Meiogirl

iTrader: (2)

you could try selling some of the stuff you got for the car, like your suspension, and go back to stock for a little bit to recoupe costs. just buy the things you need to make the car run right, save a little, and then start modding the heck out of it. its still fun stock!

t-von

iTrader: (8)

When purchasing and older vehicle, sometimes it's makes more since to purchase something you can actually work on yourself. I've had my Fd for 3 years now. Paid 13,500 for it (completely unmolested) with 65k on the original engine and stock everything. My biggest expense so far has been a new clutch that I installed and putting in some new Pillow ball bushings. The car now has over 100k. Other than routine maintenance and tires, that's it. I feel for you but the power is yours to do better research.

Punished

Well that answers everyones question as to why the costs are insane. Fairfax rapes you on everything and anything. Reason why i left that county, moved to PW get a bigger house for the money, gas is cheaper, cars are cheaper, parts stores dont rape you.

And as stated before, even lurkers on this forum who dont own FDs know not to take a car to a mazda dealershit.

RE-Amemiya

Living with the parents means living with their rules. My dad INSISTS that whatever the manufactur (can't spell) of the car gets to work on it when it's broken or needs service.

That's not BS either, that's seriously how it works it my family.

RE-Amemiya

That's what started this whole $$$ pit thing to begin with.

I'm off to class, but i will post the service costs as promised when i get home.

Mdessouki: I might have a buyer already, in fact a few lined up. I'll add your name to the list where you came in, and if things don't go through...i'll be in contact with you.

94rxrob

iTrader: (1)

It sounds like you need to have your dad read through the forum especially since it's a known fact that the dealership is NOT the place to take a 3rd gen when it needs any work. I think any person with some common sense would see that you've been raped on your repair costs by taking it to the dealer. If he insists that you take it there, then he should be paying for it, hell, since you've overpaid so far, he should re-imburse you for all the extra $$$ you had to put out by listening to his stupidity and taking it to the dealer. Bottom line is if it's your money, then you should decide who fixes your car and take it to someone who knows what they're doing.

JLee

iTrader: (1)

Well said, I couldn't had said it better than you. I LOVE my car to death and my family, specially my father and one of my uncle say that if I need work done on my car I should take if to the dealership but they respect the fact that is MY money and I decided what's best for my car

On the other hand I'm sorry for your losses on this car but I really got to agree that the FD is a big money pit and before anyone buys a car like this they should really research into it not just buy the car because it looks cool or you'll be in for a rude awakening. Take a friend of mine for example, he got an FD because he loved mine, I of course being the nice friend that I am gave him the WHOLE FD are nice looking cars and all but they are VERY unreliable and deserve a lot of attention and should only be worked on by people that know rotaries, I didn't hold anything back but I didn't want to scare him but his money is his money so he went ahead and bought an FD w/ a blown motor. He got a rebuild and low and behold, he brought the car to a shop that had never worked on rotaries before, I didn't know this because I was deployed at that time and I didn't know what he was doing. So this shop put the motor together and he said that the first time they turned the car on they had no coolant running through the motor and they were revving the crap out of it, needless to say now the car has blown coolant rings and a BUNCH of electrical problem. Bottom line, as you already know, bring these lovely cars to rotaries experts

rotariesrule

your dad needs his head examined, seriously. the only time i have ever taken a car to the dealership is when it is under warranty.

an rx-7 especially should never be taken to the dealership for service. you should buy a mazda factory workshop manual for your car and work on it yourself.

Wargasm

Brown's Mazda? Haha!

The last run-in I had with them was about 6 years ago when I was looking for an FD. I drove a black one which had a 10 - 0 - 0 boost pattern. When I told the dealership salesman that this wasn't right, he got irate with me saying I didn't know anything about these cars. He even went so far as to pull his "nationally recognized expert rotary" mechanic out of the garage to come in and tell me that that the car was driving "like new".

I just laughed at him and asked if he was gonna get fired if he told the truth or something...

Dealership = RIP OFF. Never, ever go there.

For 11 grand, you could put in a new engine, new single turbo + tuning... new rims, new shocks and struts and still probably have money left over.

alberto_mg

yep. some people are like that. no amount of logic is going to change that kind of misplaced blind faith. its kinda like trying to discuss religion or politics.

situations like this is why the people on this forum always disuade students and younger people from buying the FD.

SlingShotRX7

ROFL

I almost bought my FD from Browns, back in 93.
I eventually got it from Darcars in silverspring, because they were
10K cheapers..

Twinturboboy..
1st. of all. You seem to be a rational intelligent person and over 18.
Be a Man, and tell your father, straight up about " dealerships aka stealerships"
Dealerships couldn't diagnose and fix issues with FD"s when they were still
being sold here in the USA under warranty.
Do you actually think they would be able to fix/diagnose any problems with
the FD after being pulled from the USA 7-8 years later??

Fool and their money are soon parted..

STOP BEING a FVCKING FOOL.

Locally to you.. YOU GOT RP, PERFORMANCE BUYERS, PFS
and BUNCH BUNCH OF forum regulars that could probably do
the work that the dealership not fixed and etc...

