My .02, I have an 89 gtu that I drive 220 mile per week to work. It was in great shape when I bought it w/72K. It now has 82K and all I have done is put brakes and shocks/struts on it. And well tires too. It does'nt get the best mileage in the world, but I also own a 04 Colorado that sits in the garage all week, because I'd rather drive the 7. That being said I have two sons, 1 is almost 21 and has had 6 cars/trucks. Most from e-bay. 1 was a 7. I have not always agreed with his purchases and most of the time I was right. I don't know your father, but one thing I have learned in my 42 years is... the older I get the smarter my dad seems to be. In a nutshell, expierence is a valuable thing, even if I can't spell it.

 

What's wrong with the RX-7 you have, other than it being in RI? Why would you sell a car you've put so much work into, AND **** your father off, to buy another 7?

Maybe I'm missing something? Wouldn't it make sense to go pick up the car in RI rather than get another?

-Paul

 

True but he knows nothing about cars, other than he wants me to get one thats good for getting me from point a to point b in the cheapest manor.

My opinion on cars is they can be fun to drive an fun to work on, especially if you have a nice fast good handling car ( rx7) , you wont have any fun working on or any fun spirited driving in a honda civic.

Surely i could save my money to use on other things but I already know driving and working on my rx7 is something i take pride in and i have a passion for, so why would you take that away from your son ? Better me to have a car that is money consuming like a kid, than to actually have a kid... just my .02 cents

__________________________________________________ ____________

And as far as driving the rx7...driving the car fast " beating on it " , ive had numerous opinions. One person told me the engine will blow up at the same time no matter how easy you drive it because there is always wear being made, and there is little significance as to how long it lasts from "babying" it , this was someone i met on another forum who owns a 93 fd3s, he also said all u need is a 500 mile breakin.

Kevin landers told me before when i bought my engine that 5500 rpms and under is where the s4 na likes to be, and that you can even floor it on the breakin up to 4k, and to break it in for 1000 miles and it should last a good amount of time.

Ive taken mine up to 5000 rpms several times and had no problems, and mine has about 300-400 miles on the rebuild, but i dont think it should cause any problems anytime soon, and the engine should at least last 50,000 miles since it was freshly rebuilt, so i dont see how this is a " money hog" , all the money already has been thrown into it for most of anything that would need replacement down the road. I think it all depends on how well you take care of your car and how you drive it myself, i dont plan on constantly redling or driving fast, i would keep it 5500 rpm or less 90% of the time and change my oil every 1500-2000 miles with gtx

 

This is actually wat im wondering. Can you clarify some more please?

 

has minor accident damage on front end one side of bumper pushed in so hood doesnt align and lots of stupid litttle problems

- bad starter
- bad alignment on one rear wheel
-one side of suspension is lower on the rear
-heater doesnt work
- all gauge lights turn on when hitting brakes
- needs wheel stud that is stripped
-steering has play to it , donno why so its hard to drive in str8 line
-might need clutch slave
-brakes dont seem as tight as they should be for being brand new (maybe bad booster or master cyl is going bad, or i just didnt bleed them enough )

and the car registration is suspended because i got a sticker (5 day tag) for having no inspection sticker, so now it will need to get passed on inspection/emissions and have a special form filled before i can re register it and drive it

im not sure what else but that gives you an idea


And the reason i cant pick up the car in RI is because my dad says it gives him a "hardon" and he seems to hate the car because its all i talked about for 2 years and he thinks its just a burden on my life, but he is one of those people who thinks everything he thinks is right and u have to do everything his way or he'll kick you out the house so im in a shitty situation of being depressed and unhappy without my car


but i actually found a nice clean gxl in RI that i could get for 900 bucks off someone i know, and it would be a perfect donor car for whatever parts i have that it will ever need from my rx7 , and its running and has an inspection sticker! problem is that it has 3" true dual exhaust , but i could replace that so it wouldnt be as loud, but anytime he hears anything to do with having loud exhaust to him its " bad logistics and impractical, money pit , gangster car "

 

Strange Thing.I bought my car For the looks.Nice,little Sexy Sports car.I had no Idea what I was getting Into!.But I can tell you that This car has "taught" me more about compromise,mechanics,Finances,than Anything Or anyone.I have had the Car since Last year,and the Only time it has been "down" is because I am doing things to it,like replacing stuff that needs replacing Either due to Age or Wear and Tear.Other than that,I drive the Crap out of My N/A and I would take it on a Cross-Canada run and not think Twice about it. The car is the Best 'investment' I have ever put money into.I know that I Most likely won't get what I put into it IF I decide to sell it,but I've got a Realible Rotary(flame suit protected)and I love it!,and Most of the Money is in Bolt-on Mods/Parts...NOW..as for the Other Part of the Thread,Try to get your Dad to Look at What others have to say About Owning an N/A...Why not get him to READ THE FORUM.Pick out a couple threads,and show him just what You are all excited about.Maybe he will "come around".A Half Decent shape N/A is Easy To Maintain.Checking Fluid levels,is about the Hardest part.(this is Coming from a guy that can't even Bend over to Tie his shoes..Me!)

