So I've been lurking for a while, and am planning on buying an RX-8 in about a month or so. In reading around the forum, a lot of people recommend going with an 06 or later to avoid some hassle with early production troubles. I've read through the year-to-year changes and agree a lot has been revised, but I'm still not convinced.

Buying an 06 over an 04 would probably cost around $4,000 to $5,000 more. For about the same money, I could get an 04, rebuild the motor and throw in a brand new 09 transmission.

Granted, an 06 would still be under B2B warranty, which would be nice to have, even for just a year, to get any minor problems with the car sorted out. However, an 04 still has a significant portion of the engine warranty remaining. I currently do all my own work on my car (DSM), so I'm no stranger to maintenance, and could probably save some money by doing my own repairs.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

 

I've got an 04 and havent run into any problems yet. Although its low mileage (25k) or so....

 

When most people buy a car they don't want to plan on replacing an engine and tranny, but if you don't mind doing that you can always get an older, cheaper car and chances are you won't even need to do that.

For those that don't want the hassle of worrying about a sooner-rather-later potential engine replacement, see this poll:

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/new-engines-170659/

 

for what its worth, 04, approaching 70k
original:
transmission, no grinding, no problems except reverse sucks getting into sometimes...
clutch, no slippage, yet.. but I'm sort of expecting symptoms pretty soon
engine, no problems... feels peppy, but I'm thinking about a compression check before i hit 80k

my car has always LOVED oil, even with the early flashes... i swear it drinks it like gas. I premix now, but didn't in the early stages... 5w30, castrol GTX most of its life.

 

Personally, on any used car I'd like to have a period (even a yr) of warranty to take care of things the previous owner might not have cared about or noticed....unless the price is so attractive you really couldn't care less.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone. It's reassuring to hear some 04 owners still having good experiences with their 8's.

I agree that having a year of full warranty coverage would be nice, but it comes at a price. The question is still whether or not that year of warranty coverage as well as the vehicle updates, many of which I could do myself if they haven't already been completed, are worth the extra cost.

So far I'm thinking my best bet is an 04 with under 50k miles, or under 40k if I get lucky. That way I still have a significant amount of time before transmission problems start creeping up (assuming it's been well-maintained and well-driven), and the engine is still under warranty for about 3 years. And I save some cash.

 

my 04 has been perfect after the recalls....47k - just drove it cross country. if you buy the 04, get a mazda maintenance history first and make sure it's had its recalls done and even check to see if it had any warranty service bulletin work done to it. This will let you know if it's been taken care of by previous owner. There are lots of service bulletins that aren't recalls, so once the warranty is gone, there's no freebie fix.

There's a member who posts all the service bulletins on his site. The URL is:

http://www.finishlineperformance.com....php?pageid=11

Some are more serious than others. I took mine in while still under warranty for the PCM reflash and they also ended up replacing the intake manifold. I was also getting condensation in my dipstick tube..they fixed that too.

If I wasn't under warranty and didnt have these things done, I'd think I'd have more problems with the car.

 

what are the chances of Mazda just replacing the engine in an 04 if you complain about things like flooding and poor starting?

Finally got the wife to accept that I will be getting one of these soon, once my car is paid off. (few months from now)

I was looking at 06's because of the talk of them having better engines/trans/etc.

 

if you plan on replacing an engine on a car that you'll be buying. Might as well get a cheap rx-7 FD. you can be sure to replace the engine when there's a full moon.