RHD JDM FD's Thumbs up or Thumbs down
 

Just want to conduct a little poll on what u guys think of the RHD fds being imported into Canada now....
i will start by saying i dont like it one bit.........i drive a 94 touring and cant stand the fact that the market may soon be flooded with a bunch of miled out crappers from Japan that take away the prestige of owning one here in Canada.... I would often take pride in the fact that i could be downtown calgary and the chances of seeing a ferrari were greater then coming across another fd. Maybe i am selfish in thinking this but its just the way i feel about it.
so if u wanna take part in this pole simply state... a thumbs up or down....followed by your opinion on the matter.........it would also be helpfull if u said what kinda rx7 u drive........especially if u have a rhd fd.....then of course u can feel free 2 defend yourself and convince myself and any other LHD FD owners why we should not feel threatened....

My Vote:
THUMBS DOWN

doesnt really bother me.

Ditto.

In my opinion, there are many other things in life that take precedence over something as silly as worrying about this. I think you need to find some healthier ways of self-validation :)

Fine by me... Hope they don't go ahead with the 25-year thing...

I've been in the market for an FD for a while now. I've come across four kinda of FDs.
1) Very well taken care of, but with a hefty price tag
2) A peice of shit that shouldn't even be on the road (can be JDM as well)
3) A JDM car

I've spent the last several months looking for a good FD, but any good ones were either too far, or out of my price range. I'm going to my cousin's wedding which is in West Virginia and I wanted to bring up an FD, than a friend who was also in the business of importing vehicles bought an FD at auction and I ended up buying it from him. It's stock, and the only thing mentioned in the inspection was that it had a minor scratch on the fender. I planned on making this my track car, so I didn't need someone's 24,000km FD and.. well you get the idea, so before you judge, this is why I got a JDM car. It doesn't matter if the car is LHD or RHD, and FD is and FD.

That being said, I bought the car because I've owned my LHD FC for a long while now and that's why I was on the hunt for an FD chassis. I think it's safe to say that a majority of people buying these RHD FDs won't know what to do with them the second something goes wrong and what does that mean for us? Only the enthusiasts will be able to keep them on the road (kind of like it is now), except we'll have more parts cars available :)

Although I can see where you're coming from. People only manage to see that bad points of the idea, but hey, if a kid totals his FD, you've got a low mileage twin turbo set up available, see what I mean? Only a handful of people will be able to appreciate what the FD really is, and only those people will know how to take care of them.

My vote... I don't really care.

..and for the record, when I was in Calgary, I've seen three FDs and zero Ferraris :P ..and that's not including the time I went to go see RX-7 Specialties which had four at the time.

For me, importing an FD is the only way i would be able to afford one of these beautiful cars. The only downside for LHD FD owners is that the increase of RHD car may drop the value of their cars, for them shity,but for me just mean i'm one step closer to owning one.

I like them, because the bigger the community the better.

I imported a JDM FD3S Type R... It's a pleasure to drive! I normally would not have been able to own one because the asking price for North American models in Ontario was too high.

http://www.jdm-imports.com/vehicles/FD388/n11.jpg
http://www.jdm-imports.com/vehicles/FD388/n13.jpg
http://www.jdm-imports.com/vehicles/FD388/n116.jpg

I personally am glad that the JDM FD's are coming over. And like everyone else if it wasn't for JDM FD's I wouldn't have been able to afford one. I was planning on getting myself a fun car this year and started looking in Japan at what I could afford. I was planning on eather getting a puslar GTIR or a Celica GT-4. But once I realised that the FD's were legal this year I was sold on getting one. Ever since I owned my FC I have always wanted to get another RX-7 especially a FD.

I can see how a LHD FD owner could be upset about all of the RHD cars coming over, but the thing is that it still won't lower the price tag of a LHD car by that much. I can garountee that 90% of the people out there would rather drive a LHD car over a RHD car and would pay the extra amount for a LHD car. Another upside for and FD owner with the JDM cars coming over is that if they are POS's it is going to be alot cheaper to get a parts car now. haha.

