There are no other cars out there that meet my budget / preferences / requirements other than the RX-8 so unfortunatley I'm in for the duration.

Who else, come hell or high water, will be waiting for the car.

I hope you can forgive my barging in on your forum, but it occurred to me that your recent troubles with reduced power may have a simple (but not cheap) remedy....
.
Your cars are basically identical to the Japanese spec cars, the only differences lying in the 'fuel maps' and engine control software inside the ECU? So a "plug-and-play" solution might be to aquire a Jap/spec ECU....?
Back to 250PS in seconds, no risks, (you can always 'un' plug)
.
Hope you do decide to stay in there for the long haul, I can sympathize, spent 20+ years in Merseyside, and came to regard Britain as the land where customer service consists of a 'wipe with an oily rag'!
.
.
.
doc

Originally posted by Doctorr
I hope you can forgive my barging in on your forum, but it occurred to me that your recent troubles with reduced power may have a simple (but not cheap) remedy....
.
Your cars are basically identical to the Japanese spec cars, the only differences lying in the 'fuel maps' and engine control software inside the ECU? So a "plug-and-play" solution might be to aquire a Jap/spec ECU....?
Back to 250PS in seconds, no risks, (you can always 'un' plug)
.
Hope you do decide to stay in there for the long haul, I can sympathize, spent 20+ years in Merseyside, and came to regard Britain as the land where customer service consists of a 'wipe with an oily rag'!
.
.
.
doc

We can remap the ECU but to take it up to 240ps invalidates our warranty and to take it to 250ps breaks UK emissions laws. Otherwise no problem.

I'll go for 240 if its a dealer thing and no warenty problems.

And I'm in for the duration, cant find another comparable car.

I do agree there is nothing that compares with what the 8 has to offer at the price band.

However like many here a die hard fan a week ago im now struggling to convince myself to hold on.

The key as im sure everyone will agree is having the ability to take it for a test drive. Being able to determine for ourselves how the car handles/performs and not being influenced by the journalists/motor mags either by slating it/praising it then we could formulate our own opinions. This would i suspect bring many of us on the brink back into the fold.


Its all well and good of Mazda giving us limited edition prints/book but what we want is ultimately the car for which we have all paid a grand deposity not for the priveledge of having the piss taking out of us.


Having us wait for the best part of 3/4 of year to be even able to drive it is taking the piss. This is the reason why so many people are lossing faith.


Phyiscally being able to quantifing something in your hand so to speak is half the battle.

At least the guys at Warrington Mazda know they have two safe orders.

Always treated well by them, even if they arn't too proactive.

Rob have you had an invite to an RX-8 roadshow day yet?

Taking it to 250Bhp would not mean it did not conform to Uk emissions. It would mean that it would not conform to FUTURE (2006?) Emissions.

I have to say, I doubt that 20bhp will make that much difference. As long as the car is as quick as my TT, I'll be happy.

The whole problem seems to be that Mazda JP have delayed to fill their orders first.

The information and delays have been unacceptable, but I for one will be hanging in, because I am not in a huge hurry, and can find nothing else to compare for the money. If I didnt want a bit more space, I;d stick with the TT, or get the 3.2 TT.

The S2000 is not an option as it has no seats in the back at all, and is convertible. The EVO may well go like a rocket, but IMHO it looks crap and the inside is rubbish.

There are a few used things I'd buy, but I'd prefer to have soemthing with a few years warranty.

HANG ON IN THERE FOLKS! You can drive one nearer the time, and probbaly get the full 1k back if you dont like it (looks like Mazda are not trying to keep the 100 quid given the delays and spec changes).

Originally posted by Titanium Grey
There are no other cars out there that meet my budget / preferences / requirements other than the RX-8 so unfortunatley I'm in for the duration.

Who else, come hell or high water, will be waiting for the car.

I'm too excited about getting mine to cancel. I'll be here for the duration.

I guess the closest thing I'd have is the S2000. With the TVR though, it's not an option and I'll be keeping my RX-8 order.

