How much does a FD RX7 go for these days?

I remember seeing them hit the ridiculously priced similar to MK4 Supra mark a little while ago. Usually when i've seen them they were $20k+ but i'm trying to find out what they actually typically go for.

http://www.goo-net-exchange.com/usedcars/MAZDA/EFINI_RX-7/700070406930161126001/index.html

That is about $13k I saw another, modded, for ~$10.5k on the same site:

http://www.goo-net-exchange.com/usedcars/MAZDA/EFINI_RX-7/700115026330161214001/index.html

How much would equivalent cars go for in the US, any ideas?

From what I've seen, stock-ish cars in decent condition (ie, not garage queens, but good drivers) seem to hover in the $15k-$20k range. Anything for less than 13k seems to either have a busted engine, bad single turbo conversion leading to a busted engine or no engine and and abandoned LS-1 swap. Maybe garnished with a salvage title...

I've been thinking similar thoughts to what you appear to be thinking as well, my concern right now is the sort of price point a RHD FD will come in at after the first few showed up. I don't think it'll affect the USDM FD prices as well, but good FDs are not that cheap in Japan anymore either. I'd be tempted to look in the UK as well, but I haven't kept an eye on FD prices over there either. That said, my main reason for looking in the UK is that I'm familiar with the rotary scene over there and know which rebuilds to trust and which ones to ignore...

BoxheadTim wrote: From what I've seen, stock-ish cars in decent condition (ie, not garage queens, but good drivers) seem to hover in the $15k-$20k range. Anything for less than 13k seems to either have a busted engine, bad single turbo conversion leading to a busted engine or no engine and and abandoned LS-1 swap. Maybe garnished with a salvage title... I've been thinking similar thoughts to what you appear to be thinking as well, my concern right now is the sort of price point a RHD FD will come in at after the first few showed up. I don't think it'll affect the USDM FD prices as well, but good FDs are not that cheap in Japan anymore either. I'd be tempted to look in the UK as well, but I haven't kept an eye on FD prices over there either. That said, my main reason for looking in the UK is that I'm familiar with the rotary scene over there and know which rebuilds to trust and which ones to ignore...

I sent those Goo people an email over the 1st car, though idk how "good" that company is. It claims on the site they take care of import paperwork and everything. However i'm wondering what these might go for in an auction, the people I imported from before are on holiday vacation.

If these people get back to me I could literally start importing that car tomorrow since it's a January build date.

The importer i've used already has 200k jpy fees (around $1700 usd now) to the port of LA all in but they will only sell auction cars.

edit: I should check out Australia since i'm on the west-coast.

Would be interesting to see how that plays out. I'm assuming the two listings you linked above are "gaijin retail" prices so I'd expect them to be a tad cheaper at auction.

For US cars, expect to pay $15-25K for an unmolested example with < 100K miles. I paid $19K for mine earlier this year. Stock, '93 Touring, 55K miles. The R1s tend to be towards the top of that range.

There are usually a few < 30K mile ones at various places that are asking $30K+. They don't move very quickly, though.

$10K-$15K they're usually high milage and trashed.

$13k was the going rate 10 years ago for a reasonable FD here in the US. Seems like a steal even if it's in Japan. I'd find out a little more about the car.

I had this posted here for quite some time, for $12k and didn't really get any serious interest. It had 130k on the chassis but a new motor and transmission, and new eibachs & tokicos. It had some minor issues and no AC, but was a nice platform for sure.

In reply to JamesMcD:

What happened to it? I did not see this....

wvumtnbkr wrote: In reply to JamesMcD: What happened to it? I did not see this....

I sold to a local guy for $12k.

I kick myself for not buying that.

I want one so bad. Think it will be my first car buy after college. Prices around my neck of the woods are about 15k for a decent driving example.

I got really hot for an FD for a while a few months back and was semi-seriously browsing for one before I bought my house instead. Still very high on my list of want.

The feeling I got is $14-18k gets you something running and driving and possibly needing attention, while better sorted examples are more like $18-20k. Stockish cars in good snuff were into the $20's. Even clean shells seem to be high 4 figure cars.

I see the FD as a very good candidate to appreciate in the coming years and if I had the laying around money to speculate on such things I'd certainly have a clean, stock example in the garage. They're a gorgeous and timeless design, sit at the apex of the rotary cult and have a further cult following of their own, low production volume, even lower numbers of survivors in good condition, technologically interesting...they tick a lot of boxes.

