whay are people giving their cars away?

[D2BBA]

surely its only a matter of time before getting a rebuild simply isnt going to be worth it?

If freshly rebuilt RX7`s are selling for 5/6kish....and the cost of a rebuild can easily reach 4k, its simply not worth getting the engine rebuilt when the time comes...you would only make maybe 1/2k max. Would be more cost effective to simply sell for spares....

Or set it on fire and claim on the insurance :xconfused

Either way, unless the price of rebuilds come down (which aint going to happen) it does seem like its only a matter of time before a lot of these great cars simply get broken for spares

This is probably why so many people are deciding to rebuild enignes themselves, the price is too high and there isnt an option for alot of people faced with a 3-4K rebuild cost.

Chris

[nikp]

I\'m aiming at a rebuild cost for mine at about £500-600. However, it has had one already, so many of the bits should be good. Front rotor is fine so i won\'t have to rebuild that. Does obviously depend on the damage of the rear rotor, but if it aint too bad, it shouldn\'t be horrendously expensive.

[trevtubby]

I\'m aiming at a rebuild cost for mine at about £500-600. However, it has had one already, so many of the bits should be good. Front rotor is fine so i won\'t have to rebuild that. Does obviously depend on the damage of the rear rotor, but if it aint too bad, it shouldn\'t be horrendously expensive.

That is good to hear, but i`m afraid to a vast majority of RX-7 Owners, paying a specialist to do a rebuild is the only real option they have. (including me)

Plus, when I was looking for my RX, I wouldnt even bother looking at the cars which had DIY rebuilds, I just wouldnt trust the work to be done to a high standard. Also you dont get a warrantee of course. I think quite a lot of new buyers would think like this.

(not having a go as i`m sure your rebuild will be tip-top)

[Nuk Su Kow]

[QUOTEsurely its only a matter of time before getting a rebuild simply isnt going to be worth it?
 
If freshly rebuilt RX7`s are selling for 5/6kish....and the cost of a rebuild can easily reach 4k, its simply not worth getting the engine rebuilt when the time comes...you would only make maybe 1/2k max. Would be more cost effective to simply sell for spares....
 
Or set it on fire and claim on the insurance :xconfused
 
Either way, unless the price of rebuilds come down (which aint going to happen) it does seem like its only a matter of time before a lot of these great cars simply get broken for spares ][/quote]
 
True but when you look at the rebuild cost of other performance Jap cars that are putting out 400+bhp, the rex doesn\'t seem all that bad. Ok, it can be argued that the engines go for longer, but they do go and when they go, you\'re talking about lots of money. So moving away from the standard RX-7\'s and use the tuned ones as an example, yes ok, it\'s going to cost anywhere from 1.5k to 3k for a rebuild but these are brand new engines that you know are going to have at least 60k out of them, more if you don\'t, pardon my phrase, tune the b*ll*x off them?
 
And as for making money on a car, car\'s for me have never been an investment...i\'ve never done something to a car and thought, what would I get back on it? because to me it rarely works out that way. So you buy a car like this where the worst case scenario is an engine rebuild during your ownership, but getting the results that you can out of them, I think there\'s worse things you could do!
 
So I do see your point but we all bought the car for a reason and even though there are more cheap imports coming over, it\'s still going to be admired and wanted.
 
Edited to say: I understand that not all RX-7 owners feel the need to tune these car\'s and are quite happy to have them remain standard, but there will always be a market for these car\'s because of the known fantastic all roundedness and they will always be modded. I\'m not saying modding is the way forward, far from it...but these cars will always have that appeal....as for warranties...unfortunately a lot of them arn\'t worth the paper they\'re written on....(flame suit on)

[trevtubby]

Yeah I do see your point mate, but i`m purely thinking of people who drive standard-ish cars (like myself), who cant afford to tune them up to 400bhp and single turbo`s etc.

When my engine goes (hopefully not for a while), i`ll be left with a mint RX which is worth maybe 3/4k in bits, and worth only 5/6k with a fresh rebuild. Which could cost up to 4k+.

Standard-ish RX7`s just wont be worth rebuilding....not really, not unless you want to keep it for another 60k miles. (which hopefully I will )

[Nuk Su Kow]

So the answer is easy really then, save up and go mad on it...

[trevtubby]

Sir Yes Sir! lol

[Lawler]

Best advice i\'ve heard this year!