If I only had the one car though, I think I'd be one of the people cancelling and going for something like the Honda.... although, having said that, if that was my situation, the RX-8 probably wouldn't have got a look in.


-andy-

Originally posted by Titanium Grey
Rob have you had an invite to an RX-8 roadshow day yet?

Nope. Not a word from the dealer.

"Always treated well by them, even if they arn't too proactive."
lol can barely ever get anyone on a phone , IMO for me not the best service yet, couldnt find my file to save their life the other week.

Still want me to go in and sign something to do with the preorder (deposit refund stuff?) Been told by others they didnt sign anything.

I'm not sure the 250bhp engine map will meet current Uk regs, but as Cali's is better than Euro's atm I think it should? I've also heard of 2 different setups for the us for strict/relaxed emmision states.

Originally posted by Lensman


We can remap the ECU but to take it up to 240ps invalidates our warranty and to take it to 250ps breaks UK emissions laws. Otherwise no problem.
I don't think we can take it to 240 ps at all. 240 was the power Mazda hoped they would measure once they had made the engine conform to Euro 4 regs. But unfortunately it came out at 231.

The question is, can we change it to the same setup as Japanese/US cars (250 ps) and still conform to the present emissions regs (Euro 3). I would guess we can, otherwise how do people get their JDM imports to pass the MOT? Or are there different rules for personal imports?

We can take it to what we want.

If not offered by Mazda, 3rd parties will be remaping this engine like mad.

I'd say 231 - 260+ will be offered, 240 will do Euro 3, 250 might (and we dont get tested realy until 3 year MOT, unless your unlucky to get stoped.

I've never seen a roadside testing station.

I had my '99 MX-5 de-cat'd and it was never a problem. I only had the car for three years though, so didn't have to go through an MOT. But not the end of the world to put the cat back in for a weekend once a year.... ;)


-andy-

I'll probably be in for the duration as I don't need to change my car yet (but I'd like to.:( ) The inconvinience is one from a logistical point of view like arranging the selling of my old car for a GOOD price (note to Mazda - if you want to make me happy again get my dealer to arrange a good part ex price to save me the hassle.)

The main reason I'm still considering cancelling is the impression Mazda UK and it's dealers have left on me. This pre-order is my first experience of Mazda and it's dealers and the current state of play leaves me wondering if I can get quality service from them in the future. As someone who does high annual mileage it's important that I have a trusting relationship with my dealer and feel the manufacturer is behind me for problems. Nothing I have seen leads me to believe that Mazda in general can be communicative, pro-active or efficient enough to satisfy my expectations.:(

Like others have said already no other car out there fits my requirements for the price:
Good looks
Good performance (albeit seemingly not as good as initially thought)
Reasonably practical
Something a bit different from all the TT's that line the company car park!

As I will only keep the car around 2 years (change@ 80K miles) the thought of a superchips mod is quirte appealing should it become available and actually offer a noticable performance improvement.

Ed

Chipping might be good - but I suspect the fuel consumption could go from bad to terrible!!

Ed.

May be in for the duration, the 8th will decide when I see it in the flesh for the first time.

My gripe is that I've wanted this car since late 2002 and the delays are really getting me down now.

If the 8th doesn't impress me then I shall ramp up the budget and buy a specced-up Audi A4 Cabrio 3.0 V6.

We'll see!

Cheers
Oilman

Originally posted by oilman
If the 8th doesn't impress me then I shall ramp up the budget and buy a specced-up Audi A4 Cabrio 3.0 V6.


Yawntastic !

BUT AVAILABLE, TRIED AND TESTED!!:D

Cheers
Oilman

Originally posted by RobDickinson
We can take it to what we want.

If not offered by Mazda, 3rd parties will be remaping this engine like mad.

