Jade Robbins

Hey guys, i was looking around my town today and happened to notice a 91 RX-7 at a local used car dealership. Well i was l ooking at it, and it seemed like a pretty sexy little beast, but i thought i better come to the experts before i really even consider buying it. I looked at the FAQ and buying guides but i would like a little more specific information on a guy that iis new to the whole sports car thing.

I'm not a HUGE car guy, but this car looks like a fun drive so i have a few questions.
note: 1991 RX-7 convirtable, body looks pretty nice, looks fairly well taken care of (from external ovservations) interior loos pretty nice, 81,758 miles on the odometer, automatic transmission. The price on the outside is $4990.

First, being i'm niether rich or super mechanically inclined (although i could see an interesting car like this changing that) what would my expectations be when it comes to regular maintenence, and possible work on the car.

Second, i havn't looked at the engine nor driven it, i don't know if it is a turbo or not. I'm assuming if it is turbo i should stay away from it with my knowledge level of vehicles. What should i really be lookins for and listening for when i drive it, and what sort of mechanical "bad" things would be considred minor and what are major. (kind of asking this about this specific year).

I would really appriciate any other suggestions/comments you guys might have. This looks like a really cool car and from surfing these forums for a bit, if i bought it i would definetly have to start posting here.

Thanks for any help and/or input!

Tournapart

iTrader: (4)

its not a turbo first of all

yes you will need to work on this car a bit if you cant afford to take it to a shop, frankly i would rather work on them myself

what you need to own this car is going to be this forum, a service manual, and a nice set of tools

signs to look for while testing is, when you start up the car, initally it should shoot up to about 3K-3.5K for a few seconds if its cold and then it should lower to about 1.5K-2K after about 10-15seconds. and finally idle warmed up between 650-850RPMS but steadily

look and smell for raw gas, excessive white smoke, black smoke or blue smoke, make sure that the car idles somewhat evenly when its all warmed up and you driven for a few blocks, and to note, RX's tend to never idle perfect, but it shouldnt go up and down or idle higher than 900RPMS.

get on it a bit if you take it on the freeway, go through all the gears, check for whining sounds from the transmission, those are signs of transmission failure, make sure there are no clunks or slipping when the trans changes gears.

and finally go with your gut, if you take it back to the dealer and your unsure, dont buy it. period, if you interested in RX's test drive a few before you decide, you'll be able to guage better of how they run. now if you take it back and you feel good about the car and you can see yourself working on it, offer him 3.5K right off the bat and dont go any higher than 4K unless he has full maintence records, how many people owned the car prior to now, and most of all what kind of guarentee he is prepared to give IN WRITING. 5K is alot to ask for these, but in immaculate condition its a prety good deal, as you will read a well maintained N/A S5 engine should last about 150K-200K.

contrary to popular belife rotaries in alot of ways are better than pistons and last just as long if not longer. but just like any car, taking care of it is a MUST. good luck

oh and by the way i own a 91vert and love my car far more than any car i have ever owned

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

I think TournApart hit all of the major points, and I would just like to add that as far as working on these cars: This is the easist car I have ever worked on, and I've worked on quite a few. Doing minor things like Oil changes and spark plug changes are trivial matters, I can do an oil change in less than 3 minutes (depending on how fast the oil drains). Everything is easy and open in the engine bay, and they're really a nice starter car to begin your mechanics' hobby.

Just a note, I hear a lot of bad things about the automatics (I've never driven an auto 7), so you may want to consider chaning to a manual at some point in the future, which is pretty easy and cheap to do.

Welcome to the club!

Jade Robbins

hey thanks, you guys are QUITE friendly and very eager to help. I think i shall test drive it when i get a chance. I would love to own a car like this, maybe start getting into working on cars and whatnot, sounds like this would be a nice way to start.

Thanks guys, i'll check it out.

Curtisleeyoung

buy it and worry about the problems later, Any thing can be fixed.

Jade Robbins

Curious, how do rotary engines work on in town driving/long trips? Someone told me they burn out quick if you take them on trips. . . .

