It's always like that...
Whenever someone talks about their first couple of cars....it's always got atleast one Honda in it.....Always..
I ran mine into the ground because I didn't know what I was doing....it still ran...
It's still running to this day, not very well but hey...whatever.

 

Dude, mine would have to litterally be taken to some alien mother ship far far away before I would ever consider giving up on it....even than......

 

I would hardly call that troublesome. The only bad part about RX7's for an inexperienced driver is the RWD. Sure, the S5 TII had 200hp stock (probably doesn't now if he buys one...). That was a lot back in the late 80's/early 90's... Now, not so much.

FC's are pretty ******* indestructible/reliable (especially if you remove all the emissions equipment). N/A's can last 300,000+ miles, so the internals aren't much of a problem if taken care of correctly. Most of the problems occur due to old/faulty electronics which are easily fixed (TPS adjustment for example). Now, I've never owned a 12A FB. I'm sure they're just as reliable, but you can't say that he should avoid FC's (N/A) because they're unreliable. That's just liable.

+eleventybillion

With that attitude, I'd be glad to have you own a 7. Although I wouldn't call a rotary challenging, it's good to see people who don't want what everyone else has and are willing to put in a good day's work for something they love.

 

"FC's are pretty ******* indestructible/reliable (especially if you remove all the emissions equipment). N/A's can last 300,000+ miles, so the internals aren't much of a problem if taken care of correctly. Most of the problems occur due to old/faulty electronics which are easily fixed (TPS adjustment for example). Now, I've never owned a 12A FB. I'm sure they're just as reliable, but you can't say that he should avoid FC's (N/A) because they're unreliable. That's just liable."


I'd like you do show me ten pictures of odometers with over 300,000 miles and an original good running engine.

Don't even get me started on dowel leaks and coolant o-ring failures.

 

Your joking right? There isa whole line up of vehicles with rotarys in them. From boats, cars,motorcycles,helecoptors,airplanes ect. The rx7 was the first mass produced US car to have a rotary in it.

 

my first car was and still is my 88 7 vert, i always wanted one since i saw my uncles 1st gen then i got it for $500 and it smokes a lil bit but that happens wen i rev it to like 4000 rpm but i dont do that , i like my car alot

 

yea !! post some pics about your about rebulit. nice. but how is it going ??

 

agree !!!so nice !!!!!! but should i start with a turbo ?

 

what is the problem ?? if you take good care of it , nothing is gonna to go wrong

 

Depends on what you want...

Where i live the traffic is pretty bad so high speed driving ranges from impossible to dangerous. For driving around in traffic i actually prefer my NA because it has power as soon as i step on the gas and accelerates quickly with light to moderate throttle.

When i drive my turbo around town it gets annoying cause i'll be going slow around a corner then i'll try and take off in 2nd with lows rpms and it feels kinda gutless for a couple seconds before the rpms raise and the turbo spools up a bit.

The turbos are lower compression so they actually have less power when your turbo isnt spooled up which takes a couple seconds usually.

The turbos are also more prone to overheating, so if you have a leaky radiator or low coolant or something you can hurt your motor very easily. Prompt and thorough maintenance is just that much more important with a turbo and you have no place to work on it, nor the knowledge to spot problems before they bite you.

 

if your willing to put time,effort and good care to your car, hell why not???. if you treat your car well he will also treat you well, but if you have a heavy foot and race with whatever pulls next to you then not even a honda will last long. bro nowadays 16 year old kids are getting evo's, sti's and they're turbo so i think a TII isn't so bad for a first car. people say that a 16 year old kid on a TII is bad because they have 200hp, but you go to the streets and see 16 year old kids on sti's, evos, srt-4's and they have more hp than and FC turbo and nobody says nothing. is just a matter of what you like more, when i bought my TII everybody said it was goona give me problems, that it was difficult to maintain etc. but i didn't care, i liked so much the FC turbo that i was willing to do anything to have it regardless of whatever the people said. the only thing you have to do is that when you search for your rx-7 talk to the seller ask him how many miles it has, if its been rebuild, check the compression and find a nice rx-7. if i were you i searched for a bone stock rx-7 because almost everytime you find a bone stock rx-7 is because the owner take good care of it well and he didn't like to race on it. but check the miles and if it's been rebuild. my FC turbo had a rebuild a year before that i bought it so i was lucky, the compression on both rotors were over 100+. oh and to those people that don't think n/a rx7 las long, my uncle has a 1983 12A and its bone stock, it haven't been opened ever. over 280,000 miles and it still runs. its like i said it only depends on how you treat your car. good luck with your search bro and have fun.

 

You could spend thousands of dollars replacing old components and still not be sure that something wont fail.

These cars are old... There is simply too many tired components that you could realistically expect to not have to work on it from time to time.


What will you do if you need a new clutch, pay up the butt for someone else to put it in for you?

What will you do if your radiator stops holding coolant, pay up the butt?

Broken oil cooler lines?

Brake job?

How will you change the fluid in the tranny and differential with no floor jack?