Look in the forsale section and buy parts from reputable sellers.

Goodluck..

Swolbynos

i spent less than that, and i litterally replaced everthing under the hood with brand new parts

RE-Amemiya

Thanks guys for all the comments. Yeah, i plan on showing my dad some stuff, but it's kinda hard to get things across to him (military officer).

Anyway, next post will be the service costs:

RE-Amemiya

Well, of couse when i finished typing the costs, i had a system low on resources and the clipboard didn't save the text i copied. Anyway, it's all legit on the price for service.

Thanks again for the positive comments guys.

Brent Dalton

iTrader: (31)

I'm a Military Officer... I'm a firm believer in the "smarter... not harder" theory.

tcb100

Get your car out of that shop. The guy is either a thief or a total klutz.

FadedFD

iTrader: (3)

I'm not going to bash you. But some straight forward advice from a rotor head to another fellow rotor head is to never bring it to a dealership, find a specialist, or get to know other rotor heads that can help with you labor. Sorry for your misfortune so far.

bajaman

lol.....well, I may well be a "jackass" in your opinion (though I wasn't the only one that thought you didn't handle this situation well), but in the end, I am not the one that supposedly forked over all these thousands of dollars and STILL doesn't have a running FD!

You are indeed what your screen name is....a 'boy', and these cars need men.

Montego

iTrader: (1)

quit being afraid of your father. You are man now and disagreement is not disrespect. Now that we got that out of the way:

Contact a (or several) reputable rotary shop(s) and ask them for an estimate of the work that needs to be done on your car. Item by item, get the estimate in writing including warranty of work. Show it your father in comparison to the stealership and ask him why he so dead set on a higher priced one.

These cars are not the simplest cars out there. I've personally seen my mechanic fix problems on other people's rides that other non-rotary mechanics gave up on.

RE-Amemiya

I have no problem forking over thousands of dollars to fix my car and i've proved that by spending over 6 grand already. The problem comes when i have to spend another 10-12 grand for the rest of the service estimate. Oh, by the way...the car does run.

Sounds like you're a BOY too, because you certainly don't sound like a mature adult MAN.

1QWIK7

iTrader: (33)

Not trying to put you down but how can you NOT have a problem with spending that much on repairs knowing theres twice to 3 times as much left to spend right after? I mean its not soo much about actually spending money on your car to have it fixed but the fact that someone is literally trying to jerk your chain. Thats like saying yeah i know my girl cheats but at least she still loves me. It doesnt work that way.

bajaman

Aw come on now....where's the love?

Okay, I think I stated earlier that I didn't mean my original reply to be taken as harshly as it was. Let's put all that behind us. I really AM impressed that you are taking the time and obviously the money to fix the car right. Hopefully you and your dad have learned a lot from the responses you have received here. There is a tried and true adage that says that more FDs have been killed by dealership service than anything else, and it sounds like your experiences confirm that. It is unfortunate that there are few if any repercussions for poor service from these dealers....but they really don't care.
It sounds like there are a lot of qualified and experienced people in your area that would do you a MUCH better job than the dealership you are going to. Hang in there and keep asking those questions. You've got tough skin, kid. You put up with a lot of **** here and didn't get too shitty in response.

scotty305

iTrader: (2)

If your father has any common sense at all, he should know that "book knowledge" doesn't mean half as much as real life experience. Ask your "Mazda Certified Rotary" dealership how many RX-7's they've successfully repaired lately. There have been many instances where a dealership will miss something very simple like a disconnected boost sensor (which sits in a very visible place: on the firewall between the throttle body and the brake booster).


As the saying goes: "Do it right or do it twice." Remember that the dealership has no qualms about charging you twice as much as you want to pay, and it's been well-documented that the dealership won't always do it right. I'm very surprised that your father doesn't know this already. It's very possible that he's not familiar enough with automotive mechanics to tell the difference between a capable mechanic and a swindler. If that's the case, then I would strongly advise that you avoid wasting your money, and don't let your dad talk you out of finding a capable mechanic.


Good luck,
-s-

fd3s_rx7

iTrader: (13)

Well I can understand if you guys are Asian. Asian pop are strict as hell. Whether it being a military officer or what not, they will not listen for shiet. I know my father will disagree with me and will only want his way. But I don't care tho., I just do it.
Might as well sell your FD, and use that $11-$12K and buy a Good running FD.
Anyways sorry for the lost. Dealership is a no, no....

jpandes

I'm not gonna bash you anymore. You've been raked over the coals enough.

I trully feel for you. Have you told us what is wrong with your car yet? I didn't read all three pages of the post. I didn;pt have the heart. Are your turbos really toast? Engine gone? What. Chances are you may be able to get away with less than 5k for a used set of turbos($150-500), Mazda REMAN engine($2,200-2900), Removal & Reinstallation ($1,500+/-).

And if your car engien is really toast, I doubt that you will be able to sell it for much more than $6-7k. So it might be best to just fix it right and get a better job to pay for mods that you will undoubtedly want to buy once she's back on the road.

Good Luck.