I have 7,500 miles on mine, I have tried different things to see if it affected gas mileage. After 1st oil change I seemed to notice a difference. I did wait until 5K because I did read the manual. The only signifigant things that I can tell sucks gas are these:

The car does not like to idle.

The car does not like short trips, like commuting to work, or trips to the store, things of that nature.

If I don't do these things very much, I get the EPA's est.
I redline everyday, however, I've also tried shifting early, and the difference is only minor. I also have never complained about this issue. I didn't buy the car expecting it to be good on gas. 2 cars ago I had an '82 Camero with a 350 V8 in it, along with a 4 barrell carb. with a heavily modified tranny. Now when you get 8-9 mpg that's pretty bad.

 

lol, or he rides the brakes while accelerating.

 

Ok, filled up my tank.

shifted at 3000 RPM, drove steady. 21 mpg 91 octain.

As a sidenote, my FD under the same conditions gets about 19 MPG. On highway trips my FD will get 24/25, so I would expect the same from the rx8.

The difference between the FD and the RX-8 is that the FD can live its life under 3000 RPM with ease. Under normal driving shifting at 2500 RPM is normal (5th gear is 80 MPH at 3000 RPM).

So under the same circumstances the RX-8 gets better gas milage, but on average the Rx-7 gets better cause its easier to keep the RPM's lower.


Im very happy with the gas mileage.

 

Ugh, there are enough threads on this already. Closing.