I've come across a great deal on a low-mileage '04 RX-8 Sport, but when I called a Mazda dealership to have them run the VIN on this car they showed that it has never had an engine replaced and as far as they can tell none of the ECU-reflash campaigns have ever been done on it either. The car has 30,000 miles on it and was used by an older couple as a weekend toy and nothing more, so I'm not thinking the car has seen redline many times in it's life either.

I forgot to ask the dealership what the build date was on the car, but it should be covered under the engine warranty regardless. However, I've been reading on here that Mazda is a little picky on the ones they want to replace so I'm a little worried about picking this car up for the obvious reasons. Low-mileage RX-8's in this area are hard to come by, and RX-8's in the condition this car is in are VERY hard to come by, not to mention I've got them sitting at $10,000 for the car right now as well.

What do you think? Should I avoid the car? The car will be used mostly on weekends, although for this summer I'll probably use it as a DD and then pick up a winter car later in the year so this summer it'll see some mileage put on it (probably 10,000 miles or so).

Thanks in advance!

 

BTW, I did some searching but searching for something like this is a bit difficult. I read the high mileage RX-8 thread which was comforting, but I know how hit-or-miss these cars can be (I owned one in the past).

The service history on the car itself is that the gas cap was replaced, a transmission seal was replaced, new tires, a new battery, and that's just about it per Mazda.

 

I don't own one, but one of my friends had an '04, bought new. Not having the reflashes is a bit iffy. My friend said it made a big difference in the way it ran. Will the Mazda dealer do the reflashes for you N/C? What else did the PO neglect if they didn't even do the free stuff?

 

Buy it!

Test it out kick the tires ect....

 

Are you sure you would rather buy a car that had its engine replaced??? If the car is running fine on original engine, it means that's nothing wrong with it, duh. Test drive it, and if the engine runs fine and accelerates the car fine, buy it.

A dealer should reflash the ECU free of charge.

 

I have an 04 bought new. avoided the dealer like the plague unless I had to go for warranty work. I'm over 104K on the original engine still going strong. It all depends on good maintenance and how the car was driven. Mine is almost all highway miles.

 

I can't remember now because it has been a while but, wasn't one of the main problems on the 04-05 flash that it wasn't injection enough oil that would cause the motor to fail quicker?
They called me to bring my 06 in when it had like 9,000 miles on it for that flash and new plugs.

 

Trekk, you're correct I believe.

I spoke more with the dealership and explained my concerns to them this afternoon. The dealership chain also owns a Mazda dealership, and they agreed to run a compression test on the car should I decide it's the vehicle I want to buy so that puts my worries at ease. I'm going to go check out the car tomorrow.

 

(disclaimer: I didn't read the posts. Replying simply on thread title)

Short Answer: NO. With the current price of 2005's, why would anyone buy an 04??

 

Or better yet.....get an even newer one.

Which ever fits your budget. '04s were out before the many revisions on this car.

 

I depends. I would make sure that the car has had all the service done on time. I believe one of the things Mazda looks at if your engine does fail is to make sure all the oil changes have been done as scheduled. I had no real problems with my 04. As others have said If I were you I may look for a newer model like a 06. If you decide to buy the 04 and have all the records, it should not be a problem for Mazda to replace the engine under warranty.

 

I bought the car.

I showed up at the Mazda dealership and the first thing I did was pop the hood. Inside it was at least 6 recall campaign stickers dating as far back as 2006. The salesmen came out and immediately provided me with a service history on the car. Ends up for the past 4 years it's been more or less exclusively serviced at the same exact Mazda dealership. It is on the original engine but has been updated reflash-wise every single time they come out. Whoever owned this car was on top of things when it came to getting it serviced.

I noticed after driving a while that the idle was a little rough. Nothing terrible, but per the service records the coils and spark plugs have never been replaced on it so I think that may be why. It has 30,450 miles on it (after the 80 mile drive home) but I'm thinking what it has is a little on the old side since it has a build date of 9/03.

I appreciate all of the responses. RX-8's aren't a very common car for sale in this area and when they are for sale it's very common that they'll be in rough shape with higher mileage. This car is a rarity for the KS/MO area, and the price I paid ($10,500 - I bought a tire/wheel warranty since the roads around here are crater-city currently) there's no way in hell I could have done any better.

The 80-mile-drive home was pure bliss. I loved every second of it and I'm so happy to be back in an RX-8!

This is the only picture I have of it and it's dirty thanks to wet roads for most of the drive home. Damn snow melting!

 

congratulations!!!!

 

Congrats, they sound pretty neat when they are all stock and you can really hear the motor.

 

Congrats on your purchase!

Regarding the idle, I've found that all RX-8s I've driven (I've owned 2 and test driven several) have a little bit of a vibration at idle. If it feels smooth just off idle (say, 900 rpm+), then I would consider it normal.

 

Welcome to the forum! And yes it is time for you to change spark plugs, wires, and coils. Once you do this the car will be running like new! Remember to let the car always to warm up before you rev or turn off the engine. And redline frequently! It will help your engine stay free of carbon. Enjoy

 

Welcome to da club!

 

Thanks! I'm quite familiar with the cars and this isn't the first RX-8 I've owned. Two years ago I owned an '04 GT but traded it in because at the time it would need to be a 20,000+ mile a year DD and I didn't think it would be up for it (nor would my wallet).

Marc_GS: Off idle it is smooth as glass, but once on idle it'll have a little miss every once in a while. It probably goes 10-20 seconds before it'll do it again so I'm not too concerned. This week I'll be ordering coils and plugs for it.

 

Congrats. plugs, coils, and motor mount stat. It'll run like a champ

 

Nice car