Value of a 77k 2004 with bad compression?
 

Got some bad news today my daughters 2004 Grand Touring 6speed has low compression and the dealer suggests replacing the engine. The quote is $5400 to do this. The car has 77k miles, silver/red interior, new tires, good overall condition.

From what I can tell the book on this car is maybe $7500.

Need some advice from the you experts which direction to take.

1. Do I repair the car?
2. Do I fire sale it and put the proceeds and the $5400 into something else?
3. Part out the car?
4. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Give me the good the bad and the ugly.

Thanks in advance.

Z

Essentially the same question asked here yesterday: https://www.rx8club.com/purchasing-f...d-tips-251631/


You can do better on the dealer's quote. Under $4,000 is entirely doable, under $3,000 is possible.

I have an engine for sale. Comes with BHR Ignition and Racing beat Header. Let me know.

You may want to sell the header and ignition separate. This guy may want his cost as low as possible and those parts aren't exactly difficult to sell.

$3k+ still isn't out of the realm of possibility. anything that cheap and relative age of the car people are going to drop figures until you get one that sticks. the last 8 i picked up with a bad engine i paid $2900(he added in the free tow) with more miles than that and he already had offers of that same price. except i actually diagnosed it on the spot and told him the engine was 99% toast, verified later as a spun rotor bearing causing the rotor to touch the housing(an audible knock, which is extremely rare for a rotary engine).

for me i guess i don't mind paying a few extra bucks to be first in line, since i can probably repair it for less than $1k in parts not including labor and resell it for ~$7k. other generic mechanics will try the same, except most will be in too deep once they realize the engine does need to come apart or be replaced with the still rather expensive/questionable used ones available($1500 for a used renesis with no guarantee is ridiculous, putting it lightly).

basically what i'm saying is while RIWWP is close he isn't 100% on with the figures, because once you go that low the scavengers will hike up the price to a small degree. so a $1500 figure would be a giveaway fire sale price if you needed money within hours, the title is salvaged or the car needs other substantial work. $2500 is usually bargain basement price but sometimes you can get it, less than that and i'd feel too guilty to pay so little if the car is in decent shape.

I paid 2950 for my 04 with a "bad" engine. 117k. I had planned to send out the engine for a rebuild, pulling and installing myself. If you don't have the tools or space to pull it yourself, labor would most likely push the cost over the value of the car.