2004 rx8 for 4500? 7 previous owners!!

ramirez

ramirez

ramirez

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My dad and I went to have a look at an rx8 last night as he is interested in one.

It's a 2004 53 plate 231 bhp with 62000 miles on. Looked in very nice condition however no service history at all and 7 previous owners!

The latter sounds a bit excessive, and I'm not convinced it's a super bargain deal either. What do you think?
 
I suspect what has happened here is that one of the owners realised what a stupid job they'd done with buying the car and not researched the fail economy/oil use, tried to torch it, but only managed to burn the documents because they were after all crap at buying it in the first place. Therefore, they did crap at trying to burn it in an attempt to avoid the thousands of pounds in depreciation they were facing by selling it.

Avoid it completely. It's a no-brainer. 7 owners which you can assume is likely due to either: A) crap accident repair work hence missing history, or B) people bought it without realising just how much fuel these things use.

These are pretty tetchy cars at the best of times. Don't buy one that you can't verify the history of as it'll likely be onto its 9th owner before it knows what's hit it.
 
Forget it. Spend a little bit more money and get exactly the same car with less owners if you want an RX8. Dont buy it just because its cheap. Its probably had 7 owners for a reason.
 
Well I thought as much really, as nice as it was I don't buy that people lose service history - It is HPI clear however, as we had a free check to run.

I suspect if it was more like £3000 it'd be an ok deal for him, but £4500 - Theres plenty about aren't there!
 
It isn't uncommon for these to accumulate a few owners. People buy them thinking they are bargains, then realise just how thirsty they are and move them on.
 
These are nice motors, I would avoid that like the plague though, 7 owners no history is asking for trouble. I wouldn't mind one and know they can be had for a good enough price but I know that they are pretty complex cars, need a lot of care and are pretty poor economy wise. Running cost thru the roof lol.
 
Have done some detective work on the car and found it has full mazda history! including lots of warranty recall work

So a bit daft that the paperwork has been misplaced.

Still not sure if it's that great a deal though
 
If its got FSH, had the starter recall done and you can verify rotor tip condition with a compression test at your local Mazda garage, then its worth a look if it is as clean as you say it is, IMO.

Surely Mazda can provide you with the service history?
 
MikeHiow said:
If its got FSH, had the starter recall done and you can verify rotor tip condition with a compression test at your local Mazda garage, then its worth a look if it is as clean as you say it is, IMO.

Surely Mazda can provide you with the service history?
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I hear a lot of people say yeah by the time they get to say 50k miles the rotary head needs replaced, which costs a bomb (2 grand or something). Is this just a myth? I assume it's based on how the car has been treated over it's life time. I assume getting this test done will tell you if the head is on it's way out?
 
Mileage is mostly irrelevant for rotor tip wear - how the engine has been treated and maintained will play a far bigger role.

The compression test will give you an idea of the state of the rotor tips.
 
ramirez said:
Have done some detective work on the car and found it has full mazda history! including lots of warranty recall work

So a bit daft that the paperwork has been misplaced.

Still not sure if it's that great a deal though
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If your not sure, walk away, plenty of them about.
 
B1C3P said:
I hear a lot of people say yeah by the time they get to say 50k miles the rotary head needs replaced, which costs a bomb (2 grand or something). Is this just a myth? I assume it's based on how the car has been treated over it's life time. I assume getting this test done will tell you if the head is on it's way out?
Click to expand...

Sounds about right. My mate had one for 11 days and it started to not turn over from warm... Jump out to fuel up (you'd do a lot of this) get back in and it would't start for about 10 minutes. He blew it on for what he'd paid, £3800 IIRC, to some nutter how knew all about the problems these have but was sure he could do something about it himself...
 
7 owners wouldn't bother me so much, as Mike says it's the sort of car a lot of people buy but then change it pretty quickly.

However no history would make me avoid it, but if you're saying it now has the history might be worth a look, but just make sure you give it a good going over!
 
ok so this mornings update : we had another look, and basically it struggles to start from warm - cranks for a while then eventually catches.

it's a memory i'll never forget of an old rx7 i had which did something similar shortly before dieing.

so best he leaves this one methinks :)
 
danza said:
er: A) crap accident repair work hence missing history,
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Accident repairs don't go in the service book though.

Service histories get lost because of disorganised people like me. Every service I have the panic "Where the **** is the service book!" moment the night before usually resulting in an argument with my GF, throwing papers around in a rage followed by "oh, there it is." :p
 
lordrobs said:
Accident repairs don't go in the service book though.

Service histories get lost because of disorganised people like me. Every service I have the panic "Where the **** is the service book!" moment the night before usually resulting in an argument with my GF, throwing papers around in a rage followed by "oh, there it is." :p
Click to expand...

Leave it in the glove box, saves all that.
 
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