We were looking for another car and my wife said we were going to buy a car she wanted. She saw the RX8 on a car lot last weekend and we picked it up on Thursday. It's an automatic because she doesn't drive a stick shift. We are both 59. She said it was time for her to have a sports car. Really looks great.

 

I traded a 2001 Millenia for my SS MT GT 8 about a year ago. We are 47 something, empty-nesters, with son receiving his masters in spring 04 and daughter finishing up her bachelors this year.

I never really had to convince dear wife to swap out the sedan for the sporty eight. Wife drives an 03 Subaru Forester for the get-around-in-anything security needed in New England. I drive the eight in fair weather, with a sedan winter beater as backup.

Interestingly, while the wife loves the eight, and knows how to drive stick, it's the first car we've had in 27 years together that she has chosen not to drive. Love the car and the woman ... maybe not in that order :D

Hope you find a way to your very own 8!

Cheers,
Oranje

 

I am 32 and just recently purchased an RX-8. Not a baby boomer by any means, but I took a pre-emptive strike on my upcoming mid-life crisis.

Enjoy the car and as far as your significant other is concerned, I figure if you've been together long enough to see the highs and lows of life together; a sports car purchase should be the kind of luxury that comes without much of a fuss!






:D

 

If you think it will be difficult to convince the wife, then take her for a test drive in a Miata first. Then, the RX-8 will seem quite spacious in comparison.

 

51 here. Have the GT/MT since 12/03.

As far as the size of the car, yes it is less spacious than an SUV or minivan. But, when you are sitting at the wheel or the passenger seat, how much space do you need? Can you adjust the seat for proper pedal, wheel and shifter reach? Is your head touching the roof? It was a loooong time since I had anything as small as the 8 but no regrets on the cabin. Just need to be a little careful on how much crap you let accumulate on a long haul.

The only time my wife feels that it is maybe a bit small is when we're surrounded by tractor trailers (or SUVs for that matter). BTW, my wife drives manual but not if I am in the car. I travel a lot and there are always miles added when I get home.

Glassetcher, as far as your wife's comment about the rear seat passengers not being able to open the door... might be a legitimate concern but it might be grasping for the one thing that keeps you from getting the car. Only you can figure that one out.

You might want to run a few things by her...
You mentioned that you have a minivan. The third row passengers are always trapped by the middle row. They don't even have a door. Same thing for three row wagons and SUVs.

The front and rear doors of the 8 have locator pins on the top and bottom edges which unify the door structure with the chassis and roof structure when they are closed. One of the reasons for the good side impact ratings. Start looking at other 2 and 4 door cars. you aren't going to find too many (if any) with this feature. Most cars, the doors are only held in place by the hinges and locks.

Lastly, you can't predict having an accident or the outcome of one. There have been some severe accidents reported on this forum and no severe injuries have been reported to my knowledge. Years ago, I worked as an EMT in an ambulance squad. Generally, when we had to pry a car open we also had to cut off the seat belts. Unless the passengers kept a blade handy they weren't getting out of the car on their own even if the could open the door.

 

Wow, I leave the forum for three days and everyone gets older than me! Last week I was an old RX-8 owner at 51. I'm still 51, but now it seems I'm a young RX-8 owner! Thanks glassetcher! :D

My RX-8's insurance is $1115/year, but that's with maximum limits and a $1MM umbrella that covers two other cars and the house. Not bad for all that protection IMO.

It sounds like your campaign is progressing well. If your wife enjoys driving put her behind the wheel for half an hour on a curvy road. If not, um, tell her you like the car so much it'll keep you out of the house. (It's true, so you might as well warn her.) Good luck!

 

I'm not quite as old as the crowd you're looking for I'm sure (23), but my wife (28) is a self-proclaimed SUV driver for life (which scares me to death since she pays very little attention to her driving). She even complained about the lack of room in my '94 Mercuary Cougar (which was classified as a 2D sedan for those of you who recall the body style before they butchered it in '99). However, what I did was show her some smaller cars in the same price range, then finish off with the RX-8 (started with an Acura RSX-S, looked at Tiburon, etc) and she quickly agreed to the $5,000 price increase (which made me a very happy camper).

The trick with women is to make them think that it's their idea. When you wife complains about the small cabin of the hatchbacks, and their lower ride quality, bring on the coupe de grace and make the problems disappear.

 

Hopefully by now you'll have been able to convince your wife. But if you need more feedback:

- Besides all the great ratings on vehicle safety, plenty of airbags, etc, if you get the sport or touring packages, you'll also get stability and traction control. Those features are very helpful in situations where otherwise driver overreaction (or even road conditions) may cause the car to spin out of control. Not saying it would never happen, but DSC and TSC can definately help.

- as others have said the car is very nimble. If you need to quickly maneuver for some reason, the car is up to it. Also the brakes are great! If you need to make a sudden stop, this car has the equipment alot of other newer cars don't.

