Easy - the car just has to be garaged its entire life in an area with a relatively dry and temperate climate. My 55k CA FD has pretty much mint striping. UV, moisture and temperature extremes are what kill rubber. Age by itself will take many more decades to harden rubber.

And I really, really wish people would stop using the expression "a car is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it". It usually seems to be delivered as though the author were conveying a really choice piece of knowledge. It is a totally asinine expression and conveys no useful information. It is a bit like saying "if you want to get rich you should make a lot of money". FDs have a market value and there are plenty of data to calculate the value of a particular car - no psueudo profound econobabble needed.

 

huh?

If the market for these cars are in the neighborhood of 15-20, why would you wanna spend 35k?

Thats like going into a dealership and saying, "i want to pay top dollar for that corvette right there, let me sign the papers".

In order for our market to get better, we need to "gradually" sell the cars at a higher price. Or hope MANY people are willing to pay an extreme amount for a regular FD.

Its not gonna happen overnight.

 

The passenger side weather strip on my car is in excellent shape, but the drivers side gave up.

Hopefully new weatherstrip and some QuietCoat will quiet the driver's side door "clank" common with 93s

 

Heres a couple of examples of cars I see in "mint condition" that just dont stack up...these cars are in ok-good condition for their age....but are nowhere near MINT....

http://www.classyauto.com/v/used/Mazda+RX-7/100404
http://www.usedforsale.biz/for-sale/...50258949041871
http://www.usedforsale.biz/for-sale/...36924933581198


the market for these cars in ok condition may be 15-20....but an excellent example with desireable modifications will fetch much more...thats my point.

 

I remember your car being nice. Any details or pics?

 

I bought the car from QBall (Marney) who bought the car from Teddy. Marney was the person who had the red FD then this one. He is enjoying his carefree moneypit life without an FD. I have Teddy on my facebook, I think he is racing bikes now.

IMO we can't really speculate the future worth of these cars. I think all you guys have valid points, but we just have to wait and see right? The point is about this situation and FDZero needs to decide at this point and time if he wants to sell or not.

I think he will both regret and be happy if he sold it. I imagine if his upcoming lifestyle does not have room for an FD it will become a pain in his side.

My first FD, in a way, kept me from moving forward in my career. Even though I lost it, I was able to move into LA and get better gigs. I could do so because I didn't have a nice car to worry about parking for it. I was sad, but now i have this FD, score!

 

heres the most recent I have....need some more interior shots....but heres mostly exterior...

 

Yes I think he had a red car and sold it in 2001 in order to buy that CYM which at the time belonged to Wayne at Phase2.

On the subject of modded FDs, I sold mine within a week of listing it, with numerous interested parties, for 25k, and it was still on stock twins. SSM 1995 with 58k miles.

 

lmao I could see that. you car is/was probably the most mint FD I ever saw in person.

Interesting to me that this car I have now has been the 2nd FD for the last 3 owners.

 

That doesn't surprise me at all. 95s change hands so rarely. I might actually prefer a VR 95 over a CYM. When I was looking for my FD, there was a 95 for sale. I think it was in LI NY. I regret not picking it up.

 

it's worth what that special someone is willing to pay.

I damn sure didn't spend $25k on the 25k mileage FD in the garage... didn't pay $20k for the 50k mileage R1 sitting next to it. I've personally never seen cleaner cars than these two.

WAIT!!! I have the org tires on the car from '92 ...I want $30k for mine now! (::joke:

For myself, I think the car has something ideal to a standard/base value but because of modifications it surely doesn't drop the value (well thats HIGHLY subjective!!).

anyhow, just keep it and store it. I was able to follow most of what G's dribble and I think he's right.

 

I agree with Gordons predictions and I hope he is right. If we consider the uniqueness of the RX-7 powertain, it's purity as a car, it's awesome appearance and performance it is difficult for me to see how anybody would conclude that they will not be worth much more in the future. Some of the daily driver issues or gripes we have about interior bits and brittle hoses and wire looms will not be an issue with collectors. Many autos are losing the car & driver connection, government regulations and car makers are watering the experience in so many ways. It will really be something to have a good example, properly running rotary engined sports car. Compared to current and future cars the FD will be a more raw driving experience just as driving a triumph, MG, older 911, 240z, etc. was compared to more modern cars.

I just did a quick autotrader search and there are quite a few for sale with 35-55k miles in the $16-24k range. The highest priced cars were either highly modified or very nice stock or nearly stock cars. A few were automatics but still very nice. If I had the money I would buy a few more RX-7s and keep them well preserved. I think clean stock FDs bought at todays prices (assuming one doesn't pay an unreasonably high price) could double in value.

 

There are single turbo conversions that look like hell with filthy engine bays, hoses and wires hanging all over the place - the kind of car you know will leave you stranded somewhere 10 minutes after buying it - and then there are others with immaculate engine bays, where even the brake fluid looks new - it all comes down to the integrity of the seller, is he a backyard mechanic hick or a conscientous person who understands these cars and hired the best help he could find - the latter seems to be the case here.

FDZero must be loving all these free bumps, wonder if he sold the car by now.

 

No matter how good the FD is (relatively speaking), it will always be a niche car because most people don't know what it is and/or will never drive one - add to the fact that Mazda has essentially no reputation in the sports car market, and the reputation is does have with 95% of people is not good: they only know the rotary engine blows up alot. That type of stigma is very hard to overcome.

Some mythical collector value for these cars is a pipe dream - they're just getting older and racking up more miles in most cases. Mazda needs to produce a new rotary sports car that puts the RX-8 to shame and establishes itself as a serious sports car manufacturer. Not sure if they have the *****.

