Picked up last night after work. Beside nearly Unbelievable pressure to pay $1800+ for a 5yr/100K extended warranty, and another $300 for "GAP" insurance (pays the diff between what you owe and 'value' if car is stolen or totaled) during the 'finance' (signing papers) part, my pickup went fast. They did not wash it, didn't take plastic off the visors, didn't really clean the inside like I thought they described. They only took the plastic off the body on the exterior - didn't even clean the windows. Pretty much what I asked them to do. They did install the front plate holder - not sure if it was on or Mazda had it on when delivered - I wasn't thinking about that when it rolled off the truck.

just some thoughts: the view from the rearview mirror is cool - neat shape, very clear - no distortion. The front view is very good of course you can't see the front end but I like the view of the rotor indent in the hood. The sunvisors are some of the neatest I've seen - little holes in them and they work great. No side extensions but no need as the area above the mirror on the windshield is very well - not sure what it it - not tinted, but those little imbedded I think dots that filter out sunlight. The cup holders seem great - not important to me, but I will use them - we got a large coffee this morning on the way in for my wife to take my Subaru back home.

Seats: I like the Driver's. She didn't like the hump or the position of the pax. She sat behind my seat when we got home and did NOT find it comfortable and to be honest it looked very claustrophobic. I sat in the yellow at the dealer and found it difficult but possible to put my feet under the front seat. So I'm going to have to go with the reviews that say you can maybe take a couple hours back there but I don't think we want to take it to FL for vacation and a 1000+ mile drive.

Shifter: nice. heard good comments at the dealership. In 1st/2nd, I find my elbow does in fact hit the seat - last night it didn't seem so but I was a little euphoric and not on earth, so to speak. Other gears I have plenty of room. Downshifting from 3 or 5 will take a while to master - I've missed a coupe times. 5 to 6 I have to think about pulling it to the right on the way down to get 6 instead of 4. Not the short throws as in a Miata as has been said but nothing to complain about to be sure.

Engine: OMG! Rotaries rule in this application. Not sure it would ever make sense for Mazda to bring out a 'retro' REPU but in a sports car it's perfect. I have found I can start around 1500RPM - I don't need a full 2K. "MY salesman" - I never met him before yesterday - had been through 3 different ones in the last 18 months - was instructing me to rev it higher as I departed their lot yesterday, like he knew how (has never driven one) better than me. 2K isn't bad, just depends how fast you want to acc.
Thirsty. Hope that improves with time. Have used nearly a half tank just going from dealer to home and back. Have about 120 miles on so far. I idled it for 45 minutes this morning while washing it then me and getting dressed. Keeping it under 4500RPM most of the time. Seen 5000-5500 a couple spurts.
Varying the speed - 60-65 in 6th, then 75 in 5th, etc.

back to extended warr 'pressure' - this is WHY I got the RX-8 - the rotary - another Mazda, etc - they are usually very reliable and as they made the RX-7 through 8/2002 I don't anticipate any weird things happening that will cost me over $2000 between the 50K warranty and 100K. He couldn't believe , at least via his words, I'd take a 'high end sports car' like this w/o it. Compared it to a Vette, Viper - uh... no comparison, thanks. Not for reliability anyway.

wheels- like them, that open design will get very dusty. If I have the xtra $ sometime I'd like to put lower dust pads on it.

Sunroof works great

oh - cruise control - even up and down the steep hills/ small mountains we have here (1200' range) on the interstate - almost NO fluctuation. wavered between 74/75 when set at 74 when hitting a down hill part, but never varied one other time, whether at 65 in 5th, 68 in 6th, whatever. Love that for when I want to use it.

bout it for now.

no, wait, one more thing:
BOSE system. Not sure if it's unique to the BOSE system or not, but the low volume control SUCKS. The difference between volume '2' and '3' levels is like 10 or 20 decibals. Very annoying that I can't find a decent volume level that low. It goes great over 7 - 8 - 10 - but for in town 2 or 3 would be great it would seem but we can barely hear 2, and 3 almost can't be talked over. Very strange.

 

thanks for the info.. i'm now officially jealous. i want to sell my 03 honda accord v6 coupe now but i have to wait till the rx-8s become less than MSRP. maybe a year?? don't know if i can wait.

 

Mine came with the holder in the trunk. The owner of the dealership took it out and gave it to me as soon as the car came off the truck, just to make sure no one installed it during PDI (as I requested).

 

I thought I read somewhere that the BOSE system had an automatic volume control per the ambient/outside noise level?

Maybe playing with that control would help.

 

Yeah, I've found that when the car is just sitting there, the AudioPilot (the volume/eq compensating system) compensates for noise that is not there... same for when just putting around town... on the highway, it is great, but i turn it off when in town... I don't think the AudioPilot is calibrated for low volumes... the microphone probably isn't sensitive enough for it, so it is boosting the volume. It's real easy to turn off though, just press the audio control **** and turn to the left. It then sounds just fine.