or go to the dealer and drive it for free?

 

dont let him work on your car

The rotary is an awesome motor so far. I came into it blind just like you (maybe a little more knowledge) but I have learned a ton, the motor is very nice driving. Very smooth, it almost feels turbo with the way the power band comes in. There isnt much torque, but your coming from a honda so you probably dont even know what torque is . IT handles like a DREAM, you feel like your doing 20 but you look down and your actually doing 50. All you really need to do for engine maintinance is change the oil and filters. No timing belt, half the sensors, 2 spark plugs, no distributer or anything, its a very nice car.

 

For the test drive I mean a dealer wont let me take a corner at 40....I doubt he'll let me redline it and get a REAL feel for the car...And torque? WTF is TORQUE? Do hondas have this thing called torque? And I really am interested in this car now!

 

Luckily, when I went to the dealer, he was already pretty busy, so I had the chance to go alone and test drive. Was so much fun....Although, I kept accidentally putting it into 3rd gear, and pulling out into busy traffic. Threw it into first, and went sideways for a while. Scared the **** out of the people behind me :P

 

I am close to 50 000km now and I am still waiting for problems. I am also selling it now, but on one NON NEGOTIABLE condition, no test drive.

Great car, even when I see another on the road, I feel like taking pictures and buying it all over again.

 

When I got a test drive i was able to redline 1st and 2nd i toped at 80 on a curvy road, i had a good dealer guy with me, a shame everyone else at the dealer ruined it for him cause i didnt buy the car there. He said he understood and that all he cared was that I got the car I wanted.

 

um....what? is this a joke? no test drive? lol, good luck with that

 

You can do whatever you want in a test drive. If they want to sell the car they will keep there mouth shut. I didnt beat on this rx8 to hard during the test drive, I did redline it in auto and in the manual mode and took coners relatively fast. Of course im not going to be stupid and chance wrecking this car, but just enough to get a feel.

**** when I test drove my 02 mustang, I was very familiar with the car since the car before was the same thing. I was lauching and slamming gears/coming out of corers with a slight bit of tailslide... that sales guy was like holy **** your crazy dude but he didnt say **** other then that, he got a 17k sale that day.

 

i have one tip, make sure you can handle the MPG, expect 15 in city driving or aggressive driving

cruising at 70 mph on highway will net u 19mpg to 20, 80 will net u 18 or less.

if u wanna see, go to the problem and issue thread to look at potential troublespots you wanna look out for.

 

What do you mean "let"? Just get in there and start driving. What's he gonna do, send you to your room without dinner?

What kind of idiot would buy a car without driving it?

 

I agree. Definitely drive a car as you would normally before you buy it. Driving someone elses could be a completely different experience because of specific wear. At least it isn't new so you have to worry about the break in period. As for price I think you should have no problem finding a car with less miles for not a whole lot more. I have seen RX-8's going here for $15-16k with 30k miles. Yeah it's a few more $ but at least you are under the warranty still.

 

Hmm the dealers that I've been to tell me no. I test drove a 2001 camaro Z28 and he wouldnt even let me redline it. He said dont too many cops around. The honda dealer said it was okay though. Hmm. I might go test drive one tomorrow. The area they go in is so limited though. Hopefully when I go it'll be trafficless

 

so true...the sales guy let me drive a manual even when I told him I was still learning. I stalled a few times and had some not-so-smooth shifts but i got the feel of how fun the car is.

 

An aside, but it's interesting that most of us follow strict break-in procedures, after someone else has torn it up in a test drive!

 

the mustang had 17k miles on it already.. i take it easy on a new car but i want to feel how its going to drive so ill rev it out just to see.. other then that i would baby it... i wouldn't ever buy a new car anyways

 

A couple friends on different forum is trying to get me to buy a 350Z. Around the same price....Isnt that a better deal?

 

Doesn't that depend on which car you enjoy more?

 

Yeah I just wanted to know what the rx8 has over the 350

 

try searching for it since there are a lot of rx8 vs 350Z threads

 

Real rear seats. I would just drive both and see which I liked better. Paper comparisons can only take you so far.

 

No offense intended Tim, just noting that we somehow expect retroactive virginity when we know most of these low volume machines have been out on aggressive test drives.

 

Yeah I might....I gotta look around here for some prices first though

 

Well I have a '04 350Z Touring and I'm planning on getting a 8 as a second car. The cons of the 350Z IMO are:

Sometimes you just need a back seat or a trunk.

Front Tire feathering, there doesn't seem to be a definite solution. Some have do alignments, lowered the car etc for a temporary fix but sometimes it just re-occurs. It'll usually take about 10-15K miles for them to start feathering again depending on the tire and when they do you can definitely hear it on the inside. They call it tire roar. When driving on the feathered tires it kinda sounds like a space shuttle and when you brake to a comlete stop it sounds like a Bear.
If you get the 6MT I hear of so many people going through multiple 3rd gears.

Nissan uses evironmental friendly pant and it sucks because it chips VERY easily. Expect paint chips on front bumper and hood.

Everything else is just minor issues or annoyances like the Bose CD player skipping when cold, interior plastic and dash pieces vibrates and rattles when cold(just turn up the music and you can't hear it). Hatch won't hold up if the temp is under 30 degress(you can buy aftermarket shocks that work in the cold weather).

More blind spots than a 18 Wheeler.

Pros
Nice handling, fast, gets alot of attention and many don't know what it even is. Rare to see where I live. Unique styling. All parts of later years are interchangable, for example I swapped my 04 tails with 06 LED tails. Pretty decent stock exhaust sound.

I've never driven the 8 so I can't compare but the 8 was the only other car I was considering before I decided on the 350Z.

Also I don't think there will be much of a difference when speed is concerned. The 350 has more power but the 8 is lighter so I pretty much balances out. All I can say is that I got allite nervous when I saw a 8 in my rear mirror. I can't say that about many stock cars I see around here especially since it's flooded with Chargers, Monte Carlos, and Impalas.

 

heh.. 8 should not scare 350 on the highway XD...

 

Oh I always though they were pretty evenly matched. I've only seen like two on the streets ever so I've never really seen one go all out or ever chased one. LOL when I say it in my mirror I couldn't tell what is was I just new it was something low and most likely quick so I slowed up a bit so that I could get behind it and then realized it was a 8. I wanted to see if he would punch it when I got behind him but he didn't.

I stay on the south side of Chicago and you NEVER, NEVEEEEERRR see and 350Z's, 8's, Evo's, or GTO's around here even downtown. Thats why I like em so much.