Derek, good look in your search. I agree, if you find evidence the seller is playing dumb to 'test your knowledge' they are out of line. It's not reasonable for them to assume a first-time FD buyer should have certain experience or knowledge when they've never owned one before. Not all of us are surrounded by FDs to learn from, and so our first purchase is our learning experience.

If I drove 6 hours and prepared your finances for the final purchase, I would be equally pissed and not interested in 'negotiating' with the seller.

Anyway, keep poking around, and when you get your FD you'll quickly forget the day lost to this episode. That amount of lost time will seem like nothing the first time you pull a rusted-on downpipe or trace a vacuum leak

And if you see an FD for sale near me I'd be glad to help. But there aren't many.

 

Derek

It is good that you did a lot of reading before you went to buy a car. Boost gauges reallly can tell you a lot of the condition of a rotary engine (at idle and at boost). And if you find the right one, have a compression check prior to purchasing it. Also, factor in the price of a engine replacement into the price of the car. If a motor has 50K miles on it, it could take a dump on the way home.

Start looking weekly on autotrader.com and you will see, week in and week out, that the same cars are there. The prices are way too high. They are looking for that one sap who doesn't know crap about RX7s to buy it. According to the average autotrader price I could sell my R1 with 60K miles for $17K, but according to KBB it is worth $9K. The correct price is somewhere in the middle.

If the car is out a used car dealership, you know they probably paid $7 or $8K for the car. They live by the kelley blue book value. But you should avoid those guys at all costs, especially when buying a RX7. I have been screwed by them. "No the car hasn't been crashed. I will show the carfax report. Hmm, my carfax account doesn't seem to be working. Trust me, the car is great condition." I am a sap and with a crashed BMW that I full price for.


I found this car on this website:

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=335080

5th gear snycro is bad, but the price is only $13K. Plus a recently rebuilt motor. A better car is out there for you.

The RX7 is not as much of a money pit if you don't mod it. I have dropped about $2000 on maintenance on my car in 4 years and it still runs great. In stock form it still amazingly fast.

Good luck to you and your search for your RX7.

Dan

 

i just think its funny kevin doesnt care to reply and everyone else does.

i feel bad that the kid drove 6 hourse expecting a brand new car... thats his fault he didnt ask the right question, i know when selling my cars I forget things. Thats why I always make sure that the kid rights up a list of questions incase I have forgot anything.

Most of these post are just to show that the majority of 3rd gen owners think they are larger then life, or want to be owners. Its really sad. Everyone knows kevin is a really chill guy, and he wouldnt screw someone over. I also bet that if anyone of you guys went through this other kids day, you would feel the same way, and maybe if he was more chill he couldve calmed himself down enough to understand that people do accidently make mistakes whether that be from describing the car, or telling about every tiny detail. Honestly you need to be much more laid back. I think everyone on these forums does.. just my opinion.

Kevin, people who know you know your a decent guy, as im sure the people who know this kid know hes a decent kid, it was just a bad day, bad situation dont let it get to you this much. Is it really worth it to be all pissy over a car?

 

Wow, I can't believe how out of hand this has gotten. I'd be upset driving 6 hours each way to look at a car only to find out it wasn't boosting right. Good luck in your FD search.

 

Okay so what, he drove 6 hours to pick check out Kevins car. That was his own option. No one forced him to drive that far to check out an Rx-7. You take a risk driving that far to check out a ten year old car. So something didn't go your way for once, or the car wasn't performing like it should due to a small clog. If you would have stuck around and let him fix the problem I'm sure it would have been a pleasant suprise. When You have an open air box you don't think "oh yeah btw my car makes a mooing noise" It's just a known fact, you shouldn't have to be told that. Kevin is honestly the smartest guy I personally know and one of the most relaxed as well. I don't think I've ever seen him without a smile on his face. Don't talk down on him or his family, you turned it into a personal attack. Kevin was just defending himself. Now he has 4 people defending him. I think that says something.

Out of the 4 Rx-7s that were a regular at his house his was always kept the nicest. He rarely drove it, it's like a trailor queen. To be honest with you I never thought some forum member would find a way to talk bad about Kevin or his car. You should really stop using old quotes of his from other threads....or if you do use a quote, put a date next to it.

Welcome to the Rx-7 forum fantasy world,
how do you like it?

