and the other ones on the interweb (like Aaron's). Thanks in advance for answering them (most of them are probably really easy).

1.) The car was a little rough at idle, but went from a dead stop all the way to the redline smoothly (no hesitation along the way) and held higher RPMs smoothly (I held her at 5k for a bit and there was no knocks or hesitation). Is this a pretty easy problem to fix?

2.) The cooling fan came on 10 seconds after the car started, and the temperature gauge went up to the 1/4 point pretty quickly. I'm not sure how long it takes a rotory to heat up, but it didn't go above the 1/4 mark the whole drive, and I had the A/C on for the last half. Is this a normal behavior?

3.) The shifting was really rough and loose. I've read that this is a bushing problem, and I didn't get any grinds at all, but when I pulled back into the dealership, I had difficulty getting it into reverse. I had to hold the shifter in the reverse position, then release the clutch a little for it to lock into gear. My Accord has done this for a little bit, but I don't know how bad of a sign that is of tranny wear.

4.) I want to go back if things work out, and check everything else in better detail. How exactly do you do a compression tests using a normal tester on a rotory? I've never actually used a compression tester.

5.) How do you check for bubbles in the coolant? Is it ok to start the car with the radiator cap off? Last time I removed the cap on my car while it was under presure resulted in soaked jeans.

Ok, that's all I can think of for concerns/questions for now.

On to the rest of the story. My boss is good friends with the shop manager at the dealership, and he asked him to pull the car in the shop and give me his personal opinion (the mechanics get bored during the summer since it's their off-season I guess) and I printed out the blue book sheets showing the trade-in value at $1,200 and the private party value at $2,200. The car has the rough idle and when I took it out I made the loose/rough shifting sound like a transmission problem since the sales guy didn't know it was even RWD I thought that might help.

The biggest problem is that it's one of those no-haggle dealerships and that's the only price he says he'll sell it for. I asked him how many other people have looked at it, and he said we're the third. I checked the listing on Car Soup and the car has been listed for neary a month now, and they're probably going to wholesale it sometime soon if they don't sell it. I'm hoping that having the blue book stuff and giving it to my boss's buddy will help me if he can talk to the sales manager so they at least make something off the car. Sorry for the rambles, and thanks for any advice!

 

$4000? tell them they're nuts, those base/SE's were the lowest model FC's, hell you could find a TII with a rebuild in grade A condition on this forum for $4000.

also, when buying a car not from a "rotary enthusiast", be prepared for rigged, unsafe, ****.

 

So very true, only sad part is, you get tired of just 1 after about a week and buy a couple more. They tend to dislike this very much and fight amongst each other. Best to 'hide' them from each other. :-D

 

1: if you mean the brap brap vmmmmmmmm brap brap vmmmmmm.......thats normal

2: FC's can heat up 1/4 way in no time.....as long as it stays that low, you're good.

3: beats me

4: www.rotaryresurrection.com - go to the "tech" section

5: from what i understand, you can bleed bubbles out of the coolant.

 

Like Zero Cylinder said $4000 is WAY, WAY to much for a series 4 base model.

 

Yeah, that's what I kept thelling the guy and he just kept responding "we don't haggle so everyone gets the best price". Yeah, my ***.

If I do go with it, I'm not paying more then $2k.

 

again, check the for sale section on this site, $2k on here will get you something nicer.

 

Theres a reason its callled the suckey edition

 

I didn't see much in Minnesota. It would be nice to get a GTU though.

Thanks for that link as well, there was some good reading there. Would a dealership normally let you pop out the bottom plugs and go at it with a compression tester? Oh yeah, and how much do those puppies cost?

 

I just got a TII from a dealer for $2500. VERY clean. The car smoked and stalled. The dealer let me pull the plugs in the lot. FYI, the smoke and stall was from a blow turbo. ($338 to rebuild) So for less than $3000 I have a very clean, rust free, dent free TII. :-)

 

Sweet. I wish more FCs showed up around here. Most of the ones I've seen the last 2 months have been pretty crappy and not worth the time.

 

wow, 4G. I'd sell you my TII for 4G. ^_^

 

I bought my 87 base, which looked just like that one, for 1200 and it ran great.

A rough idle is not normal. It could be in need of a tune-up or maintenance.

But yes, RX7s drive like a sports car, not a practical car. It's kind of different, eh?

 

Minneapolis area definatly has some nice FC's running around

If you're willing to travel you can find a FC for cheaper. I ended up flying to Ga to get my s5 TII

 

I haven't seen many in our area here. I've seen two driving by on the way to work in the last 3 months, and a guy down the street has a very nice vert with only 42k miles on it. I'm probably going to end up travelling in the end, and I'm think the GTU is the only way to go for me. I'm planning on using it for a daily driver since my Accord is on the way out, and from what I've gathered, TIIs don't last as long as a NA.

As far as the pricing goes on this one, I'm going to call up my boss later today and find out what his buddy said. I'm guessing that the dealership didn't dish out more the $1,000 to the previous owner for the trade-in, and they'd probably get about that much back if they wholesale it, so if I can get them to sell it off for $1500-2000, I'd jump on it. That might be a little bit of daydreaming there, but :shrug: what the heck.

 

That thing has gorgeous paint, but isn't worth the price. Hang out in the "cars for sale" forum long enough and you'll find the right one for you. BTW...you think that car was fun? Try a modded turbo. Mash the gas and prepare to have the **** scared out of you!

-Joe

 

looks like its in nice condition though...not 4k, but nice

 

Go to www.kbb.com get the value of the car and print it out. That is blue book value. It will probably not be over 2500. Although the car looks great on the outside it is the lowest model. Good luck


Santiago

 

yet again you obviously didn't read a damned thing posted...

 

I only read HIS post. Why would I read a bunch of ricer's posts? J/K!!

I posted about KBB so that he could show it to the guys at the stealership and tell them to haggle or die!

 

So you read the part about printing off the blue book value then?

 

By teh Rat **** I missed that.

 

The '88 SE looks very good. Looks exactly like my first FC which I regret selling.

I do, however, have to agree that its a bit too much so maybe you should haggle them a bit. I paid $2700 for my '88 SE with 70K on it but I would to say it was a good deal. Near perfect paint and mint interior. Engine ran great with no hesitations. Sold it for $3300 later on.

Try to get him to lower it to $3200 or so if possible. Still a lot but personally, I don't mind paying a little more for a clean/great paint FC.

 

Funny. Everyone wants to make their car as light as possible by pulling out "extra" stuff, yet the base is already like this...I quite like my '86 base, no matter how sucky it is.

 

i paid 2200 for my se, and it had 152k miles on it, great paint, and great condition. 4000 is way too much.