Buy an Accord. Seriously.

The 350Z was average, too, and most sports cars were average or below.

 

I bought mine in late 2003. Sure there were some recalls, but that's the norm for any new model cars and plus it has a unique rotary engine. I've have heard about the handling 50/50 balanced car before I bought it. Admittedly, I've not driven a lot of sports car. But 8's handling is amazing, you'll appreciate it more as you get to know the car better. To me 0-60, straightaway and top speed are boring, I'll take a windy road anytime and that's where 8 comes alive.

 

My 2003 S2000 burns more oil than my friend's RX-8 and we get about the same crappy mpg

hehe

 

Build date on mine is 6/06. Only had 2 issues......Gas Cap replaced and the front brake pads updated. Otherwise, IMO, the car is pretty solid, haven't seen any check engine lights or weird electrics going on. Burns 0.5 oil maybe every 2500 miles. Looking forward to some more miles in the upcoming years.

 

the whole dash in the 8 reminds me of the series 1 and 2 gen1 rx-7s. I found I got better MPG and feel when I switched from 5-20 oil to 5-30 (what I have run in the 7 for almost 8 years now and she has 235k on her and still puts out crazy amounts of power. Overall the 8 has been wicked reliable for me, you just have to treat it differently. I mean it isn't some accord v6 or camry v6 it's a rotary. As for mazda I think it depends entirely on the dealer, the car is much like what you would find from the likes of Audi or BMW (or Alfa Romeo as was stated) but the dealers aren't ready to give you the quality of service like you would get from such dealers and that is a greed issue. As for more issues in American ones, I think it is just because many people like to hear themselves talk. But they do recommend different oil and all due to emissions IIRC. I just treat it like my gen1 and have been happy as can be, other then my rear springs >:-[ (insert rant here, I am too lazy :p)

Just my .02

 

Some people have problems with their 8's but you come down on them for it. I purchased a new 06 GT with a list of problems that could not get fixed. I am not saying that all 8's are screwed up as you put it so so many people that have voiced their concern. Mazda North American dosent think so eather as I am getting mine replace with an 07 with no out of pocket to me. I had a choice of my money back or my 8 replaced. I chose the 8...

 

I guess we can be like you and put our blinders on, click our heels together and we'll all be back in Kansas. The amount of TSB's and the engine recall indicate there are some issues. There are also a quite a few people having troubles with their transmissions.


BTW...no trouble with my house foundation....that was done properly.

 

the forum is a megaphone for whiners

rotten's had more problems than just about anybody here and he doesn't bitch about his car

I've had mine for almost 2.5 years with no problems

 

MIne is fine so far, after two years.

 

Good thread

 

I have had numerous problems with my car - in fact it has been in and out fo teh shop for a total of 103 days since August 1 - just picked it up today after 28 days in the shop. They replaced the engine, clutch, homelink system, seat warmers, and several other items. I am not a whiner but it has been frustrating to say the least.

The bottom line is that there are some issues witht eh RX8 that some people have and others do not. For thsoe who have had no problems I think that is great but it doesn't mean those who have are being unrealistic or their problems don't exist. Trust me, I have walked in their shoes and if I didn't love my 8 it would be long gone because after 103 days my problems are VERY real but hopefully resolved now.

Bob

 

I think the same guy bulit both our cars

 

I have an 06 RX-8. Only issue that I have is that my Tire Pressure light won't turn off even after checking the tires numerous times to make sure they were at the correct pressure.

 

I've had my 8 for a year and have yet to run into any real problems except for the aformentioned reflash issues.

I too went the route of an extended warranty for the 7 year/100K peace-of-mind. Cost me an arm and a leg, and with the recent upgrade of stock warranty to 5 years/60K, it did make me wonder if it was worth it.

Knock on wood though...good so far :-)

 

extended warranty is a scam. read the warranty paper carfully, it don't cover a lot of things that will brake down. and if your engin brake down, you have to change every thing back to stock, if not they will not replace your engin.

 

as stated in endless threads, it's not extended warrantys that are a scam, it's THIRD party warrantys.

The Mazda sanctioned extended warrantys are worth the money IF you are willing to pay the money for it. Although I wouldn't go any levels lower than "Stated Care", as it wouldn't probably be worth the money.

A blanket statement like that could easily be contested by a thing called fact.

 

I've got an 04 MT Touring Package with 35,200 miles on it right now. My problems have been completely insignificant. Let's see: the recalls, a switch above the clutch pedal, a broken heater temp. ****.... That's all I can recall. No floods. None of the weird things you read like rough running, loss of power, etc. etc.

In fact, I like to needle my service manager by telling him this car has done as well as a Honda.

That said, I do have a friend with an 04 AT who gets 13 mpg and has had multiple problems. I can't explain it.

