Car Inspection
 

Hello All!

I'm brand new to this forum, but am hoping to become a long time poster! I am looking at an RX-8 out in Lake City, WA and wanted to know if there are any good places to get the car inspected. I don't know of any rotary specific mechanics in the area. Any help would be greatly appreciated. It's white with 49,000 miles on it. The dealer wants 12 for it, and because of that number, it not only caught my interest, but it also makes me wonder what it mechanically wrong with the vehicle.

Carfax pulls up with no issues, but you can never be too sure about getting a sweet baby like these :naughty:.

Also, I'm into car meets (girlfriend has an Audi that we bought, and we love meeting up with Audi owners and drooling on eachothers cars) and I was wondering what the scene is like in the Kirkland/Bellevue area!

It's great to be on here and its wonderful to meet you all! Hope to chat with you soon on the forum as well as around town!

-Mike

Is that white or red??
I live in lake city way and see those white and red ones

Two items that come to mind, have them perform a compression test while you witness said test. Report back here with the numbers. Then confirm if the 100,000 mile 8-Year Engine Core warranty will transfer to you. Is this a 6-speed manual? What year is it?

It's White. It's over at SS Motors...Have you heard anything good or bad or anything at all?

Sorry to post twice. I will ask them for that or if they have any numbers from tests they've done. But I will also ask that. Since they're are a small dealer I don't know if they will have all that information, but I will definitely ask them for that.

BUt I will try them this weekend. If you want to look at it online...http://www.ssmotorsseattle.com/inventory_cars.html

-Mike

The link straight to the car is here: http://dealers2.aultec.com/v/?object...&DealerId=8079

See if they'll let you bring it to University Mazda for a used car inspection. You'll want to find out ahead of time if they'll perform the compression test for free and if not, how much it will cost. Since it's an '05, you'll also want to have a Mazda dealer confirm if all of the right recalls have been performed on the car. If the answer is no, you may be able to use this as a negotiation tool on price.

Also, make sure you find out if the plugs and coils have been replaced at least once. This is part of the 30,000 mile service on these cars and it's not cheap. This would be another tool to use to negotiate the price lower.

One more note. In the picture they're using, it looks like the fitment might be a little bit odd on the front bumper. You might ask University Mazda to take a look at the front crumple zones and make sure everything looks right. This might just be the camera angle/lighting though and me being paranoid :)

It's good to be paranoid, makes me get paranoid and then things become more thorough! I'll take it to University and make sure they can do everything. What are the compression levels supposed to be for the engine.

Also, does anyone know what they charge for a standard inspection on the RX8? I would love to drive home with the car this weekend, at the same time, I'm willing to take however much time it takes to find the perfect car. Is there anything in particular I should look for when I drive it? Certain aspects of the vehicle which I should be feeling, hearing, seeing, something?

Thanks again!
-Mike

Make sure the shifts into 2nd and 4th are smooth. The syncros on those two can be somewhat fragile.

I see what you mean about the front bumper, I'm not sure if it's the picture, but it looks like there might have been a little bit of front end action.

Also when I shift into second when the car is cold, it feels like it catches the slightest bit, but goes away once it warms up, does yours do the same, or am I on the way to bad syncros? I'm still under warranty, I might menntion it next service.

I live right across the street from them lol
I've been there twice and the owner seemed like a pretty nice guy yet he doesn't sound like
he knows about a car so I wouldn't believe everything he says....
that's like all i know about them.

if they let u bring the car to U Mazda that would be awesome!!
i can take a look at car with u if u want since i live "right there" lol

thats actually a pretty normal price for that car. mine is an 05 6 spd and had 74k miles and it was marked at 11.5k from a really nice dealership so you have no reason to suspect and sort of problems.

but still get a compression test done if you can

I don't want to be a nuisance seeing how I just met you. But if you could/have to do so, it would be GREATLY appreciated. I've read the reviews and they seem like really nice people. I sent out an email inquiring about the car last night, so we shall see when they'll respond to me. :-)

I've actually been getting that lately (when it's cold). You should be coming up on your 30k service soon too, right? I can't believe I'm going to hit mine in 2 years... I'm definitely going to run out of miles on my warranty before years. I barely drove the car last winter since I was taking the bus to work, so in the last year I've done ~17k miles.

Anyways, part of that service is swapping the transmission fluid. Everyone I've talked to reports that the transmission feels a lot better after switching to the Redline fluids, so before I get too nervous about it I'm going to see how it feels after changing the fluid.

Haha don't worry about that
I just wanted to help somebody out buying an rx-8 :p
If u need me to be there Just let me know!!

If I get one, I definitely want to meet some of the guys in the area! Hopefully today' they'll get back to me and then I'll go check it out tomorrow if they respond and then this weekend, take it to the dealers for inspections and whatnots.

I actually did my 30k early and had the trans fluid replaced and it still does it, though I didn't specify what brand/type of fluid, so I'm sure they put the stock trans fluid in.

So, they called me back about the car. apparently someone sat on the bumper and warped it. They also said that I can get the car inspected if I wanted to, so I'm going to call U Mazda and see when they could do it.

Hopefully it checks out...I'm going to offer 12 with everything.

^ good luck

Good luck. It could have also been that the weather stripping is coming up and poked through the crack a bit.....maybe? Hope it works out for you!

Thanks guys! I'm so excited to go look at it and get it inspected :-)

I'm a car junkie so hopefully it won't be too long before I start the modding for the beast! Hopefully being a poor college student won't bite me in the ass for this one!

Yah know if you're in the area, a bunch of us will be at Dick's on 45th ave NE in the U-District Friday night (7:30 or so). That's just a couple blocks from University Mazda, feel free to stop by, say hi etc. I'm sure you'd be able to convince someone to give you a ride up the on-ramp onto I-5 and back as well :p:

Haha, I'm sure everyone would be awesome to meet there! I'd feel like a boob with my completely stock car, gotta get at least some sort of little exterior mod or some little thing that I can do myself :-). With the Audi, I tinted all of the interior lights to make a red glow (without having to install LED's). But my girlfriend won't let me do anything else do her car....So now I have to focus on getting a baby for me/project. I saw a pretty clean RX-8 driving last night...His plate ended in WUT, and he was mobbing down 405 towards Kirkland...I was going to follow till in the Audi, but I got a menacing glare when I down shifted into 3rd :-(. Looks like I'll have to do it when she's not there with me :-)

watch the talk about complete stock. I'm a stock'er :rock: haha

Hahaha, to each his own right? :-) My friend has a stock Red one and she loves it...Personally, I would do some stuff to the cars but, everyone has their own tastes and everyone's tastes on these cars are usually gorgeous!

Less talking...more coming to Dick's.