Maybe i am getting in over my head by getting an 8 i just read that spark plugs are $115 a set. what are some other costs for owning the 8 that i may run into and what is the cost itself?

Most basic cost, the Premium gas, and the oil changes. :) Painful considering it's only a 30k car. If it was a Porsche or a Ferrari maybe...

I think the killer is the $900 - $1000 we'll end up spending for new tires every 15K - 20K miles. The gas and maintenance costs are relatively small amounts spread out over intervals, albeit in total they are significant. But the tires will hit you like of ton of bricks all at once :p

I have decided that I am going to do all my oil changes on my own. My dealer charges about $45 for an oil change.

Diminished income from staying up all night reading this forum.

Antacids from reading Ike's posts. :D

Zaino, zaino, and more zaino.

CZ stage 1: now $750

Originally posted by i3man
My dealer charges about $45 for an oil change.

Wow my dealer only charge like $19 or 20

$45 sounds like a lot for an oil change.... Do they have to do anything out of the ordinary to change the oil on this car?

Nah, this is one of the easier cars that I have ever changed oil on.

Personally, I think that the largest cost is going to be buying all the driving music on CD "One more radar love is gone ..."

i have a cd head unit i will be putting in that can play mp3's and can hold 60+ songs per cd :)

The xenon headlamps go for about $300 a piece but hopefully they will last for years to come.

Is it just me or does 15 to 20 thousand miles sound like an awfully short life on a set of tires? I got about 32K miles on the factory-tires that came on my Mustang. I'd hope to do at least as well with the 8.....

Depends how you drive. :)

My back tires will probably be done by 20K.

if they only last 15-20k i think i will buy some better tires lol that does seem like an awfully short lifespan to me as well... cant you get tires for it that will last 50k miles?

Could be. I guess time will tell. I'm fuzzy on the back-tires comment though. (This is going to sound sarcastic, and I really don't mean for it to but) is there a reason that you can't rotate the tires to more evenly distribute the wear? If not, at the cost of these tires, I'll be rotating them pretty religiously trying to maximize their life.

for the 20k mile mark are you guys burning your tires alot or doing smoke shows or is this from typical driving?

Oh absolutely the tires depend on your driving habits. I had a set of Firestone Firehawk SZ50s on my 3000GT that lasted for nearly 40k miles. If you keep your tires rotated and don't drive like you're at the track every time you get behind the wheel, you'll definitely get more than 20k miles out of these tires - Firestone/Bridgestone are the same company, and the rubber ought to be the same or a very nearly the same compound.

Idleone - Your question, "Owning Costs", is a good one. Unfortunetly, there is no easy answer. I'll try and be as helpful as possible, and use real life experiences.

The bottom line is cost per mile.

In order to get to the cost per mile figure, you need to consider:

Total Days of ownership (end date or today minus the start date)
Total Miles driven
Depreciation (Purchase Price minus {sales price or current value})
Finance Charges (Interest only)
Insurance Costs (total over days of ownership)
Operating Costs (Again, total over days of ownership - and, this includes cost of care {wash, wax}, fuel, license, registration, parking, repairs, maintenance, and tolls)

Total Cash outlay is the sum of Depreciation, Finance Charges, Insurance, and Operating Costs.

Cost per mile is total cash divided by mile driven.

You'll find that the three most important elements to ownership cost are "days of ownership", miles driven, and depreciation.

Two of my own examples:

1990 Nissan 300ZX
Cost per mile was 39 cents. Owned for 5206 days over 151,880 miles. Total Cash outlay $58,633.61 for an original sales price of $31,366. Depreciation was $28,066; Financing was $1,475.88 (Just 12 months to payoff); Insurance was $11,922.72; and Operating costs were $17,169.01. Note, found that operating costs maintenance (oil, tires; shocks; bushings; etc) basically doubled whatever the gas bill was. You obviously don't need to maintain it as well, but the handling/performance will suck if you don't.

1998 Ford Mustang GT
Cost per mile was $3.17. Owned for 285 days over 3795 miles. Total Cash outlay $12,024.74 for an original sales price of $23,997.33. Depreciation was $7,797.33; Financing was $1,501.82 (Lease interest charges); Insurance was $1,115.27; and Operating costs were $1,610.12 (had to replace all 4 tires - flat spotted - long story).

The 300ZX was a much more expensive car at purchase and to maintain than the Mustang. However, cost per mile was significantly less because of lengh of ownership and miles driven.

I expect that the RX-8 will emulate the costs of the 300ZX. That is, the tires will need replacing every 25,000 to 35,000 miles; the shocks and bushings every 60,000 miles; the timing belt somewhere betwen 100,000 and 120,000; and so on. Just put away double your gas receipts each month, then invest it in maintenance & repairs, and you should be able to keep this car looking new and performing the way it did the day your brought it home from the dealership.

