Miata Mailing List: March 1999, Message #521

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> I had a look at a 93 RX7 leather package (twin turbo) at a local dealer's
> last night.  Looked pretty good.  Prolly go in and drive it on Saturday. 
> Seemed a tad pricey at $24000 CDN (guess that's around $16000 US).  Some of
> you (Dan, Shiv,...) have had some experiences here... what should I look for
> and/or look out for?  TIA.
> 
> PS.  Yes, Phredd, it is *RED*.

Look for:

peeling interior
chipping paint
sequential turbo problems (blown vacuum lines under manifold)
water seal damage and coolant consumption (from overheating)
oil leaking turbos
rear hatch rattle

Makes sure its unmodified.  Not even an exhaust upgrade.

The 7 is a wonderful car that needs an equally wonderful owner to not abuse it.  
Thrashing it around on the track or street is not abuse.  As a matter of fact, 
those cars *like* that (it clears up carbon deposits in the rotary cambers).  
Abuse is: not giving it a cool down after driving it (for thermal expansion and 
turbo reasons), not warming up before driving it hard, lot's of cold-starting, 
overheating, even a little bit, pinging just once from 89 octane gas, etc,.  A 
good approach may be to buy a super clean 7 with a blown engine/bad turbos for 
$10+12k.  Spend $4k to install a new engine and another 2-3k for turbos.  Spend 
$350 to tie wrap those 75+ vacuum lines under the manifold.  Also get your fuel 
filter changed every 15k miles.  If you take care of it and if you like to drive, 
it will make you very happy.  If you treat it like a Miata, it will really *piss* 
you off :)

Shiv