I'm set to look at a 2004 Rx8 this week, and it's being sold private party for 7500 dollars.
I understand that the car has 80k miles, and it has the gps in the dash, with cloth seats (just fillin' you in). The owner said he's had the car for about a year, and that he still has the carfax from when he bought it. It has a few service records but not many because he says he does all the maintenance himself.
He said he's changed the tranny fluid, and rear end.

He said he's the 3rd owner, and now here's the kicker (the meat of my post), he said the carfax shows that the motor was replaced in 2007 (august). Is "replaced" the same as rebuilt? and if it means merely "refurbished", is that as good?
He also said the 80k miles is the original miles of the life of the car.
Should I be leery of this deal? Would the motor they replaced it with have been a brand new 2007 model? or would they have just put in another 2004 motor.
Also, he said that I dont need to worry about a compression test until the warm up of the car starts taking longer. Is that true?

I am pretty new to this forum, but I have been looking at a couple other rx8's so I have been looking at posts and stickies from rx8club.com, and I havent found answers to these questions, so I hope I get them here.
Thank you.

 

Sorry, it actually has suede with leather seating.

 

Very, very few motors are replaced with new units. Almost all of them that were done under warranty are replaced with remanufactured (rebuilt at a Mazda facility) units. These are as good as new.

If the replacement was done by a third party then it's anybody's guess what ended up inside the car. Could have been a non-rebuilt junkyard pull or it could have been a custom rebuild with future mods in mind.

As always, ask for receipts for work and maintenance. If he does the maintenance himself, he should have receipts from the oil and filters he purchased.

 

ask for a compression test.
If you're serious about buying, you can split the cost if it passes.

 

It was replaced in 07, and it doesn't mean its an 07 engine. Anyway, whatever you decided to do, get a compression test on the engine. Don't buy the car with a low compression because it means that the engine is about to die, it is a warning sign.