FC-chan

ScrapFC, BLUE TII, and I drove about 1400miles to go to Sevenstock 6, and had no problems.( well, SCarpFC's fuel pump went out, but that was already on it's way before we went) The only problem I had is that your stop-and-go milage can really suck if your an abrupt driver. I loved mine on the 800 mile drive to bring her home, very smooth and comfy driving.

Kouta

On any kind of long drive rotaries really purr. Well at least the 3 that I have do. The only thing that sucks about city/stop'n'go driving is gas consumption... especially if your jamming on the gas, but thats will all cars.
Autos are nice, just shove some lucas' transmission fix, and take a while to learn it. They really teach you pedal control, if you slam on the gas your going to go off the line really really slow, if you do it gradually you can actually feel the car pull nicely in accordance with the amount of gas your giving it (as with all cars, but the auto I have seen to be a bit more picky) also with the auto dont expect any power until it shifts into second, but from there up its nice. There might also be a button the shifter... look for that and make sure its out (off). If ya press that button while crusing (at above 40mph) it will drop the rpms down and give ya alot better gas mileage, but you wont have any acceleration, and ya have to make sure to click it back off when ya are decelerating below 40mph so your dont burn out the tranny.

Jade Robbins

wow rock on, thanks alot guys. You folks are so helpful i'm giong to try and get some info from the dealer today.

Jade Robbins

well i went down to the dealership today and took it for a test drive, going to head to the bank tomorrow and see what i can do about loans. You guys have any tips/comments for a first time auto loaner?

The only odd thing that happened was when i was backing up i didn't give it much gas and the car died. Could that be normal/my error, or a sign of something else? Other than that the car purred and drove nice, i think i might need a new power steering pump (or it might be low on fluid) because it was a little hard to steer the thing. The car is in great shape, been garaged it's whole life. I hope i get it!

RX_AV8TR

Well...this is my first post...

After having two FC T II's and a '93 i tell you two things:
1. AUTOMATIC!!!....uhh...no
2. Too expensive for a n/a.

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

RX_AV8TR - Who knows, some people actually *gasp* like automatic cars... I could never figure out why, though... He was advized to get the price down.. I hope he did, but remember, its a S5 convertable, they're worth more than a TII at this point..

Jade Robbins - As for the backing up, I'm not sure why it stalled.. could have been anything, including the auto tranny, I dunno. Its probably not indicative of anything serious though. As for the loan, before you sign your life away at a bank, check your local credit union if you belong to one. I was able to get a loan for my miata with a 3.90% rate, and they're much better to deal with than any bank. I think the lowest that local banks were talking about were 5%. There's not really much to the auto-loan process. The bank gives you a check, you give it to the car dealer, and you make payments. Pretty straight forward.

As for the power steering, the car should be nice and easy to turn. If the fluid was low, you'd hear a "clicking" noise when you tried to turn it. Might want to have that looked at, or use it as a negotiation point for the car. Of course, this is a sports car, so it might just seem harder to turn to you, if your'e used to luxury sedan style cars. Check the fluid to be sure, though.

Good luck.

Jade Robbins

yeah as much as i wish it was a stick, alas it's not and i'm cool with that. The fact that it's an automatic makes my girlfriend a little more friendly to me purchasing it

And on the turning issue, that is a possiblity that i'm just used to a non sporty car. I drive an 86 Honda Accord and it's a considerably different car.

The only problem is that they weren't negotiable on the price, which is kind of a bummer. I still havn't 100% decided that iw ant to get it, i want to see waht kinda loan i can get. The problem is it is a used car dealer and i'm not sure if i could get the price down though. The blue book for this car is around 7000 (gasp!) with the miles and features it has on it.

The funny part was that the dealer thought the coolest part for me would be the speakers in the headrest .

Therotaryrocket85

Unless the car is show quality id have to say hes asking a bit too much for it. I paid 4k for mine and its a stick and its show quality with similar miles( see sig) One of the most important things is that the interior and top are mint especially if they want that much for it and of course what others have already mentioned above.

The stalling issue was more than likely from what i like to call lot rot. Its probably set there for a while and or just been moved around the parking lot and it needs to be driven so if it only stalled once i wouldnt really give it much concern especially if it wasnt up to operating temp yet.

