Good Morning gang

Would like to solicite your advice and comments
The purist in me says 6spd but the realist says automatic.
Of my preorders, there is not a single female and no automatics. My feelings though are that once we actually get the cars here, women are going to love this car. Are there any women on this forum and if so what are your opinions.

Of the 69 RX8's I have on order already, 20 are automatics. I hope it doesn't bite me!

Thanks for your input.

 

i'm not female but here's my opinions on the two models...

i think the 6-speed will appeal to the true sports car driver that wants to drive the RX like a sports car...

the automatic will appeal more to the person that wants the look and feel of the sports car, but need the car as a daily driver, perhaps in the city, or need it to drive the family around from time to time...

my opinion, and i'm not married nor do i have kids, is that getting the automatic would be a waste of a great car...a lot of the performance on the automatic come standard on the 6-spd and the horsepower difference is great enough to make the automatic kinda, well...slow...so if speed and performance don't really matter, then by all means, why not the convenience of the automatic? but if you want the car for everything it's worth, get the 6-spd...

as for "female" or "chick" cars, i see a lot females driving around the last generation Eclipse and the current gen Celica...they were both very curvy, supply that "sporty" look and priced competitively

 

Almost 1/3rd of your preorders are automatics? And you preordered these without customers in the queue? How many retail outlets will you be distributing these cars to?

I think 20 seems high. You will get some customers who "need" the automatic, but most buyers will want the 6 speed. I think 80% of those sold in the 1st 6 months will be the 6 speed, maybe higher as the early adopters of the RX-8 will surely be enthusiasts. While it is a good idea to have options available in your inventory, you may have difficulty getting rid of that many automatics quickly. good luck.

 

budaman - appreciate you seeking our opinion. When we did a poll a month back on how many of the fairer sex participated in this board, there were 6. I believe you would agree that is a very low percentage of those who post on this board. It is also a misnomer to think females interested in this ride would only want the auto.

My opinion is 10 - 12% of all RX-8's sold in the US will be autos. Especially since there appears to be a big 0-60 mph performance difference between the 6 speed & the auto.

 

When I preordered in Feb. my dealer said he was suprised how many preorders were automatic. He had fears that he did not order enough automatics.

I drive an 1985 RX-7 5 speed,but ordered an automatic because I am retired and plan to keep this car a long time. I might not want to be shifting gears in a few years....

 

I've got a 6-spd on order. I don't like driving automatics, and I'm female. Take that as you will. My personal opinion is that automatic sports cars are kind of weenie-ish.

 

Ouch!!!!

 

Thanks for the responses so far. To clarify, on 1st allocation of 12, I only ordered 1 automatic. the others are spread out over the next 3 allocations. Also, I didn't intend on suggesting that only women were going to want auto's and that they were only going to want the auto. We have too many women autocrossing in this area that kick butt to think that!

 

My personal feeling is that you may have ordered too many automatics - especially when the automatic has such a huge performance deficit for minimal price difference. Look at how badly Infiniti underestimated the desire for 6MTs (when both 6MT and auto were of very similar performance).

 

To me, 2 out of 7 seems pretty reasonable *edit* after the first few months *end edit* . I think you should be able to sell one auto to every three or four manuals. And as far as women preferring to drive automatics... I agree. C'mon folks, it's a perception that i think many of us have. Of course, there are always exceptions, but we have this perception for a reason... because it's true. Anyway, I agree with red base 95 who said 4 outta 5 of those sold in the 1st 6 months will be the 6 speed b/c the buyer is an RX-8 enthusiast. Once the car is seen more and generates interest, the general public will favor the automatics.

 

Think young! My father drove mostly automatics for over 30 years (only exceptions were a 73 BMW 3.0CS he owned in the late 70s and a 50's-era International pickup that he bought in the eary 90s). After driving my 96 Miata, he was very impressed, and finally bought a 2000 Miata 5 speed for himself - at age 74. At age 75, he downsized and sold his Cadillac and bought a Contour SE V6 5 speed, so now at age 79 he has 3 manual transmission vehicles! (Still has the old truck).

For budaman - we're buying an RX-8 to replace my wife's car - she won't own an automatic trans car ever. I think 30% autos is a bit high - the last I heard, Miata sales run at less than 10% auto...

Regards,
Gordon

 

i must say i disagree... 30% auto IS a very low percentage, i mean, just look at Mustang sales as and indicator...
this car is "less" of an enthusiasts car, because it's not "pure" in the strictest sense... y'all on the forum understand that i'm not knockin he car, but it can (and will) attract a very different buyer than your average Miata owner.

as to why there aren't many women voacl on this forum, well, how many are there on any car forum?? just 'cause we're not teaming with chicks, and those girls (for the most part) want sticks doesn't mean they're the best indicator... people who get this interested and worked up over a car tend to be on the "gearhead" side of insane, and not your average buyer.

if this car's going to be the sales success it has to be, i really don't doubt that you could sell that many autos, budaman.

