haste3

Within the next three months im in the process of findin/pickin up an 93 fd,
however i pretty much have to run through one of those used dealerships,
since i have to use trade in credit etc. etc.,
just tryin to know wut im up against towards how hard it will take to find the a 93 fd,
in other words im tryin to find out how hard and long it was in order for you to find your fd,
thanks again

jeffrored92

I spent a few weeks searching papers and online car sales websites for FD's. Also spent a lot of time reading various information for new FD owners, best is to have a look see in the newbies stick thread. Ignore me if you've already done this

Being in Aus it's probably not a good comparison, but I was looking for ages and most of the FD's that were for sale were modified in some way, some had outrageous body kits that IMO looked ugly. I felt that most of these cars were priced too highly. Then one day (After about 2 or 3 weeks of looking) I stumbled across a 93 FD that was bone stock, for an awesome price, one of the cheapest I've seen them advertised for in Aus. And this was through a car dealer. Had it checked mechanically and the report came back real good, so I jumped at the chance.

Basically I got very lucky, but it took me around 3 weeks of looking to get lucky. If you've got a few months then I'm sure you'll find something suitable. I think finding an FD in the US would be easier than in Aus, much more were sold over there. I think by 98 Mazda were only selling 40 odd RX-7's each year down under!

Efini_zero

Though I don't have an FD just yet, I'm in the process of talking and trying to work out something with the owner. Did a compression check and other things and it checked out beautifully...wow. This one may just be it. Anyhow, I've started off looking in local ads and online sites with only a few nice ones available....but all out of my driving radius. I figured FD's would never be for sell in used car lots in my city....so I dismissed looking locally. Time frame wise, I've been looking for about 3+ years now. It's a long time I know but it must mean something if it's been this long and still feel the same about it as when I first started looking years ago. So don't give up if you don't find one in the coming weeks/months...she's out there somewhere! Good luck on your search!

moconnor

iTrader: (14)

Restricting yourself to dealers is going to make it very hard to find a suitable car. Very few people trade their RX-7s into dealers because they will usually get wholesale blue book or less (~$7-$10k); they will usually do much better selling privately. In over a year of looking in the SF Bay Area (where there is a fairly large supply of FDs) I only saw one remotely tempting FD at a dealer and they were asking too much.

Also, when buying from a dealer you will probably not be able to get any idea about the car's service history (though, no doubt, the dealer will tell you that it was a single-80-year-old-owner car only driven on weekends ). Having a fairly detailed service history knowedge is important with these cars.

John Magnuson

Yes, buying a well taken care of car from a private seller is very important. Your can get financing from a bank to buy used cars from private sellers. It's just a little more effort on your part. Needing financing DOES NOT limit you to used car dealers.

jeffrored92

I found that the price I paid for my car was substantially less than was being asked for by private sellers. Maybe the car is a lemon, but the mechanical report I got (non rotary specialists) was excellent, as was the comment of the rotary mechanic where I took it for it's first service. I guess only time will tell.

I didn't get any service history, all I know is that the guy who traded in the 93 FD took out a 2002 Series 8 FD which he paid around Aus $75'000 for (not including what he got for the trade in, the dealer wouldn't tell me what he paid for the car ) I'm hoping the guy was an enthusiast and looked after the car properly.

I guess because the dealer probably made a KILLING on the Series 8 he sold to this guy he was probably happy to let the Series 6 go to me for a decent price. I've seen some series 8 in Japan for around Aus $40k and it wouldn't cost too much to import and compliance it.

