They stopped using the Efini moniker sometime around 1998. This is a Mazda!

The higher mileage is less usual for JDM of this vintage. Probably kept the price down in Japan enough to make it economic to get to the US.

Otherwise it would likely be taking Australian lessons, as we speak.

Get the VIN number and lets run an autocheck.jp on it.

 

Efini for life!! :p

 

https://carsandbids.com/auctions/3qP...995-mazda-rx-7

Market has dipped for sure, however lately I am seeing many dealers not understanding how to present/sell the car. For example the low mile 1995 above waited till the last day for a compression test with a standard piston tester... Reported back as "Rear 75 Front 80-82." This does not help sell a car to anyone who understands...

I'm up next with quite a low reserve : https://carsandbids.com/auctions/3vy...993-mazda-rx-7

 

Very nice car. Hope it gets top dollar. Buyer will do very well with this one.

 

Its noted that the car occasionally takes a few tries to start, A/C does not work, Brakes are warped and has tons of mods that aren't listed in the ad. Very good chance this needs an engine, couldn't provide a real compression test. This looks like a decent car but without knowing whether or not your going to need a rebuild impacts what people are willing to pay, even for a 95. I think this would have sold for in the $50K+ range had it not had these issues and solid compression.

 

This isn’t pacific coast auto’s car is it? They had a YT video on a very similar car.

Market for RHD FD according to auction history shows they have cooled quite a bit, and some are not selling. And no offense to USA dealer-type importers or this seller, I would suggest researching importing if you are in the market, as the dealer-types have a larger than fair markup (arguably valid reasons, burden of risk, etc, but more that I personally agree with) with this one being (maybe) slightly high.

Importing is no secret. Import/custom/broker fees through a broker add ~5k give or take to your Japanese purchase price. I have imported a few vehicles, and offer to import and/or assist whoever. Usually takes 2 months or so from purchase date to land and get to your door.

Japan market is privvy to the demand, and sadly have been staging cars (auction term for hiding $h17) and raising reserves. So it might be fair to pay a premium for one you can go physically look at, like this 99. If this was an RS, I personally would be all over it. Innocent blue mica is one of the best.

But IMO savings are closer to the $10K mark if doing it yourself and are patient enough. I agree that if you must have one now, this IBM example is nice enough. Type R helps (rz > rs > r)

Speaking to this car- several 3.5 have sold through auction just in the last few months, some zenki’s, some 01/02’s and have sold in the 20k or less range.

Pay for convenience and lower risk, fair enough, but is it 40K- convenient? YMMV.

Of course all the best to the seller, but psa to the RX7club, (nice) RHD FD’s are still obtainable

 

The shop isn't pacific coast auto. This is based in Kissimmee Florida so unless he works with other dealers selling as his then it shouldn't be the same car.

I totally agree with most of what you are saying with the price points. That is why I decided to import mine. I found that once these cars are stateside, the price goes up $7K-10K on average. Its the price people would pay for having to have the car right "NOW" versus waiting months to ship it over here. It took me a bit but I was able to snag me a clean, unmolested near stock FD for much less than similar lesser quality ones are being sold here. You pay a pretty penny for convenience and some people that have more money than patience can afford that. I stay away from auctions unless I'm looking for a project car because you can't properly inspect them, the auction grade doesn't mean much to me aside from some cosmetics. You can have a high grade auction car with low compression.

 

A few low auction results recently

 

Not an FD, of course, but here's a very low-mileage RX-8 closing in a few hours. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/20...da-rx-8-sport/

 

Sold pretty cheap at $14,250. Too bad it's so ugly. LOL

That said, here's an article from Hagerty today. Jay Leno on the Japanese Icon That Has Appreciated the Most

 

It would be interesting to get this conversation going again now that the bubble has popped. I still see a lot guys asking $45-60k for near 100k mile FDs that are not near mint. A lot more cars are on the market in general and this is evident with all the LHD FDs being posted lately on social media and on this site. Money has gotten much tighter for many and these sellers missed the boat on cashing out. I still think the upper tier FDs with 35-60k miles will pull this money but most are relegated back to being $20-35k. Just like the buyers lagged behind the sellers on the way up, it appears the sellers are now lagging behind the reality of the current market and the buyers of today. Once again, I am not referring to ultra low mile LHD mint examples. The market has definitely corrected some.

 

There is maybe 10,000 FD made after this date 25 years ago. So the pool of FD that would be freshly available to the US markets is going to shrink rapidly from here. Further, are the 25% import tariffs applicable to used/collector cars?

If yes, that will likely cook the market for any more RHD into the US, and we may lose what's left to the Australians.

 

Besides the really rare RHDs I'd prefer they stay out of the country anyways. I get they have a place to some people in the US but they are ultimately cringey to me.

