JConn2299

LOL. I think it was the economist John Maynard Keynes who, when asked about the long run said, "In the long run we're all dead." Hey, 10+ years with no major problems is a pretty good run in anybody's book. Recently, two posters on this forum talked about their original engine cars, each with over 200,000 miles on them. Somebody is doing something right.

JConn2299

My main point was to dispute what seemed to be your contention that it was reliability problems that caused Mazda to withdraw the RX-7 from the U.S. market.
That was not the reason. The reliability concerns were not that well know at the time. Outside of a few incidents, you won't find much published about them. And the new model teething problems and recalls, which are true of many cars, were quickly taken care of. You won't find a whole lot of red flags for the RX-7 in the Consumer Reports and Consumer Guides that were published when new FD's were still for sale.

BLKTOPTRVL

No, What I am saying is that not all 7s have oil leaks.

My 80 never had any leaks.
My 200K vert has a leak... I think it is from the power steering. (Edit: Sorry, I forgot. There are signs of oil leaking from the oil pan. But again, I remind you, this is minor leak on a high mileage car. I suppose I could get under the car and see if I can tighten the pan - but it doesn't bother me enough to do so.)
My FD does not have an oil leak. It did before I purchased it 6 years ago, but it was fixed.

As far as the OMP... I have never had any 7 that I owned spout from there.

But even if one or two cars do leak some oil; what do you expect it is a 12 to 27 year old car? Don't you think you hove to make some repairs on a car this old? Do you think that no non-rotary cars have any leaks?

Also, if you have (or know lots of people who have) had these problems, is it because they didn't maintain them? Or is it because the previous owner didn't? Did they own them from new, do the required maintenance, and still had a ton of problems?

adictd2b00st

ding ding we have a winner we don't have "new" cars anymore guys..... ANY car this age is going to start showing some problems. most likely the original owners of our cars really didn't know how to maintain them correctly, just like most dealers can't even work on them....so that doesn't help either. in the end its all worth it to own one of the most unique cars ever sold here in the states

BLKTOPTRVL

Missed Edit Deadline: But even if I did conceed to you that there are many (I haven't counted) links about cars with OMP leaks, please tell me the age of these cars?

Maybe you don't hear about so may oil problems with other makes because the cars were scraped long ago?

rx7ofdoom

if you want a reliable car get a corrolla. all fun cars break and are expensive. :-p
if you have a fun car you will drive it somewhat hard or whats the point.

rx7's are fast and sexy thats why they and other sports cars are popular!

in addition what does this have to do with the popularity of rx7's more like lets beach about our problems haha

RX-187

Amen to that.^

In the many years I have owned my FD I have not run into one significant problem. In my opinion it all comes down to the driving behavior and maintenance you provide it. In the event that you encounter problems despite of your great efforts to properly maintain and drive the vehicle it could be blamed on your misfortune to purchase a car that was poorly cared for by the previous owner. On the most part, owners encounter problems and compromise the reliability of the car when they start modifying these cars to surpass their factory limits. Then there are also the abusive type owners who neglect and run the hell out of the car without much concern for maintenance/reliability until their engines meet their demises and they start crying. In the end it all comes down to proper maintanence and care.

But then IF you run into problems just keep in mind these are old cars and sports cars at that. Of course their is going to be a requirement for maintence that comes with its ownership goes with any other car. Each car demands its own attention and each car has a share of it's problems. Talk to owners of some high end sports cars, they'll inform you. I know of an owner of a '03 Porsche GT2 who blew the engine at only 5k miles. Tell the Porsche owners their cars are unreliable.


On a side note: I own all 3 gen RX-7s. Out of the three, the most problematic is the 2nd gen. Why? Because I bought it with the problems and haven't gotten to repairing any of it.

The 1st gen of mine used to be my daily driver. The only problem it had was not oil leak or engine prob but a small vacuum leak. I daily drove it for a couple of years and it never left me stranded.

Gonna get rid of these 2 other members (FB, FC) of the family soon. Reason being that I just have no room nor the time for them.

Silverstone

I agree with the last 2 posts among others. Sorry, I didn't mean it to be a "beach" session. Really I just wanted to find out, despite problems, what were the real attracting features of the car. This is partly due to the fact that, I'm selling one and I want to be prepared with good answers to any prospective buyer. The other thing is I partly want to be talked into keeping the car or at least feeling good if it doesn't sell right away

But yeah I think it is a very valid point that we buy these cars because they are fast sporty cars and if you're going to drive the thing around not getting out of 3rd gear then what is the point? Buy a toyota. Right! or worse a Fiat! Good answer!

