Hi all over the Pacific,

Recently some article I read, don't think it was RX-8 oriented, mentioned option, or standard feature, preferences being different here in the states vs European preferences. Can anyone over the help me understand things we might prefer differently. I've read that many of you don't have much need or use for cruise / speed control. And I know you get a rear fog light which no US car that I'm aware of sports. What else?

2nd - someone in my office posted a pic on his cubicle of a gas station price sign for reg, mid-grade and premium - which showed the 3 prices as "Arm", "Leg" and "firstborn". Can anyone from over the email or post a pic of the prices over there? I think those here who complain about $1.70 need an attitude adjustment - and sometimes I wish it went to $4 or $5 a gallon here just to make Americans more ecological minded. Thanks!

 

more geographically minded would be good too.

 

Gas over here is 80pence per litre. Theres bout 4.5 litres to a UK gallon so that works out bout £3.20/UK gallon. Which is roughly $5.10/uk gallon. but theres 1.1 us gallons in a uk gallon so minus 10% and youre about there. ie $4.60/us gallon!!

And with the RX-8 doing something about 20mpg thats a lot of money to find for gas. But hey...........

 

Wrong pond.

You're right about cruise control, it would be virtually useless on UK roads at least.

But the biggest difference is probably that you guys like auto gearboxes - auto isn't even an option on the RX-8 in the UK. Other than that I don't think you'll find our preferences in terms of options differ that much.

And I think rear fog lights are not a preference, but a legal requirement. I barely use mine, yet there's no shortage of fog here in Scotland.

 

Like the fog light, there are a few other mandatory differences:
Headlight washers with Xenon light
Dynamic auto-leveling of lights with Xenon.
Automatics are just not very popular here - IIRC, the Miata was offered with auto for about two years just recently and discontinued again.
A small difference I know about in earlier Miatas was that the US flywheel was slightly heavier than the Euro version, probably to make it easier not to stall the car for drivers who are not that used to manual shifting.
FWIW, YMMV
BTW, I do not think all Americans see the world like this, but a few do

 

Funny, I almost said "pond" instead of Pacific, and now I wish I had - that was a low moment in my forum-postdum when I saw I had said that. I've never been over the Atlantic, but as my heritage is almost entirely German/German Swiss, I definitely plan to someday. At any rate, American's do get a bit self-righteous but are largely more apathetic than it does us good I think. Then there are the Bush and Clintons - egads, don't get me started. I like Bush, but he's taking this war thing a little too far, just IMHO.

$4.60 a gallon-a wee bit more than 1.60 I can get down the street. Hope someone can get a pic - do they have gas price signs there - a pump pic would be as good!

I was reading the Consumer Reports mag here this week and they have a writeup about how distracting HID lights can be, and it mentioned in Europe self-leveling of HID is required and they hope the US adopts that standard. I'd think that if they are required elsewhere that Mazda would include that feature with the Xenon equipped cars here - certainly would be nice, I don't want my car to be offensive to others at night.

Thanks for the replies (over across the pond!)
Daniel

 

Daniel, how can you "like" your dummy and fanatic president ?

Oups ! Sorry this is no the time and place to talk about that

Cheers !

 

The Us version is 10 hp more powerful that the European car also.

 

10HP doesn't make it for me ; I personally thought 189 would be enough for me in most circumstances - but I don't want the auto - would much prefer the manual.
I used to like Bush ; I think he's a bit crazed about the whole war thing and I don't think is thinking through the consequences that may be felt in many countries around the globe, counting here at home - if we start a war. I don't think Hussein should be allowed to remain in power, but I think the Iraqis should take care of that. I do think we should provide severe consequences if he attacks anywhere out of his country ; but I think he should be sent to jail just for what he does to his own citizens - but it's not our place to judge him and his country... I think. It does distract from the pending building of my RX-8 a bit! :-(

 

Could it be a difference in the rating system? E.g. the Bugatti EB 16/4 Veyron is rated at 987 hp in England, but 1001 in Germany (I think). Any info from Mazda about this?

 

The european model is indeed 10 HP down on the US and Japanese models. This is to keep the car within the EU stricter emissions requirements.

Roraty engines have pretty bad emissions apparently, and the RX8 only just makes it !

 

Law must have changed.
When I had my RX7 it was exempt from the emissions test on the MOT. Test was for 4 stroke petrol engines and the rotary did not qualify - hence exempt.

Not that lower emissions is a bad thing - and lets face it , 240bhp should just about be enough... :-)

 

.........
Well, AFAIK, the RX-8 fulfills the most stringent emission standard that exists (at least in Germany). From all current Porsches, only the new version of the GT3 fulfills the same criteria.
Explanation: In Germany, a new car can be
Euro2 - that means you pay rather high taxes every year.
Euro3 - lower taxes
Euro4 - no taxes for a certain period, then rather low taxes
All of the above is from memory, so it can be wrong in some aspects.

 

Uhmmm, the power decrease will be electronic right? So, a new chip? Naughty...

 

Ok, then I will perhaps think about a modchip to regain these 10 hp ... and perhaps more.

Concerning this petrol war (because this is it only and american influence over the mid arabian golf), just ask yourselves this question : Why Bush is not attacking ... china, north Korea, and some others ?

These countries have FAR more reasons to be attacked... no liberty since 50 years and the same mass mudering than Hussein is doing... Huh I forgot ... they are too powerful to be attacked and have not enough petrol ... **** ...

This kind of courage has a name : Profit and Domination.

NB : Irak has never had IN ANY WAY a relation with terrorism ...

A french Frog that likes american, but not their "President"

 

Cmon Stephan, this is an RX-8 forum, not the place to discuss Iraq. Just about every discussion area on the Internet is now infested with endless arguments on this subject, let's try and keep this one clean.

Here's another nice picture to remind us why we're all here.

 

Hi, here in Belgium, all fuel is free!! Got you a picture and it's NOT photoshopped, I know because I made the picture myself!!

 

Nice pic there, Lurcher!

*right click*:D

 

i have a bunch of pics that were taken at the same time as lurcher's including that one. if you want i could email them to you

 

Plenty more where that came from.

http://media.mazda.ch/dossiers/RX-8/Photo-RX8-D.htm

 

Oh no, not the press pack photos AGAIN!!!

 

Yep ok with you my scottish friend, but when I heard about the word bush I got nervous

Seen the RX8 today in dark red, pretty nice even if black will be my color.

For europe, fully loaded car (gps, leather seats all options) will be 35000 euros. No sun roof for us (or perhaps as an option later).

The name of this RX8 version will be "Cosmo".

Stephan