cdawgger

Hey guys,

I may be new to the rotary world (used to own civic si, wrx). I was just wondering how reliable this car is based on your personal experiences.. I've heard that it isn't that reliable, but other times I hear it is as long as you don't do anything stupid. Just need your input before I make a buy... thanks

New Yorker

The 8 seems to be more or less as reliable as most other cars. On a scale ranging from "Much worse than average" up to "much better than average," Consumer Reports (CR) subscribers originally rated the 8's reliability as "below average", for the original 2004 model. Then it went up to "average". Now it's dropped to "below average" again. ("Below average is obviously not great, but it's certainly not horrible.)

CR also has a "Vehicles to avoid" list—only the 2004 RX-8 is on it. CR also has a "CR Bad Bets" list (cars that "…consistently had more problems than other models overall.") The RX-8 is NOT on it.

Road & Track recently completed a long term road test and rated reliability as "excellent".

Finally remember that, reading any car forum, you'll walk away thinking any car is problem city. That's because it's human nature to complain and/or seek solutions when your car is having problems—people who are pleased with their cars generally don't start "My car is problem-free" threads!

StewC625

Thank you for a "newbie" post that wasn't stupid (like "I heard you have to change the engine every 30K miles").

I'd give the car somewhere between good and excellent on the reliable scale. I think that if anything isn't going to be reliable, it will be unrelated to the engine and drive train - that's fantasically reliaable as long as you keep it maintained - regular oil changes (every 5K miles is fine, more if you beat it), don't abuse it terribly, and don't do mods that aren't well engineered. Oh, and pay attention to the oil level - it does consume oil by design.

Things that break tend to be appearance and electronics related - nothing catastrophic. My biggest complaint is with the interior finishes and materials - definitely "sub-standard" compared to other cars I've owned - they easily scratch, the leather seems thin, the plastics are softer than normal and poorly textured. Little ****, but when you're used to better, well, annoying.

Happy hunting - if you can wait until August of 08, I'll have a gently use '04 with 40K miles on it for you - Lightning Yellow. Mine goes off lease then.

NoTears316

Owner since Aug 2003, over 50k miles and no major issues at all.

j67345

I've got an '04 with no issues other than the recalls/TSB's. I'd buy another one without any reservations.

Just keep in mind that if you do a search, you're going to find a lot of posts about people bitching about their car....but the number of people having major problems pales in comparison with the number of people that don't have a bunch of complaints....it's apparently more fun to say bad things about the car than to talk about your car running great

DarkBrew

The Civic isn't a sports car and mine wasn't reliable at all compared to the RX8.

Huskyfan23

'04 GT with 55k miles. Only flooded once, other than that no issues with the engine.

The rotary tends to have a bad rep as a result of the twin turbo 13B=REW in the RX-7. They had some reliability issues, but the issues were strictly a result of the tuborchargers complexity. Non-turbocharged RX-8s (NA) can actually last longer than typical piston engine, due to less moving parts. I had a friend who had an RX-7 NA that made it to 250,000 miles.

As the RX-8 is non-turbocharged, the engine should last you a very long time. There are people on this site who already have their 8's nearing the 100,000 mile mark who have had no issues.

bobf

Never had a problem with my -04. By unreliability, do they mean it has recalls? If fixing recalls is "unreliability", then my -04 is not reliable.

I prefer fixing recalls at the dealer for free, better than having a car break down somewhere on the road.

CarAndDriver

Do some searching.

Wilson

04 that just hit 40,000 miles. It has been to the dealer for all the scheduled maintenance and recalls. I was getting terrible gas mileage, but the tuneup last Monday seems to have taken care of this problem. Still on the first tank and it is looking close to 20 MPG.

I have been very pleased with this car. It attracts a lot of attention everywhere I go. I have no regrets about buying this car.

Starter

Is there a good service dept near you?