Well think again guys!

I've read a lot of complaints about MPG etc on here, and myself I was a little surprised at the not so stellar performance in this departement.

But I have to admit, I never really checked out the big segment of the market that hogs the gas.

My brother just purchased a Chevy Avalanche, so for S**Ts and giggles I looked up the fuel "Economy".

City 17.8L/100 km (13.2 MPG)
Highway 13.2L/100 km (17.8 MPG)
Combined 15.7L/100 km (15 MPIG)
:eek:

Now this is all ideal, he also pulls a trailer for camping double :eek:

So far I've averaged 11.5L/100Km (20.5 MPG) on my RX-8 and I can easily get 10.5Liters/100Km (22MPG) on the highway.

He use to have a Ford Explorer Sportrak......
15.0L / 100 km City
10.6L / 100 km Highway.

Heck that's not TOO bad, he said he was getting 450Km on a tank of 80L. I can't FREAKIN believe that he went to something with WORSE mileage.

I'm not sure he even checked into it!

Edit: I should add, he "requires" this large vehicle because he has a 5 year old daughter. LOL

You do realize that you are comparing the fuel economy of the RX-8 to a vehicle which weighs two times as much and is the aerodynamic equivalent of a brick, right?

SUVs are gas hogs. That's why so many environmental groups here have been fighting to get the economy standards for that type of vehicle raised.

And this is supposed to make ourselves feel better?

Grats! You guys get better gas mileage than SOME SUVs! :D

Well Wing, your brother's Avalanche as a better fuel consumption than my 8:mad:

Just trying to say, in the GRAND skeem of things it isn't all that bad. Since I went from a car that could get 30mpg easy I was shocked but I'd say probably only 50% maybe less of the cars on the road actually get that kind of mileage.

I don't see how your 8 could be THAT bad, do you only get 200Km on a tank?? Because these SUVS have 85 liter tanks and only get 400-450Km, if you can't get that on 60L you have a problem.

Hi Wing,

Just go to http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9396, I started a thread about my fuel consumption; if you go to page 2, you'll see a summary of my fuel consumption so far (August 28th).

I'll fill up again today (so far I drove 280km and the warning light is on since 276km)... should be around 18L/100:eek:

Wow, bad gas or something is seriously wrong.

I've been driving my car HARD this last tank, I still got 100Km on the first 1/4 tank. My last tank I got 520Km!

I got 67Km after the light.

Bad gas?? LOL..

dude this car is a GUZZZZLER.

I get fairly approximate 200 miles between fillups.. And I commute 100 miles per day.

YIKES.

Guzzler for some, really maybe there is something WRONG with mine? It's too good.

Mine is like yours Wing... but i do drive it easy most of the time and do 75% of my driving on HW.

i'll try a full tank driving it hard and see how bad it gets.

Maybe the GS is better on gas :) Less weight!

I wish i were on the thin side myself... damn, gained 20lbs after quitting smoking !!

Midway down this (http://www.rx8forum.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=88817#post88817) thread you'll find my MPG Stats to the last fill up.

http://www.rx8forum.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=88817#post88817

As of 09/01/03 I have averaged 14.3288 mpg over 2321.6 miles..

As a side note, my friend bought a Dodge Ram 1500 /w HEMI and he's averaging about 10 mpg :D ... but that's what my FD would get :(

My gas milage is abyssmal on this car. Driving how I normally drive (fairly lead footed winding to average of 65 - 70% of max RPM) I get 13 to 14 mpg on this car. The BEST I have ever gotten is 18 mpg and that was all highway shifting 1 - 3 - 6 and never winding past like 4k. Driving in my normal style I get about 180 to 200 miles on a full tank of gas.

In my mind it is simply unacceptable for a 2900 lbs car with 225ish hp, rear wheel drive, and a manual transmission to be getting this type of gas milage.

I really wish Mazda had just put a turbo'd 4 in the car or made it a bit larger to accomodate a decent 6 in it. The rotary simply isn't a practicle engine when compared to modern traditional engines. Hell the Subura STI has 300 hp 300 ft/lbs of torque and gets much better gas milage then this thing.

