Wow--I really hope this PKSKull guy is a troll.

Mid - Life Crisis
 

I don't understand why you think I am having a mid life crisis? If its because I don't like my car that's foolish. I am pissed because I have been forced to drive crappy cars all my life. This is especially difficult becuase I am a car fanatic, I love driving, and love sports cars. So when I finally get up the cash to land something nice, I get something that I don't like.

As for shifting at 3000 RPM's, I don't stop there when I am trying to go fast. I stetch it out, but that is still not enough. The car is not fast, end of story! I don't drive in situations where I can take advantage of the cars handling, so all I see is the ugly side. I find that very frustrating.

Sell the car brother. If you can't drive fast with 200hp, 2000 won't help you. :D

Out of curiousity...did ya drive the car before ya bought it? You only have yourself to blame for always having crappy cars (which the 8 is not). You pick em!!! :)

No, sadly I'm not!

Sell the S.O.B. and stop whining about it. You obviously made a very poor decision due to your lack of automotive accumen--get something else and move around. You haven't said anything substantive in all your talk. I myself have had no problems out of my 8--if you have had all of those issues you should be pissed to--but the other stuff you are talking is meaningless rhetoric. Get another car--there will be someone to take the 8 off your hands.

I'd send the buyer of his car $20 for them to get video of them racing an XL7.

:D

They were the only cars I could afford, so I really did not have a choice in the matter. I did drive the 8, but like I said early it was hard for me to gage performance, because I really didn't have the manual experience. Due to this I had to rely heavily on criticial opinions.

I wish I could have learned stick better before test driving, but the only way to learn it well is to drive it on a daily basis. The only way that this was happening is when I bought a new car. Kinda like how do you get the experience without a job, how do you get the job without expereince.

Just an FYI....a WRX is cheaper than the 8. Granted you might not have liked the lag...but that can be fixed... :D

One of my good friends has the STI, after driving in that car I could never go for the WRX, as I would crave the extra performance.

Cheaper car.....mod it as you go and I think you'll be happier.

To be honest with you I have no desire to mod, I don't know what I am doing, and the cost can get out of hand.

By performance you mean "More Grunt by pressing the Go Pedal"?

Frankly, I've seen a well-driven MIATA take a VIPER to school on a race track. Stop spending money on HP - learn how to effectively use the HP you have. Seriously.

No one forced you to drive this car or any other car. They were your decisions. Change things and stop complaining.

Thanks
 

Thanks for listining, I am just having a terrible day, and my car just happens to make it worse. I felt like ranting, and since no one else cares this was about my only place to vent. I don't like the 8, but I'm stuck with it for now.

To make matters worse Mazda just called and told me my recall has a recall, something I already knew from reading this forum. The good old M flash is causing the CEL. So now I have to drive around for a couple of months with the check engine light on. Thats an example of quality engineering right there.

When I was going to get my car I saw an omen that I should have headed. As I pass the Subaru dealership what do I see in their used car lot? A brand new Black RX-8 (Same color I have). Someone ended up in the same position as me, dissapointed with performance. They bit the bullet and got a WRX, maybe thats what I should do! I just don't think the old woman would appreciate that.

Where are you located Pskull? I'm sure there are some friendly 8 owners in your area that would be willing to go for a ride with you and help you find out why YOUR car is so slow, or perhaps help you feel better about your car and enjoy owning it. No sense hating owning what really is a great automobile. I would be willing to help you out if you lived nearby. If i took you for a ride in mine, slow would be the LAST word that would come to mind... and I'm not abusive to my car.

So is there anybody near poor Pkskull willing to help him out? It saddens me to see an 8 owner in such an unhappy way.

I don't understand what the big deal is about getting rid of the car. Why can't you trade it in? Go for something with some nuts if that's what you want. Get yourself WRX, it's fast, got some decent styling and is easily modded to go very fast. Another great thing about this car is that it's cheaper than an RX8!!! I'm sure with your trade-in money you could get one pretty easily. If you don't want the WRX go for the SRT-4, or the GTO, a Camaro, Mustang GT. These cars all have great amounts of power. Everyone here has their own opinions about the car they drive and about other cars. Yours seems to conflict with most of the opinions in this thread and that's fine. But I beg you, if you hate the car so much, do something about it.

