Buying help with a mazda
Discussion
Diary of a car hunt
There are quite a few issues throughout this post that I would like people's views on please
OK so I have narrowed down my choice of next car to either a mini cooper s or an mx5 for a bit of summer fun to replace my ford focus....
Then...
Boredom+day off+Internet+ph=ooh slightly different idea...
Mazda rx7, after seeing one in another thread I had a look on the forums and then in the ph classifieds and auto trader before going to see this on Wednesday
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2789277.htm
first off has Anyone had any dealings with the company selling the car, jap imports? And any thoughts on the price?
Secondly is there any way to easily do a hpi style check for a jap jdm car?
I decided to go to the dealer as they had 2 in stock so it was handy to look over two cars at once to compare against each other, or rather that was the plan.
I had rang the dealer a few hours earlier To see if they still had the cars and what time they were open until, they did and open until about half five-great so I set off on the 130 mile journey (ok a fair distance but I had the rest of the day off)
Got to the place at just gone five with the traffic on the m6, quick look around the car and then asked for it to be started "sorry we don't have the keys to start the other bloke has gone home already the car and it has no fuel" not a good start and slightly annoying but I will put that down to the time of day and the staff wanting to go home (where's the thread on dealers not wanting to sell cars) still got to have a good crawl over the car for an ok first look at one.
Did I mention the other rx7 they had in stock, parked next to the white one which was handy, but unfortunately locked with no access to the keys, so again not completely useful.
So in summary the staff were friendly but basically useless to me.
Right so onto the interesting bit, the car.
looking at the pictures I was quite happy with the way the White looks and hopefully a fresh import will be fairly rust free when I look, even for a car of it's age, not so keen on the front splitter on the bottom of the front bumper or the wheels, but they can soon be changed to suit my tastes.
Ok so onto the car in person, well the wheels look a lot better in the flesh so to speak, unfortunately the car doesn't. If this came through the Japanese auction system it was not a high grade (although I should point out at this point that I asked no questions about the car over the phone as I wanted to look over one anyway and the remaining staff can't really help)
From the searching that I have done of the rotary and rx7 forums there is Bathurst and then there is bathurst, this being the lesser of the two if the dealers claims are correct-although I have seen no mention of Bathurst on the car I haven't seen the paperwork.
Depending upon the car Bathurst rx7 should have red leather interior or be like this one where it means base spec option.
Looking over the car again and the Boot lid is definitely slightly higher on one side of the car, well I mean where it meets the body panel it feels at a slightly different height, not much but noticeable, could this be just down to adjustment of the boot, or something worse?
Staying with the boot the spoiler moves a little but not much, however there is water in the boot under the carpet by the rear light on the passenger side, it's got in there somehow, either through the light or through the boot at a guess- the staff are washing cars off whilst I am threre so it is possible that's how the water got in, although the car isn't exactly what I would call clean- plenty of dirt on the paintwork.
An mx5 is currently getting cleaned off behind me, looks like a barn find with the amount of dirt that is on it, makes you wonder where some of these cars have been sourced from though and the quality of them- although if the price is right most things aren't a problem I suppose.
Back to the wheels, not in bad condition in the main but still in need of refurb due to flaking paint and scuffing, have seen a picture of these wheels in the rare parts threads on one of the forums and so they are probably worth doing although the ditch finder rubber really isn't good, starting to show that maintainance on the car has been lacking.
The rubber on the tyres has perished, is worn down to the limit in places and the rears are scrubbed on the inside edge to the point of being slicks,slightly more so on one side than the other. This has possibly been caused by the lowering of the car putting the alignment/geometry out, well assuming the car is straight.
The car is pretty low at the rear, possibly to low.
Most of the paintwork looks reasonable however there are a few areas that I have concerns about.
Firstly there is some sort of covering low down in certain places on the car, some sort of anti chip coating I presume, however it does have an orange peel look to the finish on the paint work where it is applied- is this normal?
The front bumper is also damaged in several places from touching the floor and from impact marks where the plastic has flexed, unfortunately there are also some Mark on the front wings from this movement.
Slightly of more concern is the difference in colour between the two front wings which appear to be a slight off White and the rest of the car which looks a lighter shade of White. The wings look closer to the colour of the inside of the engine bay or inside of the door frame of the car.
Obviously the front bumper and side skirts of the car will have been painted after manufacture so could be expected to be a slightly different colour to the rest of the car. I am also thinking that the doors would not of been on the car when they were sprayed so may look a different colour to the wings, the alternative would of course have been a front end shunt with the two front wings replaced and an aftermarket or oem new bumper used.
I would welcome people's views on this as I have read that the paintwork was not always the best on these from the factory.
Strut brace over the engine shows signs of having been rubbing on the bonnet, is this normal, strange or just the brace needing re positioning
Exhaust is huge, probably too big? From what I have read back pressure may be an issue.
