well yea im a new person to this rotary engine thing and i was reading all the negative things about the Rx-8. im wondering if i should buy it.. the top 10 reasons im worried about spending 33g on this car are as follows....

1) I read about engine failire below 5000 miles... apex seals etc.. wondering if mazda redid the engine design yet or are planning on fixing the problem on future models.

2) I read gas mileage is way below the estimated 18/24.. some getting 13? wondering what everyone else is getting for their mileage...

3) Transmission failures? iono.. just read about them.

4) Car is slow.. (one thread said it was..) wonder how fast its 0-60 time is. ( can it beat the IS-300? my friend gets under 6.5 for 0-60)

5) GOoey stuff all over the new cars.. dont want to have to go back to the dealer everytime something weird leaks out or have any goop on my car.

6) No Tuning? i read somehwere in this forum that you cant do anything to the "delicate" engine... is rotary to be babied? can it take the NOs shots and turbos, intake, exhaust, headers that pistons can?

7) Irvine dealers can be dumbasses? hahhaha...

8) does the DVD nav system go in and out of the dash? or is it stationary?

9) Warranty on the 8... nobody here mentions it.. wondering how good the warranty is and if it covers bumper to bumper. (is-300 is 7 year 70,000 bumper to bumper)

10) insurance quotes? anyone? do the suicide help lower the price on insurance cuz its 4 door?

those are my main questions feel free to let this newbie know how rotary works... its limitations and its good-stuff-ness..... oh yeah and ive been comparing the following cars: Rx-8, Subaru impreza sti, Is-300, Evo, audi a4. tell me which car is good for the money. (im guessing all you people will say rx-8) oh yeah and i just wanna know how the sound system is... ok thanks...

 

Their are a lot more cars with engines that have not failed than have. Its easy to pick up on failures.

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2) I read gas mileage is way below the estimated 18/24.. some getting 13? wondering what everyone else is getting for their mileage...

18 city 22+ highway

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3) Transmission failures? iono.. just read about them.

A rarer occurance than the loss of engine, but the answer is the same. I have a friend with a 350Z he's on his second transmission.

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4) Car is slow.. (one thread said it was..) wonder how fast its 0-60 time is. ( can it beat the IS-300? my friend gets under 6.5 for 0-60)

Do a search the maganizes say around 6.5 other say longer. The best thing is to drive the car and see what its like for you.

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5) GOoey stuff all over the new cars.. dont want to have to go back to the dealer everytime something weird leaks out or have any goop on my car.

I think this is rarer than the transmission failure. Never seen it. the inside of my hood is a little dirty, mostly just dust and dirt.

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6) No Tuning? i read somehwere in this forum that you cant do anything to the "delicate" engine... is rotary to be babied? can it take the NOs shots and turbos, intake, exhaust, headers that pistons can?

Do some more searches. The rotary can take a lot. It just takes time for the tuners to get their stuff going.

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7) Irvine dealers can be dumbasses? hahhaha...

Don't know, only visited the area

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8) does the DVD nav system go in and out of the dash? or is it stationary?

Yes, it pops up when you want it to. Its a great thing to have. Screen is out of way when you don't need it. You can put it down while its navigating and just get the audio directions. I also like that its not a touch screen so the screen area stays clean.

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9) Warranty on the 8... nobody here mentions it.. wondering how good the warranty is and if it covers bumper to bumper. (is-300 is 7 year 70,000 bumper to bumper)

4 year 50,000 I believe

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10) insurance quotes? anyone? do the suicide help lower the price on insurance cuz its 4 door?

It was lower than I had expected. I guess the doors and back seats help.

 

Much of what you read is from the vocal minority. If you look at the satisfaction survey, the majority of people who responded think highly of the car.

I think many of the issues you mention (1, 2, 3, and 5) are problems with specific cars for certain people, not a general rule of rotaries in general.

Mazda had problems with seals long ago, where they used to blow out around 50K miles, but that was long ago. You figure with improved technology, they should do better rather than worse over time. My 82 rx7 got about 230K miles on it before everything but the engine died (I drove it off road, used it to haul stuff in the back, etc., in general, I drove it real hard). My 91 rx7 got about 120K before the engine needed to be rebuilt, but the seals were fine (the mechanic who rebuilt my engine and races rx7's never saw an engine fail in the same way mine did). For seals to go out at 5K fits in the realm of infant mortality, and is why cars come with warranties.

Gas milage varies. There are people who say they are getting 13ish MPG. I get 18/19. Others get more. My highway driving is either stop and go or above the speed limit, so I expect that I could get better if I really cared.

I haven't seen any threads here relating to transmission failures, but again, I would expect a few on any car model (again, infant mortality). My 98 Durango (first year for the truck) had severe transmission problems and if I returned it once more in the first 2 months would have qualified under the lemon law (I took it in 4 times in 2 months).