 

THANK YOU!!! i was dying to hear some outside opinions on this issue, besides the kids that kevin went to college with. i dont know who these kids think they are, but at first they jump down my throat for being disappointed at the way the whole thing went down. and now they are saying stuff like:

geez... i think you need to think about that statement and how it applies to the way YOU guys are acting.

yeah, he's got four people jumping on here to try to sway what members here think by talking about a bunch of "hypotheticals", overexaggerrating, twisting my words, and telling me that im going to be "dismissed" by everyone here... then when other forum members agree that what im saying makes sense, all his friends are going to "act a fool" (as one of you so elegantly put) in their desperate attempt to make this situation look better than it was.... and i guess that DOES say something. i dont need to get my friends that were with me signed up on these forums to whine on my behalf, im confident that i did the right thing.

and the relevance of that would be??? if something was said, then it was said... what difference does it make WHEN he posted something? i never claimed they were recent...

 

and btw, here are some pics of the car... like i said, beautiful:





ohhhhhhh welllllll...

 

when you buy a car, don't ASSUME everything on the car is perfect. you ALWAYS ask about EVERYTHING!!!

if you thought you were getting a bad deal... WALK AWAY!

BOTH OF YOU take the hit to the ego and keep doing what you originally set out to do!!!!

nothing good will ever come of this unless you both KISS and make up.

CHILL OUT... and good luck selling/buying your 7s!!!!!

 

If there is one thing on this entire forum that seems to dominate topics of conversation, it is boost issues. "My secondary turbo makes no boost" "My primary makes no boost" Okay maybe high wings and rice body kits also, but boost is a favorite topic. Can't forget "How can I spend the $10K my Grandma just gave me?"

If I ever decided to sell my FD, and I knew someone was driving pretty damn far to buy it, I would try to tell them everything that was wrong with the car. And the fact the it wasn't making full boost would have been the second thing I mentioned, right after the fact the engine runs. Kevin should have disclosed it prior to the guy checking out the car. I would be pretty pissed too if I got there and the car wasn't working correctly. If Kevin didn't know, then maybe he doesn't know rotaries as well as the guy who reads a lot of internet posts.

I once worked at Walmart. When I hung out with Walmart people we talked about Walmart crap. I am a pilot now. When I hang with pilot people we talk about pilot crap. Kevin has FD friends (at least 4 who have posted). I bet when they hang out, they talk about FD crap.

So I imagine when he was hangin out in the last few months with his FD buddies the topic of boost came up when he was no longer able to beat Camaro SSs and Prelude SHs in drag races, or go 150. It really doesn't even mattter if he raced grandma in her Ford LTD, it is obvious that something is wrong. I had a clogged cat once. I made 5.5 pounds of boost and it was really, really noticeable, even without a boost gauge.

With this wealth of knowledge in his inner circle surrounding him, I am suprised he didn't find some aftermarket cat and fix his car. Then sell it for what it is worth. Which very well could be $17K.

Nobody is calling Kevin a liar or dishonest (just the guy who sold me my car). No one is calling his car a POS. He just should have told him prior to making the drive up. I bet Derek would have bought the car even if it "MOOOOED", as long as it pinned him to the back of the seat when it made 10 lbs of boost.

Best of luck to both you guys. My morning has been entertaining. I have to work.

 

yeah, thats actually why i knew to look for a good boost pattern, was from readin the stuff on here... i thought i was screwed when i saw the guage NOT in psi, and thanks to my girlfriend for hookin me up with the conversion via telephone... if it wasnt for that, i never would have known for sure she saved my ***, like she always does

 

Actually I don't go to college with Kevin, hell I barely even see him. It's nice when I actually do get to see him though. But the fact is he doesn't run his car hard most of the time he drives it. He also doesn't drive it very often....don't know if anyone mentioned that yet. I'm not saying he did or did not know about the clogged cat, or that I was even here for this meeting so I really can't comment on how people acted. But from the looks of things it got out of hand pretty quickly. Maybe if things cooled off and stuck around for a while you may have found the exact car you were looking for. Some people go tons of places testing 7 and come up with nothing. I personally know someone who looked for 2 years before he found the one he was looking for. So what if this one didn't work out, there are plenty of other ones out there....Live and learn. Now that you look back at it you might see that it was a missed opportunity for a great car, or you might see it as a waste of time....

 

a simple " sorry guys, i have decided not to buy this car" would do. there is no need to ruin a potential sale down the road for him. however, the car should have been running correctly when you arrived unless he told you about the issues b4 you got there. then again, with these damn cars **** can happen an hour b4 you arrive with the car sitting in the garage . good luck with the search.

