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2RotorsNaDream wrote: Why wouldn't you ever buy one? Its the best car I've ever drove. It may be the most practical or best daily driven car but everytime I get in the drivers seat I get a big smile. Been smiling for almost 3 years straight.

Why wouldnt I? Reliability/Fuel consumption. Don't over exaggerate it, just not very good overall.

Looks that kill though, beautiful car and love the sound of the rotary. Guess it's a toss up

They're extremely reliable 1st off. I've been DD'ing my FD with 360whp for over 2½ years without any problems whatsoever. Plenty of guys I know drive their cars all the time for years pushing over 500whp no problem. The most annoying thing about the car is fixing all the little things that break around the interior, but thats to be expected with an 18 year old car.

2nd, the gas mileage is no worse than any other car in its class. Even the S2000 gets close to the same gas mileage as a stock FD. I get over 20 mpg on the highway with larger injectors and a re-wired Supra TT pump.

Don't let rumors from people who know nothing about FDs turn you off to the car. If you take care of the car it takes care of you back.

just pray you never have to redo the vacuum lines all 60 of them...... but yeah the car so far is wicked gas milage is slightly less then my klze but barely. mine is completely stock but its still got another 55hp and 50 fp of torque and weighs a lot less with its aluminium body

There's more than 60 vacuum lines, but I never have to worry about them again so its ok. Everything that can be deleted on my car has been deleted except for the power steering. I got rid of all the emissions, A/C, converted the car to non-sequential twins, removed double throttle, etc.

And even the lightest base model FD weighs more than the heaviest MX3.

2RotorsNaDream wrote:They're extremely reliable 1st off. I've been DD'ing my FD with 360whp for over 2½ years without any problems whatsoever. Plenty of guys I know drive their cars all the time for years pushing over 500whp no problem. The most annoying thing about the car is fixing all the little things that break around the interior, but thats to be expected with an 18 year old car.

2nd, the gas mileage is no worse than any other car in its class. Even the S2000 gets close to the same gas mileage as a stock FD. I get over 20 mpg on the highway with larger injectors and a re-wired Supra TT pump.

Don't let rumors from people who know nothing about FDs turn you off to the car. If you take care of the car it takes care of you back.

see i dunno if i agree with the reliability. i guess it's a matter of opinion. even the best kept RX7 is going to need a tear down and new seals around the 80-90k mi mark. look at the RX-8, even seeing one of those past 100k on its original build is a pretty rare animal. i mean, for driving on a daily basis for a few years, yea it'll be fine, if it's been taken care of, but these days the bar is a lot higher. even my K8 made it to 160k before it threw a rod. no rotary is going to do that.

At least ninja is being modest. There may be a handful of people who get lucky or have the deep pockets to make the car last.. But overall, still not very reliable. You get 20mpg on the highway? That's about the range of my dad hemi dodge ram, 20mpg premium is not that great

the reliability isnt as bad as most people say. If you treat it nice i've heard of the engine lasting up to 220,000 km's without a rebuild. but thats with all the reliability mods done to it like turbo timer upgraded rad and all that jazz. But once you sit in it and crank it over and just hear that rotory idle..... wow and then you hear it scream!!!!!!

You guys keep saying things about reliability but never had one so your opinion is based on what you heard. I personally know plenty of people who have gone over 120k miles on turbo rotaries without rebuilds and the cars are still running like champs. Non turbo rotaries easily eclipse that mileage.

And 20mpg on the highway in a high performance sports car is pretty decent. When a slow a-- Hemi truck can do 0-100 in under 10 seconds then tell me how good the gas mileage is. My car is faster than Ferraris, Mercedes AMGs, the new M3, and lots of other fast sports cars and gets better gas mileage than they do. You gotta compare apples to apples.

2RotorsNaDream wrote:You guys keep saying things about reliability but never had one so your opinion is based on what you heard. I personally know plenty of people who have gone over 120k miles on turbo rotaries without rebuilds and the cars are still running like champs. Non turbo rotaries easily eclipse that mileage.

i don't see what owning one has to do with anything. you own one, and all you're talking about is your direct experience with one car. we're talking about rotaries in general, and i'll bet for every one of those guys who have a 120k mi on their original build, you know 2 more who've needed a rebuild prior to that. i know guys who are on their THIRD renesis, under 100k, NA. and that's doing everything right - proper break in, 3k dino oil changes, pre-mix, red-lining regularly. Mazda stopped including RX8 owners' input in their survey statistic compilations. that's pretty much a straight up admission that they have so many problems they don't want them dragging down their numbers on their other piston motor lines and brand as a whole. especially damning is the fact that the proportion of RX owners to the 3, 6, cx, mx owners is so small there would have to be an overwhelming number of them to really impact the stats.

none of that stopped me from buying one, but the plain fact is you just cannot count on a rotary lasting as long as a banger. that's just undeniable

Why wouldn't you ever buy one? Its the best car I've ever drove. It may be the most practical or best daily driven car but everytime I get in the drivers seat I get a big smile. Been smiling for almost 3 years straight.

