So my wife told me of the guy doing her nails that is looking to sell his 8. It's an 05 manual with 70k miles on it. The guy did some minor appearance modifications like lowering it and some interior lights here and there so I figure that he actually took care of it. I haven't looked at the car yet but I'm wondering if I should even bother. I know its a crapshoot but does anyone think it'll be nickel and diming me for the next few years? I plan to ask the guy a number of questions especially about the compression on the engine and which engine he's on. He's asking for 8k (retail value on kbb) but I figure no more than 6500 for the thing.

My Grand Am is getting to that nickel and dime extent and is gonna require probably over a grand in repairs right now and I wouldn't be surprised if it got me for more soon. Not too long ago I had some exhaust pipe failure on a piece of downpipe from the aftermarket headers. The entire exhaust was hanging and I was still 10 min west of Schaumburg on I-90. God was really watching out for me because I found a coat hanger and some zipties in the grass next to the shoulder to jury rig some exhaust hangers and limp it home. But I wouldn't be surprised if something else went.

So generally speaking is it worth at least considering with the understanding it might be good for another 3 years or should I not bother?

 

6500 sounds good if its in nice shape and the comp test is good but i wouldnt trust a guy that does nails for a living lol

 

don't just ask him about the compression, you need a current rotary compression test done with the results (should be six numbers, compression numbers from three faces per each rotor). There is a compression test results chart in the new owners stickies to evaluate the engine's condition. This is critical to be done BEFORE you buy or be prepared to possibly spend thousands on a new motor. Don't be fooled by how it seems to run, even a failing rotary engine can seem to be running fine if you are not experienced in owning one.

https://www.rx8club.com/new-member-f...t-here-202454/

 

Awesome. Thanks for the info and sticky. Quite a refresher about all the common questions/issues with 8s.

 

Not gonna happen. The guy was nice enough but a car guy he is not. There was so much wrong with every question I asked him. His answers were vague and lots of "don't know". Just the fact that he started the car and seconds later revved it nearly to the redline made me cringe. He said original engine from when he bought it (2nd owner 9k miles from Toyota dealer). Thought I was asking if the car was in a flood when I was referring to the engine. Claimed he had no maintenance records, that they were all lost in a house fire sometime back. My personal favorite was he said it got "great gas mileage"...better than his Honda crossover that had a 4 cyl. About the only semi-solid answer I got was when the coil packs were changed last "a year ago" he said. I even went so far as to offer to pay for a compression test to which he declined saying he had no time to bring it in for that.

He said it was his buddy who installed all the mods (lower, GReddy exhaust -catback?-, some LEDs in the interior). He even looked at me funny when I asked him about the exhaust and didn't know what I meant when I talked about the mid-pipe. I knew more about an 8 half asleep with most of my brain tied behind my back than this guy. So all in all the guy is probably a liar or just a "cool car" guy who doesn't know squat about his own car but has it cuz it looks cool. The finishing blow was his price - no lower than $7500. He said a guy just recently offered him that and he turned it down...Sure. Right. Uh huh.

Oh well maybe another 8 will pop up on my radar screen from someone who actually knows and cares about their car.