 

You should have bought that car, I guess it wasn't "better safe then sorry" this time.

For the Future, if you buy an FD, plan an spending a lot of time wrenching, but that is half the fun!

x..

 

- Don't buy a car you don't want to buy!
- Don't sell a car you don't want to sell!
It's obvious that the both of you did the right thing!

 

Where in Rhode Island are you?

Sorry to hear that story, if you are not too far from me (look up Montgomery, NY 12549) perhaps we can meet halfway and I could take you and your friend out for a spin. My car is a perfect example of a clean, *Near* stock FD. I only have a lightened flywheel and a high-flow cat/CB Dual Exhaust as far as power mods go. I have a perfect 10-8-10 boost pattern, and recent awesome compression.

If you can't make it out perhaps you can tell me something cool to visit in your area (like a cool place to hike, a lake, cliff jumping spots etc) and I'll go over there.

I didn't read the whole thread but there's plenty for me to say, but I could save it for when we meet up if you don't mind.

 

I bought my 95 with a boost problem...talked $$$ of the price. Took me weeks to dig thru the fawking rats nest and find what was wrong, $0.10 zip tie fixed that.

I didn't drive 6 hours to drive the car though.

 

I am! Hence my member name....lol

Anyways, I think this thread has gotten out of hand. Derek, if you're happy you didn't buy the car, let it go. Kevin, if you're glad you didn't sell the car, good for you then it worked out. I just didn't like the fact that you Derek had to come on the internet and launch a personal attack against Kevin and his family about it. And no, Kevin didn't "rally" up all his friends to come help defend him on here, we happened to stumble upon it ourselves.

And the reason Kevin hasn't replied much is because he's a very busy guy, working a ton to make as much money as he can to use this school year while going for his Masters degree....

Anybody else have anything to say? Any last insults?

-Adam

 

I talked to Kevin this morning on the phone. Apparently someone thought that the car makes full boost by flooring it in 5th at 1500rpm. I'd have like to hear what it would have been like if he didn't swap out that 6-puck for a street clutch assembly.

My other roommate drove to Michigan to pick up his R2 a year ago. He went prepared dispite what he had heard from the seller. They took a cargo van, tools, and rented a U-Haul trailer to bring it home. Reasons being that it was a 95 R2 with fair miles on it in perfect body condition, the car had solenoid and vacuum hose causes for boost issues, small oil leaks, and needed a new clutch and tires. If he went expecting to pick up a show car, he would have been screwed in the same way as you thought you were.

Kevin flew to LA to pick his car up. Him and his dad road tripped the way back across the US in it to bring it home. They went prepared to make a purchase and were either going to pay less if something was wrong, or wait while the owner fixed it.

If you had hung around and been a little more relaxed, Kevin would have thrown the exhaust in and sent you on your way with a deal already better than it was. He didn't have to drop the transmission and send it out for a rebuild for you. He didn't have throw in a $900 clutch and flywheel package, and he didn't have to have it detailed for you when you got there. All of us who really know these cars know that at their age, unless they're worked on all the time- whether it be for simple maintenance or for upgrades, they are very likely to have boost issues. He never uses those stock exhaust pieces and if such a minor boost thing was such a big deal to you, you could have gotten a sick package with an expensive racing exhaust and upgraded ECU that was tuned at XS Engineering for it all. Stock cats and precats can be found for very little money from any of the forum members who have them in their basements or in storage. If Kevin wasn't convinced that he wasn't going to sell his car that day, he would have offered to swap those pieces out either with the exhaust that he had promised another buyer, or with newer functional stock pieces.

The reason Kevin hasn't replied to this thread since last night is because he's working and has been sleeping and outside all day- unlike a bunch of us who are vacationing or have computers at work. He really just doens't have time to deal with it. The reason this thread got out of hand is because it became immediately apparent that someone was trying to accuse him of being dishonest. Now, we can all be friends here, but its going to come at some compromise. I'm done if you are first. You made some smart posting on here, but so many people are looking for scandals to read about than watching out for new guys who come in swinging in the wrong ring. Your knowledge has already been tested by the people you drove to Delaware with, by the people you tried to buy a car from, and by the people on this forum who know enough about these cars to understand that you're really not making enough sense. If that 6 hours was a huge deal to you to buy a nice car, then you should have considered your attitude while you were there and they would have made some easy compromises for you. Otherwise, have somebody in the area check it out for you and report back. I'm pretty sure the car is now going to KD to have somebody besides us verify that it is a good car and if there are any problems with it, they will be fixed so that there won't be any arguments over simple things for the next buyer.

