I have owned RX7s for year. I currently have a 1985 GSL-SE, street-ported with Supercharger. I love the car. It is however a summer car as the power and RWD make the car impossible to drive on even wet roads.

I would really like to trade in my honda civic for an RX8 but all of the concerns regarding the engine have almost pushed me to go buy something else.

I've been working on rotary engines for a number of years and I don't have a problem dealing with the regular problems - flooding, etc.

I'm looking at 2 cars right now , one has 30K and the other 41k miles. Both are out of warrantee. Here are my specific questions:

- Can anyone confirm that Mazda has extended the powertrain warrantee to 100,000 miles?

- If not, am I crazy to purchase an out of warrantee mazda rx8 with 30,000+ miles?

- Has anyone had success with extended warratees? The Mazda dealer told me that he couldgive me an extended Mazda warrantee or one from a private company. I'm assumingt hat the mazda warrantee would be better?

- Is a vaccum test a reasonable indicator of an engines health? If not, how else might i compare the engine compression from 1 car to another?

- Anything else that I should know about buying a used RX8?

Most of knowledge is centered around 1st gen RX7s, I really know nothing else about these cars other than that my entire family can fit in the car and they are a blast to drive, and look really cool. Other than that, I am relatively ignorant so I am hoping for some expert advice.

I've read all of horror stories on the internet and now I'm hoping for a more objective opinion from this group. Save me before my wife makes me buy an RSX. btw- I need to purchase a car within the next 2-3 weeks.

Thanks,

Jake


I appreciate any and all help!

 

If you already know the ups and downs of owning a rotary (mostly ups imo) you're a step ahead of many people that buy these vehicles. I honestly do not see why you would have any problem.

The powertrain warranty was not extended. The warranty on the engine shortblock was extended by 80,000 miles sometime middle of this year (I can't remember the date now). If you search on the forum you'll find the bulletin fairly easily.

All in all I think you'll be happy with the purchase, but like anything else, if you're worried about problems just buy a later year model.


Actually you and I both fail because it's a 100,000 mile 8 year extended (my fail), and your fail is the fact that there's a sticky on it at the top of this section.

 

Don't worry...

If your so good at rotaries................


Then buy one form a member here on line.

Also go to your local club meet.

All your questions will be answered and you will end up getting a better RX8

 

+1 for I don't think you have much to worry about if you have experience with rotary engines. I really don't think you need to worry about warranty considering.

If you are really worried about the engine, have a compression test done, but you can usually get a pretty good idea from a nice spirited drive.

 

Thanks for mentioning the compression test Wulf, I was busy this morning and no thinking clearly but meant to put that in.

As Wulf said so well, the "spirited drive" will let you know if the car is ok or not. If there's low compression or a blown seal you will know for sure.

I don't mean to be crude or vulgar, but the torque from a working rotary couldn't pull a sick ***** out of bed, so if there's low compression you'll know for sure.