KEEP THESE GUYS AWAY FROM MY RX-8: An RX-7 limo conversion.
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A BIG MAZDA RX-8 RECALL: Mine’s given me no problems, but it sounds as if Mazda is handling this the right way. More here.
AUTOBLOG reports that the first street-legal hydrogen powered Mazda RX-8s have been delivered in Japan. I’d like to test drive one when they get to America.
IT’S LIKE A BIG RX-8: The Ford Iosis Concept Car. (Via Autoblog). Hey, Ford could do worse — and has!
RX-8 UPDATE: Reader Tony von Krag emails:
IIRC you got your RX 8 just about a year ago. So any thing you like or hate to a tremendous degree? BTW AutoWeek just did their year long test wrapup this week too.
I like the car to a tremendous degree. There’s nothing I hate. The Autoweek testers experienced much worse fuel economy and oil consumption than I’m experiencing. Perhaps that’s because I was meticulous about the break-in period, or perhaps it’s because their car was just different. My mileage isn’t great — about 18-20 mpg in mixed driving, and I think I got 21 or 22 on the highway once, but it’s substantially better than theirs. And my oil consumption is much, much lower. I don’t think it’s that they drove it a lot harder, because I generally keep the revs pretty high. It’s a lot more fun to drive that way, after all.
I had a battery problem (covered under a recall), but that’s the only problem I’ve had with it. The car is fast — and, more importantly, it feels fast, something that other cars with similar numbers don’t always deliver. It’s loads of fun to drive, the seats are shockingly comfortable, even on fairly lengthy trips, and the back seat is actually functional. I’ve actually had it since August of ’03, and I like it at least as much as when it was new.
I haven’t tricked mine out with lots of Japanese Domestic Market gewgaws or anything, and it’s kind of sad that you can’t get one of these
UPDATE: A reader emails:
Thought I’d give you my impression of the RX-8. I’ve had one since June 2004. My gas mileage is about the same as AutoWeek’s (I actually stopped keeping track after about 6 months, but I haven’t seen any noticeable improvement in miles per tank). The only time I went over 20 mpg was on a long trip from CA to AZ. I usually get 15-17 mpg. (And yes, I drive it pretty hard, what’s the point of getting a car that revs to 9300 if you don’t get it at least 2/3rds of the way there).
My oil consumption is almost the same as AutoWeek’s. I had my oil changed 3000 miles ago and have added 1.5 quarts.
The other most common complaint of the RX-8 is the snow performance of the tires. I’ve never driven in the snow (we don’t get much over here), and I don’t plan to.
I am VERY satisfied with the car. My wife, on the other hand, is not so happy with it. We have a 3 year old daughter and there is not much room in the back seat for her. Therefore, when all 3 of us are in the car, my wife doesn’t have much room in the passenger seat because we have to move it up just to fit our daughter. Plus, it’s kind of awkward to get our daughter in and out of the back seat.
The back seats work (and my daughter fits behind me OK without me moving the seat up, but she’s old enough not to need a carseat), but their chief virtue is that they exist. You can put a small-to-medium adult in them for short distances, but you wouldn’t want to go far.
Meanwhile, reader Steven Headley emails:
Regarding your posted comments about your RX-8 … I am glad that you really like your vehicle, and definitely have been looking at the car as the wife’s “next car”, but have to take issue with your characterization of the RX-8 as “fast”.
As an owner of an American musclecar (2000 Pontiac WS-6 Trans Am) there is nothing like the experience of 400+ horses from the GM Gen III LS1 engine (“slightly modified”) coupled through a 6-speed tranny to the rear wheels.
0 to 60MPH in a little over 4 seconds, now THAT is “fast” … !
No, that’s “absurdly fast.” And reader Paul Music thinks I should get this car, but he seriously overestimates my tipjar proceeds . . . .
