Theres 2 kinds of people out there, those who fear the rotary because of what they hear about them, and those who love the rotary because they have experienced it.

Dont buy a cheap rx7, price reflects the condition.. imo

 

Reliability is up to the owner. That means keep up with maintenance, check fluid levels and condition of wear items often, and don't beat on it when it's cold. Also try to buy a car from someone who knows what they're doing, I highly suggest looking for a car on a rotary specific forum. There's no guarantee that every forum seller has done everything right, but the chances are much higher than if you're looking on craigslist or ebay or a shady dealership. Don't buy a car with all kinds of hacked wiring hanging out all over the place and with a bunch of half-assed work done. Either you spend money on buying a good car, or you buy a cheap car and spend even more money fixing all the stuff that will be wrong with it.

 

In general, when buying just about any old car, it is always advisable to buy the very nicest car you can find/afford. It will cost you more in terms of parts, labor and/or your own time to fix a cheap, abused car than to start with a well-maintained one. Especially given how cheap even the nicest FC is, you'll usually save money if you buy a good car upfront.

 

If you're open to other Mazdas, don't overlook the Miata. It's a very reliable car, you can find them in just about any price range, and they get good gas mileage. I'll probably get one myself one day.

 

Rotaries are reliable engines, but they are more sensitive to abuse. In addition, you don't know what previous owners did or how well they took care of the car. Rotaries are just as reliable as piston engines but they have to be taken care of correctly.

 

I think rotaries are damn reliable, I blew and engine once racing due to an electrical problem which caused me to lose power to the front rotors injectors, lean out and destroy some ****, but I was still able to drive it all the way home with one rotor. The only time it has ever been towed was when it caught fire because I wasn't careful and didn't test after installing injectors and leaked fuel all over the engine causing a fire on the turbo. Now beyond that it seems that buddy always has his cars broken down on the side of the road and he drives piston cars, I don't attribute this to it being a piston engine but rather he doesn't maintain his cars as well as I do and he has bad luck.

At the end of the day I wouldn't say a rotary is more reliable than a piston engine and I wouldn't say a piston engine is more reliable than a rotary.

 

The Wankel engine design is not as refined as the reciprocal engine nor is it as efficient as the reciprocal engine. It also makes less torque. There are fewer mechanics who can properly service the Wankel then there as those that can service a reciprocal engine. The best thing you can do to prolong the life of your car and save yourself money is to find a service manual such as the one from the factory or Haynes.

Start looking at engines in terms of how much horsepower they produce per cubic inch and compare that to their fuel efficiency.

Also consider that parts yards have a surplus of spare parts for vehicles about 10 years old. 10 years seems to be the peak of available spare parts. I think that's how long it takes for the average person to wear out/destroy a vehicle. Newer or older then 10 years and parts are harder to find.

 

So I blew a rear apex seal today...

 

I dont know from personal experience, however my brother owns both the FC and FD and the only major problems he has had were the mileage on the FC (the engine blew at 110,000 miles +) and his FD engine just "blew" after a crack was found somewhere I forgot. He has had only a few minor problems that come from any car 20+ years old. As long as you maintain the car well, and you dont have 100,000 + miles you will be fine haha. That comes with any car.

 

I drive my 88 convertible N/A about 96 miles/day. The original engine blew a coolant seal at 187,000 miles. Bought another engine with 102,000 miles on it and paid somebody to install and fully tune it - total was $1500. Now I have a vehicle which will run prob another 50K+ miles. I put about $500/year into this vehicle for routine maintenance an on-going stuff. It did take quite a bit to get it 'right' to start with - probably $2k over the purchase price, but we did it right with good parts. I've now had it for 5 years. So I'm into this for about $5K (plus the $1500 engine swap) and drive it daily and absolutely love it!

 

I got lucky with mine. Everything still works, and approaching 150k miles on the original engine, it runs better than when I bought it 7 years ago. And its never broken down on me. Ever. Even when something went bad (alternator, starter etc) it still managed to run and get me home so I could fix it.

Its really just luck of the draw. You could get one that's on its final run or you can get one thats still full of life. Just depends on its history.