Driving back from Dallas today my car rolled over 40,000mi so I thought it would be good to do my 40K impression as most car magazines seem to use 40,000mi as a good benchmark ending for their long term tests.

To start with, my car is a 2004 Base model 6spd built In Dec 2003. I purchased it in July of 2004, so its about 2.7years old. I drive the car as a daily driver, its been to the track a few times, and I typically drive it fairly hard. I still average about 16/17 in the city and 23-25 hwy, the new ethanol gas formulation has cost me about .5mpg in Texas.

Overall, I’m impressed with the cars ability to drive like a sports car, and still have enough utility to be a daily driver for me. I came out of a Mazda6, and to be honest, I don’t notice a difference in ability to haul stuff or people.

Overall, my car has been very reliable. its never flooded, no rattles, good build quality (paint job, panel fitment). My two biggest bitches with the car would be the rear suspension setup which makes changing settings and the springs difficult and the idle quality which has gotten better over time. I could bitch about the fuel economy, but I knew what I was getting into.

I’ve been running royal purple synthetic oil for about the last 37,000mi, with no issues other than better than average fuel economy. As far as maintenance goes, I change the oil every 7,000mi and the sparkplugs every 25,000mi. I’m going to continue running a can of BG44K fuel treatment though the car with each spark plug change.

Of all the suspension packages I’ve installed, I still think the racing beat is the best bang for your buck. It’s the best way to dial the car in without sacrificing daily drivability. I suggest that as people look at tires, they also consider the tire weight, as some good tires can be found that are significantly lighter than the stock tires with better grip (Dunlop, Toyo, Pirelli). I like my MS setup, but its more expensive than Racing Beat and I can’t tell you that its really any better.

How I would rate the car after 40,000mi (Scale of 1 - 10, 10 being the best)

Engine – 7.5* (so much potential left on the table due to a shitty cat design)
Tranny – 8.0 (smooth shifting, but needs synthetic fluid to really shine)
Build Quality – 8.0 (no issues here, rattle free and feels more expensive than $25K)
Handling – 8.5 (about the best part of the car, a good set of tires and your off to the races)
Interior – 8.0 (everyone who gets in likes the design)
Utility – 8.0 (never really felt like I lost my sedan)
Reliability - 8.0 (other than the recalls, no issues with the car that I didn’t bring on myself)

*Note: I would rate the engine in the MY2006 - YTD an "8" as they had all the issues fixed

Best Mods (in order of Cost)

Synthetic Tranny Fluid - $60
Mazsport Cooling Mod - $150
Racing Beat Intake - $300
Racing Beat Suspension package $500
A good set of tires - $1000
Flywheel and clutch - $1200 installed

I don’t want to seem like I don’t like the engine, b/c I do, its just that in its stock form Mazda really shot itself in the foot. Had they spent another $200 and put a higher temp cat in the car, they could have tuned the power up, avoided the nasty early reflash issues, improved fuel economy and avoided the horse power rating PR fiasco.

In addition, Mazda should have looked harder at cooling, as that would have also saved them from some of the engine failure issues due to the single oil cooler. All of this, the cat and the oil cooler, would have added no more than $300 to the cost of the vehicle, and spared Mazda a lot of headache (think penny wise and pound foolish)

For $25K, the RX8 is a lot of car. Would I buy it again knowing what I no now? Yes, but I have to admit, the early adopters like me had to iron out a lot of quarks with the car, something Mazda has to avoid to really be able to see the rotary to the masses. The bitch is that the things they need to change aren’t rocket science, just smart expense management.

Hopefully this year, I will buy a beater and begin the FI journey.

 

Nice Review! What is the Racing Beat suspension package? Just the springs?

 

nice review, mine's about the same except my TPMS tire pressure sensors have been acting up the past few months, not a major 'problem' but a nuisance nonetheless.

also mine's a whole lot more stock than yours lol

 

I just turned 47,500 miles...run it bone stock and for sure have driven it hard as hell!
I'm getting ready to buy a MY2008 soon and have had much the same comments as above.
I do get some interior panel squeaks and rattles, but I earned every one of those with my driving habits.