Turn it back Chadr, the rotary is obviously not a car for you !

I am already in the process of doing so. I just cannot be a zealot about this engine like some/a lot of the people on the boards are. The concept is wonderful but the fact is it in inferior in nearly everyway to a traditional piston engine. It is likely simply the fact that piston engines have had truckloads more money spent on engineering and developement then the rotary but it doesn't change the fact that the rotary currently cannot match a piston engine.

The concept is wonderful but the fact is it in inferior in nearly everyway to a traditional piston engine.

Are we forgetting something? You are talking about the International Engine of the Year Award winner here.

No I am not forgetting that but awards mean very little in the real world. Other then size how is the rotary superior to a piston engine?

Smoothness? - my audi 6 was far smoother. Perhaps it was just the method of mounting and whatnot but that engine was less noticable then the rotary.

Power - as I already stated for a 2.6 liter engine the power output is terrible compared to a piston engine (and yes it is 2.6 liter if you measure it the same as a piston engine is measured)

Emmisions - no contest here piston is leaps and bounds better.

Gas mileage - again no contest at all.

Moving parts - who gives a crap the fact is piston engines are VERY reliable regardless of their moving parts, reliability of the Renesis has yet to be seen.

Heat - again piston engine is far better.

Tell me something then: Why in hell did you buy this car if it's such an inferior piece of machinery??

You were either loving it then but can't afford the gaz or you were plain not knowing what you were getting?

In any case the HP foul up is a blessing for you.

Honestly I was more not knowing what I was getting then anything else.

You see I based my decision to get the car off of the information published by Mazda which included 250 hp and 20+ mpg. These numbers are similar to that of a piston engine (VW VR6, etc) and having owned cars with similar numbers I expected similar performance/mpg from the car.

Of course I test drove the car but that simply is not a good idea of what the car will be like on a daily basis because you are not going to beat the snot out of a car you might take home on the test drive and 10 or so miles doesn't give you an idea of the gas mileage the car will get.

So yes I was someone who bought based on Mazdas numbers and after driving the car for 2000+ miles there are a great number of things I like about the car. The handling is exceptional, the looks are honestly among the best I have seen (which is what attracted me to the car initially) but in the end for the cost of the car the performance (6.5 0-60 and 14.5-15.00 1/4 mile) is sub-par.

My 2001 S4 weighed nearly 3900 lbs with me in it and made only 255 hp but could do 0-60 in 5.4 seconds and run the 1/4 in 13.9 (both of which *I* could do) and was all wheel drive on top of it (high parasitic loss).

Yes the buyback is a blessing for me, it gives me the chance to move on from the car without losing more then a fair bit of invested time. I admire the car in many ways but the engine kills it for me.

excuse my ignorance but what kinda car was your S4?

As for me, i am somewhat disappointed with the MPg of the car but only to a certain extend. I owned a RX7 for 5 years and knew about all the little things about the rotary. But at that time (1985) gaz was way cheaper then now, i had no family, big salary and all the time in the world to enjoy my 7. I think Mazda should, and probably will do something for the comsumption along the line with some sort of ecu fix. If not it's still ok .

Good luck with your next buy... what will it be?

Audi S4 - it is a twin turbo'd 2.7 liter 6. Very nice car and can be bought used now for about 25k.

Next car will either be another S4 or a Cooper S is my guess. I am back in school now and driving more then I used to so the gas mileage really matters at $1.85 per gallon.

1.85$ a gallon is quite cheap my friend... we have it here (Quebec) at ,79 $ a liter which equals to about 2.25$ i'd say...and it's regular !! premium is up to .85$

Yikes $1.85 a gallon, try paying $1 or $2 a LITER!

I partially agree with Chadr though, the gas mileage if pinned is pretty bad, it should go down, but to 7MPG??

Although I don't know how much similar powered car perform at their peek power as far as gas mileage.

But as far as smoothness the rotary really can't be matched no matter how many balancing shafts you put in, it's unbelievable how smooth the engine is, it never gets rough just louder.

