Elara

Ugh- people, the resale value does not suck- go pull up some figures on other cars (and I don't mean accords and camrys, I mean cars with normal resale values) and you're going to find they're comparable. Winfree is right, partially- this negativity is creating the illusion in your own heads that the resale value is bad, when it really isn't.

Rosko350z

DERAIL - as if this thread isn't one giant derailment.

I'll take a stab.

Oversteer.

I don't know how you'd cure it with "suspension geometry", but you'd need to make the rear tires stick to the ground better when weight transfers to the front. You can do this with shocks. This is not something I have practical experience in. I just watch lots of road racing.

tiltmode43

iTrader: (15)

Though depreciation hurts, in comparison it isn't too bad. I may have my 05 gt sold for 23k and will be purchasing an 05 s2000 for an additional $2k. Had I went with the honda in the first place, however, it would have been an additional $7k.

Astral

You must have normal people for co-workers/friends. Most car-savvy friends I know have no respect for the 8 or the rotary and would label your neighbor mentally challenged.

Astral

My 2 cents on resale value.

The RX-8 resale value is pretty poor IMO. For a sophisticated sportscar, to go from $26200 ($1K under invoice) to $18500 in about 15 months is very drastic. I'm not comparing to MSRP here. This drop is more comparable to a Ford rather than a BMW.

I attribute the drop mostly to Mazda marking cars down so much.

However, my biggest problem is I expect high miles to affect the resale value much worse than age.

Compare this to the Miata: its resale value has essentially flattened out over the last few years. People will gladly buy a Miata with 100K miles because, well, the damn thing is strong. 100K is young on a Miata, the same way 100K is young on a Honda Civic.

100K miles on an RX-8 though? Even 60K miles? Would you buy that?

There is a wide perception of lack of reliabilty, even though we have no proof for the RX-8 (the car is too new). So I expect that the resale value will plummet with high miles.

So take me as an example. I put 24K miles a year on my car. With 31K miles, my resale is about $18.5K right now. A year from now, with 55K miles, I expect the resale value to be $15K or even less. Only 5K warranty remaining on the engine and tranny--that generates much fear with the 8.

DaveCM203

The main reason I feel that the resale value of the 8 is so low is because there simply is not the demand for it. People will fight over a Vett because it is a Vett. People are obsessed with image. If the car will give them an image of what they are looking for, they will buy it. I am a car salesmen. I have had people turn down realy good cars to buy something that is not as good or reliable simply for an image. BMW is another prime example. I have had people who would rather keep their pos BMW, Mercedes,....whatever because they did not want to lose that image. I have driven a lot of cars. Cars that most people drool over. I can honestly say that I do not like them enough to give up my 8 for one.

We have one of the best cars on the road (if not the best for the money). But it doesn't have the power of a 350Z, the name of BMW, the over rated heritage of a Corvette. We have a VERY nich car. Americans love to "bench race" and the 8 is just not the right car for that. It is a car that must be driven to be appreciated. We just have to love it in spite of itself.

caskstrength

Elara, you never cease to amaze me. That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a long time.

caskstrength

Wayne Mazda in NJ was doing a sale on 04's back in the day. Any model you want, even with navi, for 20,500. Now what moron is gonna tell me that the resale value doesnt suck? Wake up you idiots. The two major reasons for poor resale are 1. mazda overproduced. and 2. Most of the USA is full of jackasses who think in terms of 0-60 times, so not as many were sold. Thats it. It's not because people talk badly about the car.

caskstrength

Why do RX-7's remain popular? Because they are fast as F*&^.

dillsrotary

because there's hardly any in the U.S. to begin with.

and stop being biase, you seem to talk like a child that doesn't have a clue about the real world.

{fed the troll }

Ike

It all comes down to Mazda overestimating demand and then offering big discounts. If you were patient enough and smart enough to get 8k off MSRP your resale isn't so bad. If you paid invoice or higher then you're probably not too happy about resale value right now. Lack of demand and too many cars sitting on lots will make even the best of cars take a big resale value hit.

caskstrength

You are another one. Let me guess, you didnt hang with any of the cool kids when you were growing up?

It's popular because it's a fast car. That is what the majority of people like. Funny you claim I dont know what goes on in the "real" world. You should be telling that to the people who think that the morons on this forum who complain are actually drivng down resale value.

And most people seem to agree with me so I'd love to hear you explain how I dont know what goe son in the real world.

caskstrength

All the know it alls are out on this thread, but that seems to be on every thread. Wait where is Stew?

dillsrotary

i didn't even read your post, but i accept your apology

caskstrength

And why wont you guys accept the fact that Mazda would have sold more if the car had more hp? I'm not saying I want more HP, but all the Riceboys and guys with little birds do.