Pkskull77...

I think you are behing honest about how you "FEEL" about the car but I agree with what they are saying...the RX8 is a high rev engine and you have to push it to it's REV (like any car but it comes later on since most cars can't rev to 9000RPM) to get it to move at it's best. Yes it lacks torque but 14.5 in the 1/4 is not slow at ALL.

I hope you can trade it in or sell it so you can get that straight line car you are looking for.

I really don't understand this whole speed issue. How many times does anyone street race? Me never. I wouldn't trade this car for any of those light to light cars that can beat me by a whole 1/2 second to a full second. BFD. This car looks ten times better, handles 45 mph curves at 80+ no problem and gets alot more compliments then a stupid srt neon, etc. every would. Maybe its because I am 37 but you can keep those ugly cars and get to the next stoplight a little before me. I will meet you there in a second and we will both be waiting until it turns green before we go anywhere jackass. Matter of fact we could go to the same location and i would pull in right behind you in a much better looking ride :) You had 3 kills last week and a $200 + ticket for wreckless driving this week. Congrats! you rock! My ride turns ladies heads. Yours can get you to the next RED light a second faster...


Another rant. Haven't pushed the limits but some have went 140+? Just how damn fast do you want to go on public highways if that isn't fast?

I remember when I first learned how to drive a stick. I thought my little 1.5 liter Honda Civic LX (Very pedestrian), was slow. I thought it had no power at all. I remember being freaked out about wearing out the clutch.

I also remember being very annoyed at constantly having to play with the shifter durring traffic, and never seeming to know which gear was the right gear to grab as you found yourself on a slight incline.

Some of these things wore off rather quickly. I got pretty familiar with the gears, in the first year, and I found that the Civic had enough power to get around town without much problem. I stopped worrying about the clutch, but I didn't really realize how much this shouldn't be a concern at all.

When I got my CIVIC it had 30k miles on it.

That was about 7 years ago. I still have the car today, I regularly shift it at 6000 rpm's and double clutch. The car has 190k miles on it, and the clutch feels like it did the day I bought it. Other than changing the plugs and the standard oil-change / timing belt, I haven't had to do anything to the car.

What I have learned over these last seven years, is that this car's power band is actually 3700-5300 rpms. The car wants to be driven in this range. This car loves to be driven like that. We americans baby our cars. Just go spend some time in europe and see how they drive, and you will realize that cars are much tougher than we think they are.

I really don' think that I could tear up my clutch if I tried. Well Actually I have been trying to tear up this car for about 90k miles, and it just won't die.

Now, I guarentee you that I will beat just about any SUV with my 90hp 1.5 liter econo-car because I know how to drive it. As a matter of fact I beat a Z28 driven by a friend of mine who had spent about 20 grand on intake and exhaust and gear upgrades, he had about 310 hp on me, but I still beat him. We started the race as a joke his monster vs my mouse. I felt bad beating him, because he had a reputation around town as the guy to beat, and he just got stomped by a piece of junk. (He later confided that he missed 2nd gear, but still he should have killed me even if he missed a gear)

All I can say is take some time, let your baby stretch her legs a little, and you might just find you have alot more power than you thought.

And as for the other negatives about manual transmission, I love driving them now. I would never own anything else. Even those silly manual shift 5 speed automatics are just too disconnected from the real power for me. I don't even notice shifting it happens automatically, and I never even notice the constant shifting in traffic, its just something that comes naturally once you are really comfortable with driving a stick.

And if that doesn't convince you that you aren't getting the most out of your car watch this video.

http://www.gofastvideo.com/gallery/i...mazda-rx8.html

I've seen this video before, and the car looks impressive, but something strange is afoot. I'm convinced that Mazda greased his pockets. Although the 8 is easier for a beginer to drive fast, a true proffesional driving both cars could easily put up a better time in the 350z. Then they get really silly and rank it with the M3. I don't know how scientific the laps were, but the RX-8 can't hold a candle to the M3.

