After having the RX8 in for services for nuisance and problematic things.. I was thining about trading it in for a G35...

Well, I arrived at the Infiniti dealership and had no service or acknowledgment from anyone for atleast 15 minutes. So I walked around browsing till one of the sales-rep noticed my yellow rx-8. He's like is that your car? uh huh... OH!!! well hello! my name is blah blah blah, how can I help you?

I was looking at a G35....'oh? well what do you do for a living?" I am thinking for myself, well I am 24 and look like I am 16.. maybe that is why he is asking me this, so I replied. "enough to afford the 04 Rx-8, and a 00 honda accord and live on my own"

"oh.. well wonderful! let me see what I can help you with."

**he comes back with keys to the beautiful diamond graphite coupe and hands me the keys**

here lets go for a drive. .... I'm like holy ****, ok! lol

the very first thing i noticed was.... how incredibly boring the interior is!.. i like the extra compartments, but the center consol was 'blah' and the dash was 'blah' .... so just sitting in there, my Rx-8 still felt more ergonomic and just had an overall better interior.

Driving experience... 298hp, It is throaty and moves, but its soft suspension was not comparable to the RX. The G35's short-throw shifter was not buttery smoothe at all. The seats are nice, but I don't like the manual lumbar support, it feels cheap.


so, in conclusion... I have decided to keep my Rx-8. After driving the G35. and hopping back inside the 8, I had that '**** grin' look on my face again hehe.

 

Welcome back...we almost lost ya there. A friend of mine just got an '04 Silver G35 Coupe automatic--he can't burnout at all in it--I was amazed. They are nice cars but the interior is its big weakness in my book.

 

Yeah the steering wheel is especially UGLY.

Good story.

 

Major overhaul of the G35 is coming this year so you saved yourself from getting old tech.

 

I hate where the seat controls are. Just doesn't feel comfortable.

 

I test drove the G35 coupe and 350Z several times before I got my RX-8. No doubt they are good cars, just not my type. I like high rev engines.

 

The marketing people at Mazda are its achilles heel. This ZoomZoom campaign is catchy but does a disservice to the image of the cars. Emphasis is on "Fun to Drive", but WHAT MAKES the RX-8 fun to drive is the level of sophistication and precision built into the cars, both of which are left out of the ZoomZoom image of Mazda. I didn't understand the "Fun to Drive" part of ZoomZoom, it didn't make sense, sounded like empty marketing gimic.

The G35 coupe and 350Z were nice, test drove a few before I got my first taste of the RX-8. $40K was my budget and I preferred to have 4 seats, Infiniti and BMW did a good job of making me aware of their products. I didn't even consider the RX-8, just thought I check it out just to be sure, I was going to get the G35 coupe. The RX-8 felt like a scapel, where as the Nissans felt crude like an American musclecar when compared to a BMW or Porsche. I even test drove a few early Boxsters and a 2005 330ci, ironically, the RX-8 was more german-precise than the German cars. The RX-8 interior was even more progressive, well thought-out and modern than the German cars too. I was extremely surprised, the RX-8 was simply the best thing out for sale in 2004.

The marketing people at Mazda have failed at representing the RX-8, and nearly did the same thing to the Miata. They were intent at making the Miata a front drive car, but the engineers won that battle and rear drive prevailed. That single decision was the essence that made for one of Mazda's most successful product.

 

100% Agreed.

In some way, I would have loved them to market the Rx-8 more, but at the same time I do not, because it makes our cars special and more unique when people are not so aware of it. My friends just bought a miata and they were very happy that it was left RWD.

 

Don't know about that - the Miata was designed to be a low priced sports car from day 1, which implies to me that it was never intended to be WWD. I have also never seen the intention of WWD mentioned in the cars history. That would be a pretty major thing, and the absence of its mention supports that it wasn't considered...unless perhpas they were embarrased by the thought and wanted to remove the consideration from the history books.

 

i tested the g35 and 350z as well. i loved the power of the g35, but the rx8 has a much better feel. i agree the controls for the seat are in a bad position, but i do like the electronic tilt/telescopic wheels they had. at the end of the day i'd rather have the sexy styling and high reving of my rx8. plus i see soooooo many g35s and 350s every day that it's getting old.

 

Same here. I test drove the G35 and 350Z and the RX8 several times. The 8 was actually my last choice and my last test drive. Well let's just say that even with it's low torque, gas mileage issues and fewer horses I still love driving this car. As I approach two years of ownership I never once second guessed my decision to buy this amazing car.

 

Oh yeah a telescopic steering and a better (side lumbar support.... whatever you call it) would make the 8 better.

 

When I bought mine 3 months ago, I had narrowed it down to an RX 8 or a Mustang GT. I have read many articles about both and did some test driving.

