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Mazda RX-8 to exit U.S. market after 2011 model year?
by Jeremy Korzeniewski (RSS feed) on May 5th 2010 at 12:31PM
According to "a well placed source at Mazda's North American Operations," Motor Trend is reporting that the aging RX-8 is set to exit stage left here in the States after the 2011 model year. As it is, the rotary-powered sportscar is slated to see the European guillotine at the same time due to its inability to meet Euro V emissions standards.
There are a number of issues that all manufacturers that have chosen to borrow the rotary engine design from Felix Wankel have had to deal with, not the least of which have been poor fuel efficiency, comparatively high exhaust emissions and excessive oil consumption. It seems that these same long-running plagues may kill off yet another fun-to-drive rotary-powered model from Mazda.
Mazda has not made any formal announcements as to the death of the RX-8 or the rebirth of the perennially rumored RX-7 revival. That said, we'd be more than a little shocked if Mazda didn't renew its commitment to the high-revving, barrel-shaped rotary engine wrapped up in some sort of innovative package within the next few model years. We'll see.
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not surprised one bit by this, the RX-8's run is nearing it's 7-8 year life cycle.
contrary to the article, it's not being 'killed off' by issues, it's simply getting outdated and ready for something new.
That rumor has been around a while, and while it does get more and more likely as time passes, every discussion devolves into a discussion around 16x.
And yet another unwashed unenlightened individual calling "Excessive oil consumption" a problem without recognizing that it was designed to burn oil, and part of the problem with the series 1 engines is that it doesn't use enough. And complaining about gas mileage that is actually comparable or above average for most sports cars.
Most Porsches get worst mileage and burn more oil (not be design), but they don't get that same lame old comment every time.
To paraphrase my own dealer's comments on the matter last time I was in...
"If they aren't going to tell anyone about it, advertise it, or market it...I wish they'd just pull the plug. People have never heard of the car for crying out loud, customers come in and say, 'What's that...?'. If they knew about it then they might buy it, but it's a pain to have to stock it when the chances of selling any are slim to none."
Thing with the RX8, it's versatilty had it being compared to all sorts of cars...Audi, 350Z, Shelby GT, Lotus, Boxster..list goes on. I always hated that fact.
Oil and gas...blah blah blah. For the price though I still can't think of one car that could top the handling, braking, looks, ergonomics, and general ride of the car even today. I hope Mazda can do it again but it's going to be difficult to go any higher without a serious engineering breakthrough.
To paraphrase my own dealer's comments on the matter last time I was in...
"If they aren't going to tell anyone about it, advertise it, or market it...I wish they'd just pull the plug. People have never heard of the car for crying out loud, customers come in and saying 'What's that...?'. If they knew about it then they might buy it, but it's a pain to have to stock it when the chances of selling any a slim to none."
You're dealer has a good point. There actually is a lot of people that don't know what the 8 is. I have an 04 with 122K miles worth of "being seen in public" and I STILL get the "hey, that's a nice car. what is it" comment.
well ill just say this- the idea that the RX-8 was dead started right here in this forum in 2004 about 6 months after the cars started delivery. every year since then there have been threads throughout the year entitled "no more rx-8 after this year" threads about sales have been filled with posts saying it can't survive for another year or somesuch . and every year we have dragged out next years specs/changes etc and said " you know if you keep calling for its end long enough eventually you'll be right"
All cars “die” at some point or another and 7 years for a car like the 8 is very good.
Plus as was said before here and elsewhere, it is close to the end of life cycle to make room for either a new 7 or a new 8/9.
Ford finally has a 300 hp V6 after all these years in their Mustang but Mazda did what it could with the series II 8 but without a new engine [16X] or a turbo you just cannot get too much more out of it.
Also as a former Mazda 6 owner I remember when all of the car ragazines loved the 6 but after a few years the same magazines started to trash the car for everything they once loved.
Final Results:
1. Audi R8
2. Nissan GTR
3. BMW M3 4. MAZDA RX-8 R3
5. Porsche 911 Turbo
AutoExpress Performance Car of the Year 2008, From England
1 Nissan GT-R
2 Porsche Cayman S
3 MINI JCW
4 BMW M3 Coupe
5 Lamborghini LP560-4
6 Renaultsport Clio Cup
7 Mercedes SL63 AMG 8 Mazda RX-8 R3
9 Audi TT S
10 Porsche 911 GT2
and then there are Speed Source and Jason Isley, Jason Saini Eric Meyer and Team RX-8 etc etc etc who have made beating the competition a regular occurence.
next year here comes the new Mx-5 and in a new platform (if rumors are true) , maybe is not possible to produce TOGETHER mx-5 with new plat. and rx-8 with the old one...
hence...cut rx-8. 2012 maybe will come the next rotary car....
well ill just say this- the idea that the RX-8 was dead started right here in this forum in 2004 about 6 months after the cars started delivery. every year since then there have been threads throughout the year entitled "no more rx-8 after this year" threads about sales have been filled with posts saying it can't survive for another year or somesuch . and every year we have dragged out next years specs/changes etc and said " you know if you keep calling for its end long enough eventually you'll be right"
No offense, but if Mazda had taken some, nay ANY of the collective suggestions "right here in this forum" and acted on them over the **LAST SEVEN YEARS** years (I think that's called 'customer feedback') they might have had a runaway best seller on their lots even yet - instead of dead meat. But NO, they chose to ignore each and every suggestion, not acting or accepting A SINGLE ONE - they kept the car completely and totally unchanged for 6 years!
So year after year after year after year .... the specs came out with nothing - as in N-O-T-H-I-N-G - to show for performance improvements, even cosmetic improvements were assinine and useless lipstick, for 6 years (until 2009 and then anyone without a degree in engineering can't appreciate those bits). And in 2009 aside from a few bends of a fender, and not much else that a typical consumer cares about, did Mazda REALLY expect anyone to jump up and down and buy this underpowered, overpriced, momentum car of the showroom floor in the 10s of thousands? If so, now they know....they were totalyy clueless
WE, the people who spend money, the people on this forum, calling for change that was completely needed, and stupidly ignored, are NOT TO BLAME for this car's demise....
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