How did you manage that one now Jeff? You can't do that ... You're still suppose to show me how its done at the track :P

 

I'm leaning towards not doing a whole lot of mechincal work on the next car. I'm just not very good at it.

I tried out the new Cobalt SS because the reviews on it have been incredible. I liked it, but it wasn't fantastic.

I drove the RX-8 afterwards. I loved it. The power is a bit weak and there is no midrange, but the handling and the precision is glorious. The engine sounds awesome too. I'm feeling reasonably confident that I want to buy one. It really is like a surgical tool, it inspires great confidence. I was amazed at what I was willing to do with the car nearly right away. The linear nature of the power makes it, even more predictable than my TII ever did. When I drove a RX-8 a few years ago I didn't get to really experiment with corners so I don't think I appreciated it as much. It's a real drivers car. The lousy resale value makes it cheap to get into one.

I'm going to try out a Mustang GT as I haven't driving one in a few years, but I think I'm definately heavily leaning towards a RX-8.

I'm thinking of selling my RX-7 as a whole rather than parting it out. I would rather get a couple hundred less rather than spend the effort of pulling everything off the car.

 

DUDE, PLLLLLLLLLLLLEASE TESTDRIVE A C5 Z06, PLEASE! If you hate it, oh well. But if you don't, man oh man what a car. You can dig one up for under 20k, I know a local guy who is an expert in these cars and you can rest 100% assured that you'll know exactly what you're getting into with regards to any issues they have. But you get Ferrari level performance and you will be simply stunned (I believe) by how good it is for daily driving. It's actually quiet and comfortable, and on the highway it'll do 30mpg. If I wasn't an E30 fanatic already (which I have to admit is mainly a fun car if you like wrenching - stock it's just another RWD beater), the C5 Z06 would be in my garage. The technology and performance you get for the money cannot be beat, unless you score a Ferrari for free.

 

After popping a few rotaries I'm in the reliably safe keep it together mode now, I want to try and drive it for a least a year without blowing it up. Next time I pop it, she's gone!

 

Sad to hear, but I can't blame you. A guy can only take so much, so I can understand how

Since you're looking at the RX-8 and the Mustang GT, why not the 350z? I've driven the mustang and I'm sure coming from an RX-8 you'll think it's sloppy just like I did. The 350z is a blast to drive, good power, good handling. Maybe try it out.

 

A C5 Z06 for under $20k? Based on what I see on Autotrader I see nothing to back that up unless it has 200,000km.... Am I missing something?

A 350Z is a little more expensive, but for some reason less than I thought. Perhaps it would be a good idea to try one.

 

buy stateside and save a fortune.

the C5 Z06 is truly a fantastic car. I'd buy one.

 

I haven't had any problems with the two B5 A4s I've owned other than regular maintenance. None of the folklore about these cars seems to be true; ie, wiring problems, unreliability, etc. I guess they are kinda like the RX7s in that sense, they have a bad rep but are actually great cars, and its generally bad owners who neglect the cars specific needs who make the most noise about them being bad cars.

Parts are expensive and service generally demands a premium since its 'european'. But if you do your own work and know where to look for parts, then the cost of service/maintenance is no longer any different from most other options.

My A4 has a full exhaust, an ECU chip, and a slightly bigger turbo. My brother says its way faster then his friends WRX with similar mods. There's only one way to find out though. I would agree that anything past that, and the WRX would be cheaper to mod/go faster in.

That being said, I just did an oil change on my A4 and realized that the steering rack is leaking and I need all new control arms (the PO said they were just done, which pisses me off). It looks like I need to pull the engine to do the steering rack. Audi A4 for sale...

 

If you wait and look hard enough you'll find one locally. But I'd go to the US. Plenty of cars down there under 20k with 50-80k miles. If you want even cheaper you could get a regular C5. Some people prefer the style more and it doesn't take much effort or money to get it far superior to the Z06 spec. And the LS7 is a drop-in swap which can be had for 12k as a crate motor (or obviously way less used).

 

The last couple of days I've driven to the GTA to try out cars. There's a 350Z at a local Hyundai dealership that I'm going to try though with a reasonable price. I found a RX-8 that seems to be a real no brainer though.

BTW: I put my TII in the Buy/Sell section.

 

what's your budget? THere was a 1991 NSX in houston with 93,000 miles on it for 22k USD Buy it now. THat works out to be aprox 28k CDN.

NSX... mmmMMMMMMmmmm honda reliability with super high bling factor.

 

You have pm sir.

 

Key to reliability is keep it as close to stock as possible. The car is more fun when it is stock than when it is modified to the moon and back.

 

^ I'm on board with the close to stock thing Jason, but the NSX is a bit rich for my blood.

I put an offer in on a used RX-8 today. Some weirdness going on and he's calling me back tomorrow morning. Basically there's a low price advertised and then there's a surprise $899 "safety" to go with a $289 reg fee aka. extra gross. This is for a car that will need nothing to little to safety. Basically the "safety" is the profit margin.

Applied for a line of credit. In person they made it sound like their "as low as" 2% over prime rate was impossible to acheive. I don't know my score, but I can't see it being anything but impecible. If I don't qualify, who does? Hopefully I'll find out tomorrow.

Kevin, you have a PM now too.

 

please don't tell me you are going to a used car lot. Please don't. I thought you were smarter than this.

2005 Rx8s off lease any trim level, any color can be had for 12 to 15k CAD at auction houses. I've seen some advertised with less than 60,000 kms on the clock. Used Rx8s don't sell well for the average consumer. They drive nice yes. They have cool quirky engines yes. But the average driver couldn't give a rats ***. It gets poor fuel economy and is high maintenance, hence the huge depreciation for these things.