Elara

Your sarcasm is killing me. Really. However, whatever you want to believe, I work closely enough within the car retailing industry that I don't have to make anything up. And whether you like it or not, RX-8 resale values are comparable to the industry average.

tiltmode43

iTrader: (15)

Possibly but I think the fact that it was overestimated in the first place was the biggest problem. Now if the car would have had 350z power/modability I'm sure it would have done better. In that case, however, it wouldn't have been a renesis.

altspace

iTrader: (2)

To be honest, in all the cars I have purchased, I never once thought to myself, "I wonder what the resale value will be." Instead I looked at every other factor, and the most important of all, do I really love the car?

willhave8

What he\she said...

tiltmode43

iTrader: (15)

When I purchase a car I look at it as a slight investment (how much money will I not lose?) What if, for some reason, I need a load of cash? Just a way of living I guess, I just like to have backups.

That said, I purchased an rx8 new (well under invoice), got extremely close to trading for an s2k (met with other owner) but in the end kept the 8.

caskstrength

You are absolutely out of your mind. How come you are one of the only people saying this?

Astral

Do you have evidence for the claim that the *talk* is driving the value down?

While RX-8 resale values are comparable to the industry average, most of us like to think that the car is unique, special, above average and a relatively limited production (compared to, say, the BMW 3-series) would maintain a higher resale value than average.

Who are we comparing against? Domestic manufacturers? (these should drive down the average) Japanese manufacturers? If the average across all personal cars and trucks for all companies? What is the average like for the sports car category?

For example, SUVs took a nosedive as of late in their resale value, and this would drive the average down.

If I wasn't lazy, I would poke around the ALG estimated residual value from cars.com and see what the comparisons are like.

caskstrength

I talk with enough people in car sales to know that the RX-8 has one of the worst resale values. You cant go on blue book and use that number. These cars come rolling through the auctions. Loaded GT with 40,000 going for $12,000. This is real world stuff people. Not some computer generated blue book numbers. It's not some unscientific survey.

KimiFelipe

It'd be a little easier to believe you cask if you had a lot more posts and time on this board. As it is, you could just be someone else in the market for a used car trying to talk down values.

No idea if you are right or wrong, but I cant take your opinion seriously.

On the other hand, I actually dont give a **** because I buy cars for 10 yrs anyway, so WTF?

LOL

Elara

Read my previous posts, please. I never said anything about "talk" driving anything down. But this insistance by a few people, without anyone bringing up any actual numbers, is creating the illusion in everyone's head (on this board) that RX-8 resale values sucks. And they do not.

Let me explain, again.

The minute you drive a new car off the lot, it loses, on average, between 15-25% of its value. No matter what. And that's from the value YOU paid, NOT the MSRP. MSRP means very little, aside from being a marketing tool. Every year thereafter, you're looking at another 10-15% drop. All this bitching about "japanese cars" vs "american cars" means nothing. Forget the "but my car is unique" stuff. No one cares about that on mass produced vehicles. If you had something like a Carrera GT, then yes, your car would be considered more unique. But it isn't.

Now, if you want to compare the RX-8 to an Accord or Camry, then DUH, resale value sucks. But when you compare it, on average, to all the other cars out there, it is right around the middle.

For example: http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...g=1&cardist=15

A 2004 RX-8 GT. It's currently selling for $19,995. I'll make a guess and say someone paid $30k new for it (I don't see a bodykit or anything other than the spoiler to drive the price up much more than that). Assume it lost 15% of it's value when it was sold. That's $4500 loss right there. So it was immediately worth $25,500. It's now about three years old. So by the end of 2004, assuming 10% a year, it was down to $22,950. At the end of 2005, it was down to 20,655. And now, if you continue that trend, it should be down to about $18590. But it has pretty good mileage on it, so it looks like they're asking a bit more.

And I don't know where this auction thing is coming from either. ALL cars have low values at auctions- how do you think dealers make profits on them? They buy them, fix them if they need it, and resell them usually at a pretty decent profit. But you have to factor in all the time they spend, including buying, transporting, fixing them, cleaning them, etc. And that's an entirely different discussion.

And with that, I'm done with this thread. I've gone over this exact same thing pretty much since the car came out, and still this rumor keeps coming back. If you guys want to keep going with it, have fun. You're going to believe what you're going to believe, no matter how much proof you get.