What do you reckon to the RX-8?

Soldato
Joined
27 Nov 2005
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Guernsey
Spark plugs are about 40 quid each too
Also some parts have crazy prices

It cost you almost £600 for just a single OEM door speaker from a mazda dealer..

Mazda Rotary Parts

Quoted for these the other day and have just checked todays prices again on the live Mazda dealer system,

Currant price is £587.50 for the big door speaker and £300.80 for the door one up by the window

Coincidentally I sent the guy off to e-bay :)
http://www.rx8ownersclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=34006&hilit=door+speaker
 
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Soldato
Joined
11 Dec 2005
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I test drove one this weekend.

Very nimble car, engine sounds and feels superb, unlike anything else I've driven. Isn't going to nail most things in a straight line but it feels satisfying to wrong it out to 9k rpm.

Interior is a nice place to be, has a good spec.

After doing a lot of research the whole engine rebuild think is A LOT of scare mongering.

The 2 main things you have to worry about are:

a) not flooding your engine by not sitting on the gas when you start the car up.
b) make sure you red line to car often to get rid of the carbon deposits

Routine maintenance every 1 year or 12.5K miles will see a reliable engine.

On the plus side the rotary has very few moving parts so is simple to work on and less to break. However due to rotarys not being anywhere near as common as the conventional piston engine, specialists are few and far between.

MPG is sub 20's for average driving, tax is ok for pre 56 plate cars. I'm not sure if I'd want to drop £475 on tax a year on an post 56 RX8. Oil again, regular top ups are recommended but it isn't stupid amounts like 1ltr per tank of fuel as people on the internet would lead you to believe.

Brake discs + pads seem to be very reasonable. The only other things to check are coil packs, need replacing every 30K approx and if earlier models have had routine service bulletin work done.

Tyres are 225/45/18 on all pre R3 models, so budget around £700 for a good set of bridgestones (OEM fit), I'd go for the potenza RE050A as they have good wet/dry grip and nice stiff sidewalls so plenty of feedback.

I wouldn't bother looking at 192PS models, they have less power and only a 5 speed box.

They have no spare wheel either so bare this in mind. The headroom isn't massive so if you are quite tall like me (6'3) you may have to recline the seat more than you would normally. Driving position is nice though, good FOV in the car and generally a nice place to be.

Insurance seems to be very good on these, I know it is all situational but £750 for me for a year, 21 year old 2 NCB. The backs seats are surprisingly usable too.

For the age, spec and performance the price to buy is outstandingly good value. Just don't make the mistake of thinking the cost of ownership will be as good value. As said before a compression test is pretty good thing to have done. And if you do need an engine rebuild like said above, it is very cheap as there are hardly any moving parts.
 
Soldato
Joined
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Devon
After doing a lot of research the whole engine rebuild think is A LOT of scare mongering.

There will be some for sure, but plenty of people have suffered seal wear and the resulting low compression and starting problems it brings.

Oil again, regular top ups are recommended but it isn't stupid amounts like 1ltr per tank of fuel as people on the internet would lead you to believe.

Regular top ups are not just 'recommended', they are absolutely mandatory. This engine has a total loss lubrication system like a two stroke, it burns oil as part of it's normal operation.

And if you do need an engine rebuild like said above, it is very cheap as there are hardly any moving parts.


What is your idea of "very cheap"? It's probably not the same as many other peoples.
 
Soldato
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There will be some for sure, but plenty of people have suffered seal wear and the resulting low compression and starting problems it brings.



Regular top ups are not just 'recommended', they are absolutely mandatory. This engine has a total loss lubrication system like a two stroke, it burns oil as part of it's normal operation.




What is your idea of "very cheap"? It's probably not the same as many other peoples.

Very cheap in the sense that it costs £800 to rebuild the engine not £3000+ for a piston engine.

Now your just nit picking my post. Recommended? You know what I meant.
 
Soldato
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Very cheap in the sense that it costs £800 to rebuild the engine not £3000+ for a piston engine.

Now your just nit picking my post. Recommended? You know what I meant.

It certainly doesn't cost £3000 to rebuild the average 4 pot petrol engine.

And I'm not nit picking at all; "recommended" implies something that you'd be wise to do but isn't necessarily required.
 
Associate
Joined
10 Apr 2007
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Cannock
I own one..

Great to drive, comfortable and very smooth. Very quiet.

Drawbacks..

30mpg on motorway
20-25 around town.
This is not as bad as fox says "mpg of a. 5l v8" :S if you don't do many miles a year it really doesn't matter.
Oil only needs to topped up a litre every 800-1000 miles really. It's hardly a lot.

And to whoever quoted the base speak at 600 quid. Yes that's stupidly expensive you would just go to affords and get a Sony one..

If you do buy one. Make surer you trust drive it for around. 15mins then turn off the engine. Leave it for 5 mins then start it back up. Should start straight away, if it takes a few seconds I wouldn't bother buying. Tsnake sure youngest a compression test and if you don't want to fork out 450 a year on road tax buy a pre 2006 and it's "only" 260 :)
 

Ev0

Ev0

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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14,152
As has been stated I think the consensus with these is that generally they are a good car but have disproportionately high running costs for what you get.

However short of the whole mpg thing I'm not sure on how all the other costs actually fair like servicing etc.
 
Soldato
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26 May 2009
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22,100
[TW]Fox;22211029 said:
Yes, because the Mazda OEM speakers are the pinnacle of audio quality.

The setup in question is a bose set up so would cost more than normal

Damn, that's the first time I've ever seen him put his foot in his mouth, must be tired ;)

Seriously though its an easy mistake, I doubt most people know the RX8 has a premium sound system like that.
 
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