FLASHBACK: My 6-year review of the RX-8.

FLASHBACK: RX-8, 6-YEAR REVIEW.

THE RX-8 WAS AN UNDERRATED CAR: Why Car Lovers Are So Mad for Mazda’s Rotary Engine Revival.

SO SEARCHING MY BLOG ARCHIVES LED ME BACK TO THIS PIC, which kinda made me miss my RX-8.

WELL, THAT’S GOOD, BECAUSE I TAUGHT THE INSTA-DAUGHTER TO DRIVE A MANUAL ON THE RX-8, BUT SHE HASN’T DRIVEN ONE SINCE AS FAR AS I KNOW: Once You Learn to Drive A Manual You’ll Never Forget: Your Subconscious Takes Over.

GALLERY: The 1980 Mazda RX-7. I used to have an ’81. I’ve still got the RX-8, which turned 10 while I was at the beach, or I’d have staged a re-enactment of this iconic photo.

I’m actually toying with selling the Mazda, as I just don’t drive it enough any more, and with 4 cars cluttering up the premises, I wonder if I should let it go.

Any suggestions?

ON THE UPSIDE, THIS WILL MAKE MY RX-8 A TRUE COLLECTIBLE: Mazda to drop production of vehicles with trademark rotary engines. “Mazda will stop making cars with its signature rotary engines after a 45-year production run that included powering the first and only Japanese car to win the 24-hour Le Mans endurance race.”

LIST: 10 High-Performance Used Cars You Can Actually Afford. My Mazda RX-8 is first on the list.

I STILL LIKE MY RX-8, WHICH I’VE HAD FOR MORE THAN 8 YEARS NOW: Mazda still pursuing rotary development.

I DO STILL LOVE MY RX-8: Mickey Kaus emails: “You saw you have the 3d best handling car sold in America, according to Car & Driver? They were shocked by how good it was. Beat BMW M3, Nissan GT-R, Corvette. Lost only to Lotus Elise (a toy) and Porsche Boxster.” Actually, I hadn’t, but I believe it. It handles better than I can drive, so there’s no point in me “upgrading” to something else.

Still trouble-free, too. Had to put in a new battery, but that’s because I loaned it out and the dome light got left on for a week. . . .

UPDATE: Reader George Pepper writes:

“It handles better than I can drive.” Man, I wish more dudes were hip to that. I don’t care for cars, frankly – I drive a truck – but it’s the same deal with motorcycles. I ride a BMW, am in my 50’s, and I regularly waste twenty-something squids through any given set of twisties. Apres ride conversations invariably are a variation on this:

Squid: “Dude! You toasted me and I have a GSXTZFZR- 75,000!”

Me: “Your bike can easily beat my bike, but you can’t beat me.”

lol.

A man’s gotta know his limitations. And I was a lot better at driving much faster than I should when I was in my teens, and had no dependents, even though my car wasn’t nearly as good . . . .

Related: A recent RX-8 post.

Plus: The sports car for nerds. That’s me!

SO READER PAUL SCHMIDT OWNS A MAZDA RX-8 LIKE I DO, but is thinking of trading it in for a new Mustang GT. He writes about his test-drive over the weekend:

It may be too obvious to mention, but the Rixxer and the Mustang are two very different cars. Although the reviews I’ve read say the Mustang handles pretty well, it’s not anywhere in the league of the RX8’s go-cart suspension. This has an upside, though: your kidneys don’t get hammered by every manhole cover, road patch and expansion joint you encounter. It’s a solid, comfortable ride- I don’t know offhand what the curb weights are, but the Mustang feels significantly heavier than the Mazda.

Acceleration, well, the Mustang has it all over the Rixxer. On one 40 – 80 run getting on the highway, I half expected the colors in front of me to be blue-shifted- that thing is a total rocket! I did a zero-to-40ish run which was quite fun, too. I understand it has traction control, but I didn’t try to turn it off; I think the dealer would have been irked with rubber flecks all over the rear quarter panels. What’s nice is it’s very docile driving around city streets, so there’s no penalty for the big motor in that respect.

The Mustang is easier to get in and out of (my wife and I are starting to get a little tired of climbing out of the Rixxer), and the back seat is marginally larger, as is the trunk. One nit: the rear seat headrests block some of the view out the rear window, but you won’t spend much time looking in that direction until the blue lights start flashing.

As a great driver once said, what’s-a behind-a me don’t matter. I take exception to the kidney-hammering bit, though. I find the RX-8 ride quite pleasant.

NEXT-GEN CHEVY VOLT could use diesel or rotary power. Much as I love my RX-8, diesel seems more sensible. But maybe I’m wrong.

