I tested 3 types of cars before I bought my RX-8. I tested the Honda S2000, BMW 325i and the RX-8. The handling of the S2000 and the RX-8 is very close, I cannot tell the difference on the route I took on test-drives. The 325i is too tall and so its handling is behind these other two. I cannot stand of the engine of the S2000. When I go full throttle, it sounds like it's going to blow up; certainly, no melody to my ears and to some extent ... rough is the word. I have gone thru about 3 Honda's and 1 Acura and none had an engine that sounded as rough as this. When I went full throttle on the test-drive of the RX-8, the sound of the rotary was total melody to my ears --- it was sweet, smooth and inspired me to floor the accelerator. So, I bought the car.

If there's a way for the marketing dept. of Mazda to get potential S2000 buyers to test the RX-8, I think Mazda stands a chance of winning their hearts.

Just sharing my $0.02 from my own experiences.

 

Would be a waste of money since the S2K and RX-8 market is pretty different, even though there certainly are a decent amount of people that cross shop the two. But most of it all it wouldn't make sense because the S2K's sales are much worse than the RX-8.

 

Very true, you can live with less hp or less mpg but both is a hard sell despite the other advantages.

 

Hey on the plus side after this weekend all of us who drive our Rx-8 are gonna be asked by every damn teenager or twentysumthing "Do you drift man!"... So thats free advertising for Mazda right there....hahahahahhahahahahahhahahahaha UGH!

 

As far as television goes...how many ads do you see for ANY sports car??

350 Z ads?? no.

corvette adds?? no.

even mustang ads?? not that i have seen.

I think i see a pattern here.

 

I saw a 350 ad three days ago. It's what inspired me to start this thread.

I see at least one Mustang ad a week.

I haven't seen Corvette television ads recently, but they are all over magazines.

Also, in response to those who say "I like my car to be rare," I don't disagree. But you need to be pragamatic, too. Would you like to be able to buy a new RX-8 in a few years? If so, you should want sales to be respectable. Otherwise, Mazda may decide to call it quits and stop production all together.

 

Austin Martin, Ferrari, Lambos, etc. don't do TV but they sure do magazines - especially ones for the monied class.

Mazda ads have been paltry and almost embarassing - zoom zoom is just a little bit kiddy car - and ads do work or you would never have gotten anyone in their right mind into an old Volkswagon - but it took a real good Agency to pull it off.

I would love to see 8s, and other Mazdas on film, but with scripts that would touch on their mystic - something with a noir feel to it - slide them into james bond movies, give them an X-men and Batman type feeling - with an autumn evening feel - or a wet city night. Talk about handling, smoothness (for a fast get away), follow the curves - show a woman's torso, fade into the silken lines of the 8, fade into road curves, talk about "taking the curves", Alternate with with a male torso, 8 curves, and an elegant woman who slips on driving gloves and says she also likes to take the curves - appeal to both

 

Rotories have a unique appeal to those of us willing to sacrifice the impracticality of fuel economy for the performance benefits of a wankel; lightweight and smooth wide powerband. Advertising just doesn't do justice to sell the benefits.

For a long time chevrolet actually lost money selling corvettes. The hidden benefit was that a corvette in the showroom raised the chances that a family would drive out with a caprice or chevelle etc. When I was buying my RX8 I noticed a few families looking at various models, but clearly the RX8 had the most activity for gazers - they were there for something different like a 3 5 or 6, but they made a point to take a good look at the 8 (which the wife was clearly not interested in).

Funny thing is my wife drove mine yesterday and now she wants one.

 

plus the sound is unlike anything else

 

As you are fully aware, only a small minority of owners report mpg's in the 11-13 range. Owners at this site report an average of 19 mpg (for mixed driving) and 16 mpg for city-only driving.

https://www.rx8club.com/polls-70/mileage-poll-75555/
https://www.rx8club.com/polls-70/your-mpg-city-driving-82005/

The numbers show that on the average, most of us are getting about what we should expect. Knowing this, why do you keep posting bullsh*t mpg numbers?

