JSG

At full chat (Mike Rutherford):

Come December, I go through my agonising annual ritual of deciding on my personal car of the year. In 2002, some fine motors were launched, but while there were lots of contenders, there was no clear winner for me. Hand on heart, I could not say one particular model was clearly better than everything else on the market. This year, an even more impressive crop of vehicles has hit showrooms. But this time around, I believe one of them stands out from the crowd to such a degree that it is not only the best new car of 2003, but the best by a mile. It's the Mazda RX-8.

Before I tell you what's so right about it, I'll list some of its flaws - even the world's top car isn't perfect. For starters, from certain angles, its styling isn't quite right. The complicated design also means it could age quickly unlike, say, Porsche's timeless Boxster. Also, the performance might underwhelm some, so a Nissan 350Z could be a better bet for buyers after a purer, costlier, more cramped drivers' car. Fuel economy is poor, and the fact that the oil has to be checked about every 500 miles is a pain - and a bit of a mystery. Mazda, remember, is the only Japanese maker to win the Le Mans 24 Hours, where the last thing on anyone's mind is checking oil levels every five minutes!

But there are countless plus points. From the front and side, the design gets nods of approval and admiring glances from everybody. Whether I was refuelling, sitting at traffic lights or simply parking, the reaction from fellow motorists, cyclists and pedestrians was overwhelmingly positive. That's because the RX-8 is unique. It costs less than a flagship Ford Mondeo or Vauxhall Vectra, but it's a sports car, a coupé and a four-seat family car in one. The fact that the two rear doors are hidden so discreetly is clever enough - the fact that they're of the expensive barn-style variety is the icing on the cake.

Mums and dads who need a proper family car for the morning school run, a high-quality tool for work purposes and a credible and sporty-looking fun machine for evenings out have the ultimate in the RX-8. A couple with two children could easily live with the Mazda's tight but acceptable levels of occupant and luggage space.

Build quality is another area where the RX-8 beats rivals hands down. True, Nissans are well made, but not as well as Mazdas, which are closer to Toyota/Lexus and Honda standards. And it's not only the way the RX-8 is screwed together that's so impressive. All this starts at only £20,000, for heaven's sake - daft money for a car of this calibre.

Indeed, designers and engineers from rival makers have told me they just don't know how the relatively small Hiroshima firm can do a vehicle this good for a price this low. And neither do I. In value for money terms alone, the RX-8 is worth investing in - it's being sold close to cost price, which doesn't happen often. The Mazda is versatile, desirable, head-turning, truly unique and built to world class standards. I can't imagine why anybody with £20,000 to spend on an unusual sporty car would go for anything else.

http://www.evo.co.uk/

mikeb

now I have bragging rights

selmeralto

Nor can I!

zoom44

WOOT!!

Kenco

Hail EVO magazine, this just proves that Autocar magazine (UK) are talking utter crap by slating the 8.:p