Mazda RX-7 for sale in Japan

Buying one from here

Be honest about the rotary

A 13B-REW needs rebuilding periodically, a rebuild is a real four-figure expense, and compression is the number that tells you where the engine stands. No compression test is available anywhere in Japan. That means a cheap FD is very often cheap because the engine is tired, and there is no way to prove otherwise before you buy.

Budget for the engine, or buy the dearest one you can

Those are the two honest strategies. A well-kept, documented, standard car costs considerably more and is usually the cheaper car in the end. If the budget only reaches the bottom of the market, this is a model where we will tell you to wait.

What can be checked

The auction sheet, the interior grade, the inspector’s notes and the photographs, plus a physical inspection at any USS house — panel gaps, the state of the engine bay, evidence of a rebuild, and whether the sequential turbo plumbing is intact or has been replaced with a single conversion.

What it costs to land one in the US

Ocean freight, customs duty, clearance and our sourcing fee sit on top of the Japanese price. The duty rate is 12.5% of the car's value — the figure JDM Imports works to, and the one the calculator uses; see tariffRate in js/services/calculator.js, which is the authority. Every line of that cost is set out here, and the 25-Year Rule is explained here. The landed cost calculator works the whole figure for any car on this page before you commit to it, and cars 2002 and older clear the 25-Year Rule.