 

When I bought this car I read over all those same number and set my expectation to get 15 mpg city, a pretty reasonable expectation. I bought the car and quickly realised I was getting between 11 and 12 mpg city. I figured OK, there is a problem with my car I'll take it to Mazda and they will fix it and all will be well. Took it to Mazda, they hooked it up to the computer, it passed their tests and was promptly returned to me with a every thing is fine stamp. They informed me that there was nothing else they could do and this is normal mileage. They have refused to do any more digging into the problem. My mileage is still between 11 and 12 mpg, this is costing me $420 more per year based on 7K per year and $3 dollars a gallon. This is Bulls*%t my friend.

I feel that approximately 15% of the owners will have this problem and will be shafted by Mazda like I was. They have a right to know about it and if we make a big enough stink maybe Mazda will change their police and start fixing mine and the others cars. Now the fact that you get normal dose nothing to rectify this issue so unless you can pull 3 mpg more out of your ***, your not really helping are you.

 

What type of driving you do? City, Highway. If city, long or short drives? Traffic? Alot of stop and go? How long do you let it warm up?

 

All city - outer Chicago- 2 lanes stop lighted roads, during rush hour. It's not stop and go but I do spend some time waiting for lights. It takes me about 25 minutes to travel 9 miles. When I'm moving figure an average of about 30 mph.

Just to establish how another car handled this route, I had a 94 Nissan Altima that got 19 to 20mpg on the same drive. Again I know they are two very different cars but it gives you a starting point as to how this course should effect mpg. I can also assure you that the RX is driven harder from time to time.

Short warm ups 30sec summer and 1 minute Winter. Keep it around 4K till at operation temp.

 

If I had that route I would certainly get 13mpg.

 

I'm satisfied that you were a little more accurate that time. It's one thing to say "RX-8's get 13 mpg," and quite another to say "a small percentage of RX-8's get 13 mpg," whether it's 15% or some similar number. This isn't unique to the RX-8; I've seen similar complaints from a small number of owners at other forums, like the 350Z's.

 

Not to sound derogatory, so try and take it as constructive criticism...

But for chicago, rush hour, stop and go traffic, I wouldn't expect must more then 14mpg tops. That's some pretty heavy driving there...and people get awefully hatey in a hurry, making you run it up quicker, shift later, etc. Constant stop and go traffic certainly never ups the milage either.

I'd think this might be really overstating the obvious, but those conditions are really rough, which would most definetely take a dampering toll on MPG. If you've always drive yur 8 in that kinda traffic, day in and day out since you have had it, yur ECU has adapted to yur driving styles and conditions, which would techinically set your MPG inevitably lower then most...even if you eventually get outta town into more leisurely driving. Have you ever driven a WHOLE tank (not in theory) on the highway?

Where do you usually shift at? Red it daily? Just wanting to get an idea here...

 

Yes, Raptor, I'm curious, too. Apologies if you've already done this, but what would happen if you drove up I-94 to Door County at 65mph with cruise control??

 

Highway is not bad, only driven a few full tanks and they have ranged from 18 to 22mpg depending on the level of driving I do, no cruse control. This is normal which could well mean that the city is in line but I still find it hard to believe. I am looking for closure one way or another. If 11 to 12 mpg is normal for this car so be it, people should be made aware and know what to expect. If Mazda would at least make an effort to try and resolve this it would go a long way but for them to do basically nothing and say go way it's normal when many other report better, I can't take that as closure. Hell, I've asked the dealer to switch cars for a few days to show me that another RX will get the same mileage, sorry not going to do it.

Here is what really keeps me hot on this matter. Another member had a RX-8 AT and was getting 10mpg doing all city driving. He went through the same Mazda bulls&$t I have and was ultimately told it was normal go away, he excepted it as a cost of owning the car. A year or so later he wanted a RX-8 MT so he sold the old car and bought a new RX. Suddenly his mileage is at 17mpg driving the exact same route. This is what really pisses me off. We now have proof over the same roads that some of these RX have something very wrong and Mazda is not willing to fix it.