Thanks for the very detailed layout of the costs... I will not be finacning the only things i have to worry about are the operation costs and the gas, insurance... i will try to set aside double what i use for gas a month but that could get rather expensive if i drive alot lol... Sounds like in order for me to make this car affordable for me from my income from work i need to park it in the winter and drive it mildly in the summer LOL what's the point ;) i will just have to work my ass off to take care of my new baby ;)

on the other hand all the operating costs could just be considered a portion of the would be car payment i would have if i wasn't buying it outright.

i have estimated that insurance is about
$230/mo to put away (paying yearly)
gas is about $100/mo
and maintenace i could do $200/mo

not bad $430/mo for this car... i could afford that i would just need to go to work each and every day or i couldnt drive the car...

i have a bad job history lol i never stay at a job for too long i start to hate the job and know it is not what i want to do with life but i think having this car and the want of driving the car will change that. I am in college now so in a few years i will be able to get a job that i want and like.

Jesus is that true about the spark plugs??

i just checked with the dealership to see if the plugs in the car were the ones that fixed the problem and he had no clue but will talk to the service dept monday morning

I love the above comment 'only a 30K car'. Nevertheless, it is an exspensive car to own for now - hoping all the maint. prices decrease - gas would help too :-) Helps having the free maint plan from mazda - I doubt new buyers can go for that now.

Originally posted by Zeltar
I expect that the RX-8 will emulate the costs of the 300ZX. That is, the tires will need replacing every 25,000 to 35,000 miles

You must have different tires on your 8 than everyone else for it to last 25-35K miles :p Either that or you 8 is left up on a rack with the tires spinning for most of your miles :p

How long your tires last depends upon two very important factors.

1. How you drive your car. (Fast take off's and fast stops)
2. Treadwear rating of the tires. (If I am not mistaken, the treadwear rating for these tires are fairly low which means that the rubber is softer)

The softer the rubber, the better stickiness to the road....

Zeltar, we all better put away a lot of money for the timing belt mods :)

The reason most people's tires look like they are only going to last about 20,000 miles is because of the type of tire. The RX8 OEM tire is an RE040. Tirerack.com (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Potenza+RE040&vehicleSearch=true&partnum=245WR8RE040MZ&fromCompare1=yes) rates them at a fairly low tread life. When it is time for new tires try looking into one's with better tread life for more bang for the buck.

$100 a month for gas? How much do you drive? Yikes!

that was a guestamate with $20/week to and from work and then some leisure driving ofcourse

i would also like to plan to need more money than plan on less and not have enough

Originally posted by Elara
$100 a month for gas? How much do you drive? Yikes!

Heh. I figure my monthly gas bill for a 104 mile (round trip) commute is going to be nearly $200.

I know, I know, I live in the sticks.

But, I'll be spending 2 to 3 hours a day in an RX-8!

Originally posted by Q121825
Heh. I figure my monthly gas bill for a 104 mile (round trip) commute is going to be nearly $200.

I know, I know, I live in the sticks.

But, I'll be spending 2 to 3 hours a day in an RX-8!


Damn, you'd be better off buying a Toyota Prius as a 2nd car and using the 8 on weekends. The money you save on gas during the week will pay the Prius in a few years :p

Originally posted by i3man
Damn, you'd be better off buying a Toyota Prius as a 2nd car and using the 8 on weekends. The money you save on gas during the week will pay the Prius in a few years :p

The destination isn't important, it's how you get there.

I make the commute now in a Focus. I get 30 in the winter (or about 3 months here in Texas) and 27 in the summer. But at the end of the day, I'm stressed from the commute. I think driving a fun car that goes like "stink" will improve things.

Originally posted by idle0ne
i have estimated that insurance is about
$230/mo to put away (paying yearly)
gas is about $100/mo
and maintenace i could do $200/mo

$230/month! I pay $65 per month (paying monthly) in Southern California. Geez, at your rate, what's the point? If you can afford to pay cash for the car, maybe you ought to reconsider the use of money. Drop the insurance cost all together by getting a bond, and then finance the car.

how would that help me? in vt you are required to have insurance also why would i finance the car rather than buy it out right?

Originally posted by idle0ne
how would that help me? in vt you are required to have insurance also why would i finance the car rather than buy it out right?

