well, I put away my summer car for good today
 

it snowed :( this is a sad day. at least i got my snows put on the FRS

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...08136034_o.jpg

Just use that as your winter beater and save the FRS for when it skyrockets in value!

I don't know about an FRS ever skyrocketing in value, but why would you drive your more expensive car in winter, exposing it to salted snowy roads, instead of the old beater?

For GOOD, or for the Winter?

the value of this car goes up every year, while the FRS goes down, however I do have a beater RX7 that i COULD drive in the winter, i'm saving that for parts

this car was about 12K NEW, and is worth about 7K now, hows that for holding value :)

no beater here, this car is rust free, has never seen salt, and rarely rain, and only has 55K on it, did i mention its from 1984?


i bought the FRS when i also owned an S2000, the FRS was always supposed to be the daily driver/winter car. i've since replaced the S2000 with 2 RX-7's

more expensive to me means nothing, its the rarity, its hard to find a 1st gen RX in this kind of shape, i wouldn't want to ruin that


just for the winter, she will be back when the salt is clear :) in buffalo, when winter comes, it seems like its for good haha

see also, damn near mint interior, only thing that bugs me is the top of the door cards, which i will be re-finishing over the winter

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...c16d8a99e03a36

Never thought for one second that anybody would take that statement serious!

Drove my 03 Lancer through 5 southern Ontario winters (don't get much more salt then we do) and sold it to a guy down the street that has driven it ever since. The car is still pristine and looks like it rolled off the showroom floor yesterday.
So are we saying that Mitsu makes a better car??????
Modern cars don't take the same shit kicken from the weather that vehicles up until the late 80s did.
I can look out my office window this very second and see many 10+ year old cars with no sign of rust.
New paints, metal alloys and rustproofing techniques help make a huge difference in rust resistance.
Is it great for them? Well no, but they won't rot to the door handles in 3 or 4 years like the old ones did either.
Besides it is a <$30K car so if it rusts in 5 years I will throw it away and buy a new one (or something along the same line might be bored with it by then anyway).

i did the same with my 04 STI, bought it with 6K miles, drove the hell out of it in the winter, 5 years later it was still fine, no real rust other than surface rust underneath the car, i buy cars to drive them, unless its a classic, they i drive them when they are nice out, hell I even drove my S2000 in the winter a good bit

https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/...ba&oe=551E7839

Looks like you may be able to save the material from the panels and just restretch/secure it?
The more original you can keep it the better I would think.

Of course I would never drive that in the winter!

i'm planning on covering the top with something else that matches, its pretty faded and doesn't really match the rest of the interior anymore. though i never thought of just re-stretching it and seeing how it works out, maybe i'll give that a shot

Are they really worth that much? I'm pretty sure I've seen a ton of FCs in fine condition for very little money... I'm talking like $2k-$4k...

Fc's are the bastard child, most people want FB's or FD's, the 1st gens hold their value well if they are mostly stock(no stupid mods) and not rusty, luckily mine is almost stock(a few driveability mods and reliability mods) has no rust, and really low miles. i've already been offered more than 7K for it by a few different people, they just aren't around in this shape anymore

that being said, i bought my first FB rx-7 10 years ago for $100, took me another $300 to get it running, but it was a rust bucket, the values have a wide range based on condition, that and a lot of people just dont realize what they are worth when its a car thats been sitting in a barn for 20 years


here's the current trend for the rx-7 pricing, http://www.hagerty.com/valuationtool...port?vc=864892 nice slow rise since 2007 :) mine isn't perfect, but i'd say its somewhere between a grade 1 and 2

Doesn't the FB not even have independent rear suspension? I guess the FC is less popular because of weight?