Rotarys do last a long time when you give them regular maintenance and fix things before they go completely, how do you plan on doing that with no shop, no tools, and limited experience?

 

He has no shop, no garage, not even a driveway to work on it in...
So basically he does not even have the means to "treat it well" so chances are it wont treat him well either.

Also all those cars you named are new cars that come with a manufacturer warranty so if something breaks they fix it for you. Thats because their parents know they dont know **** about cars nor does there son so they bought them a new car that they wanted.... most of the time those same 16 yr olds end up wrecking there brand new cars too... i work in the autobody industry i see this ALL THE TIME.

 

I didn't know *** about mechanics or working on cars (besides how to turn a wrench and change oil) when I got my FC... 5 months of work (well, I only had weekends to work, and only once every few months) later and my car was running like the day it came out of the factory (...well, maybe not THAT well)...

As long as you're willing to put Money + EffortX2 into a car, an FC is not that bad of a daily driver... I'd say wait till you're at least 20 though... otherwise you won't be able to afford the insurance, and your chances of wrecking your beloved RX7 will be much higher if you don't wait till you've got experience behind the wheel.

 

firs of all man, he has to put his car somewhere so don't tell me that he doesn't have anywhere to put it,(where is he gonna leave the car, in his bed with him???) when i got my car i work on it on the driveway or whetever i could, so there's no excuse to treat well you car, there are thousands of possibilitys were you can work on your car. its funny because al the kids ive seen with evo's, sti's etc, take good care of them hell if they could they would sleep inside the car, it doesn't matter if your 16, 40,50 etc, if you like to race you race with whatever you have including a swift or yugo. and also when the kids bought those cars they actually know what their getting, pretty rare to see a kid with and evo and don't know what the hell it is, in those ages the only think you do is talk about cars and girls, so they pretty much know the car upside down, NOW the other thing there parents don't know if that they want it to beat the **** out of them and thats a different story. but theres always a few responsible ones that do take care and drive responsibly with their cars.

 

my 88 was great. and u can work on a 7 anywhere. they are great to learn more on. before i got mine a barely knew anything about cars, and that was last october and i have a second one i'm doing a manual swap and i'm about to rebuild my own engine and buy yet another rx-7. they are wondreful cars, especially if you can get a well taken care of one. my old one just didnt get any love before i got it, and the engine blew, but there are other people with 200k+ miles on theres and they are running great. good luck with your car choosing man.

 

If you read his post he said he lives in a townhouse with his parents, so his car will be parked on the street...

I would not like to try doing a clutch job out in the street in the middle of some town. If he lives out in a rural area maybe but im pretty sure he is urban. What are you gonna do with all the parts you take off? Leave your exhaust system laying on the sidewalk? Go set it in mom and dads living room carpet?

If the kid really understands that kind of maintenance will almost assuredly be needed and hes still willing to lay under his car out in the street all day and face the possibility of needing to store dirty *** car parts overnight, then the more power too him, welcome to the club.

I just dont want him to have any delusions that he wont have to work on it, and in all probability will be faced with large projects which will take time,blood,sweat and he'll be doing it in the street with limited tools and no prior experience.

With the money a FC costs in good condition you could get a much newer and therefore more reliable car.

 

townhouse? HOA typically frowns on people working on cars on the curb. ask me how i know.

no garage, no money, no tools, no income

not the car for you right now.

 

well i can work o it in the suto shop class!

 

I totally agree that they are wonderful cars and they are also totally addicting lol. Before i had my FC i had a 240sx and i knew enough to do most of my own work, but now that i have my FC I learned a lot more things in detail and i'm still learning more about it. before i bought it, a couple of my friends were saying they are unreliable but that is un true, it's a lot simpler than a piston engine, even though at first i was a little intimidated, but thats all gone now. Good luck in finding your FC.

 

All the people I talked to tried to dissuade me from selling my Camry to get an RX-7. I came on this forum and monitored the type of problems people were having and how easy or difficult they were to fix for about a month. I read every single post in the archive, read all the tutorials I could find and printed up the buyer's guide to learn all I could so I would know what I was getting myself into.

If you're interested and knowledgable about your car then even when something needs fixing it won't really feel like work, just another opportunity to learn more about your vehicle.

The only thing that I'd be concerned about (other than the soaring price of gas) is the fact that you don't really have anywere to work on the vehicle. Yea, autoshop sounds nice, but what if you need to address a starting problem, or install a clutch or fly wheel?

If you decide to get an FC, make sure it's been well maintained! Make sure you get a compression test before hand, and focus on reliability mods and preventative maintainance.

 

well !!!
my parent's friend is selling a 96 m3 ..... so i think this is just nothting right time to get one ...

 

What? ... anyways. i say go for the 96 e36 M3 if you can get it. the 96+ came with the 3.2l which was an upgrade from the 95 3.0l e36 m3. a lil more torque. iirc, the 96+ also came with 6spd and a refined chassis compared tot he 95's 5spd. go for it!