This is one of the articles that convinced me to go with the RX-8 over the Zed. If I was going to defend the 8, this is the video I would use. I just don't buy their results.

I have never gone looking for a street race, but from the second I bought the 8, people been finding me. It's amazing the types of vehicles people attempt to race, for some reason folks get turned on when they see something sporty. For that reason I find it hard to believe someone has not tried to dust you off at least once. Sometimes you feel like fighting back, instead of sitting there and taking it. I quickly found out that it's often useless to resist. If the car is comparable to the 8 in price, it's probably going to win.

I agree with your logic about how silly it is, but sometimes it feels good to open up on someone. In certain traffic situations, for instance where 2 lanes turn into one, its actually useful.

As for the looks, I can safety say that very few women are actually impressed by the looks of your car. Women really don't care about that sort of thing. The fact that you’re impressed about that, is almost as silly as my obsession with the 8's acceleration.

Thank you, I hope so too.

Then I don't see a problem. The 8 has some of the best acceleration in the world - I can't think of too many other cars which rank higher, than .91G. :)

The thing about the women was a bit of a joke being that I am married and don't go looking anyway but I get positive comments daily without question from men and women. But to say women don't care about that is naive. Some do some don't. I prefer to stay away from those that do. I never have had a problem opening up on someone as you put it on the highway. Stoplight to stoplight, big deal as I said but this car is anything but slow. Unless you are truly wanting to race stoplight to stoplight your no acceleration is a crock. I certainly didn't buy this car to street race so they can dust me off all they want. It seems that is your biggest issue so you really need to go get a srt so you can smile for a block or so once in a while. Once you get into traffic you are stuck with a crappy car which I figure is at least 90% of the time. Enjoy...

I hate the SRT-4! The car is impressive, but it's not the whole package. To me the most frustrating part of the RX-8 is how very close they came to putting together the entire package. I don't understand why they left the horsepower out. I am pretty sure that any aspiration they add in the future was concocted prior to the RX-8 release. You know that they experiment with different types of aspiration on the engine. Why did they hold back? The only answer is to screw people, tease them the first time, and deliver the second time.

They didn't leave the HP out. The engine in the rx-8 is better than the previous rotaries. Look at how much hp it puts out compared to previous rotaries. Look at the gas consumption. You can't even claim that mazda held back - look at the aftermarket gains for the rx-8 when it comes to intake, exhaust, etc. Very little can be gained because of how well the rx-8 was tuned from the factory.

It's true the RX-8 isn't turbocharged, but they don't come out with a turbo version of the car in the first year.

Regardless of what you're complaining about with the rx-8, none of what you describe should be news to you since you test drove it before hand, and did your research.

I really think it's your ability to drive stick that lacks, not the car.

To some extent my stick skills are lacking, I can't argue with you there. I am just frustrated with the fact that Mazda screws you by releasing a turbo version 2-3 years after the initial release. You know they had the tech to do it in 2003. Any time you see a MS Speed mock up the thing is Turbo Charged, where do you think they got the know how to do that? I shouldn’t have to buy two cars to get the one I wanted; it should have been a choice from the start. This issue is they wanted to make the extra cahs

Mazda, like me, is clearly concerned with the HP, that’s part of the reason behind the HP debacle when the car was first released. They say it was an accident, I think they were trying to get away with one. They believed that no one would be able to test it, so they gave it a try.

Honesty Is The Best Policy!!!!
 