Exactly. As much as I love my car I bought it as a DD fully expecting to drive it in the winter. I put 4000 miles a month on it so am not worried about devaluing as it will be worth squat when I go to trade it anyway. Now of course if it was a weekend only, heavily modded or my second or third car that would be a different matter.

correct and correct, the FC is a heavy pig compared to the FB. FB's are a very RAW car that will bite your rear if not careful, not to mention no power anything so its a task to drive, but totally worth it


even with my short list of simple mods(no emissions control/racing beat exhaust/mechanical secondaries/electric fan) , i would bet my FB can keep up with or pull on a TII FC how it sits right now

A restretch and some good treating compound could make all the difference.
How badly faded are the seats? They look bad in the pic but that can be deceiving. They may be a bigger factor then the door panels when looking at value.

the tops of the seats are faded a little, its just how the picture was taken with the sun shining in. damn camera phones. i'm lucky in the fact that my seats have very little wear to them, just a tiny bit you can see in the one picture on the side bolster

Everything gets driven.

No car i would own would skyrocket in value in my lifetime that would be of actual financial worth to me.

I'd just buy gold if i wanted an investment.

Interesting. Admittedly, I don't know a whole lot about RX7s other than the FD.

I wonder how the FB gen RX7 compares with an NA gen Miata.

i was going to mention that, the FB has more in common with the 1st gen miata than it does with an FC, a lot of the miata's development came from the FB, along with a lot of the parts that you'll find in them


if you sit in both, you'd notice that from the inside they are a lot alike

Fuck if I had the space I'd have an FB/SA already, there's a nice looking '83 in my area for $5k (hinging on interior, no pics, can't stand the red and blue interiors dealbreaker for me) but I'm too chicken to take the plunge.

Jealous OP, except for the snow part :lol:
@Sideways&Smiling You can find running acceptable FB's for that price range ($2k-$3k), but they will be beat (maybe riced) and in need of attention (most likely don't pass smog in CA hence the sale) and nowhere near as nice as OP's. Decent ones start at $4k and up, ones that look like they rolled off the showroom floor yesterday can top $10k.

This one sold for over $12k:
http://bringatrailer.com/2013/08/13/...mazda-rx-7-gs/

http://bringatrailer.com/2014/06/03/...83-mazda-rx-7/

http://bringatrailer.com/2014/01/22/...4-rx-7-gsl-se/

http://bringatrailer.com/2014/02/13/...a-rx-7-gsl-se/

I really hope I can grab a good one (read one that doesn't need significant un-fucking, don't need a garage queen) before the average prices hit $10k. :(

Edit: $5k one is gone, oh well. Perfect example of FB's for under $3k:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/4757649174.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/4763756162.html

thanks, get one now, i've owned 3, and this one i have now, i doubt i'll ever let go :) i was surprised at how much the prices have gone up in the last 10 years(been that long since i've owned one)

most you'll find will be beat to hell and usually run like crap. like my parts car, someone was using it as a field car, so you can imagine what the interior and exterior look like, otherwise its mechanically sound

In the lovely land of California there seems to be an average of one nice example per week, I mentioned the blue for $5k, this week is red for $6k (although it has been resprayed and the automatic is a dealbreaker for me).

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/4764346049.html

lucky for you guys, I see about one really nice one a year around here lol this one was totally fate, he was selling the car and would only trade for an S2000, luckily i was bored with my honda so it was an easy choice

Don't see them here much either (winter driving explains where they all went). I was curious so pulled some prices and looks like they are only running between $2500 and $5000 here. Of course hard to tell condition but some look pretty nice.

these cars are very hard to tell by pictures, you need to put the car on a lift and check out the bottom of the storage bins behind the seats, once the rust starts there, its a lost cause at that point for the most part. most of the ones i've ever seen have a good amount of rust in those spots(both of my not-so-nice RX-7's have had holes in those spots) my good one however, still has the factory coating in those spots :)


the best one i found in my area was an 85 with 90K on it for 3500, paint looked trashed and there weren't really any pictures that gave any detail as to body condition, its a crapshoot for sure

Oh no doubt and not just these but any cars are hard to tell. Had more then one beautiful looking Flintstone mobile over the years myself. All of the descriptions also say how great of shape they are in as well and there is not a hope I would believe that!

haha exactly, my parts car has a nice hole you can put your hand through in the floor behind the drivers seat, though from the outside, other than the crap paint and dents, it looks pretty much rust free, the RX's are tough to tell for sure

@Skurge

I know I've asked before but what are your go-to forums for SA/FB's?