Chadr, your points are taken well. I agree with you on all your points.

After driving the car for about 1300 miles now, since 8/16, I, too, have been contemplating buyback scenarios with the car..

I bought this car because of several reasons, however mileage was the last thing on my mind. I assumed a 1.3 liter engine was going to be a "sipper" and not a Guzzler. As for the numbers, I saw 18-24, which I wasn't exactly thrilled about, but felt it was good enough. My Audi TT gives me on the average 22 MPG (I drive like an old fart 85% of the time). With strictly plain gas-saving driving, I could get 28mpg (but we don't buy these kinds of cars to drive them like gramps).

I thought 18-24 MPG range for the RX-8 was okay, and did not raise any alarms for me at all.

But now I've gotten 14-15 average MPG, the Renesis engine is a huge disappointment. 1.3 liters, sips like a damn V8. My goodness... I'm tired of refueling every 2 days of driving (I only get 200 miles in between refuels). Frankly, it's embarassing that a Japanese half the size and weight of your typical good ol' domestic SUV can outdo it on mileage. Maybe Ford had something to do with this.. hmmmmM :)

Anyway I'm rambling.. Just want to let you know I empathize with you. As for my decision.. I'm still weighing my options...

What car would you consider next if you were to return this car, if any?

it's SOOOOO much fun to drive on twisty roads... i visited a friend in St-Lin last night. 9 km of twists and turns with NO TRAFFIC in both direction. That car has a road magnet underneath the floor. It sticks and is sooo precise, much more so then my rx-7 of 1985.

Squid - as far as cars go I am looking at another 2001 S4 (you can buy these now with sub 20k on the clock for about 26k if you know where to look), and since I am doing more miles now then I typically do I am also considering a Mini Cooper S with an exhaust and pulley on it to do around 200hp or so.


Wing - I agree our petrol is cheap compared to most of the world and for that I am much appreciative and still pity those paying significantly higher prices.

As far as gas mileage at peak goes I don't think that is as much as an issues as gas mileage in normal driving. For example the S4 or TT 225 will probably get nasty mileage if you are winding to redline all of the time in them but their loads of low end torque means you don't need to be into the throttle and the revs nearly as much to get similar performance.

The 8 only really comes to life at 4500+ RPMS so to get good daily driving (for me) performance you have to wind to 6k or so in the first 2 to 3 gears whereas on a similar powered car (forced induction or displacement based) you would only need to be into it until at most 4k or so.

I think the rotary has inherently bad gas milage and the lack of low end grunt just makes it worse for those of us that drive mostly straight and like to get to speed quickly.

The engine is very smooth and it revs very easily if it got 20+ mpg under normal driving I would be all for it.

As far as handling goes I agree, the car has more ability then I do skills when it comes to that side of the coin but the fact is I don't drive in twisties hardly at all so it doesn't play that big of role in my mind.

For comparison (e.g. ~$30000 performance vehicle) I've heard the evo doesn't exactly get great mileage either ...

Well honestly that is not an apples to apples comparison either. The evo's performance is not in the same category as the RX-8.

0-60 4.8s Evo
0-60 6.5s RX-8

1/4 mile Evo - 13.4
1/4 mile RX-8 - 14.5 (that is 1.2 seconds difference which is HUGE)


A more reasonable comparison would be a 350z (even though the Z is still MUCH faster) and it seems that most owners are getting 20 to 23 in mixed driving on the 350.

Originally posted by vipeRX7
For comparison (e.g. ~$30000 performance vehicle) I've heard the evo doesn't exactly get great mileage either ...

I'm averaging 24- 26 MPG in my EVO and 50% of that is in the "twisties"! In addition, I do extended warm-ups (about 3-5 minutes) and cool-downs (about 5 minutes).

Can anyone post a picture of an evo??

http://community.webshots.com/user/reddhole

Originally posted by revhappy


I'm averaging 24- 26 MPG in my EVO and 50% of that is in the "twisties"! In addition, I do extended warm-ups (about 3-5 minutes) and cool-downs (about 5 minutes).