 

Derek, stop tripping...............
I can understand your frustration but it is all good, you are right to feel the way you do and have done nothing wrong.

look around and consider the source, people who have had everything handed to them on a silver platter don't appreciate the time & efforts others have to put in to attain their dreams.

I feel the same as you, if i'm going to spent 17,000 for a 10 year old car it had better be bad enough to make me **** my pants the 1st time i drove it.

as a seller if i had a buyer willing to pay me 5,000 over the kelly blue book i'd make all the minor changes/fixes required before selling the car so that when you took it for that 1st test drive, you came back shanking in your boots...............

bump the bullshit, right is right, wrong is wrong..............

if that's all you had to to do to get the old stallion up & ready to rumble should have done it before showing the car, who wants to buy something on a maybe

 

read back through this thread, and you'll find only you and your friends think that. i dont need my close buds to back me up on this one, because everyone else already is. if you think what i posted is so wrong, why dont you start ragging on all the people that were in agreement with me too. i dont hear you telling them how stupid they are, or how they arent making any sense.. pickin on the forum noob, eh?

---

lennie, i appreciate your input, thanks a lot. im definitely done trying to explain to these people what im saying... im glad that the vast majority of people "outside" this situation hear me.

Mako, i am done. before you make another post talking about how stupid i sound, or how i went about it all wrong, read the thread again buddy.. and not just the posts from you DE guys, ok?

Phoenix, im right on the southern end of RI. exit 3 off 95. i could definitely probably meet you somewhere, but if you are that interested in hiking and scenery, there are some amazing spots out here. let me know!

 

Lennie, you're right. I told Kevin that the exhaust problem should have been fixed before he showed it, but the fact is, he didn't know it holding boost because he swapped those stock cats on, drove to the inspection lane, passed, and drove home. He didn't floor it at all and the car was never reaching a point where he noticed a lack of boost. Otherwise, it would have been addressed before the buyer arrived. Apparently, Derek's tripping spree began while he was at Kevin's house and so they weren't willing to do any more work to make the car perfect for him, not because it'd be a bad sale, but because they just straight up decided they weren't selling it to him. Otherwise, the car would have been up on jacks for 10-15 minutes while the ECU was swapped out and the open exhaust was bolted back up. Then there deffinitely would have been a pants pissing ride. The first time I rode in Kevin's car, I wasn't comfortable at all. It was downright violent and with him driving, I was anxious for the next stop light to come. When I left Delaware, it was still driving the same way and it was in the garage after emissions and that was it. I can deffinitely understand why the sale wasn't made after talking to the Stuckers. Especially when they spent all of the last week and a half getting the drivetrain rebuilt when it wasn't imperative to have done. with a car that has less than 70k miles on it, having a free transmission rebuild is just plain nice of them. Cost should have been considered with that and the clutch/flywheel replacement because niether of them were worn enough to require service. If somebody brought an attitude to them after doing that, I wouldn't be willing to adjust anything for them. You just can't blame them for not bending over more than backwards.

 

man, you keep saying i was out of line and had an attitude, but you back it up with nothing. plain and simple, i didnt get out of line, i expressed my concerns very appropriotely, and it wasnt received well. the comment his dad made when i said "id didnt feel strong" was IMMEDIATELY "everyone's a critic"... i mean, give me a break. you werent there, leave it alone.

 

You just don't get it do you? You're just not understanding at all of any of the material I'm laying down for you. That's why you don't get what I'm backing up. You proved yourself to be lacking a little bit of knowlege when you went down there which nobody dinged you for, but you insisted on going home and pretending like you still knew it all. Nobody would have cared if you just said, it wasn't what I was looking for, but you went on accusing good people of being dishonest. Kevin's dad was pissed about the situation because of all the time they spent last week getting it ready. Its a good thing you didn't end up with it anyway because if you can't deal with a little bit of compromise, you deffinitely can't deal with an FD.

 

 

Well I think this whole situation is about over.

Derek - Good luck finding a perfect FD with no problems, it's impossible. I hope you don't have any hard feelings about us "DE Guys." Chances are we'll run into each other again at a meet or something. As for me, I have no hard feelings towards you, I just didn't care for the way you made Kevin and his family sound, when their such respectable people. Anyways, take care and keep the board updated on your search, I'm curious to see what you will infact end up with...

-Adam