Help!!!!

[Nicole]

Hi folks, I'm Nicole and I have joined in order to get some educated advice about what to do with my RX8. A little backstory.....

My first car was an '81 RX7, and it was the automobile love of my life. It was reliable and lasted forever. I drove it until it just wouldn't drive anymore, many years.

Fast forward to 2014 - I'm a mother of 2 great girls, 20 & 18, and my 18 year old totaled my car (a dependable motherly Saturn Vue). I'm 44 now, and with my kids leaving the nest, I felt like maybe it was time to get the car I always wanted for myself - a beautiful black RX8. I assumed (yes, we all know what happens when we assume things) that the RX8 would be like my RX7, only better! Newer! More features! The backseat! I was relieved that one of my kids survived their first accident unscathed, and I thought it was a sign for me to move on with my independent life. And like I said, I thought it was the best of both worlds because not only is it gorgeous, but I thought, practical too, given my history with the RX7. Win-win.

Approximately 2 months after I purchased it, it began....not working. I took it to a local highly regarded garage, and after $700 of work (new battery, new starter, new wiring etc), it still didn't work. It would fire up beautifully, and then just not start after turning it off. The last time I drove it, it went dead on me while I was actually driving it. Like it just fell asleep. Nice.

I realized what you all already know I am sure, that rotary engines HAVE to be worked on by people that know rotaries. So I took it to the Mazda dealer, and was told it was severely flooded, hence the issues. They fixed that, and it drove great again. However, while it was there, I asked and paid for a compression check.

Low compression.

Here is what I would like to know: It would cost as much as I paid for the car to have a new Mazda engine installed at the dealer (or anywhere else for that matter), so that isn't an option. Do I (gulp) sell my beautiful dream car for parts/scrap it, or is it feasible to put a regular used engine in it? After doing research, I've found that many people have retrofitted RX8s with standard engines, and the cost would be far less. I'm worried, however, that it would open up a whole new host of problems, electrical systems not being compatible, etc.

I'm a single woman, and about the only thing I can do myself is change a tire. I'm afraid that even if I get a new engine for it, the RX8 is so high tech and finicky that I will always be faced with small problems that I can't fix myself. I sort of feel maybe this car belongs in the hands of a person that knows cars, rotary engines specifically, and can work on it themselves whenever something little goes wrong. It's been very discouraging to say the least, and it kind of broke my heart.

Help? LOL