Almost ready to take the plunge...
 

Hey All,

I'm in Calgary and have been lurking for a little bit to see what I can learn about the car before I go and buy one.

I'm closing in on a 2005 GT that's about the right price for me -

2005 RX8 GT

I don't mind the high mileage (76K) and love the styling, but there are a number of rock chips out of the hood and driver door panel that the autobody shop is quoting $3k to fix.

The history is also a minor issue. The car has been auctioned twice and was moved from BC to AB (presumably because we pay more) via rail. No idea how well it was maintained and the local Mazda dealership tells me it can't track it across other provinces so I have no idea what has and hasn't been done to it.

The test drive was a lot of fun, but I did notice a performance drop mid-way up first gear. Is that normal? All the other gears went ZOOM, so that was the only blip in the drive.

Worth it to negotiate down or take a pass and find a more lovingly maintained one?

Pass...keep looking, or go state side. Look on the for sale forum here, you will get one with the same km at a lower price. That one looks like it has an upgraded exhaust system as well.
As for 3k to fix the chips, BS, Mazda can't track maintenance, bs. If the car is taken to a mazda dealership, it is tracked by VIN and old records can be accounted for.
Performance drop, guess it depends how much? It gets better as the rpms get higher. GL in your search

I wouldn't say that'd be terrible purchase. Makes me feel bad when I payed that much for my '04 and it had 130,000km on it...

There's this one for sale in Calgary as well, dunno if its still available though.

Also, as for the paint, the 3k price would probably be to actually RE-paint the car. You can usually take it to a body shop or a chip-and-dent specialist to fix it for MUCH less. I had some rust under my spoiler and my hood chips fixed for under $500 at Micro in Lethbridge. Looks way better than it did before.

And Mazda should be able to track any maintenance ever done on that car if its been taken to a Mazda dealership. There's always CarFax.com to check as well for any work that has been done.

Looks like a decent price...If you plan to drive the 8 in the winter, I don't know if there's a point to fix the chips unless you get a clear bra after. Calgary just has too many @#$@ing rocks...

I wouldn't buy it. I paid the same price for an 05 with 73k 13 months ago. It had been Mazda serviced, they could track its history, it had never been auctioned, and only had one owner before me. Plus, it barely any rock chips at all.

Keep looking or talk them down to ATLEAST 13.5

GL on the search

Thanks guys. They're down at $13,900 now.

The performance drop isn't that much, but noticible. More like a hesitation then anything else. It still chirps, and still zooms in other gears. I spoke to Mazda Canada and they noted that recall 4206F hasn't been performed on the car. 4206F might have something to do with the power loss, so here's hoping.

I'll see what financing rate they can come up with then make a final decision.

The car is not on the website anymore. Did you buy it?

I did. Awesome car.

You are in Canada... buy a WHITE R3!!!

Nah. Remember our flag hanging at the Olympics after the hockey match? It's mostly red with just enough white to make the red even more, ummm, red.

Much cooler.

*grin*

Did I mention I love the car? It's got a Greddy exhaust that sounds awesome and a little push start button where the cigarette lighter used to be (kinda redundant, but neat nonetheless).

I'm trying to get people together (in Calgary) so that we can start the meets again. What do you think? Not sure where they held the meets in the past, but it'd be awesome if it started up again.