rotten42

You don't need an MS8...they just need to ugrade the regular RX8

ASH8

IMO considering the 8 has had nothing (well almost) done to it since its release... It has done about normal is sales/production for a Mazda model...at the moment World Wide production from Hiroshima for the...

RX-8...is 1400 units (July 2006) a month the new NC MX-5... is 4440 units....

Same time about a year ago....

RX-8...3500 units (March 2005) a month the old NB MX-5 was 1386 units..

rx8-rus

From the same URL:
G35 Coupe 1,983 2,444 -21.9 14,800 18,290 -19.1

Decline of its sales is less dramatic, but also quite signinficant.

This is conceptually wrong to compare RX-8 with Z car. G35C is much closer functionally and probably has similar owners demography.

Shoafb

The G35 is about 10k more isn't it? Most everything I found on the Infiniti lot was at least 34k when I was looking. I can't imaging anyone buying a G35 cross shopping with the 8........ a 350z shure but the G35 is pushing 32 to 40k for most packages.

Sure you can get an 8 up to 32 or so if you load it out, but when is that last time anyone paid anywhere near that?

rx8-rus

This is why RX-8 is bargain comparing with other competitors - RWD coupes with four usable seats. Those are like G35C, 325/330 etc. Why do you pay 35-40K if you can get similar performance and comfort for just 25K? That was exactly a question that helped me to buy my car.

Shoafb

I understand your reasoning, but most folks looking at Infiniti BMW, Lexus etc. are looking for a bit of sport mixed into a luxury car. They won't care that the 8 can beat them through some cones because most likely their car will never be pushed to the limit anyway.

rx8-rus

Being the owner of RX-8 for more that 2 years I never took it on the track either. But if you compare RX-8GT with G35C or BMW 3xx, would you find much difference in luxury? When you come to the Infinity or Lexus dealer you are ready to pay just for the label. This is exactly what Nissan and Toyota wanted you to do when they created "luxury" brands. Should Mazda create one? One of the problems with RX-8 was that Mazda didn't position it properly on the market. This is not a weekend sport car (like Z) but an everyday car, wich occasionaly can be taken to the limits. And these limits are quite high.

Shoafb

I can only speak for the Lexus, but yes you will find a lot more luxury there. Yes you do pay for the label but so does the next guy 5 years down the road since the depriciation is very good The service so far has been excellent as well. All of the Toyota cars are FWD vs the RWD that is standard in most of the Lexus models and as you know the RWD just has a better feel to it.

I'm not downing the 8, just saying that these are 2 very different markets. Had Mazda tried to market this as a luxury car........ well look at it this way. They marketed it as a sports car where generally the "enthusiast" reside and still they are having loads of complaints about oil usage, MPG, Flooding from people not knowing how to take care of the car in most cases. So many complaints that they stopped counting them on the dealer surveys! Imagine what the typical "luxury" shopper would have done

rx8-rus

I do not say that RX-8 should be marketed as luxury car. But can you name other RWD four seat coupes that are not from "luxury" brands? (I know Mustang is there, but let's look at imports). Problem is that almost all "sporty" cars on the market now are branded as luxury.

And flooding is the only real issue with this car . Probably separate oil tank with enough oil for regular service intervals would be better option also.

As for reliability just go to BMW or Audi forums and you would see a lot complains about it. I would like to see one turboed Audi, which ran over 100K miles without major poblems with the engine.

Of course here is afree market and if someone is ready to pay preminum for the lablel, he is free to do it. But I am not. So for me RX-8 is a good balance of performance, comfort and price.

Shoafb

1. No, can't think of any off hand, but should be eliminate the Mustang just because it is American and has only 2 doors?

2. A seperate oil tank would have been awesome!

3. I did look at the BMW, Audi forums......... one of the reasons why I bought a Lexus

4. This is the same free market that is giving the 8 such a terrible resale value, the recall situation is turning a bad situation even worse I am afraid.

rx8-rus

Mustang is too heavy, I would rather look at sedans instead. Moreover it was not available in early 2004, when I bought my car.

