Advice buying RX8
 

Hey guys, i'm looking at buying a 2007 Galaxy Gray with 44000km(Canada eh!). Anyway there are just a few things that i'm concerned about...If you would provide some insight I would really appreciate it.

Ok, firstly this car has been in a minor accident. The car was hit and resulted in the rear bumper being replaced. The accident was less than 2000$. Can't tell that anything even happened to it by looking at it.

The seller is the second owner but has only had the car for like 8000kms. He has some curb rash and two small door dings.

The seller was a smoker, the car didn't really smell like smoke or anything but I'm just wondering if getting a smoke smell out of a car is hard.

Exterior is 8/10

Price is 13k

The car also has the mazdaspeed cold air intake and rims. Leather interior is sand color. Exterior is Galaxy Gray.

Coils and Plugs were changed 8k ago.

Anything I should look out for in a 2007?

I will be going for a compression test and mechanical inspection at a Mazda dealer soon. I'm pretty much just asking advice on whether this a good deal or not and if there is anything else that I should look out for that I may be missing.

Thanks

$13k is a pretty good price for an 07.
You sound like you're on the right track, as far as what to look for.

Smoke- not much you can do. Wash the carpets and the roof liner? Maybe install an air freshener?

Do you know if the exhaust was damaged at all? It probably wouldn't hurt to inspect everything under her a$$ ;)

The exhaust was fine, he got hit from the left side right on the fender, essentially just a scrape.
Thanks for the reply by the way.

I have an '07 GT that's very similar to the one you're looking at (Mazdaspeed CAI, wheels). So far, other than coils, it's been trouble free. I replaced them with the BHR kit. I can't think of anything to watch out for that's specific to the '07. I'm happy with my 8.

I do need to replace the TPMS sensors some day.

$13k (Canada eh!) sounds like a very good deal.

It's nearly impossible to get smoke smell completely out of a car. Make sure you drive it on a warm sunny day to see if you can deal with the smell. I once owned a car which was smoked in and 6 years after I bought it, it still smelled like smoke in the summer - even after shampooing the carpets and seats with an industrial carpet cleaner.

I wouldn't worry too much about the body damage, $2k is probably just a bumper cover replacement and paint.

Yeah, the deal actually started to get a little sketchy and some things on the carproof didn't add up. I decided to back out because I felt uncomfortable. Sorry to change the topic but i'm talking with someone selling an 05 and he mentioned that the car has flooded quite a few times. Does flooding cause any permenant harm to the car's mechanics? I know it isn't really good for the starter...should I avoid this car since it has been flooded or is it not an issue. Sorry this is off topic, I tried to search but didn't really fid what i'm looking for.

Thanks for the help

Go with your gut. Seems like a few too many question marks to gamble $13k on. You can find similar cars for the same price.

Flooding doesn't ruin the car, but it's not good for the cat. If the car has been flooded "quite a few times," then I'd worry about other damage in addition to whatever the flooding did, because the car was driven by someone who didn't know how to treat a rotary.

EDIT: I recommend getting an '06 or higher, there isn't that much price difference and the first two years were teething years.

Is there any way to check the health of the cat? Would an inspection at the dealership help?

The price seems firm. Have an authorized auto shop inspect the condition of your catalytic if you don't want to do it yourself.

+1. Get an 06 or higher if you can.

The smell aside, I would not consider a car owned by a smoker. Smoking tends to go with a personality type that I wouldn't buy a car from. Aggressive, takes chances, not super anal about taking care of things. Just my 2¢, obviously there are exceptions. But with so many used cars to choose from, why risk it?

^^^^^^^^ Agree 100%

Cars that have been flooded multiple times means that the owner of the car has been neglecting the ignition system for a long time, and that leads to convertor damage, along with compression loss, as the rotor housings get worn due to the excess fuel washing away the protective oil film.

Just the fact that the owner has flooded it multiple times means that they never learn from their own mistakes, no matter how many times they make the same mistake over and over again, nor do they understand what causes the flooding (ignition issues).

So, I would recommend a car that the owner has taken better care of their car.

BC.

Hey guys, I was just looking at the back bumper of this car that I was looking at and noticed something weird. A little bit of the paint from the rear bumper(painted part) seemed to be on the black part of the bumper. Like as if it has been repainted and the paint had dripped down or something. Right were the metal part of the bumper meets the black part there was a bit of paint on the plastic(this ran all along the seam). Does this seem weird to you guys or am I being paranoid? I ran a carproof and it came up with no accidents. The current owner who is also the original owner says that there has never been any work on the bumper. What do you think of this? I am worried that the car got rear ended had was repaired privately or something.

Thanks for the help