definitive FD buyers guide from hagerty...
 

not sure if this was already posted but...

check here

Number of errors in that article, but it's to be expected.

Wonder where the "you gotta keep up with oil changes to keep a rotary happy" comes from. Yes, they are good, but that's not the real killer of the engines in these cars.

Dale

Thanks for sharing, several errors but better than most things I read about the FD!

Any ideas whats with all the paint on that road :dunno:

One of the better articles on the FD. Thanks.

Ok. Is this true?

My 1994 base model (no wing, no sunroof, no rear wiper) had cloth seats and cruise control when I got it in 2004. I would be very surprised if the cruise control was installed by a previous owner, everything else was completely stock when I got it.

My ‘93 VR - no sunroof, no rear wiper, no acoustic wave, but has cruise control, rear wing, tan leather seats and tan carpet - factory installed it would seem.

One of the things I like about this article is its recognition that there are commonly done and beneficial "reliability modifications". Hagerty more or less blesses their presence as acceptably stock. It will improve the pricing and collectibility of cars with these types of mods on BAT and elsewhere.

in 1993 leather was an option on the Base model, for 1994-1995 Mazda adds the sunroof and CD player and calls it the Popular Equipment Package (PEP). i'm not sure about the cruise control.

i should post some accessories, Mazda sold the CD player, and wings (among other bits), so a lot of those things could have been dealer installed, or even installed after.

if it were truly base.. the original owner would have had the following changed for aarkaahs fd...
beige interior to include all plastic panels with door bins and carpet.. added cruise control and rear spoiler.. removed rear wiper...
seems odd to go through all that when they could have just bought a touring... unless of course he was too tall for a sunroof...

1993 base cars came standard with cruise control and cloth seats. Single disk and a 6-disk CD changer were dealer-installed options.

So what else is wrong in the article. Just curious about consensus here....

I don't think leather was a stand-alone option. Only available with the touring package in '93.

correction - just checked my '93 sales brochure and leather was available as a stand-alone option.

its pretty good, but Mazda sold CD players and rear wings as accessories, among other things. and everything else was available as a normal part, it was really expensive ($600) but i sold a couple of R1 strut bars new

the point is that there was some mixing and matching right from new, my friend has a 94 touring with a rear wing, dealer installed

and of course the car they used in the pics is Canadian, so its a yellow base model, because the yellow only being an R1 was a US thing

All I want to know is ... do road crews practice painting straight lines on the stretch of road the yellow FD is photographed on ? :D

yes, AFAIK all leather colors were available as a stand-alone option. R1's of course were cloth only. Bins matched the seat color, but red leather had black carpet. I'm looking at a picture in the brochure and looks like tan leather had a tan/brown carpet. I'm sure someone can confirm that. Remember this is for 1993 FD's, not sure about 94-95

there is a chart somewhere, but not every interior color was available with every exterior color. for instance with silver (SSM) exterior, you could get red or black, but not tan. montego blue was tan or black, no red. etc

in 1993, the seats, carpet, door panels, bins and headliner go with the interior color, 94-94, its just the seats and carpet

so let me get this right...
in the case of aarkaahs red base fd... original owner had the dealer option to replace door cards..headliners.. pillars.. bins.. carpet.. seats.. divider... etc.. to tan from black?