 

Hi Rice Hata and the other current NYC residents. Thanks for the info on conditions of NYC in terms of car-ownership in general. I had knew what everyone had all ready stated about NYC and the traffic but just wanted a reconfirmation. I saw that the instant I stepped off the airplane and visited NYC. Busy, busy, busy. And thanks for the tip about the garages or storages too...I know it's expensive just to store a car. But the trade off with design culture and art (I'm a graphic/web designer/developer) is a risk trading for being one of the design capitals in the nation.

After reading everyone's input and what's ahead for me in general, I'm more leaning towards selling the FD so I'm going to list it everywhere soon (including this forum's classifieds). I would like to get ~$20K. As others had noted, if I have to (...will have to probably), I will swap out the '99 bumper, Spirit R parts, wheels and other cosmetics for stock setup and sell separately. Don't want to remove motor/performance parts.

Also, I'm at the point where I built my "dream FD." Goal is complete. I know I will miss the FD but there are other cars (ISF) or FDs (chaste white ) I can get later after NYC or whatever my new thoughts are at that time. In addition, just right now, I've fallen out of the car scene some and been attending the RX7 forums and car meets much less over the months and years. A new change, etc in hobby, interest, etc. In addition, want to invest in new projects and business ( http://www.mimollc.com), etc. Regardless if I fail or not, I tried...in NYC no less. Haha.

Thanks all for your input,
- Tam

 

Oh, I knew I forgot something...parts I forgot to mention...

- Rotary Extreme Toe Links
- Rotary Extreme Trailing Arms

 

This. There are mint cars and there is everything else. You put my R1 with 52k original miles next to BoostCrzy's car and mine looks like it has 150k miles on it.

'Market' value also pivots on different people's situations. I picked up my R1 for $10k since the owner wanted a new shop car (platform) to help boost shop interest. He could have easily netted a higher number if he wanted to invest the time in figuring out the going rate for similar cars plus play the waiting game for 'the right person' to buy the car.

Also, the mod situation. Some mods increase a perceived value while some increase a total value. If I see an all original car with the common reliability mods vs a single turbo swap car with an original plastic AST and suspect wiring, some people may see the single swap as a perceived value whereas the all original minor upgrade car is where the total value is.

But regardless of how you slice this apart it really all boils down to who it is in the market buying at the time, and where they see their perceived value.

 

Gordon, those "other people" on the forum you speak of are likely still just him. He changed his name(again), but we all still recognize the arguments.

 

...and forgot other unlisted parts (though so minute compared to everything else): new odometer clear lense

 

A contributing factor to car value (sometimes) is interior restoration. I just received a bunch of messages about my "replica" copy of the Spirit R interior but for LHD (USA). Visually it looks the same but the paint material I'm sure is not as the original as the authentic interior since I never seen a Spirit R in person. If I recall, someone once mentioned authentic Spirit R interior has a "soft touch" to it almost like a rubber soft finish? Anyhow, does my interior restoration have an impact on value?

We all know the 93's had crap interior versus the 94-95 textured finishes.

Attached are pics when initially received back from professional auto paint shop:





Here is the car right sitting outside (2 years later...has some scratches here and there but not much):

 

Thanks everyone and Meiogirl for input. Now that I got everyone's input and price/etc...I'm interested in what the end price will be too.

 

Uhhh. IMHO. The market for "OK" fd's is 10-15. The market for "Nice FD's" is 15-18. The Market for exceptional examples is 18-22. Your average LSx swap is fetching 22-25. At least as far as I can tell.

Of course there are exceptional examples here and there. Really nice lsx's 2jz's and the occasional 20b. But, they're exceptions. Not the rule.

 

It still shocks me that you compare Mazda to Ferrari, but I realize you've very passionate about these cars. I've visited quite a few car forums. The FD is known for its rotary engine. The rotary engine is known for a) being unreliable, b) sucking alot of gas. Yes, they are fun cars, but they also cost alot to maintain and few people can work on them. Contrary to your statment I love my car, but the average person is not going to buy an expensive 18 year old car with questionable reliablity and miserable gas mileage, it just isn't going to happen. They's going to buy a C6, Porsche Cayman, or a 370Z and finance it. The only people that will pay in excess of 25k are a tiny minority, and I can't think of any reason that would change. Just trying to be realistic, I'm not "bashing" FDs.

It's a bit presumptuous to say I'm wrong. Values are flat now, are they suddenly going to increase dramatically? Do you believe your car will be worth $50k some day? It's fine to dream...I prefer to drive and not worry what the car will be worth "someday", or many miles it has.

 

In addition, all the parts listed are less than ~10,XXX miles old...however, '99 bumper + wheels/tires were purchased Summer 2010. Basically, when I shipped my car to IR Performance in Winter 2008, all the new parts were being added all at the same time.

 

There are a plenty of low volume, little known vehicles that are worth much more than they should be on paper. Sometimes the "niche" factor alone contributes to the cars value, especially when you are talking about collectible cars. The FD has a lot going for it, and being rare and not well known will not hurt it's value and would only add to collectibility.

More Miata's race every weekend than any other car sports in the world. Although it's not powerful it is certainly a pure sports car and has been a high volume, highly rated sports car since 1989. While the RX-8 lacks torque, MPG and has a rear seat it's still considered one of the best handling cars you can buy. I've seen it twice in "best handling" or "best driving experience" C&D or R&T articles in the last 6 months and it's almost at the end of it's production run but still highly acclaimed in most sporty driving aspects. Since most people don't even know what a rotary engine is it would be impossible for most people to think they blow up a lot. You seem like a pessimist and cynical. Are you no_more_rice?

It is for the well preserved, low mileage cars that we are hopefully predicting the value of. Since we are talking about future prices they have to be "mythical."

Agreed! If it were not for the economy I think we would probably be hearing more chatter about an RX-7 or RX-8 replacement.