2004 Purchase
 

My auto buyer just found me a car, and was wondering if I should pull the trigger or not.

Specs:

2004 RX-8 Touring
Sunroof
Leather
etc...

Manual
80k miles
Velocity Red


Exterior and interior of the car are pretty much flawless.

Auto buyer is sounding like he can get it to me out the door for around $10k

I've seen many used ones with around the same mileage going for around $8K, but those are usually in worse condition as far as interior/exterior.

Looking for some opinions on pulling the trigger on this sale? Good deal? Keep looking? Etc...

Any input would be good.

Main question is what shape is the engine in? $10 is a bit steep, but since its now out of warranty, it might be worth it to have a car with a confirmed solid engine. Get maintenance records and a compression test.

The same input I give every other prospective owner. WHAT DOES THE COMPRESSION TEST TELL YOU?


Seriously. You are either buying a $3,500 car for $10,000 or buying a $10,000 car for $10,000. The smart thing to do is to figure out which.


See the 1st thread in my sig, the info on how to get the compression scores and what compression scores you need to look for is within the first 9 posts, along with lots of other info.

I will definitely get the car a compression test at the dealer before finalizing the purchase. I thought I read in the New and Potential Owners thread, that Mazda will test them for free up to 100K miles because of the factory warranty expansion. Or is that only for original owners? (nevermind, just read the $80-$120 part)

I will also request the service records when I take the car in for the test. Hopefully I can get my Auto Buyer to handle this for me (if it will cost me out of pocket).

I know purchasing these cars used really comes down to how well the previous owners took care of them (maintenance wise).

If everything checks out clean and good, is it worth $10k? Or should I keep pushing for spending less?

The warranty was 8 years or 100k, and for a 2004, 8 years is nary up. You can always try, they might be interested in doing it for you if they want to sell the car at that price.

If the car is rock solid, it's worth the $10k, but I think ideally you'll want to be spending more to get a newer, still warrantied and better condition car regardless. 2004 was the first year, so those cars spent the longest time driven under the original engine computer programming, which was not great. Subsequent years got better programming from the factory, so they never saw the worst of it.

I think the first thing I'd do is get another "auto buyer". If this is someone you're paying a fee, HE should have already done this research and have the answers for you.

Nevermind the fact that $10k is the TOP I'd pay for an 8-9 year old car that's probably already expired the extended engine core warranty. It'd have to be perfect to be worth that price.

Just my nickel's worth...YMMV.