Straight after I picked the car up from the dealer, drove it home and took some pictures I wrote down my first impressions for you guys. Here's an unordered list of what I thought:

Colour - excellent. I was really nervous before seeing it but I'm 100% happy with my choice. There is some blue in it under sunlight and it's not as dark and lifeless as the 6 grey.

The roof has roofrack strips.

Recommend rotor accents - I didn't get them but think I'll put them on later. Still undecided about calliper paint.

The boot has actually a flat floor with the deeper part at the back covered by a (removable) hatch. In there is the toolkit. On the right hand side is the puncture repair kit - this was all just a bit wierd so I joined JAF - the breakdown club in Japan!

Rear speakers and amp are not covered so careful when ramming stuff in the boot.

There is an undertray running from the front spoiler to the bottom of the radiator so this should stop the worries about stones flying up into the radiator.

The front lights are "different" colours. The sidelights have a bulb which is kind of misty while the headlights are clear and bright. Fogs are powerful but only light up the immediate vicinity in the front of the car.

There is a cigarette lighter in the middle bins! There are actually 3 bins as the front one is dual function which I didn't realise. The 2nd lighter socket is in part 2 of the front bin (slide back and then lift the cover over to one side to reveal it). It's 120W.

Scuff plate option - so/so.

Mats - so/so. I think East Moons sports type look better - I got the regular ones. Trunk mat is nice though.

Bulge on floor of drivers side is a bit of a problem. It turns the foot rest into a toe rest as you can't get your heal over there. I'll try different ways of getting used to it.

Door closing - bad. Front door is heavy. You have to really slam it to shut it and when you do both it and the rear door bounce open a bit. Nothing to stop me wanting the car but something that could be improved upon.

Bonnet closes really nicely.

Lots of vibration on idle through the gear stick.

Clutch is low down. The throttle has a dead period before you get some response so you have to push it a way before you get anything (compared to S2000).

Roof "dents" still exist even with sunroof - don't know how they did it but it looks good with the middle part of the roof lower.

Body, wheels and vents look really purposeful and aggressive. At home I park next to a new Merc E430 and the 8 makes that look old and slow. The 8 looks so mean & like a piece of sculpture with all the curves - so beautiful. The 18" wheels make it look seriously a lot faster than other cars.

The noise - oh the noise! It's fantastic! A real raspy exhaust note. Hard to describe but great. I watched all the videos before to try to get an idea of what a rotary sounded like. All I can say is you have to hear it yourself! In the same way an M3 sound is different so is this.

This was all just from the 2km drive home. In my next post I'll cover the next 200km over mountain roads.

 

Sweeeeeeeet !

Congrats JSG-san. You know we'll be waiting impatiently for you mountain trip reviews. :D

Thanks, and have fun !

 

Congrats on your new car! Can you please provide some details regarding the navigation system, there is so little information about this option.

 

I think there is little point me posting about the navi as in the US you'll get a locally sourced unit I think. If not - then can you post me back an English one when you get it?!

It's hard to use, but then again it's all in Japanese! It has 3D mode which is quite cool. There a many levels of zoom. In the lowest you get a street map. In 3D mode it has buildings drawn on with names but no texture mapping. It also has the post codes and junction names on. The next level out just shows roads, road numbers and traffic lights. The next level out shows a relief map with heights shaded in different colours so you get an idea of contours. The top most level shows the whole country!

I can type in phone numbers or street addresses to find things. Set waypoints. There must be a million functions but I'm still trying to get the basics...it's my first navi too so all new.

 

Thanks for the quick response!!!

 

Great posts JSG -

Good to hear some real feedback on the 8. But now the anticipation level just went up another notch... . Keep the info comin'

 

hooooooooly sheeeeeeeeeeet... wow.

...if you think i'm too easily impressed, i drive an Echo/Vitz.



...you can stop laughing now.






...shut-up, i mean it. :p

 

So is that the save Nav system we get?

RotaryStalker

 

JSG,
Certainly appreciate your posts & comments. Now that you have spent the weekend with the car, do you have any more comments on the doors ?

 

I doubt it. There are some really cool shots of the Navi system for Japan on the Mazda Japan site. The 3D mode is wicked cool! We do a lot of 3D work for the military and this unit is top notch. But keep in mind that you could 3D map the entire country of Japan and still not have as much data as just trying to map the state of NY in the USA, so I would imagine that as long as we are limited to DVD capacity, we are likely not to have 3D. It would be nice if they did Psuedo-3D like the Hertz Neverlost system, but who knows. My 2001 Acura MDX SUV has the JD Power Associates #1 rated US DVD-based NAV system and it is awesome! The BMW and Mercedes system is absolutely unusable. Japanese models in the US like Honda, Acrua and Mazda usually do better than the Germans in this. US domestic NAV systems are really bad!

I opted not to get NAV in the RX-8 in order to save weight in order to shave off 0.002 sec in my 0-60 times. :D

 

The Infiniti G35 NAV system released over 12 months ago is 2D/3D switchable and covers the whole country (road system only of course) on one DVD (and is VERY highly regarded on freshalloy), so why couldn't the RX-8 have the same? I have used the one on the G35 and found the bird's eye view very useful even if it is not very realistic (i.e. pseudo 3D).

 

just watched the X-men two days ago... i know i know.. i had a bz schedules!! hehehe

neways... the sound that you were describing when you drive, does it resemble the one in the movie!?! i dont know if there were sound effects but if it were the same exhaust tone than that is awesome!!!

 

Now that is the kind of detailed info that I find VERY helpful. Thanks. It is a shame the auto magazines aren't spending more time with observations like this. They are so wrapped up in falling all over themselves to participate in the "revolution" that they miss all the day to day observations that make the car "feel" right to the owners. I will look forward to even more tidbits of how much you did or even did not like about the car. Great job!

 

i have a pink vitz in gran turismo 3... it has something like 327 hp? phlbbt i'd drive a pink vitz down sunset blvd with sequined beret and feather boa if it meant having 327 horses in a car that weighs as much as a shopping cart.

 

*snicker* oh, it sure is light, but then again nothing on that car could take these mysterious 327 horses, supposing i could actually tune the car that high (it certainly wouldn't last very long unless i really put enough money into... enough to buy 2 RX-7's )... it's an automatic, FWD, roll-spring-less, 105hp, 98lbft 1.6L Toyota that weighs as much as a shopping cart...

 

Any impressions as to initial trim squeaks/rattles/resonances yet? I've found that cars just as often has them from day one than develop them later in their lives...