Mazda RX8 Thoughts
 

Mrs looking for new car any feedback or experiences with the above would be great

Cheers

There are quite good, plenty of kit for the money, the only downside can be if you drive them using low revs they can seem quite flat in performance as you need to rev them to get the best.

Also check out the tax cost as they are in a high group for emissions.

Go Drive one maybe enough for the mrs and a howler for the weekend drive :D

low 20`s on mpg aswell

We have three at work, and they are nice comfortable for motor way cruising, pretty easy going round town and a hoot to drive on the country lanes. Ours have all proved very reliable and you can't fault the Mazda dealer network for customer service. Not quite as quick as I think they should be and it's no replacement for the RX7, but they still look fresh and there are not loads about. Expensive on fuel (average about 18 - 25 mpg depending on engine variant) and even worse if it's for a company car as the co2 (band G) is through the roof, depreciation if it's new is horrendous to.

Other cars to consider would be the Nissan 350z, BMW 3 series coupe, Alfa Romeo Brera or GT, Audi TT, BMW Z4, lotus Elise, all depends on what you are after out of the car as it's not really one thing or another.

lol, that's if you drive it REALLY careful! MPG in the teens for normal driving!

and they drink oil like a fish.

Mr Doughty drives one, drop him a PM

Thanks lads this is great. Any known problems to watch out for ?? Got a TT at moment but time for it to go, so looking at something else needs two reasonable kids seats in back so Elise, Z4, 350z are not option. Any other ideas ?

Doughty actually owns/drives one & he loves it :thumbsup:

i'd wait for his feedback ;)

A nice 135 coupe would be good, then you can get the daddy long legs in there too:p You can get rx8's for good money at the mo.

Seen a cracking prodrive one !!! Tried to get her to get M3 but wife not keen.

if your carefull, thrap one and ur under 10 mpg
yup oil users too, my suggestion ask Chris

he got his from our dealership, was a good deal

Dont get the m3, useless.:blush: Well, i wouldnt be pestering to get one then:wub

you need something with a V8 or V10 nowadays if you're prepared to pay for fuel consumption in the teens :thumbsup:

I seem to remember a post from long ago that if you moved them just a few yards eg to swap cars on the drive, if you did,nt follow a set close down procedure then they would not start next time. Flooding or something.

A guy at work had that problem, they fixed it with a software update though.

yup to both

Really?

When I looked at buying one the salesman said the problem was "fixed", but when I pressed him on it the "fix" was to tell the customer to start the car and leave it running for 5 minutes before ever moving it, in case you stalled! Plus they were planning to then charge the owner for making it work again if it did fail, as it was now "fixed" and the customers fault for ignoring advice and not waiting for it to warmup....

I assume they have now actually fixed it properly then??

If you love it get one. You already know the bad stuff, mpg, oil, warmup, no torque.... and you're still asking so buy with your heart not head. (It can be very satisfying).

But I got a Alfa Romeo GT 3.2 V6 instead. Fast, Comfy, lush interior, good seats for 5, big boot for RC kit or bikes, 25mpg, loads of fun and the girls love it! :thumbsup:

I read that its still a problem upto a certain age.... 2005 onwards cures it i think.

You can get around it, by reviing to 4k and turning off as it burns the fuel up prior to cutting off, but i cant remember the proper procedure, i joined a mazda forum to read up on what goes wrong.

My choice is the M3 though, i had the older evo model, and one day will go back to an M3, :thumbsup:

A bit from parkers review

Performance
One engine is available in the RX-8 but it comes in two outputs of 192bhp or 231bhp. Confusingly the less powerful engine has more pulling power but comes with a five-speed gearbox rather than the six-speed in the higher output version. The engine itself is actually only a 1.3-litre unit - it's small size is down to the unusual rotary design, but while the power figures are good the engine does need to be worked quite hard to get the most from it. It has a characterful buzzy note and revs all the way up to 9,000rpm - but find yourself in too high a gear and the RX-8 will struggle to gain speed, which can make motorway driving tiring. But that's not to say the RX-8 is slow. The 231bhp variant races from 0-60mph in just 6.4 seconds and it's an enjoyable unit to exploit on a back road. Unfortunately fuel economy soon suffers as a result and while Mazda claims a figure of 25mpg is achievable (27mpg in the lower output car) in reality you'll be lucky to see more than 20mpg in everyday driving.

Car owners reviews
http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/owners...transmission=M

scott, have you actually tried fitting into a lotus elise?

LOL!

yeh he has!! and a exige!!

they did a custom hole in the roof!!:lol:

I was looking at buying one and decided against it and bought an audi tt instead. The one thing that put me off which was a let down was tgat these engines drink oil, so if you do buy one make sure you have plenty of oil ready. its not like an oil change every 10000 miles. Also on cold icy mornings sometimes the car wont start (this happened to someone i know) which i couldnt afford to have happen to me.

