bmcc49er

Looks are a major factor in the average carbuyers decision. Looks are subjective and i would still bet a good sum of money on a national looks test kind of like the old Pepsi/Coke thing they had going around on the RX8. I don't even think it would be close once all the numbers were in.

LostAngel

Personally I think the 8 has a nicer looking interior than the wrx...

Shamblerock

Here we go again. IMHO STI is a well engineered car with a relatively good track record of reliability. But unfortunately, it looks like a toyota corolla (inside and out) on steroids from any angle. Afterall, it is the lowest priced car Subaru offers that they they sell modified substantially to be a true performance threat at any level in any kind of conditions at any price range. Bravo. Job well done indeed, if pure performance primarily drives you. However, the RX8 is no competitor to the STI in the performance department but provides a very decent package of looks, performance, relaibility and practibility. However, it is exceptional in terms balance, easy of driving and manouver and cutting edge engineering. Afterall, they can squeeze 4 adults in a car that looks like a 2 seater and is the same length as a 911 and still handle like a dream without 4 wheel drive. The rx-8 was built and engineered from scratch with a specific purpose where as the STI was an afterthought to a car that was designed to compete with a honda civic. I could have bought the STI but was willing to give up some performance for styling and cutting edge engineering and design.

LostAngel

Well said.

canaryrx8

iTrader: (3)

one other thing people (especially subie fans) overlook is that the STI/WRX/whateveryouwantotcallit was designed as a rally car where the RX8 is first gen of its kind and was designed with a totally different purpose. To me it's like comparing a steamroller with a dumptruck, sure they both have their advantages and disadvantages but does it really make any sense to compare them? Both cars do what they were designed to do exceptionally well, perhaps we can all agree on that and stop this pointless crud of the 8's better, the sti's better, my daddy can beat up yor daddy etc etc etc

Rhawb

Fff, my daddy CAN beat up your daddy!!!!!three!!1!! You're just scared! :p

Inconsequential

LOL, I guess I should have been careful where I post my thoughts. As stated, I agree both are great cars. My main comment was that in those pics, the way the 8 looks compared to the WRX makes the subaru look more akin to an echo.
Car wise, I have never driven a WRX through mountain twisties at an avg cornering speed of 130km, but I have done this in the 8, and it is stable, and you feel as though you are barely pushing the limits on control. It is a pleasure to drive. Inner appearance, the STI is nice, better then the EVO I checked out, but the 8 felt more like you were meant to be in there driving it. I made my choice on what to get, and I dont regret it, which most people on this board will agree with me on.
I was disapointed when I could no longer get the EVO since the government or whatever decided that no more were allowed up here after the guy I was buying my car from bought the last EVO they could get.... URGH... damn border. But, after a month in this car... I haven't looked back.
Though I do wish when I drive through the coquihalla highway and a sudden snowstorm pops up that the 8 would have had AWD. Oh well....

So, it never matters whos car is technically better than another. It is how the driver/owner feels about the car they have.

RX8-TX

The hood scoop looks taller than the WRX as well...is that easy to swap?

QBallz

I guess im just silly then.

Don Vito

The RX-8 looks handsome and ready, the WRX looks like a very thin fish.

Ike

Yet very wrong... The STi and WRX exist as a result of homologation, it was not an afterthought and was introduced with the intention of making it a world rally champion. If anything these cars were engineered from from the rally cars, not the other way around.

Rhawb

So the rally car was out before the road car?

Mikelikes2drive

if you guys dont care about looks, then you would've bought an STi no?
power, awd, speed, 4 doors, bigger trunk, easy to mod compared to an 8.

the STi is in another league, unfortunately a league above

Ike

The Legacy was originally the rally car campaigned by Subaru, when they realized it wasn't an ideal platform they started work on the Impeza to be its succesor so the road car and the rally car coincided. They had to because at the time in rally racing their were homologation rules and a certain number of street cars had to be produced in order to allow a manufacturer to compete.

