I test drove the RX-8 yesterday and the dealership rep had me red line the car on every single gear. He said that's how you must shift the RX-8 since it had a 6 speed trans. This didn't sound right to me. Any input? I want to make sure a break in my new RX-8 the right way. Thank you.

The sales rep was wrong. No high revs until after 600 miles. After that, the car will tell you what to do: it likes high revs...red line every time is excessive.

maybe the sales person should be reported to mazda warranty or just get what he said in writing hehehe

Originally posted by restob
I test drove the RX-8 yesterday and the dealership rep had me red line the car on every single gear. He said that's how you must shift the RX-8 since it had a 6 speed trans. This didn't sound right to me. Any input? I want to make sure a break in my new RX-8 the right way. Thank you.

you redlined every single gear?

LOL redline SIXTH? FIFTH?

Originally posted by restob
I test drove the RX-8 yesterday and the dealership rep had me red line the car on every single gear. He said that's how you must shift the RX-8 since it had a 6 speed trans. This didn't sound right to me. Any input? I want to make sure a break in my new RX-8 the right way. Thank you.

Sounds right to me.....

LOL - If the sales rep told me to redline the Rx-8 in every single gear while TEST driving, I'd do it - and have a whole lot of fun doing it. When it comes to buying your Rx-8, however, I'd get another one that wasn't test driven with that particular rep, and treat it nice and easy for at least the first 600 miles. I do believe that the rotary engine likes being handled at higher rpms, but revving to redline in first gear regularly - or even at all - seems rather excessive and could quite possibly be damaging. Still, I wish I had that rep when I test drove a rx-8 before I bought mine.

Davis I want to party with you cowboy!!!!

When i went to test drive the 8 i redlined it in 1st 2nd and 3rd and he didnt seem to mind, just chuckled a bit. I thought he would get mad, but he didnt really seem to care, I just told him i wanted to see how the car performed in higher RPMs :]

i know if my dealer let me red line every gear i wouldnt leave without one lol!

Redlining in 3rd would take you to 90+ MPH. Not very likely any salesman with brains would tell you to do that.

when i test drove the rx8 and i was redlining 1st and chirping into second the dealer got mad at me.. he said it wasn't my car so he told me not to do it..

Red line every time. Sound right to me.

Why should the salesman care if you redline it during a test drive? He has no vested interest in that particular car - he just wants it to move off the lot!

Add me to the redline club.

My salesrep told me to shift from 1st gear at 5000 rpm. He said that's how he drives his RX-7 (FC). So I did, and I had fun doing it. While doing 80mph on 6th gear, he told me to downshift to 4th but rev the engine for a second before releasing the clutch. So I did, and it made a smile on my face as the 8 pulled hard. When I went back to 6th, he told me "If you think that was fun, you'd enjoy downshifting to 3rd." :D

My cousin works at the dealership I bought mine from , not as a salesman though. However, I had the 8 up to 90 during the test drive and was taking it to the redline in the lower gears. with the sales guy egging me on. :)

When I bought my 8 in October, the dealer allowed only one car to be test driven. The sales rep got in, punched a stereo preset (which was obviously his favorite station -- cool jazz), reclined the passenger seat a bit, and told me that test dirves in the 8 were the best parts of his day.

After the car was warmed up, he told me about the "red-line approaching" beep and suggested I get to hear it. After responding that I didn't want to abuse their only demo, he replied, "Oh, it can take it. It even likes it...that's what it was made to do."

We both arrived back at the lot grinning.

My DEALER redline the car. Our dealer said for insurance purposes they had to drive it off the lot. Then the rep drove it for 5min, it was a good sell. He only redlined it getting onto the highway in 2nd. He revved it a little under 7k most of the rest of the time though. Oh yeah, the instructions the manual says is that "there is no special break in period...try not to constantly rev over 7k for the first 600mi" key word constantly

When my GF and i test drove the 8 she got to drive it first and she drove it like i would have expected her to... like a normal person would any other car :-)

when we got back to the dealership i asked if i could take the helm and next thing you know i'm behind the wheel.

without even asking i took first passed the buzzer and chirpped second pretty hard at which point i could see the salesman squirming in the back seat seat and i heard him mumble some smart-ass remark about how this better be the car we decide to buy. what annoyed me most was the fact that he thought we were just out for a joy-ride.

by the end of the week we were back at the dealership siging the papers and giving the commissions to a different salesman that was more understanding of the need to push the car durring the test drive.

Ray

ps. interestingly enough, when we were sitting around waiting for the financing the get approved the salseman gave me a bound booklet that included instructions to the dealer for test driving the car. in the booklet i remember seeing where it said to demonstrate the vehicles accelleration by "accelerating hard from a standstill and shifting at the redline" or something similar to that. needless to say, i was a little surprised to see that in a dealer test-drive instruction booklet. the moral is to be aware that mazda usa has indeed instructed its dealerships to drive the thing hard, the way it should be!

My dealership had it all planned out, they had a set route, which included everything in the brochure, that they let me take the car on when I test drove it. I was glad to see that the dealership had taken the time to do this and helped me decide to buy from them.

When I first test drove the 8 the salesman did the same. I thought that I was driving it pretty hard, but I guess that wasn't hard enough. He said wind it up. OK. It was like I was on my CB1, except the wife and son were there.

Bill

My salesman told me to get on her and not to shift untill redline...

Needless to say... I hit about 120 on that test drive and ended up buying a car that night (not that one tho) :p

Originally posted by OBryanRX8
maybe the sales person should be reported to mazda warranty or just get what he said in writing hehehe

LOL :D