I OWN A 2004 RX-8..........AND THEIR ISN'T ANYONE ON THIS BOARD THAT CAN TELL ME THAT THEY ARE TRULY 100% HAPPY WITH THE FACT THAT THEY SPENT 25,000-35,000 ON A CAR THAT A SRT-4 CAN SPANK.....AND LETS NOT LIE THEY CAN....MODS INCLUDED(MOD FOR MOD OF COURSE).....THAT IS WHY THIS IS SUCH A HEATED DISCUSSION....IF THIS WASN'T A PROBLEM THIS THREAD WOULDN'T ALREADY HAVE 7 PAGES IN ONE DAY!!!!!WE CAN SIT HERE ALL DAY AND SAY IT HANDLES THIS AND HANDLES THAT!!!!!WHO CARES WHEN A KID IN A STOCK NEON WAXES YOU #$$ OFF THE LINE!!!!I HAVE DRIVEN MY RX-8 TO ITS MAX STOCK POTENTIAL AND I HAVE ALSO DRIVEN A BONE STOCK SRT-4....(YES IT IS CHEAPER AS FAR AS INTERIOR AN EXTERIOR LOOKS.....BUT IT PULLED HARDER...ALOT HARDER.....)LETS STOP BITCHING ABOUT THIS TO EACH OTHER AND START BITCHING TO MAZDA!!!!THEY OWE US.....BIG......I DONT KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT I WANT POWER FOR $450.00 A MONTH......AND I CAN ASSURE THAT A HEAVY CAR STILL PULLS HARDER WHEN IT HAS 40 MORE HORSEPOWER AND MORE TORQUE ....ESPECIALLY WITH FORCED INDUCTION.....

AND SOME OF YOU THAT SAY THIS CAR IS NOT AN STI OR EVO KILLER!!!STOP CRYING !!!!!JUST MAD THAT YOU KNOW SOME OLD LADY IS GOING TO LIKE THIS NEW CARE, BUY IT, AND WAX YOU STOCK EVEN WITH ALL YOUR BOLT ON MODS....


I ASK YOU .....................GROCERY GETTER.......OR........RX-8 KILLER!!!!

I KNOW THIS SHOULD GET SOME GOOD REPOSTS.....HAVE FUN!!!! :eek:

You are right about one thing - they did intentionally release a NA version of the car, while having plans to release a faster version down the road. The reason for this is because they can then see how the car performs, and locate any problems that might be problematic with a higher output motor.

But this goes with any car maker. Each year they tend to put out a better, faster, nicer looking version than the previous year. It's not about screwing *you*, it's about producing a better product. Same goes for software, computers, etc.

Not sure if this is going to get you any good replies, as you've only restated what others have said, albeit in CAPS.

The SRT-4 was out when you bought your RX-8. If you wanted a neon, why didn't you get one? I don't understand where you are coming from.

Jesus....Makes ya wonder what the hell people think about when they test drive a car.

The SRT-4 point really touches a nerve. We all bought sports cars, and implicit with that is generally a desire to drive them to their limits. We want to accelerate fast, corner quickly, stop on a dime, and hit the top end. We spent a lot of money to get the 8, and to some extent we did so blindly. Aside from some articles are only impressions of the vehicle came from a test drive, an impressions which is generally too short to really get a feel for the car. Some of you even bought the car thinking it had more horsepower than it does. With that in mind, I know every one of you has gotten beaten by something that pissed you off. Whether it be a Neon, a Zed, or some riced out Honda.

At that very minute you thought to yourself WTF? You questioned your decision and perhaps doubted all the hype that surrounded this car. I know no one promised the car would be a rocket, but it was supposed to be solid. In my opinion, solid is not getting lit up by a Neon.

I can’t argue with the need for a progression to turbo, but this is not the 50’s, computer models can help work out many of the bugs that only time would revel in the past. The fact of the matter is that a modern sports car must first be quick, then be nimble. American culture has bred this desire for big HP, and fast acceleration. On that point Mazda missed the target. I can only assume that is why I am frustrated.

Every time someone has been interested in my car they ask “is it quick?” I usually start by saying no, not really. Then I begin to explain how well it handles, and at that very moment I see their eyes glaze over. Most people don’t care about that in a car. I think most 8 owners do, but not because it was initially important, but because that’s all we have to grab onto.

Most kids just want to accelerate quickly. They don't care about brakes, cornering or even styling of the car. Just look at the competition - most of them are updated econo boxes.


No one asks me if my car is quick, but I frequently get asked if it's fast.

