Hello from Lexington KY
 

My GF allows me one toy (OK, that's not true. I just say that so that I don't end up starting too many different cool projects and get nothing done), my Ducati 999 was stolen, the putting a turbo on the Kawasaki 250r is rather unrewarding, I briefly considered buying a 35 year old 308 GTS that was held together by the rust and consumed a quart of oil when cranked, so I decided to buy an RX-8 because I saw Jeremy Clarkson testing one and grinning like a fat kid with cake:


My set budget was $8000 and I test drove three.
The first one, an '04 Titanium Gray GT @ 90K miles for $7500 looked great if you didn't get closer than 50ft. Ok, it's an old car, I could have lived with that. Unfortunately, the 2nd and 3rd gears were broken.
The second one, a '07 Black Sport @ 274K miles for $5000 would have been a better buy it had 500K miles on it (what's the current record?) and the entire interior had already been removed.
The third one, same model as the first one, but @100K miles for $7700 from a really nice private seller 200 miles away in Ohio who worked at automotive parts store, kept all receipts and a maintenance log. Much nicer, cleaner, and technically better car.

Or so we thought :). On the way back from the Ohio BMV the coolant started spraying out of the radiator cap. Tried to get it back to Kentucky, but after 15 minutes of driving the coolant indicator would start moving, and we had to let it cool down, replace coolant and limp it back to the sellers house. It's IS my car now and I want to keep it. But I can't get it titled unless the Kentucky DMV can physically inspect it so the previous owner has promised to deliver the car to my home as soon as possible. On a trailer or shipped if necessary.

I've searched these forums and I have several ideas how to figure out what the underlying problem is.

I live in lex also. I hope you called Paul Miller with the vin numbers. I probably realistically called about 15 times to get the history on these cars. I had an 09 that I got rid of after a month cause of mileage concerns. Regretted it, so I bought an 05 with a week old 3rd engine. Love it, and Im gonna coax at least 50k more out of it. These cars are like a damn drug. Oh well. PM me if you need anything...

The only thing I know about the car is that I wanted it. :)

To be honest, I was looking for one that had already been a little bit customized/had minor DIY fixes done/etc. If it's bone stock perfect, I'd probably try to keep it that way, which would mean paying OEM prices for replacement parts and having all maintenance and repairs done in a Mazda authorized shop.

But where is the fun in that? :)

I remember watching this on Top Gear, this is what had me wanting it even more! If it was a bad car, Clarkson would have said so...but it was a super good review :)

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