airman3221

Hey guys!

What's going on with the RX8 pricing?

I know there's a similar forum about this already, but it's been some years since someone spoke in it. I've been watching the prices for the RX8 for about 2 years now and the prices on them changed a lot. They pretty much doubled where I live. Do you guys think it will keep on rising or will it stabilize and hopefully drop any time soon?

Thanks!

Airman3221

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

it's a seller's market right now and almost all car brands are seeing a similar effect.
Most likely due to car inventory shortages the entire used car market has been inflated as of late.

Loki

iTrader: (1)

Can inflation outpace the loss of compression across the fleet? It's going to be a nail-biter.

UnknownJinX

It's unlikely that RX-8 has reached that classic status yet, if it ever will. Really hard to say.

As others mentioned, car prices in general is pretty crazy, new or used. Even older used cars can command quite a lot of money that would have been ridiculous 2~3 years ago.

I dunno if rollers w/o a working engine ask for a lot of money, but that's the route I would go if I want to have an 8 now, assuming they are still like $1k.

peloponisios

I'm fairly pessimistic that this inflation will not go away, it will only get worse. Particularly on the rx8, a lot of cars were scrapped. Less 8s on the road every year. Expensive oem parts. Shipping is out of control. We're in for a crap storm I'm afraid.

airman3221

That's what I've been thinking. Prices have really gone up like no tomorrow on these cars. I'm planning on buying a commuter car before getting an rx8, so I can't buy one right now. I really want to get an rx8 to. I hope the prices on them calms down so I could afford one. Looking at how the market is changing, when do you guys think I should get an rx8?

Thanks for the reply everyone!

​​​​​​​Airman

airman3221

That's what I've been thinking. Prices have really gone up like no tomorrow on these cars. I'm planning on buying a commuter car before getting an rx8, so I can't buy one right now. I really want to get an rx8 to. I hope the prices on them calms down so I could afford one. Looking at how the market is changing, when do you guys think I should get an rx8?

Thanks for the reply everyone!​​​​​​​

Airman

spectre6000

In the 90's, James Carville said "it's the economy, stupid". Now, it's "it's the pandemic, stupid." We've failed the coronavirus test as a society worldwide. The US especially so. This is the natural and predictable result. When it burns out, a new normal will prevail, and things will get back to normal. Invest/plan accordingly, and don't worry about it.

It's the car market. Rising tides and all that. I've also been watching for months trying to find the perfect "other car". Prices have gone crazy, but list prices aren't the same as sale prices. There's a guy near me with an R3 in rough shape, but HE JUST REBUILT THE ENGINE PERSONALLY!!!, and he's very proud of himself. As a result, he's asking $17K, and hasn't budged in several months. If you chat him up, it's all cool and kosher until you mention the price in the context of "high", then the conversation abruptly ends. No telling what it'll sell for, but it's worth less than half what he's asking.

In more realistic domains, RX-8s have the benefit of being "notoriously unreliable", and don't seem to be skyrocketing at quite the same rate as everything else. That said I watched a car list on CarGurus the other day that was however many hundred dollars "over market". Then a few days later, same asking price, it was a few hundred "under market". Then a few days later, still no change in asking price, it's even more "under market". I looked just now, and the same car (unsold), is slightly less "under market" than it was a few days ago... So it's not a straight line, but still pretty wild.

Just as it was a decade and change ago, there are people who see a Mazda and think "reliable economy/commuter/whatever car", and will be sorely disappointed when their engine explodes... I was going to say a few years later, but this time it will likely be more on the months timescale. When pandemic things burn out a little more and some semblance of "normal" resumes, prices will come back down, and the prices for RX-8s will fall even further than they already had. I don't think the bottom has been found, and can't promise they'll turn the corner into "classic" status any time soon. If you can wait, there will likely be some pretty awesome deals to be had on briefly owned cars with freshly dead engines from people who didn't bother to get educated before taking the plunge.

I saw just this morning that Ford has shut down Mustang production over chip shortages. My buddy works with ultra high speed electronics, and he's been having a hard time getting specialty components for a while. I've mostly been able to get more pedestrian parts pretty readily, but I recently had to scramble to grab a Raspberry Pi out of the UK because it was one of the last I could find, they're projected to be NLA for a year or more, and I have a few house systems running on Pis, to include one associated with our drinking water potability! Things aren't done burning, and used car prices are a lagging metric. Give it time, but it may yet get worse before it gets better following the incredible spikes in case numbers that have been seen and will continue to be seen across the globe.

UnknownJinX

The chip shortage is mostly related to accidents at the major global chip facilities. The manufacturing plants take a long time to rebuild, something like 2 years minimum. It's mostly independent with COVID as far as I understand it. I have electrical engineer friends that work at chip companies so they have an idea.

