Greetings from Sydney Australia.

I wish I could say right now that I was an RX-8 owner, but I'm currently selling my MkIV Golf and looking to buy one after that.

To be honest, I've never owned a sports car before or really ever driven one So I'm pretty excited. But I don't have a lot of money to spend. I was thinking of picking one up for about $25,000AU.

Now, how reliable are these Mazdas? I've been trolling these forums for a little bit and seen threads on engines being blown, flooding problems and I've been told that rotary engines can be a bit iffy. Also, I'm in traffic for about an hour in the morning (stop, go, stop, go) and almost an hour on the way home. I know this can cause stress on a car, but will this cause more stress on the RX-8? Am I safe to believe that with regular servicing and frequent checks on my car from myself, it will last a while?

I'm just worried I'll buy this car and have nothing but problems. I hope I've just blown this out of proportion and I'm worried over nothing

Cheers!

 

It's fine as long as you take care of it. Plenty of info here on what to do. Mainly, it's nothing more than checking the oil and adding some once in a while, otherwise it's like any other car.

The engine has an 8yr/100k mile warranty. As long as you keep up with maintenance then you shouldn't have to worry about the engine; if it does die you'll get a new one for free. So no worries for 8 years or 100,000 miles.

The main downside to the 8 is the gas mileage. With stop-and-go driving like you're describing, you'll probably get around 15 mpg, possibly less depending on driving style.

 

Oh nice, I didn't know about the engine warranty. Some of these second hand cars I'm looking at have about 60,000 K's. But I'll double check on that to make sure that warranty was in Australia.

Fuel consumption doesn't matter for me My work pays for all fuel. Lucky me!

 

I work in real estate. So I'll be driving around during the day and so my work pays for fuel.

But I feel a bit better now knowing that if I look after it, it'll be fine (like anythign I guess).

Now I just have to wait and hear back from my insurance company to see how much that will cost =/

 

Another quick question. When I'm checking out a used RX-8, anything in particular I should look at? Anything under the bonnet? Also, I've noticed the ads will say "FE1031" in the title, what is that?

 

Sorry to say, i know it sucks but this warranty only applies for people in the US.

 

Really?! That does suck