What do you guys think?
 

Hello,

I have always been fascinated with rotaries and recently this 1986 RX7 GXL popped up at a local dealership. My current car is a Volkswagen, but I want to replace it with a reliable, but sporty daily driver. So I really got excited when I saw this RX7. It looks to be in excellent condition. What do you guys think?

http://images.webmakerx.net/Photo/19...G0132408_1.JPG
$7,000
74,907 Miles

The paint is in very good condition, everything looks original. The passenger seat is broken, looks like the seat back cracked in half and bent over. I think the seats may have been re-upholstered with that wierd red fabric, but I can live with it.

I took a look underneath and I noticed that the rear part of the engine or transmission was wet with oil, just very slight no drips or anything.
The exhaust has slight surface rust but nothing major and the original heat shields are intact.

I want to go look at it more thouroughly. What should I look for when checking it out and test driving?

Thanks alot, if all goes well i'll be around the site more often.

hey :)

the FAQ has a great thread about things to look for when buying an FC. some basic things to check for are smoking, spitting/sputtering, 3,800rpm hesitation, bad windshield wipers/other electronics. compression checking is always a good idea too-i wouldnt buy anything under 8 or 9.
just my $0.02

good luck!
-claire

is it $7000 or$700? if its $7000 they are asking way too much!!!

they better be askin for $700 with an interior like that... holy shit... i think i lost my appetite.

bro, i spent $850 cash in west palm beach for the car you see in my sig, AS IT SITS. i drove it home 3 hours across florida to Largo. the only problem i had was the alternator. i replaced that and drove it for 2 years without a problem... besides old tires. just keep an eye out and dont buy the first thing you see.

Ok i'll try and talk them down, especially because of the interior. What do you think a good asking price is? $5,000?

i bought my 88 for 3,200 and my 89 for 2,500

from the looks of it, that car is a GXL, in which case 5,000 is asking WAY too much. 5,000 could get you a T2 in good running condition.
try checking autotrader, or the regional section of the forums, someone in your area might have one for sale, or know someone who does

Still way too high. My buddy got his GXL...black on black leather for 3 thousand. Runs PERFECT, with 62xxx miles on it. Better interior..but whatever its worth to you pay. Just know this, disregard the hatin to come.

you have to be kidding me I wouldn't buy that for 7,000 with a new engine, I bought my 87 turbo II for 1,50 with 95,000 miles a couple years ago it had a cracked manifold and rotted exhaust and faded paint, I wouldn't spend more than 2,500 for that N/A do you realize what you can get with 7,000 probably find a FD with High miles, shit just buy my car and I will go buy a 91 S5TII and mod it out

Yeah I guess $7,000 seems really high then. I'll check it all out and see if it's in good condition. From what their saying it seems really good, but I still gotta drive it. I think i'll offer them $4,000 if I decide it's good.

i wouldnt pay more then 2K personally...thats if its running perfect...and if its leakin oil..thats not perfect

shit i paid 1000 for mine beautiful condition. my advice get a cheap slightly damaged one as long as it isnt body damage, and fix it up(-: that makes it yours!

maybe its in Canada... isn't the Candaian dollar worth half of the US dollar???

That would explain the (double the worth) asking price

The cars are left hand in that pic...that would be US right? Heh. Anyways...5000 is too much for an NA, and that one appears to have an oil leak, NO THANKS! Reliable? Steer away from that car unless you want problems :). If you have 7,000 to spend..find a NICE condition (perfect) condition T2. If you didn't know, T2 = The turbo model of the RX-7.

It takes a lot of balls to walk up into a dealer and offer them HALF of what the sticker says, but i'll try it. A buddy of mine already checked out the car, and he thought he saw a turbo, but that doesn't mean much coming from him hehe. Maybe that would explain the high price?

How much is insurance for a GXL? I pay $88/month on my old VW.

