I picked it up tonight :D

Of course, I have a ton of questions right away...

Did anyone get the floor mat retainer hook installed by the dealer? It seems that's often neglected. At least mine is in the glove box, will take care of it tomorrow.
As eccles mentioned in another post, the plastic plugs that are supposed to be inserted into the underbody frame rails originally come in the same bag like the floor mat retainer. I did not have any bag just the retainer - how do I check if those plugs were inserted as they should be? I mean, where are they, how many and how do they look like?

Also, my passenger's side door needs to be closed with a relatively big force - not exactly slammed, but almost. The driver's door closes perfectly. Guess I need to get that adjusted - or is that something I can adjust myself so that I don't need to get the service department involved?

The weirdest thing is: when I got home, I noticed some kind of burning smell from the front and I also saw a little bit of faint smoke in my headlight's beam (it was about 7:30 PM). Couldn't figure out what it was - is it possible that something needs to 'burn off', similar to when you have a new exhaust, it will often smell funny for a few days, then it goes away? Did anyone else have this and is this normal? I can't really tell what sort of smell it was, maybe a bit plastik-y (if that's a word )

I'm happy that the car is here at last :D

 

So that hook they left in the glove box is the floor mat retainer, huh? LOL. Thanks for helping me figure it out.

I've noticed that sometimes dealerships take out all the manuals from the glove box and other times they leave EVERYTHING including the keys in the car. In fact, a particular dealership may have both extremes on the same lot. It's unbelievable, I know. In my own car, it's hard for me to tell what was taken out by the dealership and what was stolen by "customers." For example, I noticed the warning sticker that the car has an alarm was already stuck on my driver side window. However, one of the manuals (either the main owner's manual or the quick start guide) stated there should be two of those stickers, one for driver- and passenger-side windows. I couldn't find the other one anywhere in my car. I was able to remedy the situation easy enough. Want to guess what I did?

Don't worry about the passenger-side door. I have the exact same thing: easy-shutting driver-side door, difficult passenger side. I'm a very picky person and when I was shopping for the 8, I would stop at a bunch of dealerships and test the doors. Of course in the end I bought my car based on the dealership that gave me the best deal. So my difficult passenger-side door was really gnawing at me...until a distant memory resurfaced. Ten years ago I bought my Honda and, with great effort, I seem to remember that it had a driver-side door problem that went away with time. Currently (yes I still have the car) the two doors close effortlessly. I had almost forgotten!

As I connect this distant memory with the present situation, I would have to agree that, although my RX8's driver-side door was the better door from day 1, it has gotten even better from USE. It's really quite effortless right now after 2.5 weeks of ownership. My passenger-side door still lags behind but that's in large part because it's not used as much. I have no doubt it will eventually loosen up and become perfect. Trust me, your door will loosen up too.

 

Amazing! And to think the dealer probably hit you w/ a bill of $300-600. for "dealer prep". Wow.
Hope you enjoy the 8.. My floor mat holder was fixed in it's spot when I picked mine up. The door issue I do not have. The burning smell is sometimes common on new cars. It is more common on the undercarriage. Hope the rest goes smoothly.

 

No, they did not. I wouldn't pay such a BS fee. We agreed on the exact price about 6 weeks ago, and I was very careful with making sure there is no such ripoff fee included :D

 

I had the same problem w/ my passenger door. Bring it back in and they'll adjust the "striker." The burning smell seems to be normal in the beginning.

 

The odor is normal. The passenger side door thing isn't. Take it back for servicing; dont' wait for it to "work itself out." I don't think anyone answered your question about the underside plugs. I'd like to know too since dealer prep seems to be so careless, but sorry I don't know the answer to that one.

 

HAHAHAHAHA.....swipe :D

 

The odor may be just as ABNORMAL as the door OR just as NORMAL as the door. The way Tamas describes it sounds like what I have seen from a ton of cars: he has to close a little harder on the passenger-side because it doesn't close completely sometimes.

Yeah, sure take it in to service just to be safe. Maybe they set the car aside for 45 min and do nothing, maybe they put some WD-40, maybe after you complain for the 3rd time, then they adjust the "striker." I agree with you that he should be on the safe side, but he shouldn't be naive about the service department.

At any rate, based on Tamas' own description, it does not sound like it's a serious problem that will only get worse. And he might take comfort in that (in addition to taking his car in).