- while I had my blue rx-8, EVERY time I went to gas it up some guy would ask me about the car. Instant car-enthusiast magnet whether you're a male or female.

I'm in the process of buying my 2nd one (the first one was hit & totalled). I've been doing alot of looking at several makes & models, but buyer satisfaction from the first time around plus the current price package is too good to be true.

Good luck.

 

43 here and I am absolutely sure this is my MLC car, in V Red no less. I love how the car feels to me. The car is sexy, fun and fast even if I'm not.

It's like that old bumper sticker. .... I'm gonna miss her.

 

I'm 50 and have owned my red GT MT for four months. I made a promise to myself that once the kids graduated college, I would get rid of the Exploder and drive a car I might really enjoy, like the VW Scirocco I owned in college. Well, my son is a fifth-year senior (he may never graduate) and my daughter just started college as a freshman. Rather than accept this predicament, I switched to rationalization #2, which goes "when you get to be my age, there's no reason to deny an aging man a pleasure as simple as this."
Forget practicality. That's not the reason to buy this car. You can talk yourself blue in the face about how you can still seat four adults, how the trunk holds a "weekends" worth of luggage, or how it really feels like a bigger car. Bunk! This is a two seater with room in back for two grandkids. You'll end up putting more stuff in your backseat than you'll ever try to fit in your trunk. And getting in and out of this vehicle with 50 year-old knees can somedays be a royal pain.
No. The reason you buy this car is... Fun! You buy this car for the styling and performance. You drive this car for exhilaration and excitation. You own this car so you can keep them guessing at what your next move will be. And you love this car because somehow, someway, this car becomes the perfect tangible expression of how you feel deep inside, a way no other car has ever made you feel before.
Or use rationalization #3. I'm buying this car because... I can! You're over 50. Who do you have to listen to? Age does have its benefits.

 

Success !!!

Thank you all for your suggestions and support. After many days of pleading, frustration, and praying, I finally got the "official approval"- (even if it did come with a whole bunch of "Honey-Dos" attached and no thanks to one of her co-workers comments -an acknowledged car expert- that the RX-8 is a great, fun car, but is unreilable and expensive to operate ---I really needed THAT comment!)

I immediately got a copy of the Consuer Reports annual auto edition to see if I could bolster my position. I pointed out the better and much better than average evaluations in all categories. However, I had no explanation for the worse than average rating for predicted reliability! (even after reading all of your posts, I STILL don't know how they arrived at THAT one.)

Anyway, today I put a downpayment on a 2004 Velocity Red, Black/Red, GT, Spoiler, Spare Tire, Rotary Accent Package, beauty! I pick it up next tuesday.

I CAN'T WAIT !!!

 

Congrats!
You have to break it in quickly so you can really enjoy it.

Soon another member of the Cult! :D :D

 

Another boomer (46) chiming in! I've gotcha covered on the door question, Glassetcher. Here are pix of my RX8 moments after she was brutally assaulted from the rear by a Dodge Dakota pickup truck doing 40MPH (I was stopped in traffic). I had a dog in the back seat with me. He was fine. All the doors opened perfectly after the crash. I did sustain a couple of herniated disks in my neck, but I had no idea the crash was coming and the idiot driving the pickup never even hit his brakes until he hit me. My car was shoved a good 20 feet forward, barely missing the car in front of me by mere inches.

The safety engineering in the RX8 is amazing. The crumple zones absorbed all the shock and the passenger compartment remained untouched, save for the glass crumbs from the rear windshield. End result is that I and my canine passenger were able to get out of the car and walk away from the wreckage.

And the car? Five months of repairs later, she's as good as new (except for her resale value). I traded a 940 Turbo Volvo wagon in on the RX8, and although I do miss the cavernous cargo space from time to time, the joy of driving the 8 is hard to beat. Tell your wife that she will feel absolutely safe in this car! (Don't mention the fact that it seems to be invisible to doofuses driving pickup trucks, though.)

 

OUCH!! I literialy screamed out loud whe I saw your pics. I'm surprised they put it back together rather than totaling it and giving you a new one!

 

Yeah, hideous aren't they? I guess I should post a warning before letting people see them -- I've had folks tell me they cried when they saw them. I know I did both -- screamed, and then cried!

The damage was "only" $16K worth -- not enough for a total according to my insurance company. Since my own insurance company (USAA) ended up paying for everything even though the other party was 100% at fault (he was an employee of the City of Pasadena, driving a city vehicle, and in California cities are "self insured" which means they can basically blow you off even when you have a legitimate claim), USAA was taking the cheapest way out and figured repair would be cheaper than replacement. They told me the initial repair estimate would have had to be 85% of the car's retail value for a total.

 

I am 52. I had a Miata which my wife forbade our daughter (adopted from China and now 7) from riding in except for extreme circumstances. Hence I couldn't drive the Miata except when I did not have "drop off/pick up" duty. We had a aging 626 for me to use on those days. My wife drives a Saturn wagon, the family car.

