The wife had me out testing minivans but since the toyota dealer was also a mazda dealer I convinced her to go for a ride. The new Shinka interior is pretty nice although I don't know if I would have used the Shinka name for what is essentially just an options package. It had the keyless start but the yprobably should have just put a start button in there somewhere. The engine sound as expected was unlike anything I've heard before, like a Vacumn cleaner on steriods, sounded quite nice at 8,000 RPM. Performance and horsepower have been hashed on here alot. I thought the car was quick, not really fast but quick enough. The only real problem I see is torque, not horsepower (although more is always nice), there is none of that punch that you would expect from a sportcar until about 7-8k. Handling was superb, with good feedback through the wheel; shifting was smooth and clutch take up was nice and not stiff as I expected. All in all a nice ride, if they could squeeze in some grunt around 2-3k it would be a great ride.

 

Shinka --- Minivan?
Tough choice.

 

Hah minivans are for the wife. I'll be trading my car in for something faster in the next 6-9 months. Trying to convince her since she will have the family car it's not really necessary for me to have a family car as well. She hasn't biten yet but when I asked her if she enough room sitting in the back of the 8 and she said she was fine. That was the first step

 

what color was it?

 

I believe it was galaxy gray, for some reason they had four GG and two were with the Shinka package and one was a GT with the brown and black leather (not a color combo I would chose, maybe on a green car but not gray). In general it really is a fine looking car inside and out; the digital spedo took a minute or two to adjust to but other than that I’d say the cabin design is excellent.

 

So when are you getting it?

 

Well by the time I'm finished test driving (sometime next month) I will have tested 8-10 cars. Then I'll pick my favorite and do battle with the wife. I'm expecting alot of this

 

<--- Have some quality time with the wife, I'm sure she would say yes!! haha just kidding...hope you buy the car, would be nice to see some nice 06's out there esp. if they were SHINKA's... GOOD LUCK

 

I just bought a new Shinka three weeks ago.

My wife, also, was very skeptical.

But after I demonstrated that I could easily take our 7-year-old and 4-year-old to school and back by utilizing the suicide doors then taking her out to a nice restaurant followed by a nice drive with the windows down and sunroof open along the Mississippi River valley at fairly high speeds on curvy bluff roads, she was a convert.

In fact, she even let us take the 8 to church with the whole family on Sunday rather than her Volvo SUV which is our usual "entire family" car.

Feel free to share my story to help convince your spouse.

 

I appreciate the help. Unfortunately my wife is very practical (not always a bad thing) and she shares a mindset with a large part of the population that cars are to get you from point A – B. I feel like the teacher in Charlie Brown when I speak to her of driving dynamics and having a connection between myself and the machine. Whah Waugn Wa, Wha wagn wa wah.

My car is almost 3 years old now and runs perfectly so there really is no practical reason to buy a new one. In about two weeks my wife will trade her very practical Subaru Outback in for a yet even more practical Honda Odyssey. I guess one of has to be practical.

I’ve pretty much decided that whatever I like best as long as it has 4 seats and the child seats can fit in the back I’m getting it. She can’t be mad at me forever.

Next on the test drive list this Friday is a 2003 BMW M3…..Oh that’s gonna be fun. Also hoping to test a 2004 STI right after so it will be interesting to see how they compare.

 

Galaxy Grey Shinka??? As far as I know Shinka was only done in Black, White, and Copper Red this year.

Yes, interior on Shinka is very sick. Particularly Alcantara(Suede)/Leather combo. Had to have it myself. Had a girl sit in the car recently (GoGo dancer) and she almost had an orgasm because of the Suede seats. Didn't know it was such a big deal...

Time

 

Yep gray, they had two of them with the shinka package. GoGo dancer and suede does sound pretty good

 

Looks like you have quite a battle ahead. M3 vs. STI vs RX8 vs Wife!!!

M3 is surely the pimp of them all but the 8 and STI have cult like following. That's why were all here and Rotaries have been known to mod quite well from past experience for HP (e.g.--93-97 Rx8 does almost 700hp when done right. Rx-8 in in Puerto Rico currently doing 650hp with additional rotors and mods).

Good luck either way.

Time

 

Two types of cars absolutely-
We use the Rx-8 for comfortable travel,
Have the old 323 for things you would never do to a good car like haul trash to the dump, carrying the neighbors children (who are studying to be demolation experts) to school, carrying a dozen potted trees, or bales of alfalfa (it will hold 2)...Cant do that with an 8, but for sure comfort the 8 is the car especially if you want to feel like you look good!

 

Got a chance to drive an M3, actually got to put my boy in the back (only took about a minute or two for the car seat install. You get pretty good at that after a while.) Making sure the car had LATCH and it was easy enough to get my son in was a must to convince the wife (perhaps convince is not the right word, I think she is just tired of hearing about it). With salesman and boy in the car I didn’t push it hard but man that thing is a monster. I only took it up to about 7,000 RPM, but more than enough go power for me. I do think the SMG was a tad messed up. Worked great in S mode but I tried all 5 programs for A mode and it would not shift even when I went over 8,000 RPM in 1st gear. A1 or A2 should have shifted a lot lower than that. SMG would be a must so that the wife could drive it. The suspension was a lot stiffer than the RX-8 but I didn’t find it uncomfortable even going into a construction area with beat up roads. I’d love to have 10 minutes with just me in the car to really have a go at it.

The STI that Carmax had was sold or transferred before I got there so no chance to drive that one yet. Would have really liked to have had a chance to compare the two back-to-back.