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Originally Posted by saaber
Mazda rotaries have had a very high failure rate since day one. Had a friend with a late 70's? mazda sedan rotary that failed very early. Have known several rx7 owners with very early engine failures (all body styles). If you look around at where the old cars are, they invariably are listed as "$400 needs new engine" in most ads. One guy I know had a 1993 rx7 that failed at around 40k miles and it was the hopped up version. Very expensive to fix and couldn't find anyone to work on it. Suugest selling before it comes off warranty. Mazdas in general don't hold there value as well as Honda and Toyota which is a downside also.
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No true. Mazda had problems with pre-Rx-7 rotary seals. Those engines tended to break seals easily. That and poor fuel economy caused a reputation problem for the rotary.
The 12a and 13b in the 1st and 2nd gen Rx-7s were just as reliable as any piston engine. There are hundreds of thousands of 20+ year old Rx-7s from 79-89 out on the road. I know, I have one that's running VERY strong. There's a HUGE rotary community in this country and others.
The twin-turbo 3rd gens are very susceptible to damage by an unskilled tuner/owner and even very minor modifications can significantly shorten engine life. Even so, they are probably pretty tired by 80,000 miles.
The new issues with the Renesis seem to be pretty wide spread. Unfortunately, most mechanics/technicians have always been afraid to work on these engines so repair work is expensive. I say unfortunately because this is probably one of the world's easiest engines to work on internally. There are only 3 moving parts! As for repair costs, they don't come anywhere close to that of a Porsche, any Porsche.