The car is slow: I don't necessarily agree, and it's all relative. 0-60 times are bad, but non-turbo'ed rotory engines always had that. 40-80 acceleration is sweet (as is 60-100). I've had my car up to about 120 without any hesitation and without feeling any loss of power. I intentionally held it there because I didn't want to go past 6K RPM yet (until I have more miles on the car). Another poster indicated taking it up to 140, which is plenty fast. Of course, if you are comparing it to a Ferarri, it will never be considered fast. Again, it's all relative.

I've had two RX8's (replaced one with the other during the HP buyback). Never saw any goo on the car other than bird **** and tree sap.

I don't know much about the new RX's, other than to know that for tuning rotories, you don't want to go to your normal mechanic (and many of the other "in-out" tunup shops won't even touch the rotary, since they don't know it). Other than the fact the engine is a rotary instead of a piston, engines are engines (and these days, car computers are car computers). Living in CA, I have looked for a turbo kit which is CA legal (approved by DOT), but nothing yet, and I wouldn't expect anything until after there are enough of them on the road in California to create a market for aftermarket. A 30K car isn't going to be modified as frequently as an 18K car. With the older RX7's, as a friend described it: "if **** could burn, the rotory could be powered by it". If NOX is your thing, the engine should work with NOX fine, and when there is a sufficient market in CA for someone to go through the process of certifying a NOX kit for an RX8, they will.

No comment on #7, I live in the SF Bay Area, and the original poster about Irvine was basic flamebait.

The DVD monitor is above the dash, the DVD is between the rear seats, and the controls are next to the driver. The position of the controls sucks if you have the seat up (I am 5'2"). The position and size of the display is real nice. Having a touch screen would make it a lot better.

Warranty is better than most, with roadside assistance thrown in.

For insurance, I replaced my 91 RX7 convertible with my RX8 (same deductables and coverage), and my insurance went down. I think the car is not treated as a sports car because it has four doors.

My biggest issue as far as driving is concerned is the lack of power at the low end. On the other hand, it handles better than anything I have driven before, and the responsiveness to my "instructions" is near perfect.

Hope this helps.

 

I don't know where you get apex seals, since aside from one troll speculating that they might be a problem, there hasn't been a single problem with apex seals ever reported on the forum. There are a couple of engine failures, but out of 14,000 RX-8s produced so far that's miniscule and expected. Every car model has a few engine failures now and then. The Renesis doesn't need redesigning, it's great as it is.

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2) I read gas mileage is way below the estimated 18/24.. some getting 13? wondering what everyone else is getting for their mileage...

Plenty of people are getting around 20 or better, quite a few are getting around 13. It partly depends how you drive, but there may be more to it than that. Then again, many other 230+ hp cars don't get much better (some do). If you're looking for great fuel economy, the RX-8 may not be for you.

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3) Transmission failures? iono.. just read about them.

Yeah, a couple of guys who've been pounding their cars hard, drag racing etc., have broken the transmissions. Again, extremely hard or abusive driving will damage stuff, and it happens to all cars.

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4) Car is slow.. (one thread said it was..) wonder how fast its 0-60 time is. ( can it beat the IS-300? my friend gets under 6.5 for 0-60)

One thread said it was? You need to do more reading here and in the mags before you start asking silly questions. Most mags tested the RX-8 at 0-60 of 5.9s. However, the RX-8s forte is handling and balance and driving bliss - read the reviews, and read what they actually say, don't just focus on the drag numbers. If those are of utmost importance to you, just go buy the Subaru or Mustang. There are plenty of reviews and links posted in the media news section of the forum.

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5) GOoey stuff all over the new cars.. dont want to have to go back to the dealer everytime something weird leaks out or have any goop on my car.

Come on, this is getting silly. Every new car is shipped with protective coatings on it. If a dealer doesn't clean it off properly, then it's got gooey stuff left on it. Not exactly a fault with the RX-8, is it? A fault would be something like getting greasy streaks left on the windows after lowering them, like is happening with many 350Zs. Just properly inspect your RX-8 before taking delivery - if it's not properly prepped, refuse to accept it until it's properly cleaned.

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6) No Tuning? i read somehwere in this forum that you cant do anything to the "delicate" engine... is rotary to be babied? can it take the NOs shots and turbos, intake, exhaust, headers that pistons can?

Read more (again). The engine isn't delicate, it's new, and the engine controls etc. are as yet unfamiliar to the tuners. The tuning products are coming, for better or worse (meaning that as with every car, there's great products available and crap products available - caveat emptor).

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8) does the DVD nav system go in and out of the dash? or is it stationary?

Come ON, do at least a bit of homework! One look at a NAV car at your dealer would have told you this, or a review of almost ANY of the NAV threads here also. It raises from the top of the dash when activated, and goes down when turned off.

Regards,
Gordon