Federighi

iTrader: (7)

Yeah I've seen it too. Irrational exuberance I keep telling people. But nice to think people are starting to care for the platform beyond a cheap *** daily driver or some track beater they cut DIY holes into and pretend to be an automotive engineer and begin their racing career.

And shipping is more expensive than ever. I've been importing parts from JP steadily since 2019 and the current order I'm about to place is going to be somewhere between $3-4k usd in shipping alone. I was just telling a car acquaintance the other day (FD owner, cheap af) 'you gotta pay to play' and 'project cars' in general never get finished within any reasonable amount of time imo.

If you want to have the parts, the car, or to actually enjoy a drive and not look at a sitting pile of metal on the street or inside your garage, then you just have do it. At least that's my method.

inviscid

Combined with used cars on average being up per reasons mentioned above, lack of clean running examples, and folks being priced out of their JDM 80-90s JDM heroes, we're seeing a bit of a resurgence in the interest and values of RX8.

It's definitely not much in terms of value, but it is still an uptick. As time goes on the memory of the '04-05 models' teething issues fade away, and when compared to soon-to-be 30+ year old RX7's, the RX8 is the next best entry into the rotary motoring world.

If Mazda successfully launches the rumored RX9 halo car, I can also see that garnering more interest for the platform.

UnknownJinX

I had a discussion with some other car folks. RX-9 is going to be a pretty hard sell, if it comes out.

It's just way too competitive out there. It has to be good enough for me to not look at a Corvette Z06, M4C or even the ever-aging GT-R. Even something like Zupr4 and Camaro are very convincing performance-wise and they aren't the most expensive cars. I think Mazda can pull it off if they have enough money... which they don't. They are always kinda broke.

Miata is distinct enough to have its own crowd and I totally understand that; it doesn't have to compete with those big guys, but a supposed RX-9 will be a flagship and it will have to have track capabilities to show for it. Otherwise, it will run into that issue of "people who can afford it don't want it; people who want it can't afford it."

That's not to mention that everyone is releasing their ICE performance cars as a swansong before they focus on EV.

delhi

Regardless of market pricing, you get what you pay for. Owners who know their cars quality will not let them go for cheap.
Didn't a 40AE just sold for $42k in BaT?

RX9 may come in the form of Toyota GR GT3. Who knows what with both companies are in collaboration these days.

UnknownJinX

I mean, with a race car, anything goes. That said, it still won't have a rotary engine.

Again, any engine needs to be able to go into an SUV/pickup truck nowadays for it to make sense financially. Unless Mazda puts a rotary in the CXes, it just ain't happening.

Tonywright0

https://www.hemmings.com/auction/2006-mazda-rx8-452945

$21k for this mint 2006 series 1 - suggests values are on the up!

BigCajun

iTrader: (1)

The MSRP on my loaded '04 LY GT was over $35k for a comparison.
In 2012 I paid $17,500 with 18.5k miles on it, one owner, near mint.

huebie

For reference, I got my 2010 Aurora Blue RX8 R3 Manual Streetported with 72k miles from a friend for $13k early this summer. Granted, it probably is the prime spec that would become a eventually become a collector's car, so I felt 13k was fair, especially how mint he kept it. He's a rotary fanatic, so I trusted him. Else I wouldn't ever consider a rotary car for anything near that amount. For that money, an old corvette, miata, or 86 would've been a much more sensible choice. I have put 6k miles into since and never had an issue.

I think the longer you wait, the more these rotary cars will cost, both the RX7 and RX8. Just wanted to put my car in this climate and market for reference! Good luck searching!​​​​​​

Joeyjoiner

In Australia prices are up around 20% compared to a few years ago. Series one with dead engines are being advertised for $5k but are not selling.
Of course I don't know what people are actually paying for them.
I think prices are trending down, post pandemic. Supply vs Demand.

delhi

In my region I see prices vary. Poorly maintained ones still enjoy depressed values. You know those with 6-figure mileage, mismatched hood or panels, hot start issues, day glow or nasty wraps, parked at some barn or field etc.....

Good ones are in the 5 figures nowadays. I think there is a low mileage minty condition Shinka that's being sold for $20k at a local Mazda dealership. They are unlikely to let it go for cheap. Rather keep it as a showroom piece to lookie-loos as they walk in to buy one of those Mazda CUVs.

Tonywright0

The market is a bit depressed in the UK as the road tax is around £700 per year for a post 2006 model - so average condition cars are being given away still. But I certainly think the good ones have stopped losing value - and the cheap ones are being modified and being enjoyed. All good. I am probably
biased, but I don’t see another car like it and we probably never will, so that can only be a good thing for values.