Last night, I was leaving my daughters off at Barnes and Noble, and two lovely young women (college age?) were staring, talking, and smiling as they went in front of my car. Being forty-six years old and average (on a good day) in appearance, I'm not used to that, and I didn't know what the problem was Finally, one of them nodded her head, gave me a thumbs-up, and mouthed, "Awesome car!"

You know, I don't mind that people don't fawn all over my clothes, my looks, or my house, etc., but I do like to have a car people enjoy looking at. Since this is not Penthouse, that's the end of the story. ("I never thought something like this would happen to me, but not too long a ago...")

What I wouldn't have given for that kind of attention twenty years ago! Before deciding for certain to keep my 8, I drove a G35 around for a couple of days last week. I might as well have been driving an old Taurus. I was invisible!

I just picked up the car three days ago, and I've already experienced that kinda thing. Two days ago, I was in my gym's parking lot and a girl who was leaving rolled down her window and said, "Nice car!" And just last night after getting some food, somebody was circling the car and admiring it when I came back out into the parking lot.

I have to admit--I think the attention is cool. I've never had a "look-at-me" car, nor did I buy the car for that reason. In fact, a lot of people told me to get the Z because they thought it looked better and didn't like the look of the RX-8 at all. But I went ahead and got the RX-8 anyway because I thought the car itself (engine, handling) was more interesting. And now I get these comments despite what many of my friends said! It's like gravy!

My RX-8 was covered up in the garage for the past week and a half, as we drove from FL to NJ in my wife's car. Besides my noticing every little thing that worked better in my car (ALL week long), I really missed driving it. I had wondered if I would still get the looks, or if people were used to seeing the RX-8's by now (since there have been 4 or so parked out front of the ONLY Mazda dealership in the county). I took the kids to the video store to pick out a movie, and parked in front of a Hungry Howie's. Sure enough, as we exited the video store a gentlemen had his face cupped in my tinted passenger window. I also got pointed at by a guy in a Jag today. At first it looked he was pointing right at my face, but I didn't recognize him. I guess he was pointing at the car...

even if no one looked I love this car
but most people do and it reminds me that I do have a great car

I had a ricer gawking at my 8 and he ran a red light while doing so :p Luckily for him and other drivers, there weren't any crossing cars at that moment.

Last night I almost got side-swiped. I dunno if they were gawking or just blind, but I about had a heart attack.

so true. i was at a red light today and some kid did a double take in his eclipse. i mean he didn't just take a look he stared for quite awhile.