Ok thanks for the posts guys not to bothered about the low mpg or the oil thing. But more about reliabilty which seems to be a bit of a problem with this stall'in issue when cold on start up. Will speak to Mazda and see what they say ??

Oil - I put about a litre of oil in mine roughly every month (~1000 miles)

ShutDown - as a precaution, I blip the throttle on my car to about 4,000rpm and switch off the ignition as the rev's start to fall, this is only needed when cold apparently, but I do it all the time just for the sake of it

MPG - don't buy one if you want an economical car, anywhere from 250 - 300 miles on a tank of fuel that costs about £50 with the prices as they are right now

Driving - its awesome, I LOVE it so much! its got no torque, so you need to be +7,000rpm if you want it to feel fast (the upside is it sounds frickin mental at this rpm :D ), but on the flipside to this, town driving and cruising its super smooooth

Passengers - fits 4 adults in very comfortably, I'm 5'10 and the person in the back behind me has plenty of leg room

Buy one from an authorized Mazda reseller, I had an auto-level headlight sensor go mental on mine and this was changed (at another Mazda dealer) under warrenty. (on the Mazda extended second hand car warrenty thing)

knowing what I know now, if I was in the same position as I was when I was looking for one, I would buy the same car again no question.

if you can live with giving it a drink reasonably often and having the bonet up once a month to feed it oil then I don't see any reason why not to have one.

(mine is the 231 six speed version)

hmm i dont think mazda are gonna give you a true answer lol.

Join a mazda forum, loads of knowledge an horror stories, when i was looking for one, they were selling them on autotrader with blown engines - i seen 3 seperate adverts for cars.

AS mentioned i think its after 2005, where the engines were improved and the software updated, A bad point with these engines they need a rebuild after 100k, the older ones even needed the tips replacing on the rotors from memory and that wasnt cheap - otherwise compression goes.

Check it out on the forums.

Col.

sounds a bit like my 2-stroke racing kart!

I'd take the money for a new RX8, buy a cheapo pile of crap mondeo estate for lugging gear around, and a caterham 7 for fun.

I have had my car a year and its never failed to start or even stall.

I am mindful not to start the engine and turn it off straight away, and I always shut it down with a blip to ensure all fuel is burned off before its stopped

I agree, www.rx8ownersclub.co.uk their forums has EVERYTHING you could want to know

so your solution is to drive a boring car for 360 days of the year and then use the 7 for days when its sunny, you have nowhere to travel to, you have no more than one crazy friend to take out...

personally, I like to have fun every single time I get in the car

:lol: I no longer fancy buying a used RX8!

explain why not?

you have a point. it's not really much of a solution is it :(

in reality my 'solution' is a LWB t5 van, a go kart for a racing buzz, a 600cc commuting bike (60+mpg) & a 'fun' bike for kicks.

Ok don't need the RX8 for RC days just a fun nice looking car which my Mrs can drive fast and get the kids in. Wouldn't be looking at the RX8 in I wanted a high performance sports car. It's only 6.4 secs 0 - 60, my X5 does that so it's more of a look nice bit of fun car I'm looking for

m3:drool::lol: Has she had a play in a 135 yet?? get on it! BOOF

What about a Scirocco? 250bhp easily from a simple remap, still over 30mpg and still not very common!

http://images.pistonheads.com/aimg/1272/1272322-2.jpg

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1272322.htm

I love them!

VXR8? Guy at work has a red one, sounds awesome and he loves it

http://images.pistonheads.com/aimg/1250/1250302-1.jpg
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1250302.htm


Impreza? Some good bargains around now....

http://images.pistonheads.com/aimg/1280/1280779-1.jpg

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1280779.htm

What about a 911? Some good 996's around now :-)

http://images.pistonheads.com/aimg/1204/1204094-2.jpg

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1204094.htm


Evo 10???

http://images.pistonheads.com/aimg/1266/1266483-9.jpg

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1266483.htm

Depending on what you want to spend of course but there's also things like the Integra Type-R?

http://images.pistonheads.com/aimg/1249/1249835-1.jpg

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1249835.htm


Or maybe a nice 330Ci convertible??

http://images.pistonheads.com/aimg/1282/1282877-3.jpg

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1282877.htm

I love all of these masculine cars but it's getting the Mrs to go for it. At the min it's either MK2 TT, RX8, 911 ( but unsure if the rear seats are going to be adequate) or M3.

Been looking at the VXR8 with Pidge though Nick as I was fancying one for myself !! 6.2 V8 for 25K brand new is pretty unreal

mates got the vxr and loves it too!! What a sound.
How about the new imprezza sti, then your car could sound as if it has a hole in the exhaust like lee's:lol:. Seriously tho, they are a nice car:lol:. If the wife wont go for an rs4, then she aint going for the m3 either!! Focus RS?

it's the modern day equivalent of the lotus carlton :thumbsup: