I had a chat with Mazda Canada today.
In the conversation I brought up the question of how many cars were returned on the buy-back, and what would happen with them.

Here is what they told me:

They told me that 37 cars were bought back in Canada.

They confirmed that in Canada the cars that were returned are being sold by the dealers.

The dealer who received the return gets to buy the car again from Mazda, at a discount, based on the mileage, time and wear& tear, and they can sell them as new. Or at least as "demos".

I was not able to extract an amount they would be sold at as they tell me they use a formula that determines price based on the factors of time, mileage, and items that need to be repaired.
It is similar to what they calculate after lease returns.

So, the good news is there are some RX-8's now available, probably at pretty good prices.

The bad news is that some of them may have been abused.

The REALLY bad news is that they are not forcing the dealers to disclose they are buy-backs, and they can try to sell them as new or "demos" without disclosing the circumstances.

 

Thanks Canzoomer, that's good information.
Unfortunately, with the less then honest treatment we've received from Mazda Canada already, they just keep it going by hiding these buybacks.

I'm less impressed with this company by the day.

 

Wow.. wonder if it's the same in the US?

 

When I brought mine back the dealer said they weren't allowed to buy them. They would be rounded up and offered to employees, but he wasn't sure when or where or to which employees.

 

In many u.S. States teh "lemon laws" prevent them from being sold as new through the dealers.
In Canada we have no lemon laws, so basically anything goes.
The way it is working is that the dealer where the car was returned to ( which is not necessarily the original selling dealer) get first crack at taking the car and re-selling it.
The deals SHOULD be good, but as there is no new inventory to speak of, the dealers seem to be holding the prices pretty high.
Remeber, there is no freight and PDI as this was already charged to the first buyer.
And Mazda ha absorbed that.
There is some cvost for cleaning up whatever damages and nicks and so on that the car came back with.

Still, depending on mileage, of course, these cars should be around $5K less than original cost.

 

to add my 2 cents worth to any of you contemplating buying a "demo" RX8 for several thousand dollars off, keep in mind why they all got returned.

THE MILEAGE (and therefore range per tankful) SUCKED!

I would say that's why 99% of the 37 cars were returned. Our 1st tankful (mid-August) used 16.5L/100km and our last tankful (end Oct) used 17.1L/100km. Others on the forum got worse than us!

Mazda never admitted they had a problem with mileage, in fact the official response to my complaint was to "drive it softer". The sad thing was that it got the same mileage whether it was driven hard or soft, and on premium or regular gas.

My advice if you still want a buyback is to write into your sales contract that if it cannot consistently achieve within 10% of the published fuel consumption you will be returning it for a full refund. I will bet that no dealers agree to this because they all know why these 37 cars were returned. CAVEAT EMPTOR!

 

If you buy an RX-8 and expect good mileage, you are making a mistake, whether it is new, buyback, demo, used, whatever.

The one simple fact is that even driving it like a baby, the best mileage ANYONE has consistently achieved is around 21mpg or 11.2l/100k

And that is done by shifting under 3500, running at 1/3 throttle or less, and b taking all other economy measures.

Face it: The RX-8 is a gas guzzler.

If you con a dealer into signing an agreement that you will get better than this you are going to make both him and you unhappy.

Ultimately you will either be in an argument with them, and fail to have a good dealer/customer relationship, or you will accept it and be bitter about it.

Accept the facts and make your choice.

If you love the car, and can handle poor mileage, great.

If not, buy something else.

 

Hey canzoomer does that mean your ecu mods will only give better power but no gains on the mpg?

What I got from reading all the threads on MPG is that many didn't see a whole lot of difference between driving granny style and shifting it a little later (ie 5k-6k not 7k+). If I knew that I can count on getting 11-12 L/100 km on hwy an no more then 13-14 L/100 city, although I would feel a little guilty, I would of keep mine. According to others who have posted, these numbers are being achieved but a significant number of owners aren't even getting close... 17-18L/100 !!! This is no V12. It shouldn't be a crap shoot.

 

Right on Mac, exactly my point!

If they publish fuel consumption numbers it should get close, like every other car on the market, otherwise don't publish the numbers!

 

That depends on driving style and use.
Our main difference and economy gain is where we lean the mixture above 6,000rpm.
There you will see significant gains on economy.
In the midrange you will not see much.
In stock tune Mazda has actually set the midrange mixture a bit on the lean side. We can either leave that alone, or we can add a bit of fuel to get the ideal performance mix.
We can easily add 7HP in the midrange by setting the mix to 14.7 ratio.
This will be quite noticeable for passing, climbing hills, etc.
It actually feels like as much of a power gain as the peak gain at 8500, because the peak gain is felt for a short time period.

Kind of like turbo boost, you feel a much better push, but then you have to change gears a couple of second later.
In 4th, while passing the push lasts longer.

Problem is, if you are driving at 1/4 throttle at 4,000rpm cruising down the highway, and we have enriched the midrange, you will get either the same mileage, as you use slightly less throttle, or you may gain nothing, or even lose a bit of economy. It all depends on speed and throttle opening and gear you are in at highway speeds. The differences will be very small, but we do not expect any huge gains at this type of use.

It is only when you drive hard that you will see a rather large improvement.

Out with a friend, showing off, zooming from light to light in the city will show good improvement.

Highway, very little change.

It is all about the driving style.

What i posted earlier this week is that if you already drive it like granny, it won't really help you. We are not really touching the settings below 4,000 at all. Because there is no point in doing so.

 

Thanks for the update Canzoomer. I can live with getting 12-13 L/100 mixed city/hwy with some spirited driving in there. However there is still seems to be a lot of people who report getting worse mileage when driving granny style (including Westie).

I'm just going to have to wait until Mazda can deliver most of their 8's that can average 12-13 L/ mixed driving then I'll get your mod so I can get the hidden horses and fuel efficiency at expected driving style (ie shifting <7k).

 

I dropped my car off 3 weeks ago. The dealer wasn't too sure what was going to happen. They had to use a Mazda credit lease return inspection form. (even though my car was through an independant leasing company) I found out last week that they were able to buy the car from Mazda, and it has since been sold.

Then I get a call from Mazda credit asking where the car is, I had to explain that the car wasn't leased through them, and it was dropped off at a different dealer than the selling dealer (with Mazda's approval) Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right is doing)

BTW, I have ordered another car for late spring delivery.