Parts are pretty expensive for a VW. A basic turbo kit is $2,500, a decent 1.8t engine is around $3,000, good coilovers are all over $800. How expensive is it to modify an RX7?

http://www.god-squad.net/images/autox/mowog6/33.jpg

That's my Jetta. I use it for daily driving and autocross.

dont buy it. look around and get a nice cherry one-owner one for under 5k if you want a nice old NA. 7k is wayyyy too much

7k....wow.... i know they have all been saying the same thing... but they are right! go to this website.... www.kellybluebook.com ......and you'll be astonished at how much this place is trying to rip you off!! there is a very clean 1990 gxl at a used dealership a few miles from my house going for $3300.... show them the print-out of the kbb site...and tell them you wont spend a dime over 1k more than private party value!




here i did the hard part.this is private party value in excellent condition.. $2,620

this one is suggested retail value, which means this is what should be on their price tag! $3,845

www.kbb.com

Dealers are asshats anyhow. Do a full run through per Aaron Cakes site found in FAQ. If everything is MINT! offer them 2k no more + tax tag and title. If you want a FC I can not stress enough just look around chill here for a wile, lurk, our for sale section will be able to find a great car that members keep up and mod tastefully for 3 to 4k all day long.

I bought mine blown motor 650.

You ask moding prices. Well there all about the same cost 10x more then you make.

you could almost get a fully built t2 for 7k

If your friend thinks that GXL has a turbo your buying someones hackjob. GXL's didnt come with turbo. Maybe your friends just a complete dumbass. Anyhow, A buddy of mine bought an rx7 just like that but the interior looked great on his. He paid $2000 and it had 85k miles. It is one of the nicest stock 7's ive seen.

The outside of this car your looking at looks nice. But the interior looks like shit, and it apparently leaks oil. Im not sure how those options could RAISE the value 3x KBB

I'd pay no more than 2,500.

It seems like most rx7's here in Minnesota are overpriced.

7K is waaayyyyy too much man, take some pics of the engine bay and stuff, you can probably get more opinion on how much to offer if you dont know what you are looking at. If it's leaking oil, dont buy it, not worth it.

I bought my N/A for $600 with 190,000 miles

now doing a TII Swap........$$$

it doesn't take balls man, just tell them there a bunch of jackasses for trying to sell a na for that much, it takes balls for trying to sell it for that much period, grab a 1$ auto trader and show them the going fc N/A rates are then read it your self and find a bargin

Just look on ebay for a car. Your buddy thought he saw a turbo? Oh christ... Walk away right now.

I just bought an 87 T2 for $2,850. It runs fine. All I've had to do was fix the back up lights, and get a new tps. That price is outrageous.

My friend was lucky and found an 86 n/a base model for $1,200. 1,200 dollars! 7 grand is insane, even for a perfectly fine turbo 2. Just keep looking around and you will find a better deal.

I just test drove it. Wow this thing is mint. It literally looks and feels like it just rolled off the lot. Whoever owned this thing meticulously maintained it. The engine is the cleanest thing I have ever seen for a 20 year old car. There isn't a single spot of rust, dent, or even a scratch in the paint. No dirt, burns, rips or sags in the interior. Everything works perfectly including the A/C. The shift boot looks brand new, but it's obviously original. The shifter is so tight and precise I couldn't believe it.

The engine idles exactly as described in the FAQ. At first start it goes to 3,000, then 1,500, then 750. The temp guage runs at 1/4th. It appears to be in perfect mechanical condition. It pulls nice and strong, I can feel the power increase a lot right at 4,000 rpm.

