Prospective Buyer: 2005 RX-8
 

Hello all,

I've been a looong time lurker here starting a few years back when I was considering buying an RX-8. Well, I ended up buying an E36 M3 instead, but here I find myself back to the RX-8 as a potential citizen of my garage.

So, I am depending on the painfully acquired wisdom of all the RX-8 Yodas out there to give me some guidance on the car I'm looking at. Here's the perpetrator:

-2005 RX-8 w/ GT package.
-White in color, black leather interior.
-36K on the clock. Unknown if it has had the Mazda ECU reflashes and so forth that I've read so much about on the forums here.
-Appears to have no modifications other than cheezy headlight "eyebrow" applique.
-Asking: $17,000

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

regards,
Joel

$17k? Too much. No more than $15, imo.
Get compression test, maintenance history, etc. Call MazdaUSA and see if the recalls were done.
Welcome and good luck!

The asking is way high, that 8 should be around 10-14 in my opinion.
You should be able to find an 07-08 in the 17 range, hell I ran across a 09 GT selling for 17,500ish a few months ago while searching for my 8.

Hi all,

Thanks for the welcomes to the club. You guys think 17 is high even with only 36K on the clock? The other reason that it is high is that it is being sold by Carmax. I know...evil car buying service right? I guess I decided to give it a chance just to see what they might have.

regards,
Joel

I guess if you want no hassle then carmax is for you, but you pay a premium for it. On the other hand I didn't consider my recent buy from a dealer a hassle either. All terms were agreed on before I flew down, inspected, signed and drove off.

2 minutes on autotrader turned up this

My recommendation is be patient and find what you really want. Don't think you will find it or it exist? It does.

Bings auto search isn't too bad either. It agitates from a bunch of sources and is a good overall feeler for seeing whats newly listed, from there I searched vins to find every site it was listed to.

Yeah, you are right. The "no hassle" part of it is what I would be paying for. The other thing for me is that I do not have the ability to fly out to a location and drive back to buy a car. I'm in the military and just don't have the luxury to spend my vacation time to do that (rather spend it with family and friends).

However, your Autotrader find does indeed crush my Carmax find. That is an amazing car at a great price. My only thing I'm stubborn about is color. If I'm going to enslave myself to a banking institution in the form of a car loan, I want to have no regrets about my purchase. White is the color I'd like. I guess I will have to be more patient and see what I can turn up.

Thank you for the reality check.

regards,
Joel

Yep, be patient. Entirely worth it. You don't want to be eyeing another 8 at the meet, envying something that it has that you don't. Some people envy the heated seats, some the moonroof, some the driver aids, and some envy the lowest weight available. Choose what you want, THEN go find the car to match.

I took 4 months to find my 8, WWP 2005 or 2006, loaded GT, everything but the nav. My wife insisted on under $20k, but with at least 4 years and 30,000 miles on the powertrain. October of 2007 I found it at a Mercedes dealer in Ohio, $19,500 for exactly what I wanted, 8,500 miles on it, had sat on the original lot until Sept of 2006 (as a 2005), so even the warranty started way late.


You will find it, don't give up or cave :)

A couple other little tips I wish I knew before hand...
This site has a deal where you can get unlimited autocheck reports for 60 days for the same price as autocheck sells 30 days for.

I didn't find that until about 10 minutes after buying 30 days lol...
I ran every vin I ran across and then on autotrader I saved every car I was interested in named in a way i could quickly tell what was what in the list of my saved cars.
My format was... Trim - Transmission - Mileage - Price ie. 40th AE - M - 15.5mi - 18.5k
I included price because it made it easier to see changes. Autotrader lets you know when a price goes down but they don't tell you how much ;)

Another autotrader tip, or a tip for all car search sites really, is keep your search open some dealers and sellers are semi-retarted and list details in correctly. So if you know what to look for you can find a GT listed as a Touring and possibly at a touring price point. Other common listing mistakes include color and transmission. So if you are looking for a GT the quickest way to tell is an interior shot of the console, looking for the heated seat switches below the shifter.

Its a good idea to know the differences from year to year and between the trim packages so you know what to look for
Spec Decks, Color Charts and Pricing for each year 2005-2011 2008 spec deck
Year by Year Changes

I understand where you are coming from with flying. When I did it I only traveled about 500 miles away so I was back in under 24hr's.

You're right too. The main thing is that I am anxious to get something "new"/angry at myself for buying what I currently have. I wrecked my old E36 M3 in a rainstorm and bought another old BMW before, as my wife says, I had time to mourn the loss of my M3. :(

I bookmarked that site. I have my format of priorities as well. Thank God I posted a quick question on the forum here before pulling the trigger on that RX-8.

Joel

The biggest problem is that your Carmax is near a military base, so they are automatically going to boost the price on any sort of toy purchase to much higher levels than the same car in a non-military location.

Just going to a non-military location is going to save you several thousand dollars right off the bat.

There are plenty of good members on here that would probably be willing to look at a car local to them to give you an idea of what shape it's in.

Then you call up the dealer, and have them arrange shipping to you.

BC.

Thanks for the advice B.C. The search is on.

Could probably find someone more than willing to drive it to you too ;)
I wouldn't let you do it to mine...but I'd do it for yours hahaha

Damn I just noticed your join date, 2008. Someone has been lurking around