I've got a hankering for dorito power, given current economic uncertainties I'm tempted to dump the Scion and pick one of these up and bank the >$10k.

If you want a reliable brother, just get a Z31 300ZX, non turbo.

It's a bit slow but...body roll can be quite fun. :bellyroll:

http://www.rx7club.com/


great group of guys there, for anything rotary powered

a well taken care of rotary is very reliable, you just have to know what to do/no to do with the car. my first one had 80K original engine when i sold it, my parts car is a 110K original engine. its not uncommon if cared for correctly

based on demoon's post I decided to ramble, instead of deleting per usual I'll just throw it up there

To be fair the naturally aspirated ones have a good reliability track record, at least as reliable as any other sports car of the era and with only a handful of moving parts rebuilds are reasonable, hitting >100k with regular maintenance and zero issues is the norm assuming the owner does the maintenance required and doesn't try any funny business.

I think the only interesting sports car of the time that could give it a run for it's money in terms of ownership costs, reliability, and smiles would be the MR2.

It would be hard to convince me to go Z31 over a MK2 Supra, and then you're entering the realm of Porsche 928 and 944's. Holy shit the early 80's kind of rocked, gas was cheap again, we just spent five years figuring out how to make cars lighter and cheaper and meet emissions without destroying power, even the Trans-Ams and Mustangs weren't too terrible.

Fuck I gotta buy an RX-7 before prices go through the roof, it will be a weird day when SA/FB are rivaling the prices of equivalent quality FD's, probably within five years.

Exactly, the norm for the RX-7 is 100k miles, the Z31 norm for N/A is 300k miles. The Z31's are dirt cheap and unlike many cars from the 80's, very slowly apprenticing.

The 928's, 924 and even 944's are going up in price. Look at 928 prices, you use to be able to pick up a show quality one for $8k.


But the Z31's are still in part the red headed step child sports car of Nissan. My post shouldn't be taken all that seriously.

It's a rare enthusiast who buys a 30+ year old sports car and sets out to put >100k miles on it, the RX-7 is safely reliable over 100k it's not like you can't perform health checks and watch the signs, not like it's going to grenade on you unexpectedly if you know your shit. Guess that's the key though, you don't have to know shit except how to keep track of oil changes for the Nissan (in the same vein MR2).

Depends on the year and trim for those Porsche's, all three can be had in project daily driver capable condition for under $8k if speed and looks are not a priority and you are capable of doing your own wrenching.

Went and grabbed the first viable listing for each, all are definitely project cars, not drive and enjoy cars (otherwise they'd be priced much higher) but at first glance all are worth a look:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/4766293831.html
http://monterey.craigslist.org/cto/4739692564.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/4757315836.html

Now that you have me thinking I'm hard pressed to think of a sports car from Nissan I like more (excluding Datsun here) than the Z31... Personally at least, for the money and era though it doesn't come close to top five for me.

Edit: Hope you're not taking me seriously either ;)

Listen brah, Miata or go home.

Please, tell me he put cash on top as part of this trade...

Drive it normally, maintain it religiously, check oil often, change oil often, still only get 1/8th to 1/3rd the lifespan of a piston engine...

Those aren't exactly high numbers.
My pristine and perfectly maintained '90 RX-7 blew apex seals at 106k miles :( Not a single rotor-head was remotely surprised...

Apparently the older ones are more reliable, though. My info is that to meet emissions standards, they had to cut back on the amount of oil injected. If I go rotary again ever, I'll probably run premix...

of course, in reality the honda was getting worn out, it had 113K on it, burned oil, knocked on startup, soft top was shot etc etc, it needed a lot....but i did get 2 rx-7's and cash for my honda, i was happy with it

correct, the 12A is a lot more reliable than the 13B's were, i only said my mileage because those are the ones i can personally say i've been around and driven without issue. mine has no emissions control systems on it anymore, just a carb and an engine :)