Come on guys, the honest truth, are these cars reliable?, I've had many honda's and not one has let me down, i'm a little skeptical switching camps but I love FC's too, i've just never driven one, but have heard many nightmare stories....what's your experiences?

 

dont buy one stick to hondas, honda boy

 

Only nightmare stories are the fact that the people don't know how to maintain it and it fails on them, so they go back to their honda. I had my n/a for a long time and took care of it, along with the usual redline to clean the carbon out, but I loved it.

 

oil + water and thats pretyt much all you need to do to keep them running right
its when you start modding them and taking advantage of them/shortcutting things that you really start running into problems

 

Mines is a daily driver...
No problems if you keep up with maintenance.
This goes for ALL cars.


-Ted

 

Rx7's can be just as reliable as anything else if you keep these things in mind:

Get a CLEAN Rx7 if you can afford it. If you can't; don't get one. I'm not trying to be an *** here, but you will regret getting an average wear 80's car. Ones that have problems before you get it will still have problems.

Restore anything that you aren't comfortable with being 20 years old.

Keep up with servicing the car. If you don't do everything your supposed to, stuff will **** up and your money will be gone.

When you want more power, be prepared to spend the money and time to do things right. "Rigging it" seems to account for most failures on modded Rx-7's.

 

Drove my first one for 4 years every-single-day.

 

hm... ive had both. and i can honnestly say, that if you drive like yo stole it, the rx7 will last longer. thats ofcourse if you take good care of it.

 

I can't emphasize this enough. A clean car is worth the extra $1000+ it might cost you. The people who have the most problems are the people who buy "bargain basement FCs" and have never owned one before. For example, a kid down the street from me (about 18) bought a 90 GTU with 160k on the original motor. The car had been sitting for a while clearly. He paid the rediculous sum of $1800 for it and the motor was on its last legs. He overheated it three days after buying it (although it ran like **** before it overheated, I drove it) and now it just sits in front of his house because he refused to listen to me when I told him he had a blown motor.

That doesn't mean you can't find a really good deal, but the fewer owners and the more service records you have, the better. You still need to be prepared to work on it on a semi-regular basis. If you really want a nice one search for one of those low mileage convertibles that are all over Autotrader. They'll set you back alot though.

 

i drive my 1989 gtus as a daily driver. sure i have a little bit done it it but its still very reliable. just like every one before me said, maintance is athe most important thing. If you don't plan on taking care of it, stay with you safe little honda's.

 

DBL POST....

 

For the past 2 years my 88 Vert has been my DD, regular upkeep and drive the **** out of it. My 91 T2 is goin on 7 years of whatever I throw at it when I take it out for car meets and tracks and back road fun, but I rebuilt the engine right after I got it because I knew what I was getting into and wanted to do with the car.

 

I picked up an 86 in august, car has had no real problems. I did all the preventive maintenance when i bought it and I love it.... Now I'm just trying to freshen up the interior.

 

ive been driving mine for a years every day, no problems just keep oil and water like meantioned before, and gets the **** driven out of it. i would like to see a factory honda get revved to 7+ rpm daily for years on end

n/a rotarys will never quite.

 

The NA's seem to be more reliable than the turbo ones. But it is no honda.

 

The disadvantage, though, is that rotaries really do not last as long as piston engines.

Usually 150-200K between rebuilds

 

I miss my n/a FC. It'd still be my DD if some a**hole in a truck wouldn't have run that red

 

Wrong.
Pistons engines typically last 100k to 150k.
Rotary engines, especially non-turbo ones can last up to 250k...300k.


-Ted

 

The people I have talked to say their rx-7 (FB) was the most reliable car they had. And I've heard about the same for FCs.

 

Pfft, I have so many miles left on my FC, I think I'll grow old before it quits.

Rumors aren't healthy you know. Read the facts, then make up your own mind.

 

dude from what i have seen here and the people that uses their cars as dd, you are ok man, like they told me just maintain the car, keep it up, change the old every 2500 miles, check you fluids before you leave the house and stuff, and she will last you.

 

I think the mileage goes more like:

Pistons: .1 to 1,000k
Rotaries: .1 to 300k

It really just depends, and can be completely random. One thing is true though, keep up on scheduled maintenance and don't beat the **** out of it every time you drive and it'll run a long time.

 

What? Maybe this is just me, but I have never heard of a well maintained piston car from a decent manufacturer not making it past 200K

 

I would recommend the honda for a daily driver, more than likely it sits more people and gets better gas mileage, and is less rare.

The rx-7 is rare in comparison, seats 2 people normally, and has a higher revving engine.

Another way to consider it, the RX-7s and RX-8s were Mazda's track and endurance racers; in the case of Honda, unless you drive an NSX it was designed to get you from point a to point b (with some entertaining functions like vtec).

I have no doubt in the reliability of the rotary engine or most of the rx-7 setup, but if you were the ideal owner you would keep it waxed and covered, use expensive ultra high performance tires, put expensive racy upgrades on it, and would have the opportunity to safely take her a on a ride past 4,000 rpm. Your daily driver though should have more comfortable shocks, all season tires, and be used for top fuel efficiency.

One of my friends has a 944 turbo (basically a RX-7 with a nice interior and more troublesome engine and transmission), he now parks that 30 miles away and drives a toyota corolla. I'm shopping for a 2nd car because I hate having mine downtown and outside - I also don't like the gas mileage, hate the potholes and steel plates in the roads, and how it is so hard to hold much more than 2 people.

 

I just got my '88 GXL... I've worked on it a bit... it was in horrible condition. It cost me $350 and it's my daily driver. I wouldn't ask for any other car... I love it.

p.s. it has 167000 miles on it, and still runs like a rape victim.