The states complaint was difficulty of repair, not unreliability.
This is also untrue; the rotary is much simpler than a piston engine and has far fewer moving parts. Replacing major mechanical components on a rotary is easier than a reciprocating engine. As long as the associated systems are also simple, the rotary is one of the easiest engines there is to repair.
Most work that has to be done on car engines has nothing to do with the engine itself, but control, ignition and fuel delivery systems. Older rotaries had carburetors, which required regular adjustments to keep in tune. As mentioned above, the third-generation RX-7 had a complicated twin-turbo system that created some reliability problems of its own. Non-turbocharged fuel-injected second-generation RX-7s on the other hand are some of the most reliable and low-maintenance sports cars ever produced.
After looking into it more, it seems that a lot of the initial complaints about difficulty of repair were due to the lack of spare parts. It seems that Mazda had some manufacturing difficulties with the early versions of the RX7 engines and couldn't manage to meet demand for both whole engines and spare parts.
Comments
The states complaint was difficulty of repair, not unreliability.
This is also untrue; the rotary is much simpler than a piston engine and has far fewer moving parts. Replacing major mechanical components on a rotary is easier than a reciprocating engine. As long as the associated systems are also simple, the rotary is one of the easiest engines there is to repair.
Most work that has to be done on car engines has nothing to do with the engine itself, but control, ignition and fuel delivery systems. Older rotaries had carburetors, which required regular adjustments to keep in tune. As mentioned above, the third-generation RX-7 had a complicated twin-turbo system that created some reliability problems of its own. Non-turbocharged fuel-injected second-generation RX-7s on the other hand are some of the most reliable and low-maintenance sports cars ever produced.
After looking into it more, it seems that a lot of the initial complaints about difficulty of repair were due to the lack of spare parts. It seems that Mazda had some manufacturing difficulties with the early versions of the RX7 engines and couldn't manage to meet demand for both whole engines and spare parts.