BlueEyes

I know 2 adults, one pushing 60, who have STI's. The younger one only has that one car. I actually drove his, an '05, yesterday. The '05 interior is much improved, but i'll save that loti da for another thread. Anyway, it's not at all like a riced up honda civic, it's more like a very fun and very capable sports car. Maybe they just don't have insecurities with how they appear to others like so many younger people do. Comes with age I think.

playdoh43

evo rocks big time. i love that car. best bang for the buck performance, mean looking low stance and agressive lines, tunning potential is sick... handles better than anything below 50k with the exception of elise and maybe s2k and its not even rwd. poor man's supercar indeed :p. I got so much more respect for the evo than the sti. (i respect sti too, just not nearly as much ) I almost got an 2003 Evo instead of my gcoupe for $10k less, but pops convinced me that ill grow out of the boy racer phase :p. I give evo owners thumb up whenever I see one on the street

StealthFox

very capable car, i always say if you can swallow the butt ugly looks of the evo/wrx/sti cars they are the best performance cars in the sub 50k range.

Pkskull77

The EVO/STI are not really bad looking cars. I know the wings aren’t for everybody, but the cars have very aggressive lines and stances. Looks are generally subjective so I can't argue with your personal opinion, but there a whole lot of people out there who would tell you that the RX-8 is ugly and the EVO/STI are beautiful.

Trust me when I say this. Some day, when you don’t own the 8 anymore, you’re going to see one drive by, and think to yourself, it’s not really that good looking. I had it happen to me and I couldn’t believe what I was thinking.

280RX-8

They're not so much ugly as plain as Hell, and not really distinctive. Without the wings they just look like plain'ol sedans. Whatever you think of the RX-8, at least it is unique. I know way more people who like it's appearance than the super-sedans. The only reason evos/sti's draw attention is because of their turbos, those outrageous wings, and what people hear about their awesome performance. The Mazda will draw people on it's looks, even if nobody's heard of it.

StealthFox

i wouldn't be too quick to assume on two points my friend

1. you have no idea how long i have religiously followed the car and how much of an rx8 fanboi i am. im not just another "user" i'm a diehard enthusiast of the car, and the chances of me warming up to the idea that the rx-8 looks bad is probably about the same as a ford festiva transforming into the most beautiful car manufactured to me.

2. actually to me personally the STi and EVO are some of my favorite cars high up on the list ahead of many exotics believe it or not, by saying they are ugly i am going by if you were to get a group of 1 million people and poll them the result would favor the cars looking like economy cars with rims a body kit and a wing unfortunately. im a big subaru impreza fan but not particularly the GDB's im big into GC8s and would sell the rx8 to own a WRX STi-V Type-R 20b if it was remotely possible. Im also a fan of the the entire evolutions from the early 90's untill now andl i also want to own an EVO 8 or 9 one day as that's the last evo i really like because i dont like at all the way that mitsu is going with the 10. its a really mean looking car and i get pretty scared whenever one pulls up.

Ike

Actually, I think we know what happens when people are polled about car looks. One car we're speaking of in this thread made the top 10 ugliest, and it's not the Evo nor STI.

StealthFox

haha very true ike, that one very reputable online source that everybody knows of put the rx8 on very high priority. :D

kind of odd that in a real world situation most people like the way the rx8 looks, im sure there's some ounce of you ike that likes the rx8 or you wouldn't have near 4000 posts on a car forum for a car you don't own and don't plan on owning.

280RX-8

Good point Ike. I mean the SSR made the best-looking list, and I know a lot of people who hate that thing(myself included), and others who like it. My wife says 1 of her friends said the 8 was ugly, but she drives a Neon, and her man is a ricer.

DARKMAZ8

So tell me, who was involved in this pole and how many people voted? Also, how old were the voters and what sex, car, nationality, career, state, city, ect. I wonder why people always take these polls so seriously when there is absolutely no information on how the results got there.

Pkskull77

Well I guess there are some people who will think the RX-8 is hot no matter what the case. When I owned mine I was always waxing/washing the darn thing. I took so many pics. I thought it was so good looking. However, if you catch the 8 at the wrong angle some of its line conflict with each other. You tend to see this more when you don't own it anymore.

When I see an 8 and 3rd gen 7 next to each other the bad lines of the 8 just become so much more apparent.

Ike

A big part of the RX-8 is it's polarizing, some might say garish, people are going to form an opinion about it and it'll usually be a strong one. So I think that is why you see it place high on a poll for ugly cars, it's also why you see so many people in love with the looks and thinking every other car on the road is ugly.