Furious_E wrote: I got really hot for an FD for a while a few months back and was semi-seriously browsing for one before I bought my house instead. Still very high on my list of want. The feeling I got is $14-18k gets you something running and driving and possibly needing attention, while better sorted examples are more like $18-20k. Stockish cars in good snuff were into the $20's. Even clean shells seem to be high 4 figure cars. I see the FD as a very good candidate to appreciate in the coming years and if I had the laying around money to speculate on such things I'd certainly have a clean, stock example in the garage. They're a gorgeous and timeless design, sit at the apex of the rotary cult and have a further cult following of their own, low production volume, even lower numbers of survivors in good condition, technologically interesting...they tick a lot of boxes.

The only thing I do not like about this car is that the only rotary specialist in my city moved to Florida. So if something goes wrong and I want a decent rebuild i'll have to learn myself or ship it out to someone. Rotary engine seems like a good candidate to learn how to do something like that though lol.

Yea I think the FD is the type of car that owns you as much as you own it. Gotta be ok with making sacrifices like traveling hours for service or doing it all yourself.

In reply to JamesMcD:

I wanted that really badly but with new baby and a career change it wasn't in the cards.

Maybe once I finish the RX3 I'll be able to justify one. Or possibly maybe two so I can build a UTCC aeroheavy monstrosity.

Furious_E wrote: Yea I think the FD is the type of car that owns you as much as you own it. Gotta be ok with making sacrifices like traveling hours for service or doing it all yourself.

They aren't that difficult to work on.

Bumping this thread, I am actually trying to pursue that first green car. I'm wondering if it would be worth it for $20k? When I look I only see the outrageously priced $30-$36k cars so I have no frame of reference lol.

$20k would include shipping to the US, "satisfaction guarantee", and the importer would fully inspect the car and fix if anything is wrong with it. So it's not just $20k for the car. Seems like it's still worth it to me at that point but i'm curious what the GRM braintrust thinks.

My previous import was $1800 and the onus was on me for the car and I had to inspect/fix it myself however all paperwork was taken care of. So that is about $4k for that other stuff..... on top of the, say, $2k shipping. Hmm... starting to talk myself out of it when I think of that and read codrus' post. However it IS a rx7 so maybe I want that guarantee lol. Also this is a Type R which is the same as a US R1.

From what I've seen, nice ones are around 23-25k.

I remember dreaming in the classifieds ten years ago when I was in high school, and at that time you could browse Autotrader and find 30-40 examples nationwide, all with sub 50k miles, bone stock, many with original owner. Now there are a lot less available, and if not totally trashed, have been modified to owner's taste, which isn't always a good thing. Clean stock FDs (hardtop preferably) are exceedingly rare.

c0rbin9 wrote: From what I've seen, nice ones are around 23-25k. I remember dreaming in the classifieds ten years ago when I was in high school, and at that time you could browse Autotrader and find 30-40 examples nationwide, all with sub 50k miles, bone stock, many with original owner. Now there are a lot less available, and if not totally trashed, have been modified to owner's taste, which isn't always a good thing. Clean stock FDs (hardtop preferably) are exceedingly rare.

K, looks like this is worth going after then.

This is a single owner car, no mods, no sunroof, 27k miles, Type R, on top of being RHD and Efini labeled which might be worth something, etc. I just have to hope USDM side value doesn't tank due to JDM availability but regardless it would be "rare" in the US to find one like this as you said.

JamesMcD wrote:

Furious_E wrote: Yea I think the FD is the type of car that owns you as much as you own it. Gotta be ok with making sacrifices like traveling hours for service or doing it all yourself.

They aren't that difficult to work on.

Right, I didn't mean to imply they're difficult to work on, just kinda picky about having everything in proper order.

I suspect that unless it's one of the special edition Japan-only cars (Bathursts or Spirits or whatever), being RHD is going to significantly hurt the resale value compared to a domestic car.

There's a mostly-stock CYM R1 with less than 60K miles on ebay right now... The want is strong, this is the car I was looking for last year. I am half tempted to buy it and sell my red one... :)

It's up to 19K already, with over 3 days remaining.

While I like FDs...for 15-20k why not a C5 z06? Just askin

Plenty of good ones in correct-hand drive listed on rx7club:
http://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-rx-7-1993-2002-vehicles-107/

A few REALLY nice ones just sold from long time owners.

Raze wrote: While I like FDs...for 15-20k why not a C5 z06? Just askin

Because it's much prettier?

Keith Tanner wrote:

Raze wrote: While I like FDs...for 15-20k why not a C5 z06? Just askin

Because it's much prettier?

Yeah, an FD is not a rational purchase at this point. I'm not sure it ever was, really.