If I had one wish (and I hope the 2008 MS RX-8 will solve this) that would be to have FI under factory warranty. Supercharge only...since this car doesnt need high RPM boost.

 

Nice writeup! I just hit 17500 miles and I must say it seems like this car is really opening up.

 

any thoughts on a good toyo tire thats light?

 

hey brillo!

I'm sitting at almost 38K in 1.5 years of ownership - i agree with you on all points.

One thing I'm interested in - is if its possible to buy a super high temp cat on our own and tune the car to make up for that little bit of missed power and MPG that mazda COULD have had putting on a better CAT. I really want to get into the tuning aspect and just to play for now I got myself an APEX CANscan.

All the issues I'm having now are of my own doing -- im getting periodic CEL's due to my RP SuperCat (Still after replacement) and a few rattles here and there I need to hunt down and fix (i redid my whole audio system myself)

Love the car - cant wait to go FI someday.

 

Toyo T1-R, 23.5 lbs for 225/45/18 according to edgeracing

 

Thanks guys for the reviews!

 

im at 18500 and still love it

p.s. enjoy the FI when you decide to take the jump

 

nice write brillo..

i just hit 65k miles. and just did most of the 60k mile service...

notes.

still no rattles.
although i have a new motor for 10k miles the gas mileage is the same.. ~21mpg...

best mods...
mazsport cooling mod.
rp short shifter.
lightweight flywheel.

as to the rp fluids.. diy. 40 bucks for trans and rear...



beers

 

A little naturally aspirated rotary sidebar.

I called a shop here to help a buddy out with a Mazda6 that he owns, the shop owner, who is the only person I trust in Houston to work on Rotarys, had a customers 82 GSLSE getting an oil change. This 80 YEAR OLD woman, had a 12A RX7 with 300,000 (yes you read that right) miles on the original motor. Now, I've seen a 1st gen with 250,000 on the original motor, but 300K is f'ing incredible....

The best part, that 80yr old woman drives a car with a manual rack, a carb and a manual tranny. And she drives it to the shop.

hows that for impressive

 

...I'm willing to bet she complains much less than some of the people here!

Very fair write-up. Not far off from my own experience.

 

Nice write up Brillo .
I'm just over 40000 mile as well & she still purrs like a kitten

 

about her car I am sure she doesn't complain at all... but I would bet she bitches about her grand kids all the time.

 

good job

 

Thats great to hear. Tho there was not a GSL-SE(13B eng.) til '84 only GSL in '82(12A eng.)

 

i opened the thread, scrolled down to see how long the post was and decided not to read it- he's getting as wordy as fred

 

are you flippin kidding me? did you see these? (bold added by me to better point out the mistakes)

and i didnt even bother with all the missed punctuation. Apostrophes and Commas are your freinds.

And could we get a scale here please?

7.5 out of ? 8 out of?

Please. Thats barely readable, let alone good writing. Clearly he's been in the bottle. AGAIN.

 

Just finally read it...nice read and great to know! With all the complaints on here, plus a new tranny needed on my '05, I sometimes worry about reliability. Didn't help that my last car (a 1.8T Passat) was the biggest POS reliability wise, so a sore point.

Nearing two years, still love the car.

 

I am at 36K and will post an update when I hit 40K... I don't envision any issues in time for 40K, since I am putting on so many miles on the car, I am more worried about 80K etc.

 

hehehe

Thx charlie I guess I've proved I didn't get an english degree.

what is scarey is I wrote that in Word.

I think I fixed most of his issues.

friends are harsh sometimes

 

dude- i was just telling my wife about my response to your post- she called me a bastard or an an *** im not sure im just surprised that in the 6 plus hours now since i wrote that no one called me on it come on people- arent any of you going to stand up for brillo? me telling someone about their typos? come on !!!

 

sorry,

nice points, brillio. like i am going to correct anyones grammar.

beers

 

Zoom, for a minute there I thought you implied that she read the boards, and I was like .... that scared me for a minute