Does the RX-8's front bumper get scratched up if you try to park the car all the way into a spot (so that the car's front bumper is directly over the parking spot bumper)? Or is there enough clearance under the front bumper to go all the way in?

From my eyes, it looks like there's no way on Earth to go all the way into a spot if you have the front lower air dams (from the Apperance Package). And when I looked at an 8 yesterday that just had the basic exterior with no Appearance Packages, it still looks like a full parking job would be a very close call.

I wonder if it gets scratched up too when going up and down steep ramps and driveways.

 

I think a 1999 VW Jetta has a better chance to get its front bumper scratched than the 8. I am very lousy about parking spots, and so far didn't handle to scratch it.

About your second question, it doesn't seem to get close on steep ramps, nor driveways. My apts. driveway is pretty bad, and so far at normal speed haven't had any problems.

 

There's only a half inch difference between the 8 with no appearance package and and 8 with the appearance pakage. As for it being to low to drive the front end over the curb- the taurus station wagon I was driving is too low to go over most curbs, as is my husband's BMW 3 series. Granted the 8 would bump into where the others would just scrape, but it's probably not a good idea to park like that in any car if you can help it.

 

Yeah, I would say with the 8 that it would bump into it and not even make it over. Most cars seem to scrape.

I actually saw a Chrysler Intrepid one day, the guy went too far over the curb and it was STUCK, he couldn't back off of it!

I find with the 8, because of the MASSIVE tires, I have no problems in steep driveways that I had problems with before.

 

it does scrape! i did this the very next day i took the car home and i was parking at the train station...well i let it roll a few inches to straighten out the car and then "SCRAPE!"...it's wasn't really that bad but i almost freaked out, jumped out of the car and noticed nothing at all...so it did scrape but not the front air dam...probably just that plastic shield under the front bumper

 

I have apperance package on my 8 and it just barely clears parking bumps

 

Even my maxima at stock ride height, which at one point someone cited with statistics has very slighly more ground clearance than an early 90s ford explorer (they could have been joking, but lets just say it rides high), scrapes on the underbody covers. So yeah, I'm with Elara - no car should be parked like that.

My friend in a 92 legend coupe almost ripped his front lip right off after he came over a railroad tie (sp?) put at the ends of his apartments parking spots, and backed out again to get untangled. I think he needed new supports up front, I remember it cost $300 or so to get it fixed.

 

Something else that might help- the car isn't that long anyway, so you can easily park it in a spot without needing to pull up all the way. I was afraid my back end would hang out at first, but it fits nicely even with a foot of space between the front and the usual cement parking lot log-thing in normal parking spaces.

 

http://www.rx8forum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8494

 

In my 6, I haven't had any problems parking with the front bumper completely over the parking bumper. Hasn't scraped anywhere at all.

I tend to do pretty shitty parking jobs in general, especially in tighter spots. Every now and then I act like a lazy *** and keep going into the spot until I feel my tires stop against the parking bumper. This is a sedan though, not a sports car.

I guess if I get an 8, I'll have to stop doing that.