where to buy RX-7?

[SideShowBob]

Miguel was very good, even called from Japan to discuss the problems, but at the end of the day, he\'s over there, and the people you\'re dealing with are here, and a lot less interested than Miguel is.

The warranty side I gave up on out of frustration, whereas I really should have pushed it, but by this stage id been to Portsmouth about 5 times, had been driving a hire car for two weeks, had paid out a lot of money, and jut become so frustrated with it all that I wrote off my losses, which were £3250 for the rebuild, plus numerous other costs, including a £500 service to try and get it running right.

Miguel is a genuine bloke, who does care about who he sells cars to, but without trying to harm any importers business, if I ever did go fd route again (unlikely), id get a car that had been imported, and gone through a rebuild, service, and a good few months life in the UK, that way your risk is virtually completely removed.

[GaryS]

Sideshowbob - was it Newera or Motormall who offered you the warranty ?  When I got mine car (through Newera) I had already read on here about how these normalyl do not cover rotary engine rebuilds, so when Motormall offered me one I said no.

I think the only warranties worth their salt are the ones like Brian offers - where the reality is the rebuild cost comes out of his own pocket.

[SideShowBob]

Warranty was through Motormall, but I asked Miguel to confirm that this would cover a rebuild, which he did.
They basicaly viewed it as gasket failure, as the water seals went, but then trying to get it sorted from there was the difficult part.
Its a pity, I sometimes feel I should have kept it after all that, as I sold it with a good rebuild and everything done, for the same as I bought it for initially!! but I was just sick of the sight of it by that stage.

[scooby_si]

& in Miguels defence he is a top man & stumped up the £ out of his/neweras pocket to fix the ECU problem i had, didn\'t do the motormall waranty thing either & while they, motormall, can be seen in a few respects the weak link i would have no worries about buying from Miguel again :god
Si

[SideShowBob]

Yip, good guy, but then you cant help feeling hard done by when it happens to you, and im sure you\'d feel differently if you had spent many thousands with Newera, and then many thousands getting the car they\'d supplied you a month late to run right.

Its a case of imagining how you would react if an import (or any)company did that to you, its so annoying you wouldnt believe, and massively frustrating.

I know the popular thing on here is to kiss Miguels feet whenever possible, but there are bad cases, bad cars, and unhappy customers, and regardless of how few, its still something that needs to be recognised.

[Ric]

Originally posted by SideShowBob

I know the popular thing on here is to kiss Miguels feet whenever possible, but there are bad cases, bad cars, and unhappy customers, and regardless of how few, its still something that needs to be recognised.

I don\'t think it\'s a case of kissing feet (ughh! :eek  ) but there are a lot of importers out there who are pretty dishonest and unprofessional.

Sorry to hear about your nightmare but, as you say, you always have risk buying a car. Even if it is brand new. If a car has been imported by someone else and they are selling it a few months later, you have to question their motives too!!!

At least the concensus is that Miguel and Brian seem to make a genuine effort to sort problems out to keep their customers happy and run their businesses in a professional manner.

Personally, I bought my car through Seymore Pope Imports and whilst the car was good. I have not been impressed with Phil Pope and would never deal with him again. He was consistently unreliable, told me incorrect information and did not (and still hasn\'t) send on things that he promised me.

To cap it off, I have since found out after talking to another of his customers  at Rotorstock, that he slagged me off behind my back when attempting to placate them when THEY had problems with THEIR service.... Pretty poor in my opinion and very unprofessional. IMO very stupid in such a niche market where customer opinions are very likely to affect future sales.

[gsb876]

I think sometimes no matter how throughly you check a car over theres still a chance of it going wrong, bad luck can strike whenever.

Example i sold my Nissan Skyline for a healthy price as it was running absolutely perfect after i had the cylinder head changed and new head gasket done, the guy who bought it was a really nice guy who came all the way from Scotland to buy it. However after a week he rang me to tell me the car was cool and had dyno\'d at a healthy 300bhp atw, then a week later the clutch burnt out! now no way did i know this, as i would have changed it otherwise and once the car was sold as seen i\'m not really gonna repair it forhim am i??? So it just a case of bad luck happens to all of us sooner or later.

[gsb876]

Peace2make,

i have spoken with Mr Pope a while ago when i was looking at buying a rx7 and he reassured me he had the best rx7\'s coming over, but a few things made me a little nervous so didn\'t follow through.

Good job looks like:)

[Ric]

I don\'t think Mr. Pope is a complete fraud or anything. I haven\'t had any major issues with the car he supplied me - thank goodness; since I don\'t know what mess I might have been if I something had gone wrong.

I just think he is out of his depth and unprofessional and wouldn\'t recommend him to anyone.

"A rich kid playing around at being the MD of his own jap import business..." - someone elses words, not my own, but sadly I have to say sums it my sentiments pretty well now.

[SideShowBob]

I know its always risky, and also know Miguel is a good guy, but you know, im also a good guy, and tried to be as understanding as possible.
After making sure every penny was paid on or before time to Newera, the car I had taken out bank loans for, and worked very hard for, arrived a month late. It then proceded to break down, not start, overheat, and eventually completely blow within the first 5 - 6 weeks of owning it.

I took out more loans to cover the £3250 rebuild until the warranty money was supposed to come through, which it didnt, and drove an A-Class rent a car for three weeks while it was off the road, also out of my own money, so as much as I want to feel "its rare" or "its a one off" or "Miguels a great guy", I struggle to.

Im not rich by any means, but I had worked to a position where I could afford to run what was one of my dream cars. I researched very carefully before I bought, and went with the most recommended supplier, and I still got badly burnt, to the point where I had no money at all to run the car, and sold it for no profit regardless of the thousands id put into it.

Hopefully im a one off, but it also serves as a warning that no matter how much you research, how ever many good intentions people have, things can go very wrong.
RX7\'s are awesome, but are extremely risky due to the nature of their engines, so any potential buyers out there make sure you have money in the coffer, and if you want my advise, get a car thats been rebuilt in the UK, and has no more than say 25k miles on it since the rebuild, they are out there.

[Ric]

A fair point - interested to hear what Miguel has to say here?

We\'ve had a few issues like this recently and I did wonder whether we could have something on the website regarding peoples opinions on Importers / garages etc. without having to search through the forums.

The MR2 owners club have something like this and it helps field the usual rounds of questions like "Can anyone recommend a good gagage in the London area?"

[FDDreamer]

Yeah, i think that would be a good idea. Seems to be more and more people interested in importing an FD, and everyone seems to want to know where to go.

At the end of the day, it\'s always going to be completely subjective. As such all people can do is look at the broader picture and go with the one they feel, on average, is best.

I do understand how frustrated you must have been - i\'ve personally been looking into it for close to 2 years (although only seriously for about 6 months) and i know that it may well take another 6 months + after i decide who to go with. At the moment, i feel that i\'ll do anything to get the car i\'ve always wanted...but i can\'t begin to think how i\'d feel if after all the time, effort and expense my car decided to blow up after i\'d had it for only a short time.

It would be interesting to hear what Miguel remembers of this example...as it is the only one i\'m aware of (within the RX-7 community anyway).