I guess I stand corrected. :eek: I guess I should clarify what I mean by evo: Sport Compact Car got roughly 16.5 mpg out of a UK-spec EVO VIII FQ 300. I don't know what that means, but they say it is slightly tuned. Perhaps this is the cause of the difference, or maybe it is because it is a euro-spec car. Nonetheless, still better mileage than some people are saying they're getting in their 8s :confused:

Originally posted by vipeRX7


I guess I stand corrected. :eek: I guess I should clarify what I mean by evo: Sport Compact Car got roughly 16.5 mpg out of a UK-spec EVO VIII FQ 300. I don't know what that means, but they say it is slightly tuned. Perhaps this is the cause of the difference, or maybe it is because it is a euro-spec car. Nonetheless, still better mileage than some people are saying they're getting in their 8s :confused:

The FQ-300 has got another 30 ponies and lb. ft of torque. In addition, I assume they were abusing it on the track and on side roads paying little to no attention on saving fuel. If you stay below the major boost kick-in (easy to do when driving in suburban areas with cars in front of you), then it gets decent fuel efficiency. I would like a 6th gear (on the overseas models) to keep the RPMs down on the highway. On the US EVO, your RPMs are over 3,000 (7,000 RPM redline) when cruising around 70 MPH in 5th gear.

Before you bought the car you should have checked the 7 forums to determine weather the car was for you or not...

It doesn’t appear that you properly evaluated what you wanted in a car before you purchased this one. Sure it looks great sure it revs to 9k but what did you know about the engine before you bought it? Did it meet your primary expectations when you bought the car or were even considering it?

Im sure you now know that you should have checked the 7 forums before you purchased this car. Also although all of your points are valid obviously the car was never for you. Some of your points would not even be points if you had evaluated what you were looking for a little better.

At this point this car will never make you happy since this engine and its performance is so insubstantial.

Why did you get rid of the S4 ???? I really don’t get that.... its such an awesome car and i do mean this. I think you need to find out what you really want to use the car for... then make the purchase not the other way around.

The only reason why i got rid of my RSX was because I had been waiting for the 8 for a good 4 years. Hell i would have kept that little car forever if it wasn’t for the 8 and im so happy with my decision.

I know im coming off like an ass but its just that to buy something just because of the package and not even look at the big brother forums to see what problems may exist with the engine and what is just inherent with the particular engine (13b). Honestly why would you buy anything without checking on the engine? Like you said awards mean nothing i agree! What matters is your goals and if your wants are going to be met. High revving large powerband small engine god you should know how this car was going to react even before you bought it to some degree.

Oh well at least you get to sell it back. In no way am I pissed at you and I apologize for the my rude comments its just very frustrating to see the lack of evaluation that went into your purchase decision. Hell maybe your rich though and in that case disregard my whole post because well..........your rich.

Originally posted by zerohour
.....Im sure you now know that you should have checked the 7 forums..... I know I don't have knowledge of 7 forums. But I would like to.

Could you please list them with url's please, kind sir?

Hey, we're in the lounge. Off-topic is allowed...:D

Hello and greetings from Germany (this should explain my bad English :D )

The RX8 is not available in Germany at the moment. The Mazda dealer told me that they would get the first cars in November.

I wanted to order the car this month, but your discussions about the fuel consumption scared me.

When I saw your complains about the fuel prizes, I had to laugh.

The prizes today at the Esso (Exxon) filling station for "super" fuel (the type for the RX8):

1 liter = 1.10 € (EUR)
1 liter = 1.67 CAD (Canadian Dollar)
1 liter = 1.22 USD (US Dollar)

So, if the RX8 needs more than 12 - 13 liter / 100 km with a "sport" driving style (sorry, I don’t know the right English word), I should forget this car!!

I am driving a Fiat Coupe at the moment (2 liter 5 cylinder 20 valve turbo with chip tuning, about 190KW (260 PS) ). This car is really fast (0 - 100 km under 6 seconds, top speed about 260 km/h). This car needs 9.5 - 11.5 liter/100 km.

