i got mine when i was in school still, i afforded it with something called a job.. our cars arnt gold mines man.. 10K and you can get a fd in ok condition and go from there.. its what i did.. and yes i had a loan out at one time.. i was making a whopping 10-11 dollars an hour then also part time!!

 

I sold every car I owned and had worked almost a decade to afford in the first place. Then I took a year off school to work full time cutting down trees for the power company, even then it was a stretch because I was living somewhat lavishly otherwise. While I love my car, and even knowing then what I do now I would probably still have bought one, it's not something I would recommend to ANY college student who doesn't have either:

A) An immense desire to own/work on an FD rx7, and I do not use the word immense lightly. It's expensive, and time consuming, don't let anyone fool you.
B) Has some incredible parents bankrolling the whole thing. If you can send the car off to a shop every time something acts funny and not worry about the bill, GREAT, it'll come in handy .

 

i started a business, and bought it when i was 19.... ever since... no problem.. I am 21 now

 

You should always buy what you can afford. Spend within your means.

So save your cash and buy without credit if you can. My dad always says, "If you can't pay cash, then you can't afford it".

 

First one financed bad idea lost job and sold it.

Second one paid cash when you have cash you do what you want when you don't your happy with what you got. Keeps you from going all out and then not being able to trace back the problem. Also allows to do alot of labor intensive work that you might skip otherwise.

 

I'm 23, active-duty Navy.

I only bring home like $1,600 a month.

Phone bill and 2 small credit cards.

I have a '89 Accord daily-driver, and the FD is my weekend car.

And yes, you should absolutely try to learn some general mechanical knowledge, and then just do your research on the Do's and Don'ts of rotary.

I had a 250rwhp-ish FC when I was 17, no payments. Heck yeah.

I had my first FD when I was 20, working full-time at Best Buy. Job security, right? HELL no. Got fired at the end of the year, to make their numbers look better...3 months later, blew the motor, had to sell it at a $3,000 loss.

If you're spending not KEEPING at least $1,500 a month to yourself after all your other bills....don't buy an FD.

~ $12,000 total loan = $230 a month + $112 insurance = $332 a month for me.

Just to give you an idea....

 

I am one of those peeps that shouldn't have bought an FD and sometimes I almost regret it cuz of the financial situation it puts me in but then when me and my woman go out in it for a ride, I am thankful as hell. I have only had it for like a year and i pay right around 600 a month for it with loan and insurance...I should be alot better off but got stuck in an expensive lease...(got a 2 bedroom 2 bath, with just me and my woman in it). Then you throw in other bills and stuff and its really really tight. These guys all have good advice about waiting for it but I am going to be the average ignorant American here and say, hey if you think you can swing it, why the hell not...the cars are amazing.

Sorry,
Obie

 

I on my electronic engineer degree at my local community college, I'm a subcontractor for dish network and street tune hondas on the side... I was making $1700 clean to my pocket at age 18 (i'm 21 now) and manage to buy us a 3 family house that will virtually "pay for it self" under my moms name..
I'm on my second semester and what i did was take my classes during the day, get out at 12... and drive off to my PM installs. The work orders go to my email at night so just print them.

I drive my work truck to school with the ladder... everybody looks at me like WTF?? waiting for the FD to get painted so i could show off..

 

I'm not a student anymore but I picked up my FD just after college graduation in 2005 when I was 23. I started saving for the FD in 2002. Because I was a full time student at the time, I obviously had no time for a saving up for an FD...fulltime or part time job. It was just around the corner that I became a full-time eBay PowerSeller selling collectible toys, mainly the 80's stuff like the original (not today's reissues) TransFormers and GI Joes. "Full-time" isn't full time like a normal job...you just have to make over a certain quota each month per eBay PowerSeller rules. For about 2-3 years of scouring flea markets, garage sales, real estate personal property sale off, and etc, I was able to maintain a nice source of income. The key was to haggle with the seller claiming the toy lot was worth next to nothing...some will know their product resale value, while some will not (the latter is what you want!). I was able to collect about $12,XXX in toy sales through eBay. Yes, there are some really hot 80's Transformers toys out there there are worth about $200 - $800 a pop. Type in "Fortress Maximus" on ebay and see what comes up. I did have to add a couple more thousand of my own savings but for most part, eBay was my answer. Though you would expect more out of 2-3 years of savings...but this was all done at home while full time student.

Anyhow, eBay was my solution to saving for an FD during my college years. However, I have to admit after these past 4 years of ownership...I'm glad I didn't actually have the FD during my college years. Downtime and maintenance cost of my FD would've been way more than I could endure as a full-time student. But now...I'm fine now since I have a daily driver and financially-set.

 

I bought mine last year. I just turned 17 in December. I saved a **** load, waited a long time, and it helps to live with parents. Also, the fact that my dad loves the RX-7s. We used to own an FC and he fell in love with the handling. I paid for half the FD and he paid for half, however, I've been paying for all the mods since I'm the only one that drives it now-a-days. The FD is just a project car though, I can't survive on the shitty gas mileage it gets.

