Hi garynjr, welcome to the club and congrats on your purchase.

Did you get service records for your RX-8? Any idea if it got the new larger starter motor and battery yet? Mazda has been upgrading those items for those of us in the cold climates *if* we have a starting problem. If you find it sluggish I'd suggest mentioning it to your Mazda service center now so if it becomes a problem later you can say, 'hey, I already called about this.'

I've read lots of happy reviews about the better starter and battery, but the service department I use said I don't get the upgrade unless my `04 shows a problem and so far it just starts fine.

 

It's just too easy to make that mistake, but I think our habits improve over time. I made a similar mistake two nights ago. After letting the car sit in 32F weather for 4 hours I started to drive home, then decided to get gas in Watkins Glen instead of Corning. I'd only driven a couple of blocks - the temp gauge wasn't even thinking about moving and I forgot to rev before shutting off. Fortunately, I had no trouble at all, but it gave me pause when I started fueling up and realized my mistake.

You can ask, in fact, I'd recommend asking and I'd recommend calling the service manager once or twice more if you have trouble starting it. The upgrades are free-to-you warrenty work courtesy of Mazda. However, the service center I use has said they cannot get reimbursed by Mazda unless the vehicle has actually failed to start and been towed in.