Hey! I found a 40th anniversary rx8 for rather cheap (likely in need of a rebuild from the sounds of it, but that's fine with me). I've been looking for an 8 for a while now (mechanical work is ok with me!), and this seems to be just what I'm looking for - with one caveat. Read on.


Like a good boy I did my due diligence and got a carfax, and it. turned up some interesting stuff. I won't lie I'm not entirely sure what some of it means. The car has accident records and some labels that say "AUCTION ANNOUNCED AS ACCIDENT REPAIR", but it's got a normal (non rebuilt/salvage) title and is licensed in an area with harsher restrictions than mine. To me this means it's probably fine, but I'd like some people who are more familiar with rx8s and cars in general to weigh in.





I'd appreciate any advice because while I have mechanical familiarity and some car knowledge, I know next to nothing about the used car game and what goes on within that market.

If this is in the wrong forum I'm very sorry, currently at work and figured I'd drop it in general.

 

Car Fax isn't going to tell you the whole story here. All it really shows that its been crashed at least 6 times. Thats the important takeaway from it and reason enough to walk away.

 

Forgive my ignorance, but if the car has been in accidents and properly repaired (at least that's the assumption) then what's the issue with a collision? Is it that the quality of the repairs is an unknown?

 

Exactly, answered your own question. You don't know is the point. Could look just fine on the outside but might be issues that are not fixable below the surface. If you can get it cheap enough it may make a nice little project. Just know that there is a lot of risk and unknowns.

 

Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking! The body seems to be in really good condition, and it's fairly cheap compared to the rest of the local cars (probably due to it needing a rebuild).

My thoughts is if it's still in reasonable condition after 5 years post accident repair you'd hope they're decent (or just about to fail!).

I think you're definitely spot on, would definitely proceed with caution. Might be worth going to take a peek at it just to see what's up though :p

 

It looks like only 2 accidents, one in 2009 and one in 2015. The damage amounts are pretty small, maybe just paint and plastic.
The auction as accident repair thing is ambiguous but it put on 4000km between the 2 auctions so it wasn't a complete wreck and no insurance declarations were made. You wouldn't auction off a car if you could get insurance money for it and that age and mileage it's really easy to make an rx8 an insurance write off.