Hi Group, My first posting here. I've had a 94 RX R2 for about a year now, and I haven't been able to find any type of a registry online or through any clubs. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a site online where cars can be registered and kept track of? What i'm thinking of is kind of like how "purebred" animals have pedigrees tracking their lineage and history. I think it would be invaluable as these classic cars age and become more valuable and harder to find.
I'm also wondering if anybody knows of any standard statistic that auto insurers might use with respect to vehicle attrition rates. There must be some standard formula or ratio based on type of vehicle (sportscar) and length of time on the road. As our beloved 3rd Gens have been cruising the streets of N. America now for at least 12 years, I'm curious as to what an intelligent estimate would be of how many remain.
Anyhow, it's great to be part of this elite fraternity. I look forward to your feedback!

 

This topic was discussed a few days ago in the thread:

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ght=registered

Cliffs Notes: 13,879 produced for the US market, 5,733 still registered as of last count in 2003. The attrition rate is very high for these cars, particularly in the last few years as younger inexperienced drivers buy them and crash them or can't afford to fix them when things go wrong. RX-7s are still relatively easy to find and are becoming less - not more - valuable.

 

just because they are not registered doesn't always mean that the cars are dead. My car has not been registered in the last 3 years but it is sittinng pretty and ready to run. So that # of cars left is probably a little off. As i know there are alot of cars that just sit in storage units with no current tags on them.
I realize you were not stateing that # as set in stone. Just that my car was probably not counted in that survey but my car is nowhere near dead on it's feet.

And the value going down will never change. It is sad but true that these cars are not as beloved as a Z28 or a chevelle SS, or Jaguar E-type to list a few. ( Even though these cars run and look better than all the above)

When things are mass-produced they will usually not go up in value. As there are 2 many of the same thing around. And it is a Asian made car. Which seems to turn alot/if not all collectors off.

 

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...=RX-7+registry

As mentioned in this thread, I'm going to try and start going through the motions of getting one going. One question I had in there was how the VINs worked. IE did they start at say 0001 and run straight through to the end of that model year? So 0001 would be the first one they made that year and after 2500 produced, ended up with 2500, or were some skipped? If we know the first VIN for 95, and get the VIN off the one in HQ and we know how many were made, guess that would answer that.

When I get my site up for the Chicago club, I'll put something there so that we can start to keep track of that. In addition, I'm trying to get info from state to state to see what's actually registered/on the road. Yes, this is imperfect, but it's going to be close. See my posts near the end of the thread I linked to see what I'm talking about.

Thanks!

Christian

 

You might want to contact Mazda - I'm sure the VIN ranges are available from them. Considering they have a website where you can put in your VIN and find all the original info on the car (build date, color, options, etc.), they can probably put that database out for someone to use as a registry.

Or, you could figure out some way to hack that site and pull each VIN down one by one with a program...

I've thought about doing something similar - good luck with it! This is something that's really needed!

Dale

 

Actually, I called them earlier today with no luck. The guy said they didn't have that info. I'm going to dig deeper into the company though.

 

yeah our cars arent gaining value but I think its a different kind of market for the rx7 then any other car because it is so unique. When you buy an rx7 you have to do a lot more to figure out what you need then if you bought a 93 civic. The market for japanese supercars like the rx7, supra, 300zx, are a lot harder to specify and it comes down to a case by case basis I think. The value of any given RX7 is totally based on the work that was put in it and what the buyer wants. I for example WANTED a car that had a fresh rebuild and some work done to it whereas other people advertise a selling point for their 7 as it being totally original engine and stock. I found an rx7 that was totally stock with an original engine and the one I bought that had thousands of dollars of work put into it that were only 3 thousand dollars different in price.

The market for something like an e-type or any other car that doesnt lose money is equally as complex. My dad does this, he buys cars as investments - its all about understanding the market for that car. He bought a Ferrari 512BBi and it gained a lot of worth in only a year. My boss does the same thing, only with million dollar cars, he owns an authentic 250 gto and a SWB - unbelievable!

 

classic cars?
buwahahaha

 

You are a brave man indeed!

You and I should probably talk offline. I have a copy of the Pantera registry. I can tell you how they did it. You don't need to know the answers to all the questions you are asking in order to get a good start. And when you start you have to realize the registry probably will never be complete.