As I mentioned above, you can’t find the car here, so no one can tell you anything about the fuel consumption.

What do you think? Order a RX8 or looking out for a different car?

Thanx for reading

Axel

How the hell can the RX-8 be getting such dismal mileage? Here are two cars that I can offer for comparison along with the information that is pertinent to such things.


Father's car: '02 Audi S6 Avant... 23,000 miles... approx 4000lbs... AWD... automatic... 4.2L V8... 340bhp.... 310 lb/ft: 19.9mpg

My car: '01 Audi S4 Sedan... 3600lbs... 18,170 miles...AWD... 6-speed... 2.7L bi-turbo V6... 320bhp... 370 lb/ft: 27.4mpg

Gasoline-Dream, sorry to tell you, it doesn't look like you get better than 13L/100Km

I get a little better than that highway driving, I was able to get 10.5L/100Km on a recent trip. But I don't rev the engine much. We'll see how my next tank goes, as I have been reving it more now.

If you rev it all the time past 7K your going to be getting things like 17L/100Km!

Zerohour -

I am by no means rich, in fact my change of status from a 6 figure computer engineer to a full time college student and network admin is exactly the reason I got rid of my S4 (which I had bought new and had a payment in the 800 range).

As far as researching the car I did do my homework as much as possible. I didn't up until very recently know about the 7 forums only about this forum.

As far as knowing the inherent problems with the engine design they were supposed to be solved by the redesign of the renesis from the 13b motor. The removing of the overlapping ports was supposed to increase full effeciency and reduce emmisions but the fact of the matter is the renesis isn't getting better mileage then a 13b engine did for the most part and obviously there were emmisions problems since we are now WAY down on power from their initial rating.

Yes you do come off sounding like an ass when you attack someone for basically not being a rotorhead before buying a car. How many people out there that are going to buy this car are going to read every forum on the net? 30,000 of these are supposed to come to the states per year and of that I would say maybe 2% of them will have read everything they can find on them.

The simple fact is that consumers have a right to trust the information given to them by manufactures on a product. If Mazda says the car should get 18 mpg city driving then it should, not 13 mpg. Hell I have never got 18mpg out of the car period (17.8 is my best to date) regardless of the drive type.

What bugs me is people that attack you when you bring up logical, rational, well formed arguments against something they like. If you like your 8 then by all means drive it and enjoy it, but don't call me an idiot for not having the time to spend days on forums finding information that supposedly isn't really relevant anymore. My mistake was being exited by a new design that is truly stunning in appearance and not waiting to see how the technology would play out. Obviously it is not the way it is supposed to be (we are after all in a buyback situation do to false advertising) and I would have avoided that had I simply waiting a few months.

Or Mazda could have simply delivered on their promises.

What im saying is this............Find out what you want in a car then buy it its not that hard.

When i spend close to 35k on a car I find it to be a good idea to see if this thing be it a car truck or whatever meets my wants and needs before I purchase it because it looks cool.........

You mentioned you want torque at a lower rpm, you should have seen the 8 immediately with high RPM long gear ratios and should have had an idea of how this engine would react.

I dont know about you but if a car is made for the twisties and i have no need or want to do any twisties at all then hmmmm this may not be the car for me. But im sure your primary criteria for buying a car (Looking cool) is a very sound buying choice although im sure it is a very personal one.

Yes i come off like an ass but my points are valid and if you do not research what you do before you make a major purchase ( and id say 35k is a big purchase) then as Tom Vu says on his infomercials " You deserve to be broke !" lol.

Ya but on a more positive note get your S4 if you can again those are awsome cars. I think it may be a more sound choice for you IMHO, again beautiful cars.

Well I have learned alot by communicating with you and I wont be responding to this thread again no need to flame further. You have made your point and ive made mine.

BTW have you tried the new option the canadians have experienced with their RX8? I heard that there is a chance that if you turn off TCS and DSC it may improve your mileage by a very good margin. Im trying it right now to test it out. Ill be sure to post if the claim is valid.