Hi I am looking to buy an used RX-8 and I have heard about the reliability issues which I can deal with however minimizing is probably good so I was wondering are 2004s more likely to fail then 2005s by lot and is it worth to drop another 1000 or 2000 dollars for this.

 

I guess it really depends on the car's maintenance history. 04 and 05 are pretty much the same. I'd say dropping another 1 - 2k for an 06 is well worth it. Mazda rectified some of the issues in 06 and up.

However, I have an 04 with 251k on it at the moment, has been a dd all its life. No major issues.

 

Compression test will tell you if the engine is good. Always get a compression test. after that the maintenance issues that are normally ignored need to be done immediately. Mainly coils, plugs, wires, and an oil change. Expect 500 bucks for all of it if you do the coils, plugs, and wires yourself.

 

I try to avoid purchase of a new car in its first year of production; many of its inevitable "teething problems" are corrected in year two.

 

What is a good price for a used 04, 05 and 06 over 100k of course.
It seems like people overprice rx-8s for resale.
I looked up a 2006

The ones I found are all 7k up
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/ctd/4549685886.html
http://portland.craigslist.org/clc/cto/4542671249.html
http://portland.craigslist.org/clc/ctd/4540228472.html
http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/cto/4543992442.html
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ctd/4540968262.html