ANOTHER UPDATE: Charles Austin emails:
I’ve had mine for about 4 months now and I love it. My daughters (8 and 15) fit comfortably in the back seats tooling around town. I get 16-20 MPG depending on how I’m driving and added 1 quart for the first 4,000 miles.
What’s not to love about this car? It is fast, though clearly not the fastest, but I do enjoy the off ramps where I zoom zoom by the Mustangs, BMWs and 350Zs that pass me on the straightaways.
Yes, it’s good on the “twisty bits.”
RX-8 REPORT: I turned my grades in this morning, and set out for a picture-taking drive through the boonies. It was nice, and along the way the RX-8 turned over 5000 miles. Since people occasionally email to ask what my longer-term impressions are, I thought I’d record a few here.
Overall, I feel about like I did when it was new. It’s phenomenally balanced — so much so that you sometimes forget just how fast it is. The gearshift is smooth, and the engine is very responsive. The steering is taut, and has good feedback. The brakes are fabulous.
I’ve found that I actually like the interior and the driver’s seat more than I did when I bought it. The seat is more comfortable, even on fairly long trips, than the seat in my Passat, which is saying something.
Fuel economy doesn’t suck, especially given the horsepower, but it’s nothing to write home about. I get in the low 20s on the highway, the upper teens in town. (Extended high-rev trips in the mountains push it lower, though; the Passat’s better, but then it has less than 2/3 the horsepower). Oil consumption — something that rotaries have issues with — hasn’t been bad. I added one quart between buying the car and doing the 5000-mile oil change last week. However, you are supposed to check the oil regularly. I do, and the dipstick location, to put it mildly, sucks. (The oil-volume sensor will sometimes falsely tell you that you’re low on oil; it seems sensitive to a combination of slope and jiggle that a couple of roads I’ve encountered possess, giving a false low reading that goes away after a minute. Be sure to check before you add more oil!)
A guy in a big pickup dinged me with his trailer hitch in the parking lot a couple of months back. I kept honking, but he just couldn’t see me. This made a hole about the size of, well, a trailer hitch in the plastic panel surrounding the right-side exhaust. To my pleasant surprise, replacing the part cost only $36.
Bottom line: I can drive the car all day, have a blast, and get out less tired than when I got in. So I’m happy. If you want more technical stuff, here’s a long-term review from Auto Week. And here’s an interesting article on the hand-assembly process used on the engine. (Thanks to reader Jim Herd for both links.)
A HYDROGEN-POWERED RX-8? That’s kind of cool, though I’m not overwhelmed with the environmental appeal of hydrogen cars — unless, you know, you’re getting the electricity to make the hydrogen from orbiting solar farms or some other clean source.
RX-8 UPDATE: Reader Fraser Cutten sends this link to a review of the RX-8 from TopGear. (WMV video stream).
RX-8 UPDATE: Several readers — including one who says he’s a product analyst at Mazda — have emailed recently to ask for a longer-term evaluation of the RX-8. So here it is.
The short answer is that I continue to love the car, and in fact appreciate it more as time goes on. It has a wonderfully balanced feel. It’s a car that you wear as much as drive. It’s not the fastest car I’ve ever driven, though it’s quite fast, but it’s definitely the most fun to drive. Pushing down on the accelerator going into a curve causes it to plant itself even more solidly on the road and just zip through. (The only problem is that you can wind up going a lot faster than you realize; fine as long as you stay on the road, but as Tim Blair noted, if you get in trouble at that speed, you’re really in trouble. . . ). The feeling is extremely secure and taut.
The gearshift is a joy: smooth and positive. Unlike the shift in the 350Z or the Infiniti G35 coupe, it’s very slick and not at all notchy. As with the steering, you think it, you don’t think about it. Braking is just terrific, and although the ride is fairly taut, it’s not uncomfortable. The seats are very comfortable — to my surprise, they’re some of the most comfortable seats I’ve ridden in, even over some distance. Trunk space, while nothing to write home about, isn’t bad for a car this small (though the trunk opening is narrow), and you honestly can put grownups in the back seats. You wouldn’t want to ride back there for a cross-country trip, but for normal-sized adults it’s fine for a cross-town ride. There are plenty of cupholders (4) and storage compartments in the cabin, and the sound system is great.