 

Holy crap no wonder he has a bad impression of rx-7s. I dunno wat to tell ya man...ur in a tough situation but don't **** off ur dad or give up ur education for a car. It just isn't worth it.

 

true but that doesnt mean i shouldnt be able to buy another nice rx7, that i could swap all my good parts onto so that i could have a clean decent car instead of my problematic car. Ive put at least 50-100 + hours of work on my car, including replacing the entire main wiring harness all by myself, thats dedication.

oh and not to mention my car has all this with only about 400 miles on it

1. rebuilt engine streetported $1330
2. rb lightweight steel flywhee and centerforce dual friction clutch $600
3. borla catback exhaust $300 new on ebay
4. rb headers $260
5. new waterpump $70
6.new motormount, oil cooler mounts, and tranny mounts, $200+
7. new rad hoses $30 +
8. all new brakes/rotors/ 5 lug conversion $600

im sure u get the idea, there are many other parts i didnt list and he wants me to sell it for $1500 bucks after putting all that time into the car and money into it

so i dont really want to sell it at all, even if i got another rx7 i doubt it would have this much stuff put into it, so i think i should just keep mine an transfer all that good stuff onto a nice car and sell whatever i have left thats extra, but he sees it as a waste of time, so ill have to wait 2 years after i graduate and hope my car doesnt get stolen or something while being stored

 

So, if you sell the car as is, how much do you expect to get for it? Logically, it'd be unlikely to get a 7 in better condition with the sale proceeds, so how are you better off?

How much are you planning to spend on a beater? What are you paying for storage on the car now?

Three likely solutions.

1. Buy a cheapo beater to get back and forth and keep your current 7 until you have the time and $ to work on it, preferably after you leave home.

2. Sell it, buy a reliable daily driver, suck it up for now, and learn that sometimes you have to make short term sacrifices to achieve long term goals. There will still be RX7s for sale AFTER you're done with school.

3. Move out, pay your own damn bills, and do WTF you want. Just be man enough to take responsibility for your decisions regardless of what you choose.

YMMV, of course.

-Paul

 

hey, if I came across like I was preaching at you, sorry. The point I was trying to make is try to see both sides of the argument. Someday your priorities will change or be changed for you. When I was 21 I had a 1 year old Recaro T/A (special edition trans am). When I was 22 I had a 1 year old son and a 4 year old buick regal. I agree with the earlier comments to try to educate your dad on 7's even though it won't be easy. Any older car will take work but an old 7 might take more depending on the previous owner. You and your dad are like me and my wife. She thinks cars are for transportation only, I want to trade my truck for a mitsubishi evo. And I only want the evo until I can have a 911.

 

my dad doesnt even know what its like to be in a fast car lol

 

it's hard to make an "all things equal" comparison because they are such different cars. I think in your hypothetical scenario your point could be dead on, but he is more likely to drive a sports car harder--brake harder, accelerate harder, corner harder. Even if you give a 7 the edge in maintainance, the fact that he will drive it harder will overwhelm it. He will more likely attempt burnouts, drifting/donuts, and other sorts of **** that will consume tires, brakes, gas, etc. Think about his age. I'm 21 and I do all that stuff in my beater Supra. If I had a civic for a beater I wouldn't have torn through tires so quickly.

 

Just tell your dad to shut up?

 

see the thing is , he doesnt even want my car to be loud, any loud exhaust and he says its a "non-white person" (dont call me racist im quoting what he said).



that I have to say is one of the most stupid things I have ever heard. I have seen many cars. sorry many many many many cars driven by races other then blacks that are loud. I've seen one guy who is the whitest damn "non-white person" that I have ever seen. he has to be in his 70's. driving an older 68 firebird that was in pristine condition that was loud. and I'm sorry but when you swap in a 428 put dual bullet style mufflers on there and have a huge exhaust with a huge cam good flowing heads and so forth it is going to be loud. white,black, red, whatever doesn't mean anything on what the car is going to be. color just doesn't mean squat for that. sorry not trying to rag on your dad I'm just just confused




icemark I have a 76 accord right now that my friend is borrowing for the time being. has about 190k miles on it and it still runs. my only real problems with it is I hate adjusting the valve lash, the CVCC carb SUCKS ( time for the holley version of the weber once I get around to rebuilding it) and the damn distributor that nobody makes parts for or can seem to even get me the correct damn replacement dizzy. still pulls around 140psi on all 4 cylinders as far as compression with it's measly 8:1 compression and once I can get my hands on a TII TMIC, and a turbo we get to work on putting all that stuff in there. should still hold with 6-8 psi.