I think in this thread we (myself included) might have gotten a little carried away with the problems aspect.

Now that being said, does anyone have a solution to my hatch-rattle problem?

BC-FD3S

iTrader: (2)

Many newer european cars have far more problem than our FD. Example are the W210 E-class (03- current). They have a many quality issue that affect their sales. Especially the E55, you can see a lot of CPO E55 in the dealer because many owners trade in or get rid of them in the first 2 years. Their replacement parts as well as maintainence cost are not cheap either.

I took care my FD and I think it is fairly reliable for the last 4 years of my ownership. Of course you can not treat it as a Civic or a Corolla which you can abuse them all the time.

BC

Larz

My lips are glued to the FD crack pipe ever since my first Auto X

Silverstone

I tried sucking on the exhaust pipe once. Gave me quite a headache

Not to mention burnt lips

Silverstone

BTW, does anyone here work? I'm always amazed at the quick responses I get to things in the forum even in the middle of the morning or afternoon. I've got an excuse, because I'm running my biz from home all day. Speaking of that, I had better get back to work so I can pay for my next maintenance item

Herblenny

iTrader: (13)

I agree with Jconn.

Its all about the sales and that stupid ODBII thing...

FD's disappeared from US but not in other part of the world.
My appeal to this car is that:
1. Its unique (only time I see it besides mine is when we have a rx7 gathering)
2. Its one of the best car I've driven and many track drivers agree and proven at the track.
3. Its still an iconic car and now magazines calling it a future classic car and Barret Jackson auctioning off.
4. Still infinite number of performance and asthetic parts available for this car. I mean you could completely change the look of this car if you want to. Kind of like having a new car. Its truely a best car to own. I've never got sick of owning this car because I could change what ever I want to change. Better than spending 30K on a new car that I'm going to be sick of looking at it and driving it in 2 years. With this car, I could change just about everything.

Touge Monster

iTrader: (2)

I believe the popularity is going up for a few reasons

1. Price - A few years back I really wanted a FD but couldn’t afford one. The price has dropped to a point where most people with a decent job can afford one if they wish. Hell, I have two and im a full time student.

2. Hype - There is a much larger demand for rwd import sports cars. Go back five years ago; Not many people were even racing imports and if you were it was probably a Honda . The import crowd is much larger now and more respected (I remember everyone hated on me for being interested in imports back in high school). Drifting has also made a huge demand for rwd import sports cars that will only get bigger in the next few years.

3. Just a damn good sports car - The FD is one of the best sports cars to ever come out of Japan. The handling, braking, power, and looks are all awsome. What more could you ask for even 13 years after the car was first introduced here in the states?

Fd3BOOST

iTrader: (7)

It looks good, it's different and it's fast.

rx7ofdoom

i dont have a job right now, im a full time student with no job .

dude dont sell ur car just get a cheap daily ull regret getting rid of ur car :-p

or give it to me im in cali hehe

ehos

Want to know why they are popular??

Watch this!

http://www.streetracersonline.com/videos/f2.php



Quit qualifying! Just say what you mean, it's THE best. Not one of the best, THE best of the best of the 90's and still comparable after 14+ years. Want to know how good it its?

People were all over the 'all aluminum bodied NSX'. It's soo light. Bah, the FD is lighter! It's easily the most sexy of the Japanese cars (the 300ZX and NSX are far far behind in the looks department). It has the most unique 'motorbike, sewing machine' engine out of any Japanese car.

jbrx7tt

He is correct when I moved to CA 5 years ago I flew to Idaho bought my FD and drove from there to San Francisco, no smog issues, got the recalls done (which had not been completed yet!) - the biggest issue is that the DMV in CA sucks and is the biggest PITA I have ever seen.

In regards to original post on the popularity of the FD, it is simply one of the best looking, relatively affordable (for the amount of thrill, handling and power) now and at the time they were sold..... Not too many good car designs out there at all as companies continually fight with the general needs of too many and the restrictions that are placed upon them on safety, emissions etc.. I have all of the magazines from back in 1991-1992 when it was branded the "NSX Killer" and competed for the "Bang for the Buck". It is even more rare now than it used to be and as many have said, many people don't even know much about it at all, until movies like F&F came out and put it back into the mainstream and tuner market grew to where it is today.

