20y/o from Canada - Good idea?
 

Hi everyone, I was hoping i could get your opinions on my situation and if the rx8 would be a good car for me? :)

I'm a 20 year old from Canada looking to spend around 5000$ Cad / 4000$ usd on a nice rx8..
I'd be prepared to put bags of litter in the trunk as well as use winter tires to drive it in the winter and work around other small quirks with the car such as checking the oil on fuel ups.

But my big question would be... What are my chances that i would end up getting a lemon that needs a new engine? or something crazy like that which would kill my wallet?

Any other comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated :)

Chances don't matter if you aren't prepared for the worst case. The problem isn't so much the car as the previous owner... if they knew what they were doing it, it might be all good. If they didn't, you'll inherit the results of their negligence.

You can be certain of the engine's condition by having the compression tested at Mazda. Do not buy any rotary without that. If it's good, you're in good shape if you know what you're doing. If it's bad, don't buy the car.

Read the "New and potential owners" thread in the new member section and decide for yourself if you're ready for this.

Also, there is a 8 year/160,000km warranty on the engine. If you're buying a car originally purchased on june 2009 or later, it's still under warranty. Obviously, it costs more than a 2004.

Otherwise don't worry about winter driving, it's fine. Just rustproof it and if you park in a heated garage, find a way to wash the salt off as often as possible.

Thanks for the reply Loki, So if i had a compression test done on one at a mazda would the car be fine? I'll check that out right now

Everything Loki said.
They have a substantial cost of ownership and are pretty high maintenance if you do it properly.
14-20 mpg is a good average, depending on driving habits.
Premium fuel EVERY time.
Oil changes every 3k miles.
Ignition health is super critical, misfires kill cats, bad cats kill engines.
If you MUST PASS emissions testing, be SURE you have a healthy catalytic converter.
Get the OBD scanned for stored or pending codes, and get it visually inspected.
This is probably the second most important item after a compression test, since a new one will now cost you over $2k.
Thus the importance of ignition health.

That being said, they are great cars, and a joy to drive.
Good luck!

Thank you for the unbiased advice.. I really do love these cars.. but i don't think i'll be able to afford much of that for long.

Do you have any other suggestions for more practical 2 door coupes? Is the mx5 any better? I'm thinking the celica

The MX5 is great but has no rear seats. Some people need them for bringing more than 1 friend, some don't.

I'd take an RSX-S over a Celica any day if you're dipping into that era. Celica GTS's have weird engine problems (coming from an rotary owner), and the lower trims are pretty weaksauce. Actually if you can find an RSX, I think you'll enjoy it immensly.

Also, Subaru WRX?

At 5k you have a lot of options, but all of them will be showing their age. So you just have to pick your battles.

Where do you live? If you live in eastern Canada, used cars there seem to be cheaper there than BC.

Regardless, at that budget, you will probably be looking at an old RX-8, which shouldn't be hard to find, but you may have to do a bit of work on them. You can go to RX-8 Help to pick up some useful info.

The cost of ownership is pretty high, and there are things you need to pay attention to, like oil level(the engine is designed to burn a bit of oil). RX-8 is not about miles per gallon, it's about smiles per gallon, which it does damn fine at.

Make sure you get a proper compression test done. Go to a Mazda dealership or rotary shop if there is one around you, then you should know if the engine is good. You can also ask some trick questions, like "Is the car driven hard regularly?" If they say "no", then you should just walk away.

One big reason why I looked into an RX-8.