The Mustang is a huge improvement over the old Fox platform. Great motor and good looks, too. Problem was that I could not find one that had a 5 speed!! Around 95% of the ones for sale around here were automatics. Mind you, the auto trannies are a huge improvement over the previous slushboxes available in Mustangs, but I just could not bring myself to buy one. Auto equipped cars are about $1,000 dollars more as well. And, since the GT is a fairly strong seller, not many are dealing on prices. I couldn't find a GT for less than $25,000 ANY WHERE!


I actually went to my local Ford dealer here in Conroe to look at a new shipment of '06 GT's hoping one would have the right combo of exterior paint, interior, wheels etc... and low and behold, I saw my silver '04 RX 8 on the showroom floor. Price was negotiated down some to just over 20 K.

Needless to say, after a quick test drive, I made up my mind and don't regret it. Yea, I know Mustang GT's are 300 horsepower strong and nothing sounds like a good V8 with an aftermarket exhaust, but my RX 8 is a great, fun car.

 

I was was 'told' I needed to have back seats. Have actually tried the back seats in a G35? You cannot even throw a package back there without taking 3 to 4 minutes for the motor to move it forward and then move it back.

Much less for the headroom. I am not tall and my head was hitting the back window frame.

And I thought it handled like a tank, it was heavy on it's wheels. Not something I would attemp any fast manuevers in. The 8 moves as you think. The G35 you need to plan your moves ahead of time.

I have a close friend who did go for the G35, and he ignores the rear seats and uses the rear hatch all the time... the hatch does look useful, but I am sure it is not rigid at all.

And the G35s where I work outnumber the 8s about 3 to one. Let's not add up the number of BMW 3 series cars there...

 

Actually, this isn't true. It's well known that there were three prototypes built from three different studios, and evaluated against one another - FWD, RWD, and mid-engined RWD. Front engine RWD won out as the best representation of the classic, light weight low cost sports car.

But yeah, Mazda's advertising campaing is pretty weak.

 

I saw a 4-door G35 the other day, that might make life easier, but I know that they're still seriously lacking in head room compared to the 8 and you can't have a coupe with 4 proper doors, that's just WRONG.

 

Don't know about that, either. What are your "well known" sources?

The Miata was pretty much a Miata since it was first scribbled on a blackboard.

 

I recently drove the Track 350Z and in my opinion the car seems faster and has top end power which the Rx-8 doesn't, I mean I still like my Rx-8 because the car performs overall but If was looking for more muscle then the 350Z track edition is totally worth it.

 

Yes the extra few hundreds help a lot, I agree.

 

Nissan has one of the best V6 engines in modern production in the G35/350Z.

They also upraded the suspension and interior materials on the Z.

I have to hand it to Nissan; whenever there are problems, they seem to address them more quickly than the average car company.

I like the 350Z, but find that the similar G35 loses the sharp edge that makes the platform interesting.

 

I own a J30, and love the high quality materials and stylish interior. The G35 is actually a step down from the J30 once you open the door.

This aside, I wanted one and test drove it in the 4 door form. The automatic is great and the motor is tuned well to it. If you want the auto, it is better than the auto in the RX8.

However although the manual was not available at t he time, I drove the 350Z to get a feeling for it. Not good. I felt like I was in a Mustang, lots of torque and flywheel inertia. Very hard to shift smoothly.

The RX8 was far closer to the Porsche Boxster that I drove, without the loosness of the transmission linkage, a little less torque, no valve noise. Plus a nicer interior than the G35.

 

Well thats what you get. Who the hell told you to go get a G36/9er what ever the hell its called in the first place! lol jk.

 

Applejax is right. The Miata was always a RWD 2 seater. Go check out miata.nethttp://www.miata.net and read some of "Ask Bob" columns that are written by an automotive journalist who worked closely with Mazda during the development of the initial Miata.

 

My source was Miata.net. I'm quite familiar with Bob's various writings (his posts on the forum were golden, it's too bad he stopped). I can't recall the exact source, though.

I do think the original concept was a front engine, RWD car, as stated above. Bob's baby, as it were.

But I am quite certain I recall reading that, after the intial proposal penned and allowed to escalate, Mazda evaluated all three platforms - FWD, mid-RWD and front-RWD - and a prototype was built for each. The front-engine, RWD prototype was built in CA, and there are pictures of it somewhere.

 

Yes, my memory can be a bit foggy sometimes, but I thought that one car of each type was actually made - one in the US, one in Japan, and one (I think) in Europe, and the three teams were not allowed to communicate during the construction phase, so a objectve test could be performed in the end. But perhaps it was just a styling excercise.

It makes sense that they would do this - at that point in time, a cheap, light, RWD sports car was outside conventional (automotive) wisdom.