For $30,000, you could have bought a honda accord and riced it out to the max. If I bought your rx-8 from you for exactly what you paid for it, would you WANT to get the riced out honda? Would you WANT to get a souped up neon?

computer models don't tell you everything you need to know. case in point: the robots that apply the greese to the back of the defrost buttons in the earlier rx-8s put on too much, causing that button to crack several months down the road. How could they have predicted that? The renesis isn't 100% brand new, but they made enough changes to warrent some time to design and build the higher end version. Remember they don't get to say "woops, we didn't know it would blow up after 4,000 miles", they have to make sure it's functional.

Regardless of car...there will always be someone faster. There are Ford Pinto's out there faster than the 8. Big deal! The disappointment of the 8's power is a sore spot for alot of folk. But most knew that when they bought the car. Looking at the HP and TQ numbers they knew that. Yes....it looks fast. Even my wife thought I was full of crap when I told her my GT was faster than the 8 (I had to race her to prove it). You have a very nice looking car both in and out....appreciate it. You simply picked the wrong car if straight line speed is what your lookin for. You could have bought an 04 STI for 28K.

I had no desire to rice a car out. I will not be adding aftermarket parts or the like, just not my back of tricks. You're right there are always some things that can't be worked out in the models but I can almost gaurantee you that the Rensis motor has been tested just as extenisvely with aspiration as without. I'm not really up on Rotary performance but if I'm not mistaken weren't most of the previous incantations FI'd?

Yes...some of the Rx-7's were turbocharged. But the point of the renesis was to beable to make the power without the TC and save on gas milage (no wise cracks...:) )

As far as testing the renesis with FI, I highly doubt they have. Of all the tuners I have spoken with in my area, the renesis scares them and few want to touch it. Reason being, it is a redesigned motor, the max PSI may be 7, they feel that there will be alot of blown motors when people try and add FI and then start in with the ECU management and/or MBC/EBC. So no...I don't think mazda tested it with a TC.

I find that hard to believe considering all the hype you hear about Mazda's show cars. I know these things aren't full producition street machines, but I find it unlikely that they would take the time to show one if they couldn't produce it.

Additonally, when you go to market with a car you test everything from Turbo to Super. They probably found something that they didn't like and decided to stay away from the Turbo till they were pressed to make a faster 8. They better come up with something quick or the 8 will go the way of the 7. I just don't see a whole lot of people buying the 8 once the MS 6 hits the streets. I don't know if I would have bought this car, but if I was forced to get a Mazda and I had to choose between the 8 and the MS 6 the decision would be fairly simple.

Subaru Legacy GT?

Obviously you are obsessed with the Pre-Mature Ejaculative state only torque and torque is all that matters...so you can hop light to light, beating the little teenage snot that pulls up next to you

I said 'complete package' meaning it can stop and corner as well as it can accelerate, has luxury features/conveniences, and is fun to drive. The Legacy, in my book, lacks all those.

It's fast, but it can't handle as well as a regular 6, let alone the M/S. It's right at or over $30k for the GT, but doesn't even offer HID, NAV, one-touch up/dwn windows, or keyless start, all of which the M/S will have. Nice car to look at, but not for me.

Stop speaking for all 8 owners, will you? Not everyone has short dick syndrome or needs to be the fastest in order to feel like something special. I bought this car knowing damn well what I was getting and knowing it was what I wanted. And no, not every one of us has been beaten by something that pissed us off, because some of us are adults and act like it; we've outgrown street racing.

If you spent as much time behind the wheel learning how to drive your car as you do here bitching about how much you hate it, maybe you'd finally learn how to drive it properly.

The 7 died due to pricing. Mazda thought they would price the RX-7 low, get a lot of people interested in it, then raise the price. Unfortunately it had the opposite effect, people asked themselves why would they spend 40 grand on a 30 thousand dollar car.

The RX-8 is priced to sell. While the RX-8 has some of the same features as the MS6 (like 4 doors), it really isn't in the same category and if you are looking at apples to apples, it also has no competitors. Mazda has not created an RX-8 killer with the MS6.