Reliability so far has been fine — no problems at all. The only complaint I have is that the oil dipstick is hard to reach — buried down deep amid hoses and pipes. It looks as if they could have made the dipstick longer; I don’t know why they didn’t. That’s a pretty minor flaw, though. Except for the fact that the passenger door can’t be opened with a key from the drivers’ side (you have to use the wireless clicker, or hit the unlock button inside the car) that’s my only real complaint. The “night” setting on the control panel could be a bit brighter, as it washes out a bit even on maximum brightness if you have the headlights on during the day, but you can override that by selecting the “day” setting easily enough.
I’ve enjoyed the car very much, and I’d certainly buy it again. Here’s my earlier post.
RX-8 UPDATE: Just got the same letter mentioned below, offering to repurchase the car, or to give me $500 plus free scheduled maintenance for 48 months/50,000 miles, in satisfaction for overstating the horsepower.
That’s a very handsome offer. I’m quite happy with the car, so I don’t think I’ll go for the repurchase.
LOOKS LIKE EARLIER REPORTS ARE TRUE:
The RX-8 officially went on sale in early July and customers who already have taken delivery or who ordered the car prior to August 26 will be offered free scheduled maintenance for the new car’s entire warranty period – worth an estimated $US1,200 – and be given a $500 debit card, WardsAuto.com said. If owners still believe they’ve been irrevocably wronged, Mazda will buy back the car for the original purchase price, the report added.
Apparently, some people have already gotten letters.
RX-8 UPDATE: Mazda’s website is now reporting 238 horsepower for the 6-speed RX-8. That’s down from 250 in the early ads, and 247 in the specs in the manual with my car.
Reader Andy Sexton reports:
Now, supposedly dealers are starting to contact people. If the message boards are to be believed, they will be offering owners buy backs or $500 + free servicing for the life of the standard warranty.
I haven’t heard from the dealer on this. However, my 6-disc CD changer turned out to be a single-disc player (you can’t tell from the panel, which looks the same either way), and the dealer will be installing the right one next week. This has to be a bit of an embarrassment for Mazda.
Having gotten through the break-in period, I have noticed that the car — while very quick — isn’t as much quicker than similar cars as the weight vs. horsepower would suggest. (It seems, in fact, roughly comparable subjectively to the 190hp Eagle Talon I drove about ten years ago, which was very fast, but which had, well 190hp and probably weighed about the same or more. I just assumed that my standards had risen.) Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Reader Steve Ramsey emails:
Glenn, the actual HP rating is only partially relevant. That motor of yours produces prodigious HP and torque throughout its incredably wide power band, with the capability to turn RPM’s that would explode all but a formula one racing engine.
The light weight and small size of the wankel have a profound effect on the balance of the whole machine.
Feel is one thing, results another. The RX-8 would leave the eagle talon behind on any road course in the world.
Good reason for Mazda to come across with some lovin’ for its goof. No reason for any RX-8 owner to get into a blue funk.
All true. I’m not in a funk at all — the car is terrific, and I’m very happy with how it drives. I do wonder how a mistake like this is possible, though.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Mazda has had this problem before, with the Miata. That makes it even more puzzling that it would happen again.
HEY — I DO LIVE IN NERDISTAN! Paul Boutin test drives the RX-8 and calls it a sports car for nerds.
Coming from Paul, of course, that’s a compliment. But why has Kaus remained obstinately silent?
I BOUGHT THE RX-8 ON THURSDAY. It then rained every day. Today the weather was perfect, so after going in to the office and doing a couple of things that had to be done today, I took off and went to the mountains, driving on the Foothills Parkway, hiking up to the Look Rock fire tower, etc. It was great, and made me wonder why I don’t do that more often — I’m close enough to do it on a long lunch. (The RX-8 is great. Full report later.)