 

Have you taken it to the dealer? It might just need to be reinitialized.

 

I have 51,500 Miles on my RX 8, and besides the recalls and some TSBs for like the taillight that fogged up, and the poor ventilation to the crank case that causes the milky substance to form on the dipstick. I have only had a few problems. My car came with a bad Spark plug. One of the plugs did not have corrosion protection on the contact end, and after 6 months it ceased to function causing a mis-fire. That was impossible for two dealers to figure out, but it took me only about twenty minutes to diagnose, fix and put rust inhibiter on the contact end. I had a front shock blow out at 18,000 miles, and decided to replace all four with Konis. I had a cracked intake manifold from the factory that took the dealer a while to figure out, but once it set a check engine light, they fixed it under warranty with no trouble, and that's it.

Compared to the two other cars that I have bought new the 8 is doing great! My 1988 VW Jetta GLI, bought new in January of 1988, died on the side of the road at 14,000 miles due to a fried oxygen sensor. The computer control of the fuel injection system crashed and was irrepairable at 25,000 miles. It blew shocks every 20,000 miles pretty reliably. It was one thing after another with that car. It had eleven recalls in five years, and I have no idea how many TSBs because in those days TSBs were really in house warnings only.

I traded that car on a 1993 Nissan Maxima SE, which was a fabulous car. It had a problem from the factory, which the dealer never found, but I finally pinned it to a poorly manufactured injection control unit. The car had dropped to the level that it would only run for 50 seconds before the engine would automatically shut down and had to be restarted to run. I took it to the dealer, and they were unable to determine the problem. I had to figure it out myself, but I was able to fix it. It also had a perpetual problem with the variable timing cogs on the camshafts that was never properly fixed by Nissan, but the car ran OK with the issue. It just had a little noise from the head that sounded like valve tap, but it wasn't. However, the general reliability of that car over ten years and 180,000 miles was fabulous. The only expensive reapair that I had to make in those ten years, was to replace the injectors at 100,000 miles because three of them had started leaking. The routine repairs on the car were far less frequent than any other car that I have ever driven. I sold it to a friend who still has it at 240,000 miles.

Compare the 8 to my other cars, and it is doing very well. I have had four recalls, none of which had any symptoms or caused me any trouble. Several reflashes, which seems to be a feature of modern cars. I've replaced the shocks and fixed a spark plug, now long replaced. Several TSbs that have been performed, none of which caused the car to run badly, and several out and out repairs that the dealer were either able to fix or I was able to fix myself. All in all, I consider it a slightly better ownership experience to 50,000 miles than my other cars. I see no reason to trade the car in any time soon, and I expect to get over 100,000 miles on it with the original engine and the original cat, and I don't baby it. I run it to red line fairly regularly. I have run it at warp speeds more than once. I have driven pretty extensively in single digit farenheit temperatures, and heat exceeding 100 degrees farenheit. It runs fine.

I understand that other people have had tremendous troubles with the 8, but I think that all care makes have some number of cars that are just lemons. For me, the 8 has been a great car so far, and it sounds as if Mazda is trying to make the lemons work as best they can. They are replacing engines and cats for most people without giving them trouble. Try getting warranty work out of VW (back in the 80s-90s). That was a total bear. The service I got from them was terrible. I have to say that comparable to my other ownership experiences, this car has more than met my expectations.

 

57k miles and no problems whatsoever. All recalls done. Mine is driven really hard. I also get 18-21mpg highway and 16-18 city. I love this car! Last night was driving in a snow storm (coming from Newark airport to Westchester county) roads were covered with snow but this car really handles that great.

 

Same could be said for Every single car-lineups out there ..... not only that. actually, not only automobiles, every single thing out there has their own bad lemon.

 

No argument about that - just don't understand why folks come down so hard on folks who have had problems as if the problems don't actually exist.

Bob

 

Because they're freaking stupid.

Welcome to the Real World !

Enuff' said.

 

11 months and 10.3k miles on my '05. Squeaky brakes and a sunroof rattle. That's it thus far. Oh, and the stock Bridgestones are NOISY AS HELL.

If you check the Consumer Reports review, it's the brakes that appear to drag the 8's scores down. If I recall correctly, every other issue was either average or higher. I'd wager that if the squeaky brakes were never an issue, it wouldn't have a "below average" rating.

 

If you are referring to the folks who do the bashing then I agree; however, if you are referring to those with problems and you actually think they are freaking stupid because their cars have problems, you would have to get smarter to even be considered freaking stupid!!! Your statement has to be the most stupid statement I have heard in my 47 years of life!!!

BTW, in the REAL world, mechanical objects have problems. Maybe in RX8 Utopia where all is well they don't but in the real world all cars have problems from time to time. And contrary to your stupid statement, people who own mechaical objects that encounter problems are not stupid.

Bob