My returned RX-8 has not been re-registered
 

A buddy of mine bought a month's worth of CarFax reports, so just for shits and grins I had him run the VIN of my RX-8 which I had to return when I was laid off. Amazingly, it appears that it has not been re-registered since I returned it:
That's all she wrote. I thought these returned vehicles were destined to be turned around to MNAO employees, but it would appear that they've been shuffled off into limbo somewhere.

I wonder if I can track it down for you? I'll see what I can find out.

Kirk

I seem to recall a thread with someone claiming Mazda was going to destroy the returned cars, but I can't find it. I did find jtimbck2's comments in this thread which says that only Mazda employees would be offered the returned vehicles. Hmmm.

I can't imagine they would destroy them -- just as long as they can control or prevent future sale or flooding of the market with used 8's.

they destoyed all of the 30+ that they had for pre-production test drives by the mags and other news people at laguna seca and other places. and those were pricey hand built jobs not production line ones. so it wouldn't be hard for me to believe they would destroy any that were not snapped up by employees.

eccles,

Sorry to hear that you had to give up your RX-8. You were the first guy to give me advice on these forums, back in early August.

I'm not sure I understand the CARFAX. I see the car sold the end of July but I don't see you picking up ownership. Did you lease it? If so then I assume:

9/1 entry is from the leasing company finally registering that the vehicle has been leased to you

10/9 is the leasing company taking the car back

2/12 MNAO getting ownership of the vehicle from the leasing company

Does that sound right? If so, I would agree that the car has been sitting somewhere while Mazda negotiated how to get the car back from the leasing company, something that probably wasn't easy.

It would be interesting to see the CARFAX on a buy-back that was originally a straight purchase.

Carfax reports can run several months behind. It's possible the registration just hasn't caught up to it yet, or that the car has simply been registered to Mazda corporate and has been given to an employee as a company car, or is just one of a fleet of cars that gets rotated amongst employees.

Carfax also can get errors in it...

I took my car in for a smog check and gave them an estimated mileage over the phone. That esitmated mileage that I verbally gave the smog station owner subsequently showed up on carfax as a mileage discrepancy because I was off and the number I gave was too low. I was very bummed when a potential buyer asked me about the odometer discrepancy of which I was very surprised...

It's a good idea but definately not the ants-pants when it comes to being factually reliable.