I sold the RX-8 idea as being a sports car I could drive daily because it allowed for a back-seat car seat. We also sold both the Miata and 626 after getting the RX-8. Things worked OK for a while but my wife disliked driving the 8 (she is short and had a hard time with the clutch) and then we discovered that the stock 8 is useless in any kind of snow. We now have a used/inexpensive CRV (rather than a set of winter tires) to solve those problems.

She loves having the CRV as a second car, I love the 8. Everyone is happy.

 

Just a quick point that has been made before but bears repeating. The car is fine in the snow. It's the original equipment summer performance tires that are too slick. The tires can be replaced with all-season or winter tires.

 

That is why I qualified my statement with "stock RX-8".

 

Hi, I'm 48. My midlife crisis started last year. My wife, bless her soul, and I bought a Harley. We both used to ride alot when we were younger. But no together, we've only been married 3 years. One morning on the way to work the radio station mentioned that Harley Davidson had a sale going on and you could buy a Sportster for $5995. She said thats not too bad so off we went. We thought it was too small for us and since we had already decided to get one started going up in size. Ended up with a Softail for 3 times as much.
Then we started worrying about gas prices, maintenance and something to drive when it was too wet or bad weather to ride the bike. My Land Rover only got 14mpg on the highway and 12 in town. Plus a front brake job costs $800. So we decided to get a another car with better gas mileage. She said to look for a fun sporty car. Well I looked at the BMW Z4, 350Z, S2000, the new Mustangs, RX-8, and the AUDI TT. I went and drove them all. the Z4, 350Z, Audi TT and the S2000 had no rear seat room. The Mustang, while looking like my '69, just didn't give have any WOW factor.
She loves Mazda's and thought the RX-8 had plenty of room inside. She also liked the crash ratings. Of course she about freaked (she did get mad) when the salesman told her it took premium gas (thankfully after the papers had been signed) My Land Rover did also and she was always complaining about it. But we got the car and I have'nt regreted it yet. Neither has she. I always remind her that my gas mileage is better, 17mpg, and the insurance went down $1000 a year. She also didn't get too mad when I got my first speeding (85 in a 60) ticket in,dare I say, thirty years. She WAS kinda pissed about that.

Happy with my 2005 Velocity Red MT/TP

Ray

 

Congrats. I've enjoyed keeping tabs on this thread. Life is short regardless of what age you are. Enjoy what you can while you're here.

Post some pics after you pick it up.

 

YEA! Welcome to the club. I'm 52 and reading about your decision making process I'm reminded of my own. It was probably the single best decision I've made in a long time. I feel younger. I'm revived with a new outlook on life. I smile more and I love to ride to work and home. I simply enjoy life more now, simply because of my RX-8. You made a great choice.

I read that rating and frankly expected it. The RX-8 is not without it's little issues. However if you pay attention to all the posted problems you will be aware of what to do and what not to do and work around them. It actually becomes part of the fun of having one of these tamed beasts. I will not go into the details because they have been discussed so much on this forum already. You will grow to appreciate it more every day. You will care for her like she is a member of the family, if not more and you will probably give her a name. You have to understand that this IS a change of life, it's time, and you deserve it.

I'm anxiously awaiting pics!

Good luck and enjoy!

PS: Don't turn the DSC off unless you are in a controlled environment and understand EXACTLY what you are doing. Trust me on this one.

 

I'm an old dude (56) too so the dealer was a little surprised that I showed up wanting to see 8s. Enjoy the car but ours is an auto. Don't like the very slow start off the line but its a great car to drive. We have had our moments wondering why we bought the car in the first place. Don't even want to drive it if its going to rain! The dealer keeps sending me oil change notices but the shop says not until it has 3,000 on it. We have 1,500 on an 04. Car has had one cel but no other problems. Its more of a weekend sunny driver in Denver so its mostly sits in the garage. Hope you enjoy your new car. Our car club here has an old guy like me who races on the tracks here. He stays with the best on the turns but the straight aways some more expensive cars pass him up.

 

I'm 40 and my life has already been in crisis since the birth of our twins five years ago. Anyway, purchased a VR 2004 GT two weeks ago, was able to get it since it could carry me and my three children. My wife approved, in fact she urged me to get the Rx-8, I was looking at 350z and G35s at the time. That Saturday she had me sell the Avalon and buy the Rx-8 due to the deals that Mazda was offering on 04s in March. With 5k off of invoice, I got fully loaded Rx8 with Nav for 5k less than the 350z Touring and 10k less than G35. I glad I listen to my wife, she's a great wife!

I love the Rx8 it does everything so well. It might not beat the 350 or g35 off the line, but I'm not 21 and I don't drag race.

 

So how much stuff did you have to buy her in return?

 

Check the DIY forum for clutch pedal extensions. Not only short people have had an issue with the clutch.