IF ..we listened to everyone that has the Problems of flooding ,blowing engines,blah,blah blah you would only see a few RX7's on the road..but we buy one Because we Want One..(you know damn well when you want somethin,no-one can talk you out of it..)..I'll bet you that there are Honda owners out there that never wished that they ever got involved buyin a Honda either..so it comes down to what you want and how you drive and maintain it..some guys Just Want an RX7...they don't want to sink 6k into it in modifications to race it or say thay have the better car ..so be it ..I like my car ..and no one is going to say when it should be drivin,I'll drive it in the snow,through mud,Hell.. I'll put it in a swamp if I want..because I PAID FOR IT..IT'S MINE..(and that is my $.02)

 

I have almost 17k in RX7 enthusiasm and I have owned the same turbo vert for 8 years now so I am quailified to give my opinion. A second gen NA or Turbo 2 would be a very poor decision as a purchase for a daily driver and no one has posted one single reason why my statement is wrong. And that was the orginal question! The car was never designed to be a daily driver it has only become a daily driver because they are cheap and easily found and the person that bought one can only afford one car.

 

Thx for clearing that up brian.

 

Yeah no crap.

I think his oil seals may be shot or something... 5qts every 800 miles is nuts.

 

I got the ultimate proof of the rx7 being a great driver. Even with a bad oil seal and minor water seal leakage i drove mine from where I bought it in va to my house which is a 4 hour drive. Then changed the oil and drove it like that for another 8000 miles. Except for a lil smoke it ran fine. And still does.

 

I own an '88 vert. It has less than 60K showing. The main problem was that the girl I bought if from had it sitting in her driveway for several years. It has flooded on me once, but that was more my fault. I did not let it warm up enough prior to cutting it off, the typical flooding idiosynchracy that as a newbie, I was not aware of. Other than that, I have used it as a daily driver steadily. I love my 7, especially the vert. I will admit that I have had some of the problems that I would have expected from a driveway queen. The leather seats have cracked, and I snapped a tension adjusting bolt off. Now, I challenge anyone out there to find one of those. It is the AC belt tensioner. Just as an aside, the part number for that particular bolt is N326-15-966. Mazda dealers do not carry them in stock, but they do run about $15.00 US.

 

I think the morel of the story is if you get a RX7 and want it as a daily you should keep up with the maintenance. The RX7 not being intended to be a daily driver is bs. What car manufactuer produces a large number of cars with the intentions of not having them driven a lot.

Chances are if you are looking for a RX7 you like spirited driving. If you buy some pos fwd family car and try driving it hard it will break. Case in point I broke the slave cylinder right off the transmission of a ford escort wagon trying to shift it to quickly. The only reason that car didn't leave me on the side of the road was because that tranny was very easy to power shift. At least the RX7 stands a better chance of handling some abuse than some cheaper sedan.

 

Of course you have to take care of it to be reliable.
Anyone who cant change their oil/sparkplugs/wires/filters themselves should look elsewhere daily driven or not. And if your buying an almost 20 year old car i dont think anyone's expecting bulletproof reliability, even new cars break down. If you know how to keep the car maintained, a good NA will be quite reliable, it has been for me for 5 years. Driveability is excellent with the 1 downfall being sub-par gas mileage. Like someone said earlier tho, an SUV will get worse gas mileage and ride worse most of the time, and look how many people still drive them for no other reason than they like it.

I have CJ5 + Rx7 and i dont want a ******* economy car. Rx7 makes daily driving better daily, i much prefer it to my CJ5 unless im going off road or need cargo/passenger space.

 

I drive mine everyday to school and back. Im also gonna take it to the beach this weekend. The car drives fine, only problems ive had with it was a Vac leak after i took it for a 6.5 launch and some attempted drifts. The other one was a bad coolant line that had aged over time. Thats about it. Other than that its a pure streetported 6 port NA Rx7 running strong.

 

Your post sums up why im here 100%.
I am not about to full-on drift/drag race the car, but I do like to have fun when im driving.. and of course maintenence will be kept up

And your 2nd paragraph about fwd family cars and driving them hard.. I managed to completely kill my accord and civic, then i bought a gs-r and that was fun and could handle harder driving but it just doesnt offer everything im looking for (uniqueness, rwd, bit faster, less of a theft target)

I realize the rx-7 isn't going to be the perfect daily driver, thats why they make luxuary sedans. I was just looking for reassurance that it can be reliable if properly cared for, as i had heard some horrible stories. Now, in a few weeks I shall be joining you guys with RX-7s

 

I have had a total of 4 Rx7's 3 1g cars (2 gslse's), and now an FC. I no longer daily drive an rx7 because I am in the process of engine swapping. I put more than 200000 miles on my cars in total. I didn't allways keep up with maintinence perfectly, and I often went 4500 miles between oil changes (when I was poor). I have never had a car fail as a result of the engine. All my cars had a perfectly running engine when they left my possesion. Also especially in my younger years I beat the **** out of my cars on a daily basis.


My father has had 3 Rx7's, and well in excess of 300000 miles. Only 1 went to the scrapyard because of an engine falure, that was effectivly his fault (oem 20+ year old heater hose burst and overheated the car severly).

Except of the gas mileage issue which is undenialble, the Rx7 "can" be a fine daily driver.

 

my 89 rx7 GLX (n/a) is better than my old 95 honda civic 4dr in the snow and rain.. only thing is its alot more fun to drive b/c of the rear wheel dr..

 

Well I see no smoke out of the exhaust and no leaks from the housings so..... oil pan gasket? whelp, time to add to that to my list of fixes!

 

I daily drive mine, but man, I dont enjoy it. I love driving the car, but when you constantly have to worry about whether or not you'll be able to make it that 40 mile drive every weekend, you start to long for the days of low performance but high reliability.

I do all my own work and I'm always on top of the maintenance. But as soon as I fix something, thats the cue for something else to break. Like I said ... not what I want from my daily driver.

I know I'd love this car a lot more once I'm out of college, have a decent job and a real daily driver. Which, yeah, I probably could've paid for by now if I didnt have to fill up that 18 gallon tank every week. 14 MPG, lemme tell ya.

 

Can't say I've had those problems. I got some weird sounds and quirks but nothing to make me worry about it breaking down on me.

Only thing I dislike is simply that its a 5speed (could be any 5speed really) cos I'm in stop-go traffic on my commute, makes me wish I was driving an AT CRX sometimes. =P

So far after 6 months and 11K miles only major-like problem I've had is a small crack on the bottom of the radiator from bottoming out. Peppered that bitch and now all is well.

 

haha, or maybe you just need to learn how to take care of your car. And if you can't drive a torque-less rotary in the rain, you should probably take some driving lessons too.

 

*pouring rain, sees turn coming up* Yeah I'll be fine taking this in 2nd gear at 6Krpm!

 

daily driver here too.