 

I had a glimmer of hope that nicely restored/maintained FD's would start to follow the jump in price seen by the ultra low mile examples. Unfortunately, does not look the case just as I am about to put up another completely mechanically restored 94 w/ 70k miles

 

RHD can fill an entry level niche. The more FD we have around, the longer the spare parts pool will stretch out, and the increasingly rare rotary shops may have work.

Having said that, the RHD in the US are/will be too spread out to make a difference.

Up here it is about a 1:1 ratio. (maybe 150 of each) barely enough for critical mass to support two serious rotary shops (900 miles apart). .

 

A small representation of the client base, July 7 2023.

 

Not surprising at all. People are super quick to jack up the prices at the drop of hat while at the same time it takes an act of God for them to lower the prices back down.

 

Bloomberg article yesterday looks into a possible jump in used car prices as a result of the tariffs (if they actually come).

 

I'm assuming that will only touch cars 10 years old or newer. It really should have zero effect on older cars. However, the world post covid is a weird place with a lot of firsts.

 

would you feel the same way if you saw a '69 cosmo up for sale for $20k that needed paint and some TLC? not an FD but still, we never got them here, same could be said about the 3rd gen cosmo and 20B which everyone has robbed the engines from. I like all versions of the cosmo, including the RX4 which should have come with a disco ball.

Personally I would hate shifting with my left hand, I've driven mail truck RHDs and it feels really off to me.

 

To each their own. I initially bought my RHD to save me $30-40K as that's the difference in price I would have had to pay for a comparable LHD FD in the same condition, color, package, mileage etc. with the market at the time. It has honestly grown on me in many ways. I still prefer LHD because That's what I've drive for the past 30 years, but RHD is becoming more natural as I drive it more. Parts availability is hands down so much better with RHD cars due to the support they had for many years after the USDM variants had mainly when it comes to the hard to find interior pieces and such. Mechanically they are almost identical. But even restoring things like the heater box, A/C etc., RHD has so much more availability and you have to resort less on tracking down a good condition used piece for the price of a kidney. I'm glad to see more aftermarket support building for these cars but RHD cars have grown on me (not just RX7s.) Its one thing to buy it because you are a JDM fan boy, I can see that as being cringy but due to my positive experience with importing, I will most likely import my next GC STI rather than build one like my last one. Yes I can still get a 90's impreza here, source the swap parts and do it like I did last time, but it took me a long while to collect many of the parts for that, lots of time etc. I can just import a clean STI RA and have it said and done and enjoy the car. I enjoy building cars a ton and will continue to do so until I die most likely, I just don't like waiting years to enjoy it because I can't find certain parts or I don't have the time to work on it which would be the main issue.

 

Just imagine your James Bond driving his Aston and it feels less cringey. It is a bit of a marvel to see an LHD and RHD side by side with their mirror image interiors.



Hard to tell the difference from 20 feet away.

 

I own a RHD, but it most definitely wasn't entry level or cringe. It had equivalent 12k miles, and was immaculate. Mine is visually stock, and won't ever stray much from that.
I actually am glad mine is RHD; it's so much more an occasion when I drive it on a nice day. Plus, shifting with my left and hitting the turn signals with my right is super natural for me. Obviously I wouldn't buy as a daily, but i honestly would want to keep all future toy cars RHD. I actually get confused when I get back into LHD, even though I've been driving that for 25 years.

I'vw got mixed feelings on the drop in pricing. It makes mine more replaceable if someone destroys it (meaning i can spend a bit less for stated value), but it also makes them more obtainable for knuckle draggers, #stancelyfe or "smash dat like button, yo" people, and teenage kids trying to make them daily drivers.

 

I bought my RHD in early 2015, which was at the tail end of the first 10 years of RHD FD availability in Canada That year FD were being wrecked at a rate of about one per month, and the official valuation for totalled FD was C$5000, for the province owned insurance company, although people were getting settlements of $10,000.

In 2016, wrecked cars for parting out virtually disappeared, and perhaps only two wrecks have been auctioned by the insurance company since then.

So I put the end of the racer-boy culture for FD here starting in 2016.

Further, we had a sharp government crackdown on all obvious tuner cars, which drove the culture underground, in a sense.

In the pic above of about 20 cars, many of those cars are quite built, under the hood, but otherwise appear largely stock.

I would say even at today's prices, driving the cars for the sport of blowing them up, or otherwise wrecking them, is long gone.

 

This post absolutely nails it. I wish I had given some consideration to putting feelers out on my FD in '21 when its worth was in the 50's. Now that its value is likely back in the 30s, I'm "stuck" with it. I can't help but thinking there are others in the same boat. With economic, personal, and my small business feeling the crunch, money isn't floating around as freely as it was a few years ago. But it isn't all bad. I'm putting more guilt free miles on the FD here lately, so it is what it is. Sorry to say, but when the next virus comes and goes, I will be ready. Also strongly agree on the RHD cars and the "JDM, yo" crowd that rabidly follows them. Unless it is a spirit R or something, Not my cup of tea. Not interested. They're not really comparable to the LHD market.