I'd say 231 - 260+ will be offered, 240 will do Euro 3, 250 might (and we dont get tested realy until 3 year MOT, unless your unlucky to get stoped.
I'm a bit sceptical about the tuning possibilities. There have been lots of threads discussing this in the main and technical forum. Usually what happens is someone posts some wild claim about how easy it will be to get loads more power out of this engine and then more knowledgeable people start pointing out the difficulties, reliability implications etc.

It won't be as easy as just tweaking the boost on a turbo-charged engine. Apparently the pre-production cars at Laguna Seca only put out about 240 ps because Mazda were still working to squeeze the last 10 hp out of the engine. I would worry about pushing such an obviously highly tuned engine to produce more power - what would it do to long term reliability?

By far the easiest thing to do would be to simply change/reprogram the ECU to the US or Japan spec. Guaranteed 250 ps and no reliability problems.

Originally posted by oilman
May be in for the duration, the 8th will decide when I see it in the flesh for the first time.

My gripe is that I've wanted this car since late 2002 and the delays are really getting me down now.

If the 8th doesn't impress me then I shall ramp up the budget and buy a specced-up Audi A4 Cabrio 3.0 V6.

We'll see!

Cheers
Oilman

I had a look at the 2nd hand A4 cabrio's on the audi web site, they are nearly all over £30k which is out of my budget even if I wanted one.

Very nice though, Im sure you wouldnt be disappointed.

Mark

I didnt go wild on performance increase gains.

I said 260ps ish, thats a 4% increas in power over the known 250ps the US/Japan get. Should be easy at a cost to fuel, reliability or whatever. Theres not many cars out there that cant be tuned to a few Hp more than stock.

Personaly unless its a dealer update that doesnt void my warenty I wont be going near any engin mods, not with such a new car with an unknown futue reliability.

Originally posted by RobDickinson
I didnt go wild on performance increase gains.

I didn't mean to imply that you did.

I'm just saying that Mazda already seem to have worked very hard to squeeze the most power they can out of this engine. I think the RX Evolve was described as having 280 hp originally and those estimates have kept being revised downwards as the engineers realised it was going to be more difficult than they thought to squeeze out the extra power.

I also will not be having anything done to mine that voids the warranty. But I may well do it after 3 years, if I was convinced there would be no implications for reliability - so I would be happy chipping it to Japan spec, as this should be completely safe.

Trouble is in three years time Euro 4 will be here.:(

We will just have to form a society and buy the necessary chipping equipment between us. That way wwe can put it back to UK spec for the MOT etc!

Not sure how much the technology costs (or what it is even) but I'm sure others would buy our services from us too.:p

Originally posted by Titanium Grey
Trouble is in three years time Euro 4 will be here.:(
I'm assuming that car's are tested to the spec that was in place they were made. Is this how it works with older vehicles that don't pass the current test?

I am in for the long haul, I have no intention of letting Mazda keep my £100 for doling nothing.

Chris

I think you know that I'm here to stay. Unless something drastic happens... like Clarkson says the RX-8 isn't cool or something... (I jest of course!!!)

You know, as long hauls go, this is a bit of an epic.

BUT, I will hold on as I can cope with my current motor, and I'm fairly sure we really are getting to the final dates.....It's 4 months since my birthday and that seemed not long ago at all - the next 4 will zip by (I tell myself, hopefully ;) )

Still best price for this type of car and only proper(ish) 4seat sportscar I reckon I could get into without going to 30K or so.

Stu :D

and please don't start quoting Impreza's et al - too boring, been in them, want something else...

Well, I'm here at least until I get my framed piccy in august :D

Maybe a 2nd hand BMW 330 Sport Convertible (x reg 20k 50k miles) sounds like an alternative tho'

Si

I did consider a 330 but I had BMWs for 5 years, so purely on a 'had those' basis threw it out.


It may be cheaper on insurance now, but it seems to lessen my choice now I'm getting older!

STU :cool:

330Ci is a nice car, and drives very well, which is why there are so many about. This means they are a victim of their own success and thats why I don't want one. Every Tom, Dick and Harriot has got one.

AnilS.:D

and there is also the image BMW drivers have.....


need i say more.