Interior is in a nice condition apart from 1 hole in a switch blank to the left hand side of the steering wheel and a few marks to the seats that look like they will possibly clean out, so no major concerns with the upholstery
Seating very comfy, like the position of the controls and feeling from the seat
The steering wheel is a momo race and is nice, however one of the screws from the steering boss was out and on the centre console,possible attempt to hide alignment issues by turning the wheel on the boss? The wheels of the car are facing left but the steering wheel faces slightly to the right when I was looking at it although the wheel may just of been turned when the car was manoeuvred into place.
Several bolts missing, something removed from engine bay
Not sure really wether I should still be looking at the car and considering it, but still would if the issues weren't to major and the price was right.
There are quite a few issues throughout this post that I would like people's views on please
OK so I have narrowed down my choice of next car to either a mini cooper s or an mx5 for a bit of summer fun to replace my ford focus....
Then...
Boredom+day off+Internet+ph=ooh slightly different idea...
Mazda rx7, after seeing one in another thread I had a look on the forums and then in the ph classifieds and auto trader before going to see this on Wednesday
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2789277.htm
first off has Anyone had any dealings with the company selling the car, jap imports? And any thoughts on the price?
Secondly is there any way to easily do a hpi style check for a jap jdm car?
I decided to go to the dealer as they had 2 in stock so it was handy to look over two cars at once to compare against each other, or rather that was the plan.
I had rang the dealer a few hours earlier To see if they still had the cars and what time they were open until, they did and open until about half five-great so I set off on the 130 mile journey (ok a fair distance but I had the rest of the day off)
Got to the place at just gone five with the traffic on the m6, quick look around the car and then asked for it to be started "sorry we don't have the keys to start the other bloke has gone home already the car and it has no fuel" not a good start and slightly annoying but I will put that down to the time of day and the staff wanting to go home (where's the thread on dealers not wanting to sell cars) still got to have a good crawl over the car for an ok first look at one.
Did I mention the other rx7 they had in stock, parked next to the white one which was handy, but unfortunately locked with no access to the keys, so again not completely useful.
So in summary the staff were friendly but basically useless to me.
Right so onto the interesting bit, the car.
looking at the pictures I was quite happy with the way the White looks and hopefully a fresh import will be fairly rust free when I look, even for a car of it's age, not so keen on the front splitter on the bottom of the front bumper or the wheels, but they can soon be changed to suit my tastes.
Ok so onto the car in person, well the wheels look a lot better in the flesh so to speak, unfortunately the car doesn't. If this came through the Japanese auction system it was not a high grade (although I should point out at this point that I asked no questions about the car over the phone as I wanted to look over one anyway and the remaining staff can't really help)
From the searching that I have done of the rotary and rx7 forums there is Bathurst and then there is bathurst, this being the lesser of the two if the dealers claims are correct-although I have seen no mention of Bathurst on the car I haven't seen the paperwork.
Depending upon the car Bathurst rx7 should have red leather interior or be like this one where it means base spec option.
Looking over the car again and the Boot lid is definitely slightly higher on one side of the car, well I mean where it meets the body panel it feels at a slightly different height, not much but noticeable, could this be just down to adjustment of the boot, or something worse?
Staying with the boot the spoiler moves a little but not much, however there is water in the boot under the carpet by the rear light on the passenger side, it's got in there somehow, either through the light or through the boot at a guess- the staff are washing cars off whilst I am threre so it is possible that's how the water got in, although the car isn't exactly what I would call clean- plenty of dirt on the paintwork.
An mx5 is currently getting cleaned off behind me, looks like a barn find with the amount of dirt that is on it, makes you wonder where some of these cars have been sourced from though and the quality of them- although if the price is right most things aren't a problem I suppose.
Back to the wheels, not in bad condition in the main but still in need of refurb due to flaking paint and scuffing, have seen a picture of these wheels in the rare parts threads on one of the forums and so they are probably worth doing although the ditch finder rubber really isn't good, starting to show that maintainance on the car has been lacking.
The rubber on the tyres has perished, is worn down to the limit in places and the rears are scrubbed on the inside edge to the point of being slicks,slightly more so on one side than the other. This has possibly been caused by the lowering of the car putting the alignment/geometry out, well assuming the car is straight.
The car is pretty low at the rear, possibly to low.
Most of the paintwork looks reasonable however there are a few areas that I have concerns about.
Firstly there is some sort of covering low down in certain places on the car, some sort of anti chip coating I presume, however it does have an orange peel look to the finish on the paint work where it is applied- is this normal?
The front bumper is also damaged in several places from touching the floor and from impact marks where the plastic has flexed, unfortunately there are also some Mark on the front wings from this movement.