Resale value is mostly relevant to those who buy a new car every 2-3 years. I usually sell a car ater 100K miles, when field is much more leveled. And even if I won't be able to get any money for RX-8 at that time, total cost of ownership will be less that if I would spend 35-40K on G35C or 3xx. Also one can expect bad resale value for anything that is off mainstream like RX-8 (excluding pure exotics).

Shoafb

Yea my wife plans to keep the 8 for a long time... 80-100k but now with the whole engine recall and Mazda's lack of confidence in the engine (only gave us an extra 10k 1 year c'mon!) I am not so sure.

missinmahseven

^ Warrantee length is no indicator of quality. The more horrible products *are* the ones which tend to have the longer warranties. Like Chrysler 7/70 for k-cars and now the koreans with 10/100.

Such tactics work wonders on the weak-minded, just like a Jedi Mind Trick.

Shoafb

Well we can debate the tactics of why warranties vary all day but this is about the fact that Mazda has had to recall this engine. They should have no issue what so ever with backing the engine with a 100k warranty to further re-gain confidence in the design and help us 8 owners out. Maybe the number of engines they know will fail before 100k makes this cost prohibitive? Maybe not? But you know everyone will assume the worst.

ASH8

If I can add..

Warranties whatever length of mileage and time is Paid for by the customer in the price of the car...Mazda and MNAO are giving you an extension as "GooD WILL", they do it all the time.
To suggest they know the engine is 'going to fail' or they have "a lack of confidence"...well any comment like that is just crap and bull...sorry.

Oil usage is "Normal" for a rotary engine...there should not be "complaints", MPG normal again for a rotary, flooding..an issue WAY OVER THE TOP, Learn how to start the car right first...YES, the rotary is NOT the same a a normal engine...to some here I am stating the obvious...any comparison is really ludicrous.

I would suggest anyone wanting to buy their first rotary to look into it first, they are enthusiast cars...

Here we have a 25% difference in dollar exchange between the US, but we pay nearly twice the price for an RX-8, like the UK, the resale of Mazda's is about second to Honda and Lexus.

Shoafb

why not offer to extend the warranty to 100k if it is not going to cost them anything? It would build much needed confidence in this product.

CarAndDriver

Well Mazda did almost launch a luxury brand called Amati. The initial lead car was supposed to be the Mazda Millenia.

Mazda has neither the finances, brand, cachet, or scope to successfully launch a luxury brand.

patrick_andraste

I like it when the pretty girls come up to me and ask me what kind of car I have.

patrick_andraste

when I bought my RX-8 the other cars I was looking at were the G-35, BMW 330 and Audi TT.
The TT was too small in the back to get the kids in there regularly, the BMW was too expensive and too plain for what you get. It came down to the G35 and the RX-8. The G35 was 4k more when similarly equipped, but had a lot more luxury items on it.
I picked the RX-8 because of it's looks and the way it drove. If I was fat and lazy and cared about all the luxury bells and whistles I would have gotten the G35.
But then again, my other car is an El-Camino with a fuel injected small block with so much cam duration it idles at 1000 rpm and a torque converter that stalls at 2800 rpm. It does have power steering and power brakes. Does that count for luxury?

shaunv74

So who bought the 1 Protege??

Shoafb

4k more? are you comparing MSRP to MSRP? The discounts where far more on the 8 when I was shopping but the Infinity had very little offers off of MSRP. Can you get a G35 for 29k?

saturn

September sales numbers for anyone interested:

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...4444573&EDATE=

Ike

Youch, there's a chance that Mazda will sell less than 10k RX-8s this year.

Renesis_8

Theres a chance that Mazda will sell more than 20,000 CX-7s this year, how many does Mazda expects to sell ? anyone know?
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Chayenne99

rotarygod

OMG Mazda is going out of business. The RX-8 is going to be discontinued in 17 days unless sales rise 2049% or a twin supercharged series quad turbo awd singing tap dancing version appears for $15,000 less than the current car!!! Oh God help us all! The rotary engine is going the way of the dodo to be replaced by horizontally opposed 4 cylinders. Oh the humanity! I do believe the RX-8 should have already been cancelled a couple of years ago if the "analysts" here had been correct based on old published numbers. We just keep doing these threads over and over and over and over and over and over and over...