Personally I would look for auctions. Mazda Dealers who have returning leases. Private sale. NEVER EVER USED CAR LOTS.

The only time I've ever stepped into one was to check out a 1986 Audi Quattro Coupe with 100,000 kms on the odometer. They wanted too much for such an old car. It was red with teh sports package (so BBS mesh rims and upgrade suspension from the factory).

 

Jason, as someone who is not a car dealer how do I get into an Adesa auction and buy off lease Mazda credit vehicles? The better auctions keep the riff-raff out.

What's the difference between buying off a mazda dealer with a lease return or different used car situation? The just returned lease that has not gone back to Mazda credit has a price that is the residual in the lease contract. The dealer then has to safety it and add a profit margin. Based on the poor resale value of these cars I doubt they're going to be competitive prices. Having it go to auction, then a dealer buying it for $4k+ less than retail (retail being lower than the residual) and then buying off a dealer for say $2k over wholesale works out better.

Agree, private sales are better because there's no PST. On the flip side a lot of owners have unrealistic expectations of pricing. They don't realize how much dealers can actually move when selling due to the wholesale vs. retail price difference. The other problem is there aren't that many private sellers at any given moment.

We'll see if my deal goes through and then I will reveal details and I suspect you will see that I do know what I'm doing.

 

My work is just beside the Adesa auction lots. I remember driving by and it said it was open to the public.

I just did a quick search.
http://www.adesa.ca/auction-types

Adesa does open to the public.

Alan from Scarborough Mazda would be a better voice than my regarding how dealerships work. But from my understanding the dealer gets first dibs on the off lease vehicle after Mazda Canada (or whomever the leasing company happens to be) after they do the inspection and judge if the security deposit gets returned to the previous user of the vehicle or if additional money is required to repair the car.

If the car is a good one, and the dealer knows they have done all the maintenance and work on the car for the past X years and there are no problems with it and low miles they most likely keep the car for their own used car lot to sell. The ones with high mileage or ones with known problems (like my dad's 2005 Nissan Altima that visited the dealership with non stop random squeeks, alignments that wouldn't hold, and engine that kept on stalling) might be punted off to the auction block because of the long history of problems. It only had 55,000 kms on the car and the lease was for 3 years. If the car was any good my dad would've kept it.

Bottom line is that the Mazda Dealership gets first dibs on returned Rx8s. If it is a mint one they may keep it if they don't have a used one on the lot to sell. New car dealerships rarely have crap ones on the lot. Those all end up on teh auction blocks to get fire sold. For which the used car lots pick them up and advertise them 1000 to 2000 dollars cheaper than a comparable car on a new car dealership's used lot.

That is how I understand how things worked.

 

I worked at a dealership in sales and at least in the Ford world (which Mazda credit was formerly apart of), it's usually not financially advisable for a dealer to take the off lease vehicle directly from the customer. They usually buy them from the auction where they can pay less.

Notice how the Adesa auction site lists different types of auctions? The off lease vehicles go to the wholesale auction. New car dealers ('A' Lots) are typically pickier about the kinds of vehicles they're willing to buy. New car dealers are often able to sell used cars for more because of the credibility afforded by the manufactuer sign on their building. There are all sorts of dealers at at various stages down the food chain who buy other cars partially because they attract a different customer. That said, 'B' Lots can have decent stuff too.

 

have you checked the rx8club classifieds? just a though.

just tell them you don't want the car saftied as you want your own mechanic to go over it. That fixes that $900.

 

^ I tried that. The problem is it's not a real safety, it's just profit.

 

I forgot to mention - I drove a 350z and I was less impressed that I thought I would be. The raw handling seems very good, but it didn't seem as well sorted when you crossed the line or were in certain situations where the suspension was less happy. The car doesn't communicate what it's doing nearly as well as the RX-8. It didn't inspire ridiculous confidence like the RX-8. The mid-range power was pretty good, but overall the car didn't feel as fast as I expected for 287hp. The steering/clutch/shifter are all very stiff, which I am fine with, but but I didn't feel like they communicated very well considering how stiff they were. I'm not a big sound person, but I wasn't fond of the exhaust note. The car was not the base model, yet I'm pretty certain it didn't have a LSD.

 

The 350z and RX-8 are very different cars.
The first is more of a japanese muscle car. Big, heavy, powerful. Has a lot of handling capability but it is more brute force rather than finese and on-limit agility.

The latter is a lighter, more nimble, but unfortunately slightly daintly powered, machine. You're assesment sounds right.

So Jeff, you are looking for a summer car then not a daily driver? Lots of options if so...
Can i throw in 2 more for thought:
- Honda S2k
- Subaru WRX STi

--
Aaron

 

From my dealership experience dealers did not get preferential options to buy off-lease vehicles. (but that was 17 years ago, I almost fainted typing that. I feel old)

I had a friend sneak me in to odessa last year. I was in car heaven. I mostly hung out in the BMW lane and I saw the used car managers from various BMW dealerships buying cars right along side the smaller used car dealers.

I think you have to be smart about your purchase but the cars are essentially from the same pool whether they are at a brand name dealer lot or not. The only real benefit to buying from the brand name dealer is the potential for a factory extended warranty program like the BMW and Merc Cert Series cars.(but there is also a way of getting these perks via the smaller retailers).
And also that you would hope that brand name dealer cars will have already had a once over by a factory tech.

But that said I don't think there is a factory extended warranty option on the Rx8 or the other cars you mentioned.

I would personally refuse to pay any of those extra fees that you mentioned. You and I both know they are just trying to increase profit.

AS for my personal recommendation, I would go with something that has completed most of its depreciation cycle.

Anyhow, good luck with the car search.

 

I put a deposit down on a RX-8. The dealer is sketchy even by used car dealer standards so I'm going to wait until I drive away with the car before I call it done.