xexok

Sure if you add the cost of replacing the engine to his 7500 its not the price of a new car, but at the same time if you added 3-4k to his 7500 he could have got a car with a lot less miles. The car with 142k and a new engine(if it blew) would be nice, but you could have had a car with say 30-40k miles and had 100k less on all the other components. Its not only the engine you have to worry about when you get up into that high of mileage.

I wouldnt call it a huge mistake, as long as your happy with the car thats all that matters.

04Green

iTrader: (1)

Hard to tell without pictures, but sounds like you might have done good. If all the body and interior stuff is great, and all you have to worry about is the engine, that is not bad. Fixing the stuff you know is good is a lot harder than replacing an engine, and a lot more expensive. Like people said here, pull the maintenance records from Mazda (may have to go to the dealer) and see what is really going on engine wise. It is unlikely it got this far without a new one, if you did, you got a record setting car.

There are 2 links in my sig. I think they have both been referenced before, read up.

Other things to do, fluids. Brake, Trans, Dif. Brake first. I might add those for a "next $100 thread", not sure yet though. I did the redline MT90 and it made the car shift much easier. And, Mazda had supposedly changed the fluid a year ago.

Years, the car was driven 20,000 miles a year. I drive mine 20,000 miles a year. Keep the fluids fresh, life is good. The 10 or so year mark is more interesting. That is usually when you see rubber stuff (hoses, belts, ...) getting tired. Alternators too and water pumps too. You got several years before then, and it can all be DIY. Not like my neighbors lexus where the starter was under the intake manifold.

Post pictures, and welcome.

Khaf

In my opinion don't bother getting compression test now unless you are experiencing some problem such as warm start issue or loss of power. You have to pay for it and it does not do you any good no matter what the result is. Just go out and enjoy your new used car. Put some good gas in it, be on top of your oil changes and check your oil level frequently, do some premixing and take good care of her. This is a fun car to drive so enjoy it while you have it.

As far as price you got it under KBB and NADA value so you did good there too. No matter what brand of car you buy or how old the car is, you should never max out what you can afford for some unexpected issues that might happen later on. Considering you already did that you should be fine.

To everyone else I should say that when us RX8 owners talk bad about our cars reliability and value, how do you expect it to hold its value better over time.

04Green

iTrader: (1)

^^ +1