Hi guys! Recently got a very good price from a private seller for a 2004 Rx-8. Although I paid for the car, my father helped with the purchasing and looking at the vehicle, as it was in Florida where he lives (I currently live in Indiana). He took it to his local mechanic, who is a trustworthy and knowledgable fellow, but he does not have much specialty with rotary engines. I did read through a lot of this forum, particularly the before you buy and what to look for...I made sure to inform my dad on some red flags and what to tell his mechanic to try to look at as well. Aesthetically, the car was in excellent shape (interior and exterior), which is not a tell-all, but a good sign of how much the owner tends to care about their vehicle. My dads mechanic took the car for a ride and checked out the engine briefly, but did not perform a compression test; still, he felt that the car was running very well. The car does have 89k miles on it, which made me slightly hesitant at first given the fact that I hear so often these cars failing around that mileage. I do have a number of receipts from the Mazda dealership for a couple of recalls, and I know that he recently replaced the catalytic converter, solenoids, and a few other components. For the price, it was too difficult to pass up so I'm glad to say I purchased it. It is really fun to drive!!! WAYYYYY better than my MR2 that I had previously!

Unfortunately, the nearest rotary specialist is 2.5 hours away from my residence. A couple of things that I noticed right when I got the car here (recently shipped to me from FL): It starts up pretty smoothly and idles pretty smoothly...no weird hesitation or blatant indications that it's driving rough. It drives smoothly in general and seems to have good power/pickup (no compression test to have this quantified at the moment). Now onto some of the things that I'm slightly concerned about: 1. It does smoke...the smoke appears to be white for the most part...but I'll need to look more closely in daylight to confirm it's not blue....and it's definitely giving off a distinct odor that I notice when I'm in neutral with the windows down. 2. The check engine light is on, as well as the engine coolant light.

I'm not sure what I can have a local, non-rotary specialist do with my car. Do you guys feel comfortable enough having a regular mechanic perform a tune-up/oil change? If not, I can bring it to Banzai Racing in Indiana...but it will be a pretty long *** drive.

Thanks for the help!