When I got home, the blow-off gods had punished me, as the DSL was out. So I’m working at Borders, which now has wireless Internet. [So how does this count as being “punished?” — Ed. My cappucino is a bit too frothy. . . .]
More later.
WHILE MICKEY KAUS CONTINUES TO MAINTAIN STUBBORN SILENCE on the vital RX-8 question, I have been tirelessly looking into the matter.
I was passing by the Knoxville Mazda dealership today and stopped in to drive one. The first thing I noticed was the low-pressure salesmanship. In sharp contrast to my unfortunate experience with the Nissan 350Z a while back, they were happy to let me drive a car, and exerted no pressure to buy one on the spot, as so many dealers do.
I liked the car very much. The styling is somewhat Batmobile-like, but that’s a good thing, I think. The interior is surprisingly roomy — I even fit in the coupe’s backseat, which is accessed via “suicide” reverse-opening half doors that make getting in and out easy. I wouldn’t want to sit there for a long trip, but you could easily put two full-sized adults in there when going out for lunch, and there’s plenty of room for one or two kids. The stereo was excellent — the only car stereo I’ve heard at any price that matches the quality of the one in my Passat wagon, which for some reason is exceptionally good.
The model that I drove was the top-of-the-line “Grand Touring” model with 18-inch wheels, DVD navigation, etc. Adjusting the seat position, etc., was easy and intuitive (then again, I’ve owned two Mazdas in the past, a 1980 RX-7 and a 1993 MX-6). I didn’t use the DVD navigation system (I don’t think I’d ever buy one of those, anyway) but the climate and radio controls were easy and featured big, tactile knobs. The seats, in Mazda tradition, were very comfortable.
Shifting was delightful — short throws, very precise, very positive. The engine was powerful, though not as powerful as, say, the Infiniti G35 coupe. But the Mazda felt better. Steering was extremely taut and responsive, and the weight distribution is just about perfectly 50-50. It shows in the handling. The rotary engine had a very pleasant sound, though it lacked the mild almost-backfiring on deceleration that earlier rotaries had. Overall, the feel was quite similar to my 1980 RX-7 at some subliminal level, even though the new version is much more refined and powerful. I liked it a lot.
Weirdly, a spare tire is optional — the car doesn’t come with one, just with a repair kit. In a way this makes sense. I haven’t had to change a tire in well over a decade, even though I’ve had major nail punctures. Today’s tires seal that sort of thing pretty well. But still. . . .
I was pretty impressed. So is reader John Brothers who emails:
I have had the good luck and foresight to own one of the very first RX-8s in Atlanta. It is an incredibly fun car – although the manual is somewhat cramped for people over 5’10 – Luckily I have an automatic (I’m 6’1). It is nimble and sleek, gets lots of double takes and is hands down the best car I’ve ever driven.
Plus, it looks like a 944, which was my dream car when I was a kid.
I didn’t find the interior cramped (I drove a manual), and I’m six-three. But what does Mickey think?
UPDATE: Reader Jon Foster emails these thoughts on successful car-sales techniques:
When we went to look at the Protege 5 for the wife, we were driving around in it before the salesman actually asked us for our names. Several months later when we wanted to buy, he got the sale. I am looking at a Mazda 6 for myself, and believe me, he will get the sale again.
Wish all dealerships had such nice salesmen!
Yeah.
MAZDA’S LUXURY-BRAND AMBITIONS: Tested: 2021 Mazda 3 2.5 Turbo vs. Audi A4 45. I’ve liked the Mazdas I’ve owned — an MX-6 and an RX-7 and RX-8 — and they’ve managed to feel kinda luxurious for a non-luxury brand.
Bottom line: “As it stands now, the Mazda 3 2.5 Turbo offers a hell of a lot of car for the money, while the Audi A4 offers an appropriate amount of car for the money.”