If hes not negotiable on the price then he must not be serious on selling it. Id do some searching around for other cars before selling yourself on this one. I know the thing on auto's and the g/f liking it better but just keep in mind if you buy it that selling an auto f/c is very difficult and they dont bring nearly the money that 5 speed cars do so you will take a loss on the car if you ever decide to sell it if you bought it for that price. Again if its show quality then id be inclined to retract my statement. There was a guy here locally that wouldnt budge on the price on his vert he had. So my buddy who wanted it just kept calling him once a week until the guy finally came off of it. The harsh reality is that most rx7s are purchased by rx7 enthuisiasts these days so they would prefer a 5 speed or know that the auto isnt worth as much. The only thing i see risking that the car would sell to someone else would be if a high school girl wants a convertible and daddy buys it for her not knowing what it is or they take it off the lot to auction which would be stupid if they knew you were a potential buyer but ive seen it happen before. The vert im speaking of in my town has been for sale on that lot now for over 4 months and its a red 90 model vert, automatic with 95k miles on it and they are asking $4995 as well. Judging by how hard it is to sell an automatic on here and how long this guy has had this vert in my town, id say hes asking too much. You could get a better deal if you were willing to travel but getting a loan on a car that you havent found yet would be hectic. I guess just follow your heart man but be careful. Everything better be 100% on it even down to having excellent tires. Like i said already if the top has any imprefections or the interior or exterior have any damage id go for something else. That price is aweful steep.

Jade Robbins

guys this is a dealer, meaning that the price he asked is right at the bottom of the kelly blue book. I pretty much decided not to buy it because if i did i woulnd't have the money to pay the loan back AND insure it. Sad day thanks for all your help though guys.

Therotaryrocket85

Normally id say sorry for not getting the car but in this case i think you made the right decision. Just because hes a dealer doesnt mean he is asking the bottom dollar. Most if not all dealers who sell used cars usually ask close to double what they gave for it at trade in or at the auction on lower priced cars. He could come off if he wanted to but he thinks the car is worth gold. Of course its difficult to negotiate a price if your having to finance it. I think ya made the right decision. My suggestion would be to save up some money and keep an eye on the classifieds here at the forum and on other things like ebay and autotrader as well as the local paper and what not and the right car will pop up and you can just pay cash for it and be free and clear. I sold my 91 corvette that i had financed so i could get out from under full coverage insurance and a car payment. I bought my vert, paid cash and run just liability and its the best thing i ever did. Do i miss my vette? Meh well sort of, but the cost of owning it wasnt worth it to me. I much prefer the rx7s. I just saw a decent vert sell here about 50 miles from me for $2100. It wasnt the nicest thing around but it was a vert and it ran good and the top was good. If i remember right the seats were redone but all the carpet was original so it needed some love here and there. If i had the extra money laying around i would have bought it. But someone beat me to it. Just be patient man, the right one will come along.

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

Just a suggestion: You may want to try getting a loan from a credit union, like I suggested before. When I got my car loan for my Miata, I was able to tell them the highest priced miata that I was willing to look at. So in my case, since I was a poor college student, I put my max price at about 3500. They sent me a blank cashier's check, and the check was good for anywhere up to 3500. After I found my Miata, it only cost 3k, so that's what I wrote the check out for, and that's all my loan is for. This method makes shopping for a car a lot easier, since it doesn't matter whether the person is private seller (like my Miata was bought from) or a dealer. You're just going in with a blank cashier's check.

I agree, though, keep calling him once a week. If he's interested in selling, you two should be able to (eventually) reach a price you both are happy with. I'd start checking the "for sale" section of the forum, too. I bought my last rx-7 from the for sale section (our 85 GS for my dad), and everything went smashingly. You'll find an enthusiast normally sells things more genuinely than a dealer. I bought my Miata from Miata.net's classifieds, and I new EVERYTHING about the car before I even drove down to see it. The Rx-7 that we bought was the same way. I recommend it

Good luck, keep up the search!

Jade Robbins

Actually that is exactly what i was thinking. I decided that since i was in love with the car, i could find another one when i'm more fiscally prepared, and since it seems that people on here are having trouble selling autos i should be able to get a sexy deal on one. I do thank you so much for your help and i will actually continue to surf here being i've become quite interested in rx-7's in the past couple weeks. Thanks guys.