Older cheaper RX, or newer RX with warranty
 

Hi everyone.

Winter is fast approaching here in Canada, and I'm looking to acquire an RX-8 after it passes. I may be a little early, but I like doing my research ahead of time - and who knows, that special deal may just pop up in the middle of winter.

The market around here (Toronto area) seems to have maybe a couple dozen used RX's to chose from at most. I'm looking to spend between 8-12k.

A nice 2004/2005 can be had at around $8000-$9000, with around 100,000km (60k miles). By the time I purchase around April or so of 2013, these will be out of warranty or very close.

A 2007 RX with around 100,000km (not looking at anything higher, really) can be had for around $12000. However, these will have at least a few years left on the warranty.

So my trouble comes in deciding...do I try to spend the extra $4000 on getting an RX with at least 2-3 years of warranty left on it, or do I save that cash for what could be a $4000 engine replacement should that happen down the line? Are there any other factors you guys might consider?

Cheers!

Same answer as I give anyone else looking for help on deciding between two RX-8s....


Whichever has the higher compression. You can accept a lower compression the less warranty is left, but in all seriousness, you want the engine with the best compression.

I'd rather have a newer rx8 with warranty in it, rather than an older rx8 without warranty whatsoever.

I would go with the newer one. But get under the car and look at the condition mine is a 2007 Florida car with no rust underneath at all. However my wife has a 2006 Honda Odyssey that had a few winters in Canada and the bottom is completely rusty and doing any work is a major pain.

Also check tire wear if they are on the wear bars you are looking at $700-$1000 for a set of new tires.
Like RIWWP said get them to show you a current compression test if it has low compression the engine is done and need to be replaced.

I guess it all comes down to the compression in the end. Is that something that slowly degrades, or can it be something that happens quickly, like a failure of some kind?

Also, I thought that I had read before that years 2006 and up are 6 port engines, which had a much lower failure rate?

Well, if you are going to have to spend that extra $4k one way or another, wouldn't it make sense just to buy the newer car with the warranty coverage, and just be really picky on the condition of the car you buy?

The newer cars also have a few extra bits that are of better quality than what's found on the '04 and '05 cars, too. Better starters, and other components. Plus, all the other parts (shocks, springs, bushings, etc) are a couple of years newer, even if they have more mileage on them.

And don't spend so much time focused on the engine, that you overlook the more important item, the catalytic convertor. Ask if that's been replaced on the car, or ask if you can have a shop quickly remove and inspect it to see if its in good shape or not.

A quickie test is to drive the car around on a test drive, then park it with the engine still running, while standing outside next to the rear of the car for a while to see how strong the exhaust smell is. You will be able to get an idea how strong the odor should and shouldn't be if you test several cars of various mileage.

BC.

Might want to read the first 9 posts of this thread. https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discuss...t-here-202454/

Post #2 lists the possible methods of failure, post #9 details out how you can address each.

6-port improved the prospects for the automatics, which were 4-port for 2004-2005. The manual transmission equipped RX-8s were always 6-port, but 2004 and 2005 spent alot of their life on a sub-optimal flash that didn't inject enough oil. Post #2 goes into more of the engine failure story.

Great stickies, and great info. Thanks guys, now just to keep banking $ and keeping my eyes open. Will hopefully be a 'real' member of this forum soon