UPDATE: Engineering Prof Chris Kobus writes: “Glenn – you’re absolutely correct. Diesel technology is inherently more efficient. If all spark-ignition engines were replaced with diesel, we’d reduce our dependence on foreign oil by almost 50%. As good as hybrids are in terms of fuel economy, hybrid diesels would blow them all away. Locomotives have been hybrid diesels for some time now.”

SO DOES THIS MAKE MINE A “COLLECTIBLE CLASSIC” NOW? Mazda RX-8 To Be Discontinued In US Market. It’s a great car.

REFLECTING ON THE NOW-DISCONTINUED Honda S2000. I looked at those when I bought the RX-8. Nice cars, but it was one of those East Tennessee summers where it seemed to be raining every day, and so the convertible wasn’t as appealing as it would have been in, say, southern California.

OUCH: My Mazda RX-8 is on the “cash for clunkers” list!

And I was just blogging about how happy I am with it. But . . a “clunker?” I guess it should make me feel better about the fact that the program is being stopped. Or should it?

RX-8 UPDATE: Okay, it’s now been, believe it or not, nearly 6 years since I bought the Mazda RX-8. Since it’s a second car, to be driven to the mountains on nice days, etc., it’s still low-mileage, but it still drives like new. (Actually, slightly better, since I like the Kumho Ecsta tires I bought last year better than the original equipment Bridgestones.) I’ve had no mechanical problems other than a bad battery that was replaced under warranty. Gas mileage isn’t anything special. I’m well into my second set of tires, but the brakes still have a lot of life in ’em — that probably says something about my driving style . . .

Recently I had Mazda retrofit an iPod adapter, which works fine with the existing stereo. That’s a big plus — the FM adapter I’d been using sucked, because there’s almost no open frequency in Knoxville. Would I buy it again? Yes. Especially since Mazda has extended the powertrain warranty to 8 years, 100,000 miles. Lots more background here.

UPDATE: Total cost for the iPod adapter? $280, installed. The dealer had it in stock, and the whole thing, together with the scheduled maintenance, only took a few hours. Controlling the iPod from the stereo works fine, and the cable is generously long.

WHAT TO BUY: A new Mazda RX-8 or a used Porsche Cayman?

RIDING SHOTGUN in the Mazda RX-8 hydrogen car.

AT THE TRUTH ABOUT CARS, a review of the 2009 Mazda RX-8 (R3 Sport Package).

SO I’VE HAD THE MAZDA RX-8 for nearly five years now, and people occasionally email to ask if I still like it. Yes. The story is pretty much what it was back when it was new. Still handles well, fun to drive, seats very comfy. Still looks like new, too. On the second set of tires. It still doesn’t burn much oil — despite the reputation of rotary engines — but the gas mileage is so-so, though of course it is a sports car. Still, it’s funny that it gets worse mileage than the Highlander Hybrid.

I GOT A LETTER FROM MAZDA EXTENDING THE ENGINE WARRANTY ON MY RX-8 to 8 years and 100,000 miles. New RX-8s will have the longer warranty, too. Cool.

A REVIEW OF THE Nissan GT-R. Sounds kinda cool, but I’m not likely to swap the RX-8 for one. I mean, it’s cheap for a supercar, but it’s not cheap, and the extra performance mostly falls in the “use it only when traversing Nevada” category. Also, the RX-8 is paid for . . . .

WHENEVER I GET AROUND TO REPLACING MY RX-8, it’s going to be with one of these. Well, I hope, anyway. Yowza.

ROLLING OUT THE Mazda RX-8 convertible.

RX-8 UPDATE: So far, after four years I’ve had no problems with the car. But the original-equipment tires went bad. I noticed an increasingly-loud roaring noise from the rear at speed, and it turned out the tread had “cupped.” Apparently this is a problem with a lot of low-profile tires. I replaced them and it was like getting a new car. I replaced the Bridgestone Potenzas that were original equipment with Kumho Ecsta SPT tires of the same size. They seem at least as grippy, and considerably quieter and comfier than the Bridgestones were even when new. They were very reasonably priced, considering that they’re big, wide, low-profile ultra-high-performance tires. Replacing the tires isn’t news — they were four years old and even though I don’t drive the car every day they were ready to be replaced. It’s the subtlety with which the noise built up, and caused me to enjoy driving the car less without quite grasping the reason at first. Very glad to have that gone.

UPDATE: Reader Bill Nickless emails: “My RX-8 is my daily driver, so with ice and snow in the winter I can’t run either the original equipment Bridgestones nor the Kumho Ecstas. But with Bridgestone Blizzaks the RX-8 is an excellent winter car. It’s 17 degrees F here in Richland Washington this morning, with an inch of snow on the road in front of my house, and I’m not worried at all about my 10 mile commute.”

Yeah, I had a first-gen RX-8 7 (a 1980 model) and it was pretty tailhappy even on dry roads, and kind of iffy on anything slick. The new ones are much better in general, so this doesn’t surprise me.