If you're up for the risk, and can gamble that you won't have a bad accident, then the "why" is easy. Because, if you drive this car for 5 years, you'll spend $13,800 in insurance using your quote of $230/month. Where as, financing the car will cost you about $5700 over the same period. So, over the 5 year period, you save $8,100 and still have your bond or DMV Cash deposit (i.e. no depreciation).

how will financing a car cost me $5700 over 5 years? are you talking about the interest?

when you finance a car thru a bank (atleast in vt) they require you to have full coverage so i would still have the $230/mo insurance payment but along with that a nice hefty $400+/mo payment for the car.

maybe i am misunderstanding you maybe not.. it would help if you would explain in much more detail.

All lien holders require full insurance coverage to protect their collateral interest.

btw, you don't need premium. many of us are using 87 octane. add 1 qt oil btwn changes; no biggie. the $115 plugs are not standard. major cost is tires.

Also some states require minimum levels of liability insurance. Mine does, you must show a current insurance card to renew your plates.

well the plugs will be standard or the car will stay on the lot
i am not going to pay for a car that is so easy to flood when they have a fix yet refuse to implement it. :) i will fight and get the plugs free of charge lol

Originally posted by Elara
$100 a month for gas? How much do you drive? Yikes! I'm surprised this surprises you. after 5 months, I've got 10k miles. at 16.5 mpg that's 121 gal/mo. In SD @ $1.60/gal it's nearly $200/mo. What kinda numbers are you seeing?

Originally posted by i3man
All lien holders require full insurance coverage to protect their collateral interest.

Think of it as self insurance. The collateral is the DMV Deposit or Surety Bond.

ok so if i am driving my new 8 down the road and all i have is the minimum insurance required by law, what if i get hit my an uninsured motorist? my car is gone and so will the bond... atleast with insurance if this happened i would get a new car.

Originally posted by 8_wannabe
I'm surprised this surprises you. after 5 months, I've got 10k miles. at 16.5 mpg that's 121 gal/mo. In SD @ $1.60/gal it's nearly $200/mo. What kinda numbers are you seeing?

After I thought about it, it really doesn't- I easily put this much in the car, but then I'm averaging 1200 miles + a month. So if you drive a lot, that's about right.

Originally posted by Elara
After I thought about it, it really doesn't- I easily put this much in the car, but then I'm averaging 1200 miles + a month. So if you drive a lot, that's about right.


Typical with girls and math. :D

Originally posted by SCiMMiA
Typical with girls and math. :D

Good one, Elara. Is that SCiMMiA's head you're beating on?

Careful, SCiMMiA. She's one badass moderator who won't take too much cr@p from anyone. :cool:

Originally posted by 8_wannabe
Good one, Elara. Is that SCiMMiA's head you're beating on?

Careful, SCiMMiA. She's one badass moderator who won't take too much cr@p from anyone. :cool:


It's actually a bag-o-trolls, courtesy of Sputnik :). But it seemed appropriately funny here. I'm thinking it may become my avatar.

Originally posted by Elara
I'm thinking it may become my avatar.

But how will that teach us the joy of buying Nordic Green?

Back on Topic: How many of you "ran the numbers" for ownership before you bought?

Originally posted by Q121825
How many of you "ran the numbers" for ownership before you bought? Kinda. I asked some cursory questions on this forum back in June about expected costs of routine maintenance. Got mostly smartass replies, but the general feeling is that routine maintenance wouldn't be much more than for any other Japanese car. As far as I know that's still true for mechanical things. No one brought up the cost or life expectancy of tires.

I assumed I would be getting around 21 mpg combined city/highway which I figured was ok, esp for a performance vehicle like the '8. It's a good thing I didn't know I'd really be getting 16.5. While I can afford that, I probably could not have morally justified it since poor gas mileage is a big reason why I didn't get an SUV.

Originally posted by idle0ne
ok so if i am driving my new 8 down the road and all i have is the minimum insurance required by law, what if i get hit my an uninsured motorist? my car is gone and so will the bond... atleast with insurance if this happened i would get a new car.
Yes, that is the risk. One must ask themselves how much premium are they willing to pay before taking on the risk themselves. At my rate of $65 per month, I wouldn't take this risk on myself. At over $200 per month, I probably would.

By the way, insurance will not pay for a new car. They will only pay for what the car is currently worth. Typically when new, that is below what a car loan is for, and sometime during your payment schedule, you might actually get some chunk change in your pocket after the insurance carrier pays off your lender. So, in reality, it's a sliding scale of risk depending on when your car was totalled - IF (that is a very big IF) your car is totaled.

well,

i really dont want to take on that risk myself because IF it ever does get totaled i want atleast part or most of the cost of the car back in my pocket rather than not having anything.

also if i finance that is what? atleast $230/mo for the car payment... so either way i pay that much a month.