DeTomaso was a crazy and sometimes haphazard outfit so there are all sorts of gaps and seeming contradictions that show up in the registry. Some puzzles can be solved, others are just the way production can sometimes go.

 

Once you get started on this effort, contact me for a copy of the MS Excel spreadsheet that I have been compiling from "car for sale" sites. I've captured, VIN, year, ext. & interior color, mileage, state, etc.

Richard

 

oops

 

Hey Christian,
I think we're on the same page with respect to the registry. What I had envisioned was not necessarily incumbent on getting all of the information from Mazda, but rather getting 3rd Gen owners to provide things like VIN, Mileage, Upgrades, Location (at least State, or Province) and any known history the vehicle might have. I imported mine to Canada in 2003 from California so although it's not registered in California, the car hasn't been totalled as might be assumed by some.
As an online registry, a page could be created that could be emailed or printed out by the registrant with instructions to keep with insurance and other important papers. This way when and if the car is sold, the new owner would see the registration and registry in the car and would hopefully update the record.
I'm thinking also that on the anniversary of a person's registration to the registry, an auto-email would be sent instructing the person to "update" their record. This way, there would be a relatively current record in place and an at least yearly reminder for the owner to visit, update and stay current with the site.
I know some here are down on the continuingly decreasing value of the RX-7 and right now this car is truly in the "used car" doldrums. I'm 39 and have dreamed of owning this car since it's inception and I have no intentions of selling my beauty. I think as owners of these cars which are becoming fewer through attrition, we all have to work to provide "value added" information through something like a registry. Look ahead say 10 years to the likelihood of a potential purchaser being able to access a Web based registry to get the history or "pedigree" of the car he's considering purchasing including former owners emails and comments etc. I think this will only help to increase the cult status of the RX!
Anyhow, I do want this registry to happen. I'm willing to work with someone although I'm not a programmer, I have friends who are.

 

They will drop for a few more years, but don't be surprised if pristeen (read not modded or thrashed) FD's start going up in about 10 years or so....when there's only a couple thousand left. A lot of collectible cars today, were given away years ago when they weren't worth much. A friend of mine sold a Plymouth superbird in the late 70's for under a thousand bucks, because it didn't get very good mileage......

 

You know, there's an easy way of getting all the info for a registry, and it's 100% legal. It does require a bit of $$ tho (nothing crazy).

If you call up the DMV, you can actually ask for a printout of all the XXX models of cars registered in that state. I forget how much they ask for, but it's between $5 and $20 a car IIRC - depending on what state you live in. That'll provide you with owner name, address, year, make, model, and VIN. I dunno what else it'll provide you with...but those things are definites.

If you guys are serious, I wouldn't mind donating like $25 or $50 if we can get the entire forum to join in on a collaborative effort to finally get a 3rd Gen Registry setup. Not only would it help us for vehicle history info, but also in maintaining the price of our vehicle (for those who get our FD's appraised etc).

 

Take a look at the link to that other thread I posted. I already contact the IN DMV (they call theirs the BMV). Anyway, even at $5 a pop, assuming there are 5000 left, that's $25k...on the cheap end. That's a lot, even for a collaborative effort. Hopefully I'll get a call back from Cameron and he'll be able to give me the info of the marketing co. they used. I'm not certain that the states will give up owner info. Perhaps it's different from state to state, but I wouldn't think that it was public info.

As far as seriousness goes, you bet I am. But I'm only one man. You can see the email I wrote to my state. I had asked if others could get on their respective states and do the same. The more info the better of course, but I started small and I'll work my way up. A bunch of yesses and working up to a no instead of a flat out no from the start works better in my book. State's are wary in that respect as far as dishing out info like that.

 

let me know if you need any help

 

Yes and a preemptive yes to all others who ask. And thanks and thanks in advance.

 

You know how much that is if 1000 members donated? $25 a member. That's NOTHING IMO. Very doable - only if this thread gets a LOT of views and a LOT of support. But hey, if you have a better/easier way, I'm all for that too.

I'd like to volunteer to help as well, but I need to know what it would entail, since my time is very very tight. I want to make sure 100% that I can do what I say I'm going to do, ya know?