Sorry if I get a little heated on this issue it really bugs me and I think Mazda is completely shrugging off it's responsibility. I'm looking into taking them to small claims court to try and recoup the gas, I really hate to have to go this route but I have little recourse. This is why I say Mazda sucks!

 

wow...as awesome as that would be, it would totally be a david-and-goliath type of feat! Best of luck if you'd go that route...you'd certainly need it!

As for your mileage, I think that hwy mileage really does create a reasonable argument for driving styles varying city gas mileage. Not to say its right by any means, but it does seem like it all falls into place. It sucks that it seems so excessive for you, and I hope that it all works out for the better under these circumstances. Have you tried resetting the ECU/unpluggin the battery to drain the ECU memory? It'll set you back to default, meaning the the car will start to learn all of your driving styles over again. It might be worth a shot to see if it gets any better.

Just a last thought!

 

I understand your frustration, but there's absolutely no way you'd ever win this case. The fact that another driver went from an AT to an MT and got 7 more mpg doesn't prove anything, unfortunately. Besides the obvious fact that he should get better mileage from the MT, this anecdote proves nothing. Unless you can prove that he drove the same route in the same weather at the exact same speeds, this is just anecdotal. It's possible the guy drove differently when he got his new car, in different weather, and in different traffic situations. In fact, I suspect that even if you could prove that the the only difference is the car (which you can't), Mazda could still say mileage varies a little from vehicle to vehicle. Again, if I had your city mileage I'd be frustrated too, but I think taking Mazda to small claims is just a big fat waste of time.

 

I've seen a lot said on this board about MPG, but even though I drive a lot of heavy traffic and light to light, I STILL get 20-21 consistently. The worst I've gotten was high 17s... Odd...

My personal opinion on the original topic of this thread is that the neither the MPG nor the HP are really that bad, and I feel that Mazda would benefit appreciably by being more aggressive in marketing the car. As I zip thru and around rush hour traffic, there's not a single one of the aforementioned "comparison" cars that can leave or keep up with me. Case in point, just this morning I had a crossfire (may have been mentioned in this thread, but...) trying to get pissy with me because I merged in front of him. First chance he got (after tailgating me for a mile or so...) he switched lanes and flew by me. I let him go past me cause I didn't want to waste the gas at first, considering that I drive 90+ miles round trip to work every day, but I quickly decided "What the Hell... Y not..." After about 4 miles (up hill) of this guy trying to cut thru spaces to get some seperation, he eventually realized that he wasn't gonna get away from me.

Point being, it's all about perception.

PS -- I must admit though that I'm glad that the car isn't marketed that well, cause like the rest of you, I get a myriad of questions like "What is that...?" (the ladies love it...)

 

If Mazda, or any other car maker, were smart, they would hand out coloring books for kids with their cars in them. Start the kids young with Mazda etched into their eager brains and it would also force the parents to look at it from time to time. How cool and cheap would that be? Booyah ka shah!!!

 

Thanks but I have cleared the ECU memory and reset it a couple of time, no effect. I have to admit sometimes I think maybe the car is normal and other times, no way. The court strategy is based on Mazda not feeling it is worth the money to fight it. Still don't know if I'll follow through with this I hate these type of things, I guess it will depend on how bad Mazda jerks me around.

 

You might try cleaning the MAF sensor too. I've heard a couple people say their rough idle and mpg improved considerably after that.

 

As delightfully tacky and corny as that may sound, it'd probably reign more true then you'd imaguine. There's a lot more of this kinda subliminal going on then most think. Foods are by far the best example.

Although it could lead into another WHOLE debate, the fastfood industry has proved this one over and over again. Now before anyone barks up the wrong tree, I know that buying a $30K sports car is a little different then a $4 happy meal...but it's just the thought that counts.