[Nuk Su Kow]

Or sell yours for 6k, save 4 grand and get one with a fresh rebuild and with all the goodies on it...hahahaha :evillaugh
 
So maybe whoever comes on now asking, "What to look for when buying a rex" should be answered with "A non cheap import that has had a rebuild or if you can get insired, has all the goodies already on it"
 
:cheers :Hammer :rollin

[sadgoth]

surely its only a matter of time before getting a rebuild simply isnt going to be worth it?

If freshly rebuilt RX7`s are selling for 5/6kish....and the cost of a rebuild can easily reach 4k, its simply not worth getting the engine rebuilt when the time comes...you would only make maybe 1/2k max. Would be more cost effective to simply sell for spares....

Or set it on fire and claim on the insurance :xconfused

Either way, unless the price of rebuilds come down (which aint going to happen) it does seem like its only a matter of time before a lot of these great cars simply get broken for spares

True, but in the end the rarity value will push the prices back up when there are less on the road.

The other problem is the fact that the housings and associated hardware for the 13b, 13bRE, 13bT, 13bREW, etc won\'t be made forever, the renesis engine uses different housings, rotors etc so rebuilds will become difficult and even more expensive as parts become scarce (long time off yet but...)

[civicboy28]

The trouble is theres too many crap cars out there.
Theres nothing DECENT out there between 6-8k really its all either above that price with major mods or below and not in a desirable condition.

Unless Trev wants to put his up for sale again :-)
His was the sort of car, that sits at the 7-8k mark and is worth the money. thing is you lot dont want to sell them. hehe, so people like me have to hold out.
and the others below the 6k mark get desperate to sell, so they drop the price more and more, and you lot complain, and were even further away from getting them loverly owners club examples off your hands HEHE

;-)

Looks like a similar situation with supra\'s at the momment as well. alot of crap about, and then a gap to the highly modded 9-12k stuff.

[jamie_supra]

all cars are cheap at the moment!. supras, skylines etc all sell for way less than they did a few months ago. saw a supra 3.0 for 2k . it was ok - a little dirty and a few marks... but that should be a 3 - 4k car!. RX7s are getting very old. people have to balance age/ costs  and decide what they will pay. yes i agree that some RS turbos sell for 5k - thats insane! but then RXs can sell for 12k. likewise i have seen some rough RS turbos sell for £500!!!! ALL cars suffer from depreciation. take a guy who buys a new mondeo..... 20k??? in a year he will be lucky to get £8k back!
RX7 owners have been treated very well  in recent times as their cars have held their money well and had none or little depreciation. looks like basic economics has caught up with the RX market!

[Rotaryguru]

This is what was happening in NZ and Australia 13 years ago.... When I bought my first Rotary, people couldn\'t give them away. I liked people saying to me that it was a \'rotissery\' (going to cook itslef) etc, etc. That they were hard to get parts for, and few people knew how to fix them, I didn\'t care. Fast forward to last year when I sold mine to come to the UK, I had people falling over themselves to buy it, but I was after the peak, if you look on www.trademe.co.nz, you\'ll see that rotarys have been stuffed into any engine bay they can fit into, and even some they can\'t!!
 
Basically, I made a wee bit of money on it, not bad after 8 years of ownership! (inflation and opportunity cost probably errode any gain I made, but lets not be picky!!)
 
I see similar here, BUT, one major difference: Japanese cars will never get the following here in the UK, because of the close proximity of other sports margues (german/italian) and peoples attitudes to them (cheaper interior/smaller sized engines/etc).
 
In NZ/AU Japanese cars are the norm, anyone driving a BMW or Merc is very, very rich (because they come from so far away/higher tariffs etc) (AU not so much because of the excellent Holdens/fords.)
 
Anyways, I do think it will get better, once we spread the gospel of Japanese cars, but just not to the following in NZ/:King AU.
 
All completely IMHO.

[D2BBA]

Some good points there:)

[Jonathan_F]

Just my tuppence, I haven\'t posted in a year or so due to various commitments, but the cost of standard parts is prohibitive for engines. I know the price that the engine builders pay for parts, its a third of the price you and I can get. I paid 2k for my rebuild in parts, and now, with new contacts, could get the lot for 600. And the rotary engine is a very simple build. I have built piston and rotary engines, and rotary\'s have far fewer components. No cam drive, pistons, rods, balancers to assemble. No tappets to gap, expensive cams/valves etc to purchase. Just a die grinder and a porting template (simplification). It took me about 40hrs to remove, strip and rebuild and replace my engine. Assuming I paid 1000 for housings and seals etc and charge 4k for the engine, thats £75/hour. Not bad. Assuming I get twice as fast with practice, i\'m laughing.

Ergo, I\'m in the wrong business!

My point is, second hand RX7 values are inversely proportional to engine rebuild prices.