The reason why the STi and Evo get critisized whether some of you want to admit it or not is because of their performance and reputation as a performance car. If they weren't fast most people wouldn't have good or bad to say about them. However, because they can hand 99% of the RX-8s on the road their *** on any surface in any condition, people have to look for something to critisize to defend their precious RX-8. They're not ugly cars, they're rather simple and ordinary looking save for a couple plastic bits that clue you into the fact that it might be a performance car, which is part of why I love them. I'll take a sleeper over a gussied up car that performs decently well any day.

RX-Hachi

Looks are subjective. But in the EVO's and STi's case, anyone calling the cars exterior look beautiful is probably being influenced by the car's beautiful performance rather than purely on looks alone. Perhaps they look "mean", but hardly "beautiful".

To look at it another way, if the EVO didn't have the performance it has, I wouldn't consider it in a million years based on its looks. And that goes double for the STi. For me, I like my sports cars to look like sports cars. The EVO & STi perform like sports cars, but they don't look like true sports cars in my opinion.

My taste based on looks are the following:
Sports car looks > Sports sedan/coupe looks > Rally car looks (i.e. EVO/STi)

Don't take this the wrong way, but this statement just seems like sour grapes. For whatever reasons you don't like the 8 anymore and sold it, this may have influenced your change of heart about its looks as well.

I've owned many many cars over the years. But I still like their looks just as much now as I did back in their day. The RX-8 will be no different. The intensity of liking the look may change over time, but not from the extreme of thinking a car is beautiful, then suddenly ugly.

DARKMAZ8

I think you're incorrect regarding this analysis. Most 8 owners bought the 8 because of its engine. You honestly feel that 8 owners are jealous of the sti or evo's performance? Maybe a certain few are but don't generalize. Most of us already knew all the numbers and could have bought different cars for the same money but the rotary is just that special. Remember Ike, there's always gonna be a faster car so why gloat?

btw if you think that the STI or Evo looks like a sleeper then I think you need to seek a dr.....Those cars scream boy racer rice.......sorry but I'll get J.D. power to poll that one for ya. :D

RX-Hachi

On the other hand, the RX-8 has its fair share of admirers. Such as one Road&Track's Sam Mitani who stated he "believes the RX-8 to be the prettiest car to have come out of Japan...ever".

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article....&page_number=2

I don't happen to agree with that statement, I think that honor falls to the FD RX-7. But there's hardly a day that goes by when I don't get some kind of nice compliment about the 8's look from strangers.

StealthFox

i was thinking if i ever own an EVO i would do a complete Lancer ES conversion, spray the intercooler black, get a custom exhaust setup made with really good mufflers and extra silencers, add a bypass valve instead of a BOV, etc the whole nine yards

StealthFox

sorry to bust your ***** but the majority of 8 owners are middle aged women and men in thier 30's not giving a damn **** about an evo being able to out accelerate it. compare the amount of rx8s to the amount of people on rx8club/rx8web discussions(the rx8 enthusiasts). its a safe statement to say 9 out of 10 evo's and STi's are enthusiasts while for the rx8...not so much, and that's the way mazda wants to sell it, as not an enthusiast exclusive car.

DARKMAZ8

Nobody said you have to be an enthusiast to like an engine. I have no Idea what your point is please enlighten us all captain interpreter :p

Ike

Very few people bought the RX-8 for much else but looks, and even fewer could care less that is has a rotary engine. I think that is what he was getting at.

DARKMAZ8

Wait a second, did Ike just say people bought the 8 for looks? I really doubt it considering j.d. power said it's one of the top ten ugliest cars :p

You just fell right into my trap :D

Ike

You suck at reading.














































And life.

DARKMAZ8

ouch!!! Being you must be great!

Steiner

I can gaurantee you the Evo IX is a better performer than the VIII. The Evo line has a habit of evolving. :D

I'm too old for boy racer looks too so I went with the VIII RS model. It may not exactly look like a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry, but without the spoiler it attracts very little attention. It's truly a wolf in sheep's clothing. It's also ripe for modifications. If you enjoy tinkering and tweaking your cars it's at least worth your while to check out the new Evo IX RS when your local dealer gets one. I used mine as daily driver for about 8k miles and have no complaints other than having to manually lock doors when your passengers forget to do it themselves. For $300 in new parts or an afternoon at the junkyard this is something that can easily be upgraded. I use my wife's SUV now and it has given me an opportunity to do the stuff to the Evo I've been salivating to do for a while now...full 3" turbo-back exhuast, EcuTek flash and dyno tune, HKS cams, etc...although not all at once. I can honestly tell you though that these Evos come to American shores so detuned and utterly castrated of their performance potential that it would be an absolute shame to buy one if you don't at least plan to do some minor upgrades. Remember that, aside from the ECU software, these are the same cars that put down close to 300whp in Japan. You just have to set them free. :p

Ike

Prettymuch

DARKMAZ8

Is that considered a compound word in wisconsin?