You'd be shocked/surprised to find out then. It's all public information. Go here: http://www.publicdata.com/dbverboseDMV.html It lists what is considered public info for most states. Again, like I said, you'd be shocked. That's why people are paranoid about posting their license plates up on the web. Other sites like this one: http://www.abika.com/Reports/VehicleDrivingRecords.htm actually allow you to search for whatever for a fee, and you don't even need to go to the DMV. A lot of employers use these things to run background checks on employees. It's a big business, actually...

Good...cuz so am I. I'd like to volunteer to help as well, but I need to know what it would entail, since my time is very very tight. I want to make sure 100% that I can do what I say I'm going to do, ya know?

BTW...Sidenote: You changed your avatar, didn't ya? It used to have (your?) red FD, rite?

 

We've got colors!

I knew this info existed somewhere. (I think I have it saved on my old computer too.)
Anyway, going through my RX-7 folder for something else I came across a breakdown of colors sold in the U.S. by model year, trim package, and transmission. It was posted years ago by someone named Red-Rx7 in Olathe, KS....but I also remember seeing it available elsewhere on the web.

For instance, in the '93 model there were 58 base cars with the auto trans in Silver Stone.

In '94 there were 248 vintage red touring models sold with the manual transmission.

That same year there were 156 vintage red R-2's produced for the U.S. market.

In '95 there were 33 chaste white cars produced with the popular equipment package and the manual transmission.

Get the idea of how it goes? I wrote it out this way because I don't feel like sitting down and typing the whole long list. But I do have the info and it could be useful for the registry.

 

The list I referenced above also has some category totals. For instance, in '93 there were 4,568 touring models with the manual transmission produced for the U.S. market. Also in '93 a total of 2,165 R-1 models were produced for the U.S.

In '94 there were 910 popular equipment cars with manual transmissions (this includes the famous Pearly White car) and 395 R-2's of all colors ( 83 silver stone, 156 brilliant black, and 156 vintage red.)

As I say, I have seen this list elsewhere and I assume it to be valid. The author says he called the Mazda distributor and they pulled some reports for him. He requested production numbers for the U.S. broken down by color/make/model.

 

Go to the following web site.

http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/dis...nersHome.action

Register as an owner and enter your car's VIN number.
Mazda will then tell you the model of car, whether it is a manual or automatic transmission, the original interior and exterior color, etc.

 

Fix your link

http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/history.html has it...but there was another website I used to have that had the breakdown of the production #s... can't find it...

 

Good point. Maybe we can double dip. A little for that and a little for this forum. Maybe then we can get much larger capacity and a faster pipe. Then I won't have to worry about hosting all the pics I post all the time.

Seriously, that's what I'll look into. That being the case, this should be a breeze.

As far as registering at Mazda's site, I did, but I didn't have my VIN at the time. That being the case, I'll definitely dig into corporate a bit more as they obviously have that info. I'll see if I can find someone from the web side of the business who actually knows something (as opposed to the communications people).

If someone can answer the question about VIN sequences, then I can easily get started on a spreadsheet that will ultimately be part of the DB. All the other info is good as far as package specific numbers. Jconn, can you email that to me? Railgun69@yahoo.com I'll start organizing it. For what it's worth, we can start a thread for this here. In fact, that's what I'll do. Just so long as everyone stays true to the format, we'll start off on the right foot.

As far as what you can do to help. I can't call every state to get this. I looked at that Public Data site. Only $25 to register and you get 250 searches. That SHOULD do it based on the assumption that I can search in the way that I'm thinking and will let me do a broad one like this, but they only have a handfull of states. I'll only be concerned about the FD. If the FC guys want to do this for themselves (not to segregate, but that would be too much work) then maybe in the process I can get that info as well, but unless they want it, I'm not going to bother.

Anyway, yeah, I changed my avatar. Since it's the off season, I decided to branch out a little bit.

It's from here... http://www.atomfilms.com/content/ninjai/ Pretty cool series. I'll get my own back up come spring. I like to change it up a bit too.

 

OK, lets try it again...
Go to:

http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/disp...ersHome.action

Register as an owner and enter your car's VIN number.
Mazda will then tell you the model of car, whether it is a manual or automatic transmission, the original interior and exterior color, etc.

 

Right, but I think I already know my tranny type and whatnot. That won't help me get everyone else's info. I posted that I went there too.