 

i own a 94 rx7 touring edition.

i had a good part time job in high school at Sears which is commission based, i had nothing to spend my money on besides my girlfriend so I had some money laying around .. i used my savings and this forum to search for an FD and was lucky enough to find a member selling his for 5.5k.. i snatched it up immediately as the car is in mint condition. It was garage kept for most of its life and every document was included pertaining to the car (including a folder about 2 inches thick with every oil change the car received). I consider myself very very lucky and i cherish this car with as much care as possible. The one drawback is that it does have 100k miles on it but I have saved a couple thousand to get it rebuilt this spring. My insurance is about 150 a month due to my clean record and good grades in college. The car is demanding, and I am a little scared of wrecking it, but I usually use my 1988 firebird transam gta as my daily driver and commuter when im away at college.

 

I owned an FD from when I was 16 until 20. I went to school full time and worked full time all 4 years and was always strapped for money. Modding the FD was very rewarding but very expensive.

I still work full time and go to school full time and it is very nice having the extra spending money. If i get another fd it will be a roller i will build slowly. Its not worth having no money and being way in debt, make sure u dont spread yourself too thin....

-Austin

 

I'm just a good saver, I'm 20 3rd year in college. I use to make very good money as a waiter but stuff happen. However, I am still able to keep a MK4 for a daily driver and a FD for a weekend car.

 

Wait time out, you did the "make money from home using sites like ebay" deal?

I always thought that was a scam. My friend tried that and was trying to sell NO NAME stuff and didnt make a DIME. But the company kept charging his card like 3 times a month for the kit they give you when you first sign up lol. He tried to file a lawsuit against that company. They refunded part of the money charged and i dont know what happened after that but its over lol.

 

Hey 1QWIK7,

Hehe, no...I didn't do the eBay infomercial things as seen on TV. I just happen to one day and discover that the 80's original TransFormers and certain GI Joes, were selling really, really well on eBay. Hasbro/Takara the toy maker, did re-release some of the toys as an anniversary/commemorative edition which REALLY hurt the collector's market of these toys but it was around the time I stopped eBaying these collector's toys. The toys still sell well on eBay today but not at it's peak a few years back.

Find 3-4 of these and you got yourself a new GT35R turbo kit:

http://cgi.ebay.com/FORTRESS-MAXIMUS...QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/Transformers-For...QQcmdZViewItem

...one way to see what sells hot on eBay is going to the homepage of eBay (not always but sometimes shows randomized hottest items). The Nintendo Wii Fits were selling for $140-150 this past Christmas due to low production numbers. I found 3 and flipped them. They go for $89.99 each @ Wal-Mart/etc. Add this to your primary source of income and this is extra "change."

 

live with the parents, 4 000$ from summer job, 1 000 - 2 000$ from part time during school,
1 000 - 2 000 from getting lucky at casino every once in a while, couple hundred from playing poker house games, borrow from parents if necessary

 

I didn't purchase the RX7 to be a daily driver. Its fully insured for half the year while the other half it has fire+theft protection and sits in the garage. I have a 4cylinder car (cheap on gas) that I use for the other 6 months. While the FD is stored I to build up a budget for maintenance and modifications.
Sometimes I think "I should have bought that 1991 White Nissan Skyline GTR" simply because I would have saved a lot more coin (wouldn't need a second car).
FD is a rewarding car but you have to spend money. If you're a brokeass student I'd advise you to get something else.

 

I have a $200,000 student loan. That's how I afford an FD.

 

Im in my second year at university, working part-time and today is my 19th birthday. I bought my car at the beggining of summer last year. I bought it for 13000 that i paid in full by working my *** off since i was 15. My parents havent paid a penny on my rx7 or my piece of **** 240sx, but the free rent is a big help

 

i dont afford it.

it sits in my garage with 2k miles on a fresh rebuild whenever i get a little extra cash, which isnt often, i buy a little something for it.

thats why the suspension and exterior is still stock
damnit

 

I sometime wonder the wisdom of an FD with a large 6 figure income, i just don't see how one an maintain them on a beer budget.

 

Saved up for it between a job at "hell taco", the current job, and school. It really helped when the ex left that really freed up the money flow

 

hahahah i saved up since 2 years ago :P just save money instead of a pack of cigs or a meal from burger king and save it up

 

i couldnt afford one in college cause i didnt work.

i waited till i got a garage

 

Getting an FD while still in school is a very bad idea and I believe that most students cant really afford them.... At that point in your life money is for school, board, beer, and girls... Not broken FD's (cuz yeah it will break). Besides I'd be very skeptical of other student's pictures, as a pic can give a false represantation of the current state of the car. It may look good but does it run good?

The FD or other fast cars will be there when you graduate. Trust me, performance cars are a lot more rewading when you can actually afford them. Meaning you can drop $2k on a moments notice and it won't affect your daily life what so ever.

M-