Amen Brother, I love driving mine and I will testify to the feeling of having a car that feels as though its an extension of not only the hands but the arms, legs and mind as well...Its an enthralling drive whether you're goin down the street or across the country,but the mx3 is a great drive too but these are the qualities i've come to expect from mazda lol...have fun with that beauty dude and do us all a favor and dont take crap from those guys on the rx7 forum lol

ninjajim4 wrote:

2RotorsNaDream wrote:You guys keep saying things about reliability but never had one so your opinion is based on what you heard. I personally know plenty of people who have gone over 120k miles on turbo rotaries without rebuilds and the cars are still running like champs. Non turbo rotaries easily eclipse that mileage.

i don't see what owning one has to do with anything. you own one, and all you're talking about is your direct experience with one car. we're talking about rotaries in general, and i'll bet for every one of those guys who have a 120k mi on their original build, you know 2 more who've needed a rebuild prior to that. i know guys who are on their THIRD renesis, under 100k, NA. and that's doing everything right - proper break in, 3k dino oil changes, pre-mix, red-lining regularly. Mazda stopped including RX8 owners' input in their survey statistic compilations. that's pretty much a straight up admission that they have so many problems they don't want them dragging down their numbers on their other piston motor lines and brand as a whole. especially damning is the fact that the proportion of RX owners to the 3, 6, cx, mx owners is so small there would have to be an overwhelming number of them to really impact the stats.

none of that stopped me from buying one, but the plain fact is you just cannot count on a rotary lasting as long as a banger. that's just undeniable

Well put sir

ninjajim4 wrote:

2RotorsNaDream wrote:You guys keep saying things about reliability but never had one so your opinion is based on what you heard. I personally know plenty of people who have gone over 120k miles on turbo rotaries without rebuilds and the cars are still running like champs. Non turbo rotaries easily eclipse that mileage.

i don't see what owning one has to do with anything. you own one, and all you're talking about is your direct experience with one car. we're talking about rotaries in general, and i'll bet for every one of those guys who have a 120k mi on their original build, you know 2 more who've needed a rebuild prior to that. i know guys who are on their THIRD renesis, under 100k, NA. and that's doing everything right - proper break in, 3k dino oil changes, pre-mix, red-lining regularly. Mazda stopped including RX8 owners' input in their survey statistic compilations. that's pretty much a straight up admission that they have so many problems they don't want them dragging down their numbers on their other piston motor lines and brand as a whole. especially damning is the fact that the proportion of RX owners to the 3, 6, cx, mx owners is so small there would have to be an overwhelming number of them to really impact the stats.

none of that stopped me from buying one, but the plain fact is you just cannot count on a rotary lasting as long as a banger. that's just undeniable

That's an RX8, we were talking about FDs. The Renesis is a horrible motor and its all because of that god awful port configuration. You can't boost it reliably, and it blows for no reason. It's too bad that engine is powering such a great suspension and chassis.

And i give up with you guys, live in your bubble where rotaries are the devil. You're missing out, not me.

alright man. nobody said rotaries suck. in fact, pretty much everyone said FDs rock. but if you think a rotary, any rotary, is going to outlast a piston engine well.. it's you who's living in a bubble. maybe you're blinded by the utter awesomeness of your own pimp ride, but that don't change the fact that while you CAN get more than 100k out of a rotary, you probably shouldn't expect it. the bad reputation for longevity didn't come from nowhere. it's not just us crazy MX-3 folk. if you put your money on the average FD outlasting say an average ZE for example, i'd say you're betting on the wrong pony

ninjajim4 wrote:

2RotorsNaDream wrote:You guys keep saying things about reliability but never had one so your opinion is based on what you heard. I personally know plenty of people who have gone over 120k miles on turbo rotaries without rebuilds and the cars are still running like champs. Non turbo rotaries easily eclipse that mileage.

i don't see what owning one has to do with anything. you own one, and all you're talking about is your direct experience with one car. we're talking about rotaries in general, and i'll bet for every one of those guys who have a 120k mi on their original build, you know 2 more who've needed a rebuild prior to that. i know guys who are on their THIRD renesis, under 100k, NA. and that's doing everything right - proper break in, 3k dino oil changes, pre-mix, red-lining regularly. Mazda stopped including RX8 owners' input in their survey statistic compilations. that's pretty much a straight up admission that they have so many problems they don't want them dragging down their numbers on their other piston motor lines and brand as a whole. especially damning is the fact that the proportion of RX owners to the 3, 6, cx, mx owners is so small there would have to be an overwhelming number of them to really impact the stats.

none of that stopped me from buying one, but the plain fact is you just cannot count on a rotary lasting as long as a banger. that's just undeniable

If they are really that bad then why are they still making the rx8 and coming out with the new rx7 in 2011?