 

I'm going to have to disagree with this statement. I know a lot of girls that can drive stick but rather drive an auto. Only a few namely 2 is purist enough to only want manual. But those girls are a bit on the tom-boyish side. I also have a few guy friends that can't drive a manual at all. OY the pain of trying to teach them. I've met girls that learned really quickly compared to some of my friends. Anyways I'm going off-track here. There are enough girls that are too lazy to drive stick (no offense to the ladies on RX8Forum.com) and guys who just can't drive manual even if their life depends on it. And I'm pretty sure a lot of these people are going to want the RX-8.

Also I met many girls that knows nothing about cars. It doesn't have to be fast (actually I prefer it not to be since these girls that knows nothing about cars are also bad drivers). It just needs to look pretty or cool.

 

'Keech i think you meant "tee ming"

budaman i think you should look at the Mazda6 for a reference. Mazda thought that most people would go for the I over the S and look what happened. a bunch of the 4 bangers are sitting on the lots while there are not enough 6 cylinders to go around. some people are walking to the next dealership down the road instead of waiting for an S to come. If you sell out of the hi-power model and only have autos for people to drive, how many will be disappointed and walk?

 

Now were getting somewhere! Speaking of the MZ6, we haven't been having trouble getting the 6cyl, just the 5spd 6cyl SE pkg. The MZ6 is picking up in sales of the 4cyl. as the mainstream public gets out and drives it. Most people don't realize that the 4 has as much power as the 6cyl 626 had. Of couse, I drive a 6cyl 5spd SE, one of the perks of ordering the cars. My wife has a 2001 5spd VR6 Jetta and the 6 makes it feel like a dinosaur. She is so ready to get out of that car and in to her RX8. She's learning what a 2yr 24,000 mile warranty really means! The 4yr 50k on the RX8 should make for a perfect lease vehicle. I'm anxious to see what the residual and money factor rates are going to be on it.

 

i don't believe mazda has been happy with the initial sales numbers of the the 6 in the US. you guys may be the exception as far as the I goes or perhaps i haven't understood the whole situation clearly enough. (i think some of the problem stems from not having the hatch out at the same time as the sedan and the numbers should pick up substantially come fall) but you see my point i think.

 

I just realized my first answer sounded kind of rude. Sorry about that, I was in a hurry. I, personally, will never drive an automatic sports car by choice. In a rather quick (and biased) poll of the women in my department, most seem to agree. However, I work in advertising, advertising people are odd. Most "other" women I know, including my sister, can't drive sticks and don't seem to have the desire to do so. My husband couldn't even drive a stick when we started going out (I have since set him straight, and his car is manual). I think you probably ordered about the right amount of autos. 30% isn't really all that much.

 

Me too - please drop me a line when you hear anything.

 

My girlfriend of 7 years..both 38yrs old prefers manual to auto...
FM

 

i'm a female and i ordered the auto rx-8. i wouldn't mind 6-speed, even though i don't know how to drive it, but i'm not all about speed or racing, i'm getting the rx-8 more for the looks and i drive a lot here so i don't want to always have to worry about shifting =)

 

These are all viable answers. It's an individual’s choice in how the car 'speaks' to them.

Actually, the hardcore RX-7 nuts should be happy as this is another sale for a rotary and another step closer to revamping a new series 7.

I choose the manual.

 

my wife will only drive a manual. she does not know how to drive an automatic. i tried to show her and let her drive one in an empty parking lot. she came about 2" from hitting the only light pole, because she was so worry about shifting gears she was accelerating too fast. so we both agreed she will only drive a stick shift in any car she gets until she HAS to drive an automatic. BE AFRAID BE VERY AFRAID!

 

Huh what? I didn't understand how can your wife be worried about shifting gears if shes driving an automatic?

 

thats the problem. for some reason she does not understand the concept. she has driven manual for so long she has never even tried to drive one before that day. she doesnt understand for some reason and kept tryng to shift into 2nd gear instead of just leaving it in drive. perhaps some day i will rent a car and just let her drive it again in an open area with no poles or anything.

 

lol ok I get it. yeah I myself have a bit of a problem driving autos. Its not a big problem, but an annoying one. sometimes my arm goes for the automatic stick thinking its a manual. or my left foot goes for the non-existant clutch pedal ever so often. The most annoying of all sometimes my left foot does find a pedal but the pedal is actually the breaks, so I end up jerking the car. Did that with my mother many times...hehe I hate autos.