One post was right on, it's departure from the market had less to do w/ reliability and mostly to do with the car market in general, just came a bit late to the game when consumers were not buying too many high powered fast/small cars. That got big again in 1997 with the Boxster & Z3, although they still did not come with any real power like the FD in the beginning. I'll say I can afford a BMW but why spend $600/month when everyone and their mother has one and it will be dated soon enough? I would rather have something rare and until they come out with a new FD, this is the newest one out there. Sorry the RX-8 is nice, but does not really have the character or power....

And finally....it is as reliable as you treat it, both of my FD's have had little problems and certainly if you race etc you will not be going for reliability and probably enjoy fixing it anyway!

tderrey

I don't post to often but I feel compelled to share. I've had my fd for thirteen months, I've driven it 4 thousand miles, I read up on reliability mods and did most of them and have had ZERO problems. These cars are popular in my opinion not so much for performance than for looks, the performance was packaged the right way. An fd looks like no other car in the world and that makes it special! I beleive if you don't go crazy with the mods and better yet buy a bone stock car like I did you can really enjoy this car. On a side note I also own a 1969 camaro that is highly modded that I built and that car has tenfold more problems than the fd ever had. My one problem with the fd was my map sensor blew off. It took 30 seconds to fix

JConn2299

Is that true? I know the horsepower figure published in the UK auto magazines was lower, but I always assumed that was because of a different measuring standard. Do you know what was different about the UK cars? And why did they need to have lower horsepower? At the time I know our U.S. emission standards were more stringent than those in the UK, so I would have thought that would have worked in your favor. I'd appreciate any information you can provide.

Montego

iTrader: (1)

^^
plain, simple, and to the point. That is exactly why I like my FD.

Silverstone

Well I gotta say, you guys have really blown me away with all your comments defending the FD. I don't see how I can sell mine now but I guess money talks. It's one of those things when you don't really know what you'll do until the opportunity presents itself. I've already been offered $15K for mine and turned it down. I really love my 7 and obsess over it probably way too much. All the reasons stated are the reasons I always wanted to buy this model car and it really is my dream car. Oh how I wish I had this car when I was in high school; total babe magnet. I really bought it for the looks. I didn't find out what a bad *** car it was until after I'd owned it awhile and felt the power and handling. I'd owned a FC before so I had a clue the FD would be fast and handle well but I didn't know the extent of it.

I found that finding one to buy was not easy. I ended up purchasing mine on ebay and had to take a big chance in doing so. There wasn't any opportunity to inspect the car myself or take it to my mechanic. I had to just go with my gut and pick the lowest miles car I could find. Of course I did a carfax report on it and it checked out very well. But anyway it did come with a few problems that I had to find and have fixed one by one: a serious coolant leak, major AC problem, and stereo head problem. Did a few reliability mods to make it more reliable, run cooler and make the turbos last longer. You know the usual, downpipe, cold air box, alum radiator, and metal AST. Anyway I just got it back from the shop today after another expensive repair. Had the 5th gear synchro problem (see my other threads if you're interested). Bottom line is that the clutch was fairly worn so had that replaced and while everything was apart what the heck, replace all the synchros and many of the seals and bearings. $1969 later I've got basically a new trans. It shifts beatifully now. I won't ever let another human being drive it and when I shift it now, I use a light touch using two fingers and a thumb to feel it into every gear; no speed shifting for me.

3rd and final 7

iTrader: (9)

i thought that the only way that you could do it is if you are n the military in another state and it will be smoged at normal federal limits. how long ago did you get your 7? im guessing as long as you meet CA regulations on the smog your good to go? plus i think i heard that TX is pretty strict too but dont quote me on that.

edit: sorry to get off subject

i have always loved the way the 1st and 3rd gens lookd. i love the way they perform! i think that the 3rd gen is one of if not the most sexyest car known to man!

jbrx7tt

I replied to his post back to you but noticed it did not pull your original message in, I did the same thing about 5 years ago. I flew to Boise and bought my FD w/ about 22k and drove it down to San Francisco as I was moving there a few months later. Had no trouble with any type of emissions and in fact the recalls were not even completed before I got it. No issues at all, beside the CA DMV being a pain in the ***....good luck let me know if you have any more Q's.