The only thing that concerns me is the tranny. It shifts just fine and is quiet until 5th gear. Theres a very faint whine from the 5th gear. My dad says that the tranny is shot and is basically worthless. What do you guys think?

are you sure its the tranny?? if it shifts fine, and is quiet (until 5th) than i think your fine..... ive never heard of 5th gear going out in an fc... how do you abuse 5th gear?? its probubly somewhere in the drivetrain.....mine whines while im on the freeway

its hard to find a 7 in minnesota i went through the same thing as you. but 7k is alot. have you looked on carsoup? i saw a pretty clean looking TII on there for like 5k i think.

what do i think?

i think you better stop by walmart for some lube before you hit up the car lot.

i personally think you should look for a new one. THeres no place harder than where I live to find rx7's, TII's especially but I finally got mine after 8 months of searching. I know thats a long time but if you got a volkswagon already wats the rush? The first rx7 I looked at had a v8 and i wanted it so bad. I thot it was the best looking thing out there. Fortunately the guy didnt call me back, later that month I found my car and it was 100x better than that other rx7 I was obsessed with. So if you just have patience and look around I think you will find a much better one for a much better price. By the way I got my 1990 Turbo II for 8,500 canadian/ 7,000 american and I have no regrets on the price for its condition. But thats 7000 for a turbo + its 4 years newer than that one so your gettin' ripped.

I'm not going to give them anymore than bluebook value for the car. I was just wondering if the tranny is ok?

It is normal for a manual transmission to whine, so dont worry about it. Still, the max you should go is 3,000.

If they want more than $3,000 or so I won't touch it. Especially when theres something like this just down the street from my house!

http://imageserver.carsoup.com/JM1FC...1.jpg?xt=38851

I just got back from the dealer. They said rock bottom is $6,500. I tried to explain that is twice the KBB retail value of the car, I even showed them this thread but they wouldn't believe me.

Oh well theres a few more for sale around me.

Yeah, way too much.. picked up an '86 locally with 70k for $700. They ARE around, just gotta look a bit.

Uh, NO IT'S NOT!


-Ted

holy crap 7 grand?!? I guess the sellers don't know they have!
Offer them 8,000 cash now lol

I wouldnt even pay 2,000 for that, seriously. Maybe 1000 dollars cash, with new tires!

Lies.


I would say offer $3000 American, how much money do we spend trying to get our cars back that stock? That condition of engine body is nearly worth it all in itself.

I got an '86 N/A for $1500 in Robbinsdale. That $7k asking price is outrageous, (just like every other post said) I hate car salesman sooooooooo much. They don't know jackshit about anything. I work for Owatonna Tool Company and we have to go test our Scan Tool on cars at the lots around the Twin Cities. A fucking Subaru dealer wouldn't let us test cause he though by plugging our scan tool into the OBD-II connector on their car would start a fire. (dumbass).
Go back to that dealership and talk with the Car Service Department. They know tons about the cars that are on the lots. But I don't know if they know rotaries at all...

I recently picked up a 88 GXL. great condition. with 40k miles on it. only paid $2000 for it. i say anything over $3000 is too much. hahaha.

I know you from the Vortex forums (Volksweasel). i traded an straight normal 81 VW rabbit for a solid running 88 Convertable a guy had. which means i basically paid 750 bucks for a solid RX7.

Hey guys. I finally gave up on the grey one. I found a sweet deal on this one in Wisconsin. Check it out:

http://www.god-squad.net/images/rx7/3.jpg
http://www.god-squad.net/images/rx7/2.jpg
http://www.god-squad.net/images/rx7/5.jpg
http://www.god-squad.net/images/rx7/6.jpg
http://www.god-squad.net/images/rx7/7.jpg

It's got Tokico Illumina adjustable struts, subwoofers, all new seals and paint job with 2 clear coats. I've had it for two weeks and I am pretty happy with it. The PO did a really nice job with it. He did some mods on it from what I can tell. It has a Greddy exhaust, but it is SO quiet that it seems like it should be stock.

It also has extra vacuum lines hooked up to the auxilary ports. They are hooked up to a T and some sort of electronic controller box with a black cover on it. You can see it in this pic on the driver's side on top of the wheel well.
http://www.god-squad.net/images/rx7/5.jpg


He mentioned that it is adjustable and I can change when these ports open and close. Have you guys heard of this before?

nvm