So after answering the same question over and over again on the myspace rx7 and rotary forums, I had a brilliant (or pain in the ***, it's up to you to decide) idea. This sticky will be for all of the noobs that come in asking if they can afford the upkeep on a FD, or if a FD is a good first car, or any of those damn questions.

Would anyone be willing to go back through their FD files and tally up, month-by-month, repair, gas, maintanance, etc. for the first 2 or so years? If we can get a bunch of responses, and then have the final post in the thread a month-by-month and year-by-year average, with the low-end and high-end expected maintance and repair cost totals, and a low-end monthly average and high-end montly average, we can once-and-for-all have a link to show the noobs how much this car actually costs to keep going.

It'll be a way to say "this car is expensive as hell, here's what it cost some of us over the first two years" and leave it at that, not "read the stickys" or "IBTL, don't buy one".

This was just something that I thought up while sitting, not paying attention in my 8am lecture. Any suggestions/comments/critisizm (sp?) would be greatly appriecated.

 

I have every receipt for the car since I bought it but going through and separating upgrades from maintenance would be tricky. Also taking out items preventive maintenance would be another obstacle. It may be safe to say that if you have to ask the car my not be the right one for you.

 

& stickys only work when people read them...

There are plenty of people that ask questions that are covered in a sticky...

 

very true, this was just a thought, and i apprieciate your input. Anyone else?

 

"afford the upkeep on a FD, or if a FD is a good first car, or any of those damn questions."

IMO, this is a bad idea since it's already covered. Those are already answered in the FAQ's, which is a sticky.

While they don't list specific costs, i don't think they should. It's going to be different for everybody. There are people that haven't spent much on maintenance at all, and those that have spent thousands.

Again, it also helps if people actually read the stickies.

 

I know I've already chimed in once... but...

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink"

 

I've kept pretty good records of my fuel mileage for the past few years.


My car (engine is stock aside from a downpipe) gets 14-20 mpg, about 17 on average.
Depending on the price of fuel, that equates to about $0.20 - $0.25 per mile.
If you drive 10,000 miles per year you're looking at $2,000 - $2,500 in annual fuel costs.


This is a very conservative estimate: when my RX-7 was seeing daily-driver duty, I put over 15,000 miles on it in a year, which cost me over $300 per month in fuel alone.



Maintenance cost are what vary the most, but I doubt anyone spends less than $1,000 per year on their 3rd Gen. Depending on your definition of maintenance, some people have spent over $6,000-10,000 in one year.


-s-