James Paventi

iTrader: (34)

Hi All,

It's been three cars since my 7 and I'm now thinking of getting back into one. Preferably a touring model for the softer suspension.

First thought ... wow! They are becoming scarce and the price is moving up a bit. I still see some decent stock or nearly stock ones for 12-14k (Southern California) on Autotrader.

Any other warnings as to what's changed in the last 5 years?

How is parts availability. Can one still elect to pay $$$ for parts from Mazda or has supply of many parts dried up. I seem to remember this one reasonable dealer in PA.

thanks and feel free to point me to a similar thread. I poked around a bit and didn't see anything.

James

P.S. my sig still shows my old car ... at least until I find a new baby.

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

Hey James,

good luck in your search bud

Best place to get OEM mazda parts is from Ray Crowe at Malloy Mazda, the # there is (888) 533 3400

adam c

iTrader: (2)

Hi James,

Nice to see you back on the forum

Not a lot has changed. Any low mileage car will still be 17-19 years old. That means a possibility of needing a rebuild due to old age may be fairly high. Coolant seals dont last forever, even with low mileage. My suggestion would be to find the low mileage car that is in the best shape cosmetically, and then figure you will have to fix some mechanical problems when ever they occur.

Supernaut

iTrader: (83)

I don't know if I would buy a touring model for the softer suspension when you can just buy the touring suspension for under $100. If you want to go with aftermarket suspension, I think the greddy s-types are the softest you can buy. I run them on my car and think they're pretty great.

Parts are drying up but I can only think of a couple of pieces that may be hard to get. With people like Ray and the regular used parts guys, I think we're going to be ok for a bit.

James Paventi

iTrader: (34)

Very cool!

Thanks guys. I'd forgotten how friendly this forum was.

Adam! Glad to hear from you again. I'd have figured that you would have made it big time with your "cheap bastard" intake by now and left this forum.

Supernaut, thanks for the advice. That's a good point. I hadn't considered that.

OK ... this took care of my last hesitation. Now I just need to sell my 09 FX35.

Wow! I can't wait to start looking at FDs ... maybe this weekend. It's going to be a different shopping experience given that I've replaced the engine in my last one and remember all of fun issues.

Funny, there's a $20K one on Autotrader now with only 40,000 miles. Way too much money for a car that is only moments from having it's dried out, hardened up, coolant seals fail.

Peace folks ... and thanks for the input.

Reno_NVFD

iTrader: (2)

Ray Crowe is great to get parts from like Goodfella said also you can use autotempst.com to find your fd. It searches ebay, craigslist, cars.com and other for you at the same time.

1QWIK7

iTrader: (33)

Aftermarket parts easy to find still. Oem parts are hard to find. I had to wait like a month to get my brand new mudguards. But I know it'll last long as my originals did.

Aside from mechanicals, also inspect the body REALLY well. When I took off my mudguards I found a good amount of rust. And rust doesn't stop, its like cancer so if you don't catch it soon, before you know it its all over. As much as I hate finding it, im lucky its only by the mudguard area and now I can start repairing it.

James Paventi

iTrader: (34)

What a sad, sad, sad ending to a Monday.

I finished up at work, picked up a friend and checked out this:
link

Hmm ... the coolant level is low enough that the coolant light should be on but it isn't, vacuum is low, boost at maybe 2PSI, there's an burnt wiring smell inside, It needs a motor, turbo, paint, interior, dash, gauge cluster, boy can you smell an electrical problem and, and, and ... OK so it might as well be a parts car. It's worth something south of $5k (if that) ... I literary felt sad when I left.

On the good side:
The car has new tires and oil!
It gave me a chance to drive an FD again.
I realized that I'm not as concerned with the color as I thought.
I now know that buying one that lived in Malibu (beach) is a cause for concern.
It was fun having everything come back to me in a rush while I looked the car over.
I'm tall enough that my priority should be one without a sunroof. Anyone know about how much headroom this adds? I'm guessing 1/2 an inch.


Well, this marks the start of my search and the end of this thread. I think that the next one I go looking at will be the start of a "my search" thread.

Ending on a happy note ... here's a fun gif that I found on this forum years ago:


OK, I feel better now!

peace!

James

mkiv98

iTrader: (5)

just keep looking and have fun. I want to buy them all and rescue them! like the spca, but for FD Rx-7s

Evopanda

iTrader: (8)

Parts are drying up but there is a good number of parts in Japan so you may have to go that route. I am also looking to get another FD I just hate seeing a beat up FD show up on craigslist.

allrotor93

iTrader: (126)

I always have cars coming in....pm me what you are looking for if you don't mind shipping