Likely people who are getting no, or misinformation from places like Facebook.

 

Truth.

 

Absolutely, that platform is a joke

 

Lots of piston heads looking to LS swap these FDs.

 

Lol, it isn't 2013 anymore.

 

Let us know what you think.

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...tions-1160648/

 

A quick bump to this thread with a new added discussion point. With the new OEM short block MSRP rising from $7282.94 to $13,546.89 (Ray's club price from $5600-$9200) How will that 40% increase affect the FD moving forward from a value and build standpoint?

I think the short term result will be a returned proliferation of engine swaps, with LS and K-swaps being dominant in the uglier cars with owners who are price out of OEM engines, along with no-engine rollers selling for less. Long term I think it will elevate the valuation of clean stock cars and stall appreciation of modified rotary cars.

 

I think the days of LS swaps is trickling to a close on these cars. The whole attractiveness to this back in the day was how cheap you could find a non-running Rx7, and that was despite the mazda crate engines being cheaper back then too.
Since then, the value of these cars has gone way up, making the "cheap v8" swap argument grounded. Additionally, there are so many better cars that are faster, cheaper, and don't require a full engine swap that will nickle and dime most to death. When swapping was all the rage, you could end up with a pretty fast car that could compete with just about anything on the road. Now you can walk out of a dealership with a 800hp OEM car, with a warranty.

Coming from a guy who swapped an FC and an FD back when it was "cool", I think it's actually lost all its novelty and isn't cool at all anymore.

The cost increase of the crate engines will likely mean more abandoned project cars, which in turn may lead to higher prices long term for running rotary FDs.

 

I am one of the lucky ones that received a crate 13b-REW within the last 2 months. Originally, my plan to was drop in the new crate motor unopened. Now that a new block is much more expensive, I think I'm going to drop my crate motor with Banzai Racing for a streetport and rebuild to make sure all the clearances are better than stock- since this might be the only time I have my hands on a brand new motor.

Overall, I understand why Mazda did this. They have a monopoly on the rotary engine, and they can charge what they like. Many people (myself probably included) will continue to buy Mazda parts. I am bummed that the costs of the most basic components are now essentially 100% more expensive. I suspect that owners with less disposable income will leave the platform and quite a few cars will exchange hands over the next year.

 

I think everything is relative, right? Our cars have basically reached "icon" or "legend" status. Much like the Delorean reached cult classic. If I had more money and space, I would definitely pick up a Time Machine with an electrical powertrain. Probably the best way to have that vehicle.
With the FD though, there are still many out there in stock form or close to stock form to warrant any panic. Yes, the price of engines went up, but it's not like a ton of us will be blowing up engines anytime soon. Raise your hand if you've done at least 1 rebuild already? How often do you use your vehicle now compared to when you first had it?
In my situation, the FD is strictly my nice weather summer vehicle. If I manage to put 1500km's on her in a season, that would be considered a busy season. So I don't see another engine going into it anytime soon. At least not as long as I'm alive.
I think with the price announcement, it'll only make the value of the vehicles increase more.
These things don't really have any affect on occasional drivers such as myself though. The days of obtaining a "cheap build" for our type of vehicle is long gone. As the previous posts mentioned, you can easily walk into a dealer and buy a modern vehicle with a ton more power and warranty. Which is probably why our values are going to go up even more. They're going to become a rare vehicle. Close to other marquees with known rare models.

 

Apologies if I am stating the obvious as if it were some esoteric concept, but this seems more like a direct result of Mazda's efforts to re-tool their existing factory where our engines are/were made to now produce the 8C engine than anything. I'll just be happy if I can still new parts to put one together. I bought one of the new engines a couple years ago and have very little mileage on it from when I was still running the twins and before my build/exercise in scope creep and budgeting. With what I have planned I am expecting 60 (track) hour rebuild intervals for soft seals (hopefully more, but we will see).

Back when I was a young(er) lad, the only reason I picked the FD over the SA/FB or FC was because I thought it would be the easiest to get parts for and for no other reason! I also thought I would be buying a low mile spirit r for $30k in 2023. Time has not been kind to my predictions...

I have made reference to this earlier in the thread, but I suspect this will further accelerate the change of ownership demographics from "Budget performance enthusiast" to something resembling of the crowd generally associated with other makes that have no issue spending $20k on a PFC brake system and other expenditures that would probably make most of us here physically sick, and has less technical knowledge of the vehicle. It may keep more of them around for a little longer, but time will tell.