as far as the reliability of N/A rx7's I have seen some blow at 100k miles others last quite some time. it's just like any car little luck and good care goes a long ways. friend sold his some time ago with 330k+ MILES not kilometers still running good. mine reads about 205k right now but the speedo cable came out for a few thousands so I'm more like 210k or so. I have had some issues mostly minor though. worst one was the pulsation damper. car sat for a year because I Was stubborn and didn't want to pay 200 bucks almost for a new one and waited till I found one in a junkyard. after that year started up fine and has been driving ever since. other then that replaced the water pump which is normal for a car that had 180k miles on it at the time. replaced some spark plugs. replaced spark plug wires since mine where original when I bought the car at 148k miles. cleaned the injectors since the car sat for that year and even before it sat it did have some flod problems. that's not a rx7 only issue it is a fuel injection issue. replaced a thermostat once since it started sticking open. again common repair. oh bought a TPS once since when I bought the car it iddn't have one. and replaced the alt because I liked the FD one more with 100a vs what 60amp? and a broken driveshaft and tranny due to my stupidity of trying to dump the clutch during a rolling start with a weak driveshaft. it snapped spun around smacked the tranny and broke it. again though not the fault of the car but I shouldn't be doing that on a weak driveshaft and the driveshaft wouldn't of been weak if I didn't abuse the car to hell and back.
all in all everything I have done is common repair work or upgrades like the full exhaust. it still runs strong still runs fine it is getting on avg 25-26mpg right now though that is about 60-75% freeway driving.

out of all the cars I have owned it has been easiest to keep going in decent shape for a car that I tried to actually keep up with. this isn't including the celica I had that I just didn't give a rats *** about I payed nothing on that car and drove it till it died . if I had the chance to buy another rx7 for a daily driver I would. my friends and I love the car and are happy with how it does as far as just ticking away with little work to keep it going. even more so with the amount of abuse it has had over it's life.


as it sits right now the only real work it needs is some suspension work. 20 year old rubber bushings get old and dry out in ANY car and shocks don't last forever either. Plus some cosmetic work. big woop.

{edited for racist words that multiple members have complained about}

 

Again we are talking about 15-20 year old cars... Honda built quality back in Japan and in the 70's. All the US and Canadian built cars (built in the 80's and later) are crap (well I guess if you had a Chrysler or GM car before, you might consider a Honda very reliable- in comparison).

And lets face it... nickel and dime maintenance gets pretty old pretty damm quick. Sure you can have a car that has 150K miles or 200K miles on it, and say that it is reliable because it has so many miles on it (GM advertises its trucks that way).

But in reality if you have to replace the brakes every 20K miles, or the fuel pump every 50K miles or the head gasket or the (etc) how reliable is it really???

My definition of reliable is not that the car made it to (or almost too) 200K miles. My definintion is 100K miles with only wear and tear and tune up parts being replaced. Brakes or shocks or gaskets shouldn't need to be replaced every 20-50 K miles to be considered a reliable car.

If I have a worn out seat in 60K miles, that is not reliable and running well. If I have an timeing belt, or AFM, or coil that needs replacing every 50K miles that is not reliable... regardless of if the car or truck is still running at 200K miles

 

Well, no... see that just shows he didn't check the car out before buying it and bought a POS that was beat on and not maintained.

Much like many others who have a bad impression on a RX-7.

 

Explain how it doesn't

1. In order to buy a decent TII that most would consider to be well maitained and will last you a fair while will cost approx. $3000 at the bare minimum. Do you have an extra $3000......or say.....$2750 after you sell your other one?

2. Do you think he's wrong by suggesting that instead of blowing a bunch of money on something you don't really need right now on a sports car?....sure you WANT it, but I want a million dollars.

And really......you think you have? By driving your beat down, not even certifiable N/A P.O.S.?

Look, your dad is looking out for you and if you don't want to take his advice...fine...you wouldn't be the first kid who didn't listen to their Dad advice.

Keep in mind....he's your dad...do you think he WANTS to tell you that you can't have what you want? Hell no, its hurst him probably more than it does you.