Throughout the years the knowledge gained by the racing team has been incorporated into the cars in just about every aspect, from safety, to performance, to ease of maintenance. The Imprezas are incredibly easy to work on and well thought out because of the need to change things quickly on their rally cars between stages. Don't forget, in the WRC if you can't drive the car on public streets to the next stage within a certain amount of time you're disqualified.

Ike

Very easy

Shamblerock

Of course its in another league and a better one from a performance point of view. But that's where is stops solid. Answer a question, por favor, without BS'ing: How many rallys per month/year have you entered with your STI or know someone who owns one or rally races it competitively while also using it as a daily driver?

If your answer is many, then your got more money to throw around to fix ding and dents and broken/bent powertrain parts on a fairly expensive car than probably anyone on this forum. If your answer is very little or none, then I wonder why you bought a rally car that looks like a basic sedan for a daily driver. Its like most people who buy SUV's never go off roading? So why the huge tires and and 4 X 4 etc... when they never really use the equipment it was designed for.

Your money, your satisfaction. As I would not enter rallys, If the STI came with 500HP and cost $5,000 less than the RX8, I still wouldn't buy it because I don't like the way it looks and would get no satisfaction from its interior/exterior designs and materials.

Enjoy your STI and we'll enjoy the RX-8. Because each of us likes different things. No big deal.

Pkskull77

I understand your argument, and compartmentalizing cars works, but your category is way to narrow, and therefore invalid. For instance, comparing an SUV to a Honda Civic would be a bad comparison. The SUV is made to carry large groups of people, over rough or hazardous terrain (assuming this SUV is equipped with 4wd). The SUV sacrifices gas mileage and nimbleness for utility. The Civic on the other hand is a good daily commuter, designed to be gas efficient, and when necessary a little peppy. The Civic sacrifices utility to be cheap. The STi and the RX-8 are both designed for sport and therefore are fair cars to compare.

First and foremost both the STi and RX-8 are sports cars. I understand that the RX-8 is generally classified as a coupe, and the STi is sports sedan, but those are just sub categories of the same genre. I would even go as far to argue that the RX-8 and the STi are more similar than the RX-8 and the Z, two cars that are often compared. The RX-8 and the STi are both 4 passenger cars that aim to be sporty. The Z was built as a sports car from the ground up. While the Z absolutely sacrifices utility for sport the STi and the 8 sacrifice some sport for utility. Both cars would be much better of with the added weight of a back seat.

You also have the history of the Impreza wrong. The Impreza was first built as a passenger car, and then engineered into a rally car. The drive of the WRX, was to bring some of the Impreza’s WRC tradition to the streets, but at its heart the Impreza is a passenger car. If you buy the 2.5 liter Impreza you don’t have a sports car, you have a passenger car. Transversely to say the RX-8 has no racing lineage is to completely ignore the rotaries racing history. Although the 8 is new from the ground up, it owes many of its innovations to the accomplishments of Mazda race cars. It is even possible to argue that at its heart the 8 is more closely related to its racing lineage than the STi, because the STi break the cardinal rule of WRC, having a 2.5 liter engine.

While I can’t argue that the 8 doesn’t do what its designed to do, I can argue that the car fails to meet the publics perception of the rotary engine, and a sport car. If the average America craves a sports car with power, and you design a car that lacks it, then you’ve marketed the car incorrectly. I don’t understand who is doing Mazda’s research, but they completely missed the mark with the 8. The cars horsepower would have been acceptable 10 years ago, but in today’s market power sells. If you don’t have the ponies, you don’t move the units. I find their lack of vision disappointing because if the 8 doesn’t make it, there is a good chance the rotary engine dies.

Pkskull77

I applaud your argument because it’s the right one to make, and there is very little I can say to debunk it. However I do take offense to your insulting the STi’s/WRX interior. Every time I read a thread comparing the 8 to something else, that something else always has cheap interior. I don’t understand what is so nice about the 8’s interior. It’s not like the car is lined with Wood Paneling and Gold plating. Everything inside the RX-8 is plastic, like 90% of the other cars out there.