 

Is Mazda actually new-building these motors or running down inventory?

Maybe the price reflects actual costs of new building?

Or does Mazda have a finite remaining inventory and they are repricing to stretch the inventory out?

Is there a date of manufacturer on any of the labeling?

What have people seen?

What are the risks of buying a crate motor that was assembled 20 years ago?

 

Just means I'll go billet, or flat plane crank V8. Tons of other crazy interesting other motors out there for the new price. It's mental.

 

they were building to order. they did take the summer off to make the 8c engines.
the other thing is, so far the price increase is USA only. i don't have a great place to check Japanese prices, but they haven't moved.

Mazda USA and Mazda Japan, and Mazda Canada are 3 separate companies, i can't stress that enough.

 

Crate engine in Japan has been at the $7k mark for a long time, we are just gonna get charge the same now on our side, so I really don't see any issue there beside we aren't getting the special pricing anymore.

 

Are the motors available for 7k? The cheapest I’ve heard is 9k.

 

I felt like the moment when online auto journalists (I use this term very loosely) and auction houses really started ramping up their 'jdm content' at the beginning of the whole covid craze, there was a shift in how the 'modern car enthusiast' views the ownership experience. A lot of people grew up playing racing video games, watching Option videos, etc who now want to buy x,y,z after graduating college with a tech degree and are more than willing to pay for it. As I understand it in the simplest of terms, causality. We watched with anticipation as auto marketplace values climbed higher and higher to the cheers and personal gain of personalities like Doug Demuro to untold consequences. I personally think online / social media personalities (who are mostly puppets of the industry anyways) are culpable for the majority of the toxicity that's emerged in the communities by promoting countless unrealistic standards to a very impressionable and unassuming public (teenagers, young adults, etc). Just my take.

ps- And I completely agree with you guys regarding modern vehicles with warranties and how a new class of owner will unfortunately and most likely be assuming stewardship.

 

I had a new engine ordered with Ray since September 2022. Through some sort of glitch my order got overlooked or canceled even though I checked on the order every couple of months. When I found out about this and the the new price increase, I was disappointed but not mad at Ray, it wasnt his fault, I believe it was the dealership he gets his stuff through. The price sounds like a deal killer at first, and I havent reordered yet, but in the grand scheme of things, is another 4-5K for a new engine that big a deal? With the current value of the FD’s, just still having availability to new engines from Mazda may be the important thing.

 

hey where do people still order new engines from?Is the 4-5k on top of what you already paid?I was going to buy a shell in the 20k+ range but if engines are going for over 10k I’m thinking this is a bad deal now

 

Unfortunately this means we may see more neglected examples with prices staying relatively low. Usually when a car stays relatively cheap but its maintenance costs increase, you end up with a bunch of neglected examples.

The Ferrari F355 is the classic example, when those cars were $60k and a 5-year timing belt service was $20k, it wasn't economical to maintain the car. Even if you can afford the car and maintenance, you're losing money. When the car is $120k and appreciating, on the other hand, a $20k service isn't as big of a hit.

The only thing that can stop this is for either maintenance prices to go down (which is not likely to happen), or prices of the car to go up. It's unfortunate for enthusiasts, but if the FD is to survive in the long-term, prices need to go up.

I would love to see these cars to get the point where it's profitable to buy a crappy example and restore it, because you'd see a lot more cars being saved. Right now you have the opposite situation where the car is worth more in parts, which is terrible.

 

https://www.amayama.com/en/part/mazda/n3g102200

These guys list it for $7k plus $1k ocean freight from Japan. Discounted US dealers seem to be in the $9300 range.

 

Listing and actually having are sometimes two different things. Has anyone actually placed an order at the new pricing?

Higher pricing of new, will hopefully draw more rebuilds into the market.

My concern is shops may be "sweeping the box cars" in order to put together rebuilt motors and we might see marginal parts getting used that have been sitting on the back shelves.

But hey, if it starts and has marginal compression...........

 

Damn, sons...........stop working so hard!

 

i'm not sure i understand the question, but if you order from Mazda USA, the bill you get will be the price it has when it arrives.

 

I was wondering if anyone has actually placed an order at the new pricing.