Helios

iTrader: (2)

I looked for over a year until I finally saw one that was what I wanted a 1995 VR PEP. But it was half-way across the country, (I live in Dallas TX, I got it in Raleigh, NC) I had the owner (55 yr old engineer)make a video of the car and have an inspection and compression test which I paid for. The video convinced me and I flew down there, the car was exactly as described, w/ 30K miles completely stock, and an aftermarket warranty on the motor, turbos, everything and I bought it. It has given me no probs. whatsoever and I've been with my fd for 2 years now. The previous owner had detailed service records that helped me make a decision and I continue to have them. I had the cash to buy it but I still went to the bank to look for financing but the interest rate was too high, so I ended up setting up a CD and getting a secured loan with a very low IR. I have had RotaryPerformance, Gotham Racing, and Don Marvel work on my car and everytime I look at it sitting in my garage I still can't believe I have such a beautiful car. Good luck finding the right car, I came across lots of nice 93's but I wanted a 95 so it took me a while. I looked at Ebay, Autotrader.com, Msnautos, this forum, lamotorscars.com Keep looking the unicorn is out there.

prew

iTrader: (9)

very good story man. i am glad you found exactly what you wanted. it took me about 6 months until i found a elderly owner selling one with 60k for a good price. just think about all the beat rx-7s that you looked at and almost settled for, makes however long the search was so much more worth it. like he said, keep lookin for that perfect car, its out there.

PhoenixDownVII

Patience is a virtue.

What's awesome about owning a 3rd Gen is that they are so rare, but what makes it even tougher to find one is the idea that owners of these cars need to know what they're doing to keep it healthy.

Factor in that you want a certain type (Touring vs. R1/R2), color (CYM? Black, etc), certain mods (Reliability only), even year (94+ in my case), ALSO that it be a good price...AND closeby......and you have a formula that is very hard to match.

But it does happen, and will happen. Try and ignore and don't splurge on the first FD you find closeby, there are many that need TLC and the right Rotar-nut to fix them up and restore them, but there are plenty of nice ones from responsible owners too.

I looked at Rx-7s for a good 2 years, serious about buying for over a year, then I found mine.

The rewards are worth the work involved. Every good thing in life requires effort; if it comes cheap...it probably is cheap. Love, life, fortune,.....cars...the more effort you put into it the more you get out of it. We reap what we sow.

Good luck, and don't buy the nice FD that my friend tries to buy, or I'll hurt you. :P

DaleClark

iTrader: (55)

I did a big writeup on finding and buying an FD. I found the perfect car within a DAY. It's not hard if you know how .

http://www.clubrx.org/default.asp?id...ntent=25&mnu=5

Dale

ksource

Yesterday I found one at a dealer lot that's around 2 miles away. Too bad it isn't the one I want. All luck.

haste3

yeh im 17 there for the whole financing a loan and such i would have to have a talk with the parents, and my uncle has worked for tons of the used car lots out here and has lot of connections for finding cars in used car lots, which i hope works out rather than having to figure out how to end up with loans and purchasin from a person which i would agree would come out better since your talkin with the owner rather than used dealerships, thanks again

bajaman

Heh....It took me 7 years to get my FD....lol! I wanted to trade my FC in SO bad back in '93 when they first came out, but my ex-wife was pregnant with my son at the time and she said, "No more sports cars for a while..."

So....once I got rid of that bitch I was free to look again.

I started looking thru the local paper and car-advertising books, I looked at 6 or 7 different FDs in various stages of being used and abused and sort of gave up....there was NO WAY I wanted to pay 14 grand for a car that needed several thousand dollars worth of R&R.
So my search went on hold for several months until I saw the car I ultimately bought at the dealer. Turned out the original owner (which was the owner of the dealership's wife) had sold the car to a guy that only kept it for a few months, and was needing to sell it badly so the Mazda dealership had it for sale on their lot. Pretty cool. So my patience yielded finding a car that was in damned near showroom condition and had had nothing but dealer-service (though THAT isn't necessarily a good thing...lol!) all of its life.
So...my advice is to NOT jump on the first one you see, but do your research and make your choice intelligently. These cars incite passion, you will be very, very tempted to buy the first one you find (and depending on your area you may only find a few for sale). Especially after you test drive one....heh heh!

Toadman

First one I actually went out and looked at in '99. FD's are a dime-a-dozen out in Cali. -jk-