The interior design is nice, but it’s not head and shoulders above the rest. With the exception of the availability of leather seating I can’t think of one thing inside the 8 that is nicer than the STi/WRX. Heck the STi/WRX has climate control, that’s something you can’t get in the 8.

Ike

I personally do not rally or rallyx my car but know dozens of people that do with various Impreza models. They are not wealthy, nor do they carr much about little dents and dings as a result of their weekend events (though the worst thing rallyx does is get the car dirty). All but a couple of them daily drive their cars, with those couple having converted their cars into deidcated rally cars. A lot of these people also use the same car for track events and autox and change little else besides the tires and wheels. In addition, even though my car has some fairly expensive aesthetic ehhancements I can't help but take a few trips down a twisty dirt road when I come across one, same goes for twisty backroads when it's snowy out.

Also, if you had any clue what you were talking about you'd realize that there are many many rally events held on tarmac, the same tarmac that is used as public roads when the event is not being held. Which could make them about the ultimate car for driving aggressively on our countries less than perfect roads. Imprezas/Subarus are not some off road dunebuggy, they're very capable on just about any surface and that's part of the appeal for many people.


That's fine, just realize that there are people out there that think your car is ugly and the WRX/STi looks great.

Shamblerock

Its not just the leather and I am well aware that there is plenty of plastic, but it has a much sportier/modern and sleeker appearance than the STI's. There are many interior's that are certainly nicer and better appointed, but for the kind ofg car it is and the price, its very eye catching and inviting with all the things in the right place. Pretty much every review I read says the same thing. It all flows smoothly. Look at the back seats for example. The 8's seats are contoured and leaned back with 2 tone leather. Its almost like a cockpit back there without gages and you get a sense of privacy without feeling too cramped. STI is more functional without the eye candy and sense of sportiness. Just my opinion.

Pkskull77

A majority of the leather in the RX-8 is not 2 toned, the center and outside are some other material.

I have also seen several reviews where they felt the RX-8 interior was a bit loud, and the speedometer was hard to see. One example of this was Jeremy Clarkson's review from Top Gear. He loved the car, but hated the interior.

Shamblerock

Yes, certain patches are not leather. They are some sort of rubber which aparently won't wear out nearly as quick, especially on the side bolsters. Time will tell if it works well or wears out faster than leather. But having had leather before, I know the side bolsters wear out because of the entry/exit motion.

Yes, at first its hard to get used to the speedometer, but I tell you, now that i have gotten used to it, I read it real easy and I prefer it to analog any day.

I can see someone saying the interior looks cheap because, as you said, there is a lots of plastic and shiny pieces (bezels) which we know are not metal or smoked glass which is plastic. But hey, its a fairly inexpensive car and they have to cut costs somewhere. If that interior was on a $60,000 BMW, I would not have been a happy camper if I bought it. My Passat had a much better interior, but you expect that for a German car.

Pkskull77

Hey don't get me wrong I loved the RX-8's interior, in fact I loved just about everything the car had to offer, with two noteable exceptions.

1. The reliability, my RX-8 was constantly in the shop. I had more stickers (from ecu flashes) under my hood than most girls have in their sticker books. Mazda promptly fixed all my problems, but it was annoying to give up a couple hours of my day driving it back and forth to the dealership, just to be given a mini van for a week.
2. The car was just to slow in the strait. I knew going in that the car was slow, but I never realized how much it would bother me.

If Mazda ever makes a faster version I will be the first person on line to buy it, but I just don't think thats ever going to happen.

therm8

The speedo is one of my favorite aspects of the dash. Analog speedometers are so hard to read now.

Ike

Exactly how is the regular WRX a complete joke? I'm curious how you justify such a bold statement.

I spend my time on here in various discussions, and not all of them involve Mazda, the RX-8, nor Subaru cars. However, every time I get into a discussion such as this one it's guaranteed someone will resort to personal attacks, thanks for not letting me down!