I'm considering a 2010 RX8 R3, and the compression test on it is as follows:

Rotor 1: 8.01 8.01 7.89
Rotor 2: 8.01 8.01 8.25

At 250 rpm.

It has about 90,000 kms on it, and it sounds like the owner took proper care of it with dealer service records. I am a little concerned about the one 7.89 reading as well as the just above 8's. I thought that it was recommended that these readings be from 8.5 to 9 or higher, but I guess for an engine with that many kilometers on it the readings aren't too bad? What do you guys think?

 

Those are fine.

 

 

Looks good - mine are close to yours and my 2010 GT starts up fine (rats now I jinxed meself).

 

Thanks for the input! I wasn't sure with the series II whether the 90k and starting to get into the yellow would be an issue as I see so many series I needing engine replacements.

 

Those are really good numbers. Even better than mine, and mine has fewer miles to boot.

I'd say go for it if everything else checks out.

 

Okay thanks. I think I'll go have a closer look at it if the seller is available. I saw a couple of other ones on sale, but they had a lot of prior damage that was repaired (front end and non-collision -maybe hail?). They had a lot less kilometres for similar pricing, but I'm hoping to find one that hasn't had a huge claim on it.

 

Remember, there are some things you just never know.

I took my RX-8 to an auto body shop a couple days ago - I accidentally scraped the rear bumper against a wall outside my house. Yesterday, they called me and told me that there is some hidden damage under the rear bumper! I took a bus there to see the damage, and while it's nothing to major(only on the right side), it would explain why my right tail light is always leaking, which I thought is just an RX-8 thing. They then told me it might take a bit longer since I told them I want it fixed. They kindly gave me a courtesy car(16 Jetta TSI with 1.4T).

And no, the CarFax report I generated myself said the car had no claims or repairs. My best guess is that someone backed into a wall like I did, and just did some shoddy repair work themselves.

 

That's true. Maybe the previous owner just paid for the cheapest repair themselves without putting in a claim so it didn't register on Carproof. It's always a bit of a gamble buying a used vehicle to be sure, and with these rotaries it sounds like a bit of a gamble on the engine life. ;-) We'll see how things pan out. I still have to convince myself to buy this totally impractical vehicle for our Canadian winters!

 

It's pretty practical. It's a lot of fun actually. If you"re in a city with decent road clearing, it's fine. I still don't recommend it because the car will rust sooner, but if you know what you're doing, you can minimize that.