I’m not sure if any of you guys here own a mazda rx8, but I’m thinking of getting one as my next car, probably by summer of next year. My question is, how reliable are they? I don’t like the idea of having two cars, so this would be my daily driver all year long, spring, summer, fall, and winter. I currently own a 92’ S13 with an SR20DET, so RWD’s don’t really bother me during the winter season, and I’m sure most of you guys here would agree that they are pretty fun to drive in the snow, lol. My second question is, are they hard to maintain? I know nothing of rotary engines and I’m not very sure how much the maintenance for this car would be if something ever breaks. If anything, I will probably just get a 2006 and up honda civic SI, it may be an FWD, but they’re very reliable and still fun to drive :D… I just need some feed back, and thanks.
my bosses wife has one , she has had no problems wiht it but i can tell u having driven it , to say the least it was not very exciting. seemed very sluggish off the line and the suspension was nothing to brag about either, there are many other sports car out there in similar price ranges that i think you would be more happy to own, also i sould add it; was auto/tip so that aslo added to my displeasure,
the new version of the rotary is much much more reliable the the previous version
Stock susspention is decent with Factory offering a set of entry level coilovers
9500RPM limiter
Very long 6 speed gear box (could also be a minus)
Produces 240HP (so says the factory)
Mazda offeres factory covered upgrads that would being the power Close to a stock SR20
Mazda now offers a 100,000 or 150,000KM warrenty on the RX8 Renisis motor
Insurance classifies it as a 4door 1.3L 4 cylinder car
Tracktion control decent in winter but ONLY with good snow tires
Down Side:
160fb tq (factory spec)
Must be high rev to produce power
Poor fuel economy vs other cars in its class
Regardless to what the factory says they still have cold start issues occasionaly
Exspensive to put a new deck in
All in all I like them, but there not a car you buy because you want a sports car. Its a car that you walk into the dealer knowing you want it and knowing exactly why. Its FR, Rotory, quick but not fast, and looks nice.
Have u driven a rwd truck in the winder…trust me its not easy but fun if u dont mind smoking a curb or 2, 4x4 trucks are great in winter i only drove 1 for a day it seemed decent.
back on topic
My cousin has an rx-8 and he will be selling it soon, its a nice car to look at just dont expect any crazy performance from it. 50-50 weight distribution makes it handle great and the sound of the rotary made me wet my self almost, and if it only came turboed again it would be a great car because it probably has less torque than that honda civic si you are looking at.
Get a civic and save on fuel, insurance and every ricer trying reving at u at stop lights and embarrassment of getting beat by them lol
LOL i guess its safe to say im the only one here who’s owned one for more than one car ride eh?
Alright, im going to save you the trouble and get straight to the point. if you buy an RX-8, I hope you have very deep pockets cuz my experience with mine were horrible to say the least without trailing that with a lot of cursing.
The RX-8 has the longest list of flaws ive ever seen in any car ive driven. I went from a civic to my 8 and i fell in love with it. the car itself is actually really slow unless you turn off the TCS but then it gets really slide happy. The engine or at least mine was burning so much oil that i had to keep a couple of spare oil containers in the back just to top it up after the 6-7th Fill up. Winter Driving it isnt bad but even with TCS, if the snow is deep enough, expect to be driving sideways a majority of your trip (yes i was dumb enough to drive it or twice in the winter when i thought it was clear) and the engine if not warmed up for the manual/dealer specified 10 minutes will flood the engine which will waste 1+ hour of your day.
The only good side i found was that since mine was fully loaded, i had more than enough toys for me to play with and secondly the car was a lot of fun to drift.
As a DD…like Punisher said, Buy any Honda, You’ll be happier with the fuel mileage from that as a DD
Oh and one more thing, Fuel mileage/Tank for me was about 360-400 and you can ONLY use 91+ Fuel.