I think its a good thing - more cars avaliable - JDM ones are priced rather nicely. But I could how it would affect an existing owner's resale. Still a LHD version will likely always get premium money.

Are RHD FD's from import dealers costing much less than regular FD's in other parts of Canada? In Ottawa, we only have one RHD FD for sale and the place wants 15k for it... and it isnt pretty.

Wow, gorgeous! Care to share some more info (mileage, etc)?

I cant see RHD FD's affecting the value of LHD FD's by much if anything. People with money will be willing to pay more for a LHD car instead of settling on a RHD one.

I'm more worried about all the guys who are buying cheap JDM cars to save some money (or couldnt afford a North American FD). If you cant afford to buy this car at 20k, there's no way you can afford to keep it on the road in any kind of decent condition. This is the last car people should be trying to save a buck with. Mazda will rape you with part prices and the FD itself will destroy you with its unreliability.

Let's just say some poor dude lands an FD for 10k from Japan with 90,000km's on it. He thinks he's gotten a deal on a low mileage FD. Problem is they need rebuilds around those kms anyways, so 5k right there for a rebuild. For sure the 5th gear synchros (and probably 1st gear too) are going to be toast on every one of these early FD's, so fixing that will be another 1.5k. That clunking in the back when you go over bumps and the weird feeling you get while turning? That's your rear billow ball bushings... they last about 60,000kms so those will have to be changed (480$). While you're down there, dont forget the engine and diff mounts since they are also guaranteed to be toast (850$). You're already at 7830$.

And that's just the beginning. You'll still havent even checked that 12-8-0 boost pattern, why the engine light is on, why there's a big clunk coming from the front, why the car seems to be running really hot, why there's oil around the turbos, why it stalled 3 times yesterday lol. Oh yeah... and your AST cracked last night and you just overheated you brand new motor :wallbash:

I think I've had mine for too long now lol.

Apparently (And I did NOT see the car myself) - Tiger Japanese Auto Parts in toronto just sold a very very nice type-R for $6700 with a blown motor. They have a few more on the way.

I don't think FD engines only last 90,000KM - that's only 55,000 miles! There are plenty with more milage out there than that. I'm sure some last many fewer KM than that as well, but I can't see why FD engine life would be that much worse on average than FC turbo engine life...
jspecs are $2500... hell, if I could sell my stock motor and trans (which both have under 15,000KM, and motor has perfect compression, trans shifts like butter) for $3500, it would be gone tomorrow. I'd even pull it out.

hell, I've owned a 200,000KM 1st motor FD, and I'm sure it was not the only one.

And if your car still has a poor boost pattern AFTER replacing the motor, you screwed up.



The only problem with JDM FD's is the same problems with north american FD's, except you start with a cheaper car. Ain't nothing wrong with that.

RXcetera:

10000k+7830=17830

Still cheaper than a LHD FD and its rebuilt.

Who puts a USED motor in their FD without rebuilding it first?

From everything I have read (and experienced), 60,000 miles is roughly the average engine life of an FD motor. The various reasons for this are posted all over numerous forums. Adding an overseas car with no known history to the mix just makes things worse.

Well I am aware of the costs to rebuild; but my FD3S with 88K is not showing any of the problems described. It really depends on who you are buying the FD from and what kind of condition it is in; just like any car.

Rxcetera probably has owned an FD longer than anyone else I know.
So he's been through everything, at least twice! lol

Personally, I don't mind the RHD cars. What I do mind is all these young inexperienced drivers getting ahold of a car they have no business owning. I guess it's the "prestiege" of owning such a vehicle. They care about obtaining the car as cheap as possible. What they don't know is the cost of maintenance for this vehicle is very high.

I hope most of these RHD cars end up in responsible hands....

I love my JDM RX7, Japanese cars rock, they have super low K's no rust any where, they are built to higher performance specs, and cost half the price. If there was a RX7 here with 50,000 original K's on it, no rust, yellow, racing mags and lots of performance mods for $10,000 I would of bought it in a heart beat... hell even for $20K you will have a hard time finding one here.

also a 90,000 K Canadian model will still need the same maitenance as a 90,000 K JDM model, Japanese cars have to go through "shaken" a strick saftey inspection every 2 years where CAD models do not.

So they way I see it, if you really want a LHD FD you will pay big dollars for it and it will hold its value. For me I dont car about the resale value, I care about the car and the performance and the fun you can have with it. my $10K RHD FD now has an extra $10K I can spend on modifications now.

either way, Im just happy I have an FD

What is this about?


I think people are missing the point, the upkeep cost of these cars(FD in general) is far higher than a non turbo FC for example.

As for the poll, I have no problem with these cars hitting the shores. Hopefully it will result in more/cheaper used parts as well.

I don't personally own an FD as I could never afford one, from Canada. Sorry to all the owners of LHD canadian FD's, but they are grossly overpriced over here. For the amount of money you need to put into the car, you can make a FB or FC just as fast or faster and more reliable. At 20K for an OK 80K KM FD, its just not worth it for me. On the other hand, you can import a good JDM FD for about 10K in the same mileage range.

Rhd
 

Hello,

Can someone please tell me what the H*LL "JDM" stands for? I know it means a Japanese car hence the J for Japan but, whats the D and M for. M for Motor vehicle maybe?

Now to this thread.

Originally I was 100% thumbs down. I liked not seeing many FD's here in Canada (I don't own one). In my opinion the less of something the more its prestigeous it is. Canada and US got a certain amount of FD's and they have held thier value. Especially if its a well maintained low KMs car. So, my first reaction was these RHD JDM cars are like knock off's for alot cheaper, thus cheapening the FD model.

Now, I've read many of the comments, and some do swade me a little like, "the more of these cars on the road the more awarness there will be" and the many of "if it were not for these JDM's I could not afford an FD".

I guess if you don't mind the RHD then power to you. I myself, when I will make the move to buy an FD it will only be a LHD and I will seek the lowest KMs car I could find in its most stock form. I will be willing to pay for it as well. All I will need to do is get a front plate and write "LHD" on it kind of like a lable for a designer pant or something like that - lol.

So my thoughts now are 60% Thumbs Down as I still prefer the FD to remain as a unique car but I no longer mind other having the RHD's. Just please drive them repsonsibly as they can kill you, I've seen it happen. Its not that these cars are unsafe but rather that they seem to have no limits where we and our roads do. As young onwers now can afford them this does create a danger. I would not let my kid at any age of less than 23 have a super car which is what this car can be.

regards

Max

It isn't all about mileage and mods.

First I see alot of modified Japanese cars, but tastefully modified rarely.
Also wear and tear cannot be defined by mileage alone. Maintenance and general use are important. Fact is that in Canada I am sure there is alot more time spent on highways for the Japanese and when you are on the highway as anyone in Toronto or Montreal area should know you are racking up the miles.

I am for this Japanese car thing because I beleive the people with 10,000k FD most of them which have had a quick respray before the boatride are in for a heck of a surprise later on down the road. Suffice to say that it is not stock brokers on Bay street who are buying JDM FD's.

I think I have spent 1,700$ in OEM parts this year alone and that is with hefty discounts from Ray Crowe and Adam.

So yeah let the JDM FD's come more parts. Ohh last thing to think about in Japan when they need an FD part they can goto the junkyard here they can't even go to a dealer most of the time!

i don't really mind either, as long as the people who bring these RHD FD in are RX-7 enthusiasts~

The only reason why I don't like the idea of these RHD FD coming is because some ppl will import these cars just because they drive on the other side and because they've seen it in "Initial D", and these FD's will get mistreated and abandoned once something goes bad~