But he does it becuase he knows if you take the path he's recommending that you WILL have that car and more one day. You've just gotta trust him.

But whateva.....apparently your a "big boy" because you "know what its like to drive a fast car" and therefore you can make ALL the proper life decisions for yourself.

Im done with this thread.

 

I understand that I should not be stressing on my car. I am just worried about my mom being the one who is in charge of storing it without me being there, so it leaves me to be worried that something may happen to my car , like get stolen or something *knocks on wood*, i know i have messed up priorities but i have always loved my car even if it is a pos, at least it has alot of nice stuff on it for a pos.

But a car is just like a house, you cant make a nice house on a bad foundation , and my car has had a bad foundation from the day i bought it. Surely it was my fault for buying it, i knew nothing about Rx7s when i bought it, but after all my experience with this car I know alot about them and I know what to buy now and what not to, and surely any clean rx7 would make a good donor car for all my brand new parts including my freshly rebuilt engine.

As far as the civic goes, my dad has a 91 honda civic 1.5 litre sohc lx 5 speed with 221,000 miles still going, ac still blows cold, and it gets 30-40mpg depending if u are always on the highway, it does have very slow pickup/accel and has and oil leak on the oilpan, and im sure the compression isnt running very high but it has lasted a while with no repairs other than a timing belt/waterpump, tuneup (sparkplugs/wires/airfilter/brakes), and of course new tires.

 

I bought my RX7 4 years ago at 18. Since then I've put under 3000 miles on it. That wasn't by choice. I *intended* it to be my daily driver. It's had... a few... problems.

Do I regret buying it at all? Hell no. I've put more work into my car than anything else in my life (extra curricular). I'm extremely proud of it and wouldn't take back my decision for anything.

I'm not saying you should buy it. That's just my experience.

 

Honestly now, I don't think you can convince your dad otherwise if he is set in his ways. Try your best to see what you can do and go from there.

My FC has been the most reliable car I have ever owned (out of 16), I wouldn't trade it for anything.

 

my honda other then those two things has been reliable. even the valves I have only done once which isn't unheard of with that many miles.
as far as the rx7 with that many miles only to replace those few things isn't too bad.
in my opinion they both are reliable cars so far. you can't expect 200k miles without replacing a thing at all now can you?
the brakes where replaced at 170k miles on the car. the shocks are still the original shocks with 200k miles on them.

another thing though that can affect reliability though is not just quality of the part but user also.

 

he wants me with basic transportation, says i dont need a sports car because insurance is expensive, more maintainance, etc. Lately it seems like they are blackmailing me into selling it , but they say its for my own good even to sell it for like 1500$ after putting $5000 into it along with 50-100+ hours of hard work i did myself.

Would you want to sell it for $1500 after doing all that for 2 years and only driving it for less than 500 miles , or would you rather store it for until you can drive it again which would be another 2 years...he says i need to make sacrafices...but yet why cant he let me keep my car ? Ive given up smoking weed, all my friends, my guitar, my car (the rx7 im talking about), and basically have no life here so how can he act like ive done nothing to deserve to have my car, ive smoked the weed for 7 years and have stopped for about 2 months now...

 

my 88 gxl became my daily driver and aslong as i checked the fluids and kept gas in it it ran like a dream.

 

Unfortantly you seem to be unable to read what I posted, lost in your honda daze. So here it is again:

So much like Classic, I am done with this baby thread. Drive the car you want.

 

I have an '87 N/A RX-7, 100k miles on it. Daily driver. It has only needed basic maintenance. 18/26mpg. $2850, including new fuel pulsation dampener ($350 installed); it was leaking before purchase.
I had an '86 N/A RX-7, 200k miles on it. Daily driver. Looked like garbage. It only needed basic maintenance. 17/25mpg (same as new?). $600 at auction, including overdue registration and smog ($220).
My older sister's first car was a used Civic with a bad tranny.
My little sister's first car is a Buick Electra. <15mpg (definately < new), had idling problems for a while. Supposedly driven by a grandma before.

N/A FCs are very reliable, except for light/gauge issues and other minor quirks. Civics are reliable too. But people are weasles when selling their broken used cars.

Last time I checked the Kelly Blue Book value on a lousy S4 N/A FC was $3300. It goes up to about $4000 for an excellent one. S5: +$1000. Turbo: +$2000. You shouldn't throw away any free support from your dad, but he is being a bit unreasonable. Try to talk to him. Cutting off your support is probably just a threat. OTOH I wouldn't do any upgrades on your RX-7 while in college.