Slightly of more concern is the difference in colour between the two front wings which appear to be a slight off White and the rest of the car which looks a lighter shade of White. The wings look closer to the colour of the inside of the engine bay or inside of the door frame of the car.
Obviously the front bumper and side skirts of the car will have been painted after manufacture so could be expected to be a slightly different colour to the rest of the car. I am also thinking that the doors would not of been on the car when they were sprayed so may look a different colour to the wings, the alternative would of course have been a front end shunt with the two front wings replaced and an aftermarket or oem new bumper used.
I would welcome people's views on this as I have read that the paintwork was not always the best on these from the factory.
Strut brace over the engine shows signs of having been rubbing on the bonnet, is this normal, strange or just the brace needing re positioning
Exhaust is huge, probably too big? From what I have read back pressure may be an issue.
Interior is in a nice condition apart from 1 hole in a switch blank to the left hand side of the steering wheel and a few marks to the seats that look like they will possibly clean out, so no major concerns with the upholstery
Seating very comfy, like the position of the controls and feeling from the seat
The steering wheel is a momo race and is nice, however one of the screws from the steering boss was out and on the centre console,possible attempt to hide alignment issues by turning the wheel on the boss? The wheels of the car are facing left but the steering wheel faces slightly to the right when I was looking at it although the wheel may just of been turned when the car was manoeuvred into place.
Several bolts missing, something removed from engine bay
Not sure really wether I should still be looking at the car and considering it, but still would if the issues weren't to major and the price was right.
I'm guessing you have read through the many RX7 threads on here and and if so you will have concluded that they are superb cars but have to be bought with great care. As the one time owner of a real Bathurst I was suprised at the number of cars claiming to be Bathursts after all its no big deal having the Bathurst, yes it does have nice red leather and twin oil coolers but thats about it and real ones have it written on the little door plate.
If I were in your position today I would go out and buy one of the later 1999-2000 cars advertised here on Pistonheads prefferably one of the standard or slightly modded ones. Once you have a decent late car you could run it standard for a while to get used to it then perhaps consider putting your own mark on the car as far as mods are concerned. In standard form the car will still bring a big smile to your face then perhaps upgrade the suspension and get it fully polybushed this will transform the car beyond recognition. Always have a couple of thousand spare in case the engine goes pop which can and does happen at which time you can decide whether to go for further tuning. Finding a good engine builder local to you is a must and secondly join the MRC forum as there is a mine of information there and of course people who run, race and track them on a daily basis. I am sure there are many people who may disagree with my opinion but I've been there done and enjoyed it and would re-state get a late car to start with.
If I were in your position today I would go out and buy one of the later 1999-2000 cars advertised here on Pistonheads prefferably one of the standard or slightly modded ones. Once you have a decent late car you could run it standard for a while to get used to it then perhaps consider putting your own mark on the car as far as mods are concerned. In standard form the car will still bring a big smile to your face then perhaps upgrade the suspension and get it fully polybushed this will transform the car beyond recognition. Always have a couple of thousand spare in case the engine goes pop which can and does happen at which time you can decide whether to go for further tuning. Finding a good engine builder local to you is a must and secondly join the MRC forum as there is a mine of information there and of course people who run, race and track them on a daily basis. I am sure there are many people who may disagree with my opinion but I've been there done and enjoyed it and would re-state get a late car to start with.
Hi RX7 said:
I'm guessing you have read through the many RX7 threads on here and and if so you will have concluded that they are superb cars but have to be bought with great care. As the one time owner of a real Bathurst I was suprised at the number of cars claiming to be Bathursts after all its no big deal having the Bathurst, yes it does have nice red leather and twin oil coolers but thats about it and real ones have it written on the little door plate.
Buy carefully or buy cheap, the later is being considered. Most of the problems can be overlooked if the price is right, I'm quite handy with the spanners and fancy something to play with.I have seen the car on their own website, claims to be a Bathurst with red leather, but it isn't, even pictures show cloth interior, however it may still be the other type of Bathurst where it meant poverty spec rather than anything special.
Sorry will have to reply to the rest when I pad stops playing up, seems to be having issues with ph today
Hi RX7 said:
If I were in your position today I would go out and buy one of the later 1999-2000 cars advertised here on Pistonheads prefferably one of the standard or slightly modded ones. Once you have a decent late car you could run it standard for a while to get used to it then perhaps consider putting your own mark on the car as far as mods are concerned. In standard form the car will still bring a big smile to your face then perhaps upgrade the suspension and get it fully polybushed this will transform the car beyond recognition. Always have a couple of thousand spare in case the engine goes pop which can and does happen at which time you can decide whether to go for further tuning. Finding a good engine builder local to you is a must and secondly join the MRC forum as there is a mine of information there and of course people who run, race and track them on a daily basis. I am sure there are many people who may disagree with my opinion but I've been there done and enjoyed it and would re-state get a late car to start with.
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