THis thread has really shown me that there are some really dense people out there when it comes to buying a car. Nobody forced any of these idiots to buy the car--what happened to the whole buying process (test drive, comparison shopping, and all)? Compared to the previous generation of japanese sports cars the RX8, G35, and 350Z are a couple of steps behind anyway. One of these clowns was talkin about for $450 a month blah blah blah--you knew the specs on the RX8 before you bought it so what are you bitching about? Common sense isn't so common I see. bur back on topic--the Mazdaspeed 6 kicks ass.

Acceleration, whats wrong with that
 

I find it extremely offensive that so many people degrade you for wanting a car that’s fast off the line. I don’t understand what’s so bad about that. Nor do I see the comparison between small dicks, and premature ejaculation. I can assure you I have a problem with these issues, but at the same time I do dislike the 8’s acceleration. With the way you get treated bring this topic up you would think I just advocated killing small children. If I have a problem with the acceleration you need to respect that, just as I respect your appreciation for the cars other features. If debates like this did not exist the club would have about 10 threads.


Coming into my purchase I was well aware of the 8’s shortcomings, but not fully informed on how extensive the acceleration issue was. I knew the car was low on ponies, but I believe that it’s weight, and gearing, propped it up. The issue for me isn’t 6 seconds, because that’s plenty fast, its how hard you have to beat it to get there. Dropping the clutch as 7,000 RPM’s is not acceptable, as you can only do that so many times before your buying a new clutch. In reality the 8 is somewhere around 7-7.5 seconds off the line. This is a fact that is not widely advertised in the magazines, shows, and articles describing the 8.

I suppose you would be referring to me as dense, and while your entitled to your opinion I can assure you that it's not true. I spent extensive time researching cars, and my goal was to get a well-balanced sports car. Using a combination of test drives, literature, and word of mouth, I settled on the 8. As I have already stated, feeling the 8's acceleration was difficult because I was not experienced with the manual transmission when I bought the car. There was no way to overcome this fault, because as most of us know the only way to learn stick well is to drive it every day, something I couldn't due without actually owning the car. Due to the HP difference between the Manual and the stick, I just had to trust the published acceleration times. This is a mistake I will never make again! I'm sure under the perfect conditions the 8 can achieve 6 seconds, but in reality the car is far slower than that. I'm disappointed and I feel like venting my frustration, that’s why I complain.

Horsepower aside, I believe I accomplished my task of purchasing a well-balanced sports car, so I believe my research and intuition served me well. In any case, I'm far from dense. I don’t believe it serves anyone well to start name-calling, this is a public forum designed to exchange ideas, and if you don’t like someone’s opinions don’t read their posts.

First off the Legacy GT is not 30K. I don't know where you got that from but my 05 which I bought in August was 26K....cheaper than my 8. Secondly the stoping power and cornering of the Legacy is very good for a sport sedan and just by adding STI "Pink" springs improves it even moreso. So I think your comment about it not handling as well as the regular 6 is way off. I have driven both and can say that the 6 is no where near the car as the GT. Yes the GT is fast....and will still remain faster than the MS6 stock for stock.

Does it offer features such as HID and Nav....well...Subaru will be offering them on all 2005 models to be retrofit the first quarter of 05. The HID is nice...but navigation for my taste doesn't make or break the deal. If you don't know where the hell your going when you leave the house....stay home! The Legacy GT is not a Luxury sedan and has never been toughted at one. If you want your starbucks to stay toasty on the way to work than by a lexus.

Just so people start using it correctly:


Acceleration = A change in speed or direction.

The RX8 Accelerates just fine.

:D

Thank you for the literal definition, but the term commenly refers to how quickly a car goes from stopped to a certain speed.

it certainly isnt 7.5 seconds either (maybe with you its 7.5 seconds to 60 but you already admitted you dont drive over 7000 rpm anyway), peak torque is a nice sounding number, but the entire torque curve is what makes a car go...look up your physics and calculus and look at the area under the total torque curve and compare that to other cars and all of a sudden you may see differently, this car was designed to deliver torque over a large powerband, and guess what if you dont use it all you dont get it all. You don't have to dump a clutch to get maximum performance i find feathering from 4500 to 5000 gives me maximum road grip. but you dont really care right, you seem to enjoy self deprecation so keep at it...