bd32322

Got my 6-speed rx-8 with GT package this Thursday (Jan 19). Driving around more than usual since then :-) Put snows on today and looking forward to a fun time.

Questions:
1) My car stays outside in the apartment parking lot. Do you guys know of car covers that will not stick to snow so that I can easily brush it off and not have to scrape and clean etc?

2) I think I am supposed to clean and dry the car and apply wax to it so that the salt and stuff do not eat away the finish. You guys know of good places/products to do that?

3) Having upgraded from a Honda Accord with auto transmission, I am having a hard time with starting on sloping roads (I have driven stick shifts about 7 years ago in case you are wondering about my sanity). The clutch travel seems to be too long, and I can never feel when the clutch will engage. Any tips or just more practice I guess?

Thanks,
Bobi

Astral

Hey! Welcome and congrats on buying your RX-8! Here's to many happy miles in your new 8

What color did you get?

1) I'm not sure, but problem w/ car covers is that when you put them on, you can really have lots of microscratches and swirls from all the dirt under the cover. Unless you wash your car every time you put the cover on, IMO, it's not a very good idea. But that's just my opinion.

2) Yes, definitely wax it. Check out the Show & Shine section. A lot of people on here like to use Zaino, but you can start with some locally available products like Meguiar's Deep Shine wax. Check out this forum called www.autopia.org -- lots of useful info on it on how to properly care for your car.

3) You will develop the feel with time. Give it a month and you'll be much better. This was my first stick and I have pretty good uphill starts now, four months later. Worst case on a hill, raise the e-brake some, try to get going, when you feel the car trying to pull, release the e-brake and BAM: no rolling back.

There's actually one good automatic car wash in Worcester, it's called Ernie's touchless wash. The one I always used to use when I lived in Worcester was the one on Grove St. It cleans reasonably well, be sure to always get the underbody wash option and the "hot wax" option.

The hot wax stuff that they have is pretty bullshit, but it helps a little in the winter if you have nothing on the car.

Once you have applied proper wax to your car, I would recommend against going to Ernie's (and any other touchless car wash) because they use pretty harsh soaps and they can eat away pretty fast at your wax. I dont' recommend going to any "touch" car washes, no matter how "soft touch" or whatever they are, because you risk swirling your car to heck (like I did with my last car).

There's a bunch of owners in MA and New England.. check out the New Hampshire March cruise thread, it's a good chance to meet some fellow owners.

Good job putting on the snows, btw! Which snows are they?

Astral

As you can see, I'm paranoid about washing my car I have been only hand-washing it so far, and I did it today without a hose (without rinsing). See this thread.

my10ae

Welcome bd32322!

bd32322

Thanks Astral and my10ae.
some pretty good advice .. A friend of mine who got his Audi A4 told me to join a newsgroup pronto - sound advice :-)

I got a red rx-8 - had to go to some lengths to get the exact car that I wanted, since I was looking for 05 models. Eventually got the car from a rhode island dealer (they had the red and black two-tone leather!)

Anyway looks like I saved 250$ on the car cover.

As for the cleaning, it looks like the best thing to do will be to go to scrub-a-dub or any place where they recycle water and wash it by hand with a bucket and mild soap. Also searching for waxing stuff for the rx-8 I came across this site, where they supposedly coat the car with teflon so that bird droppings, acid rain etc have no effect and its guaranteed for 5 years. For now, it looks like good protection (dont know what the cost is tho). If you have heard of it, what are your opinions? I guess I'll post this on the proper sub-forum. Anyway, heres the link: http://westmazda.sentryautogroup.com/Get-Simoniz.aspx

The e-brake advice sounds excellent .. need to try that out. Have had enough panicky stalls these three days in worcester (slope or no slope).

I got Dunlop Winter Sports M3 225-45R18 installed. Those fit on oem wheels. Should have gone with narrower and smaller wheels but I didnt want to pay for new wheels now. Went to Harding tire to mount and balance the tires - they were all very nice and were admiring the car from all over and one even compared it to a ferrari Even got a free ride in a truck with the oem tires. Most other places were not willing to mount the low profile tires (places like NTB etc.)

An RX-8 event sounds like an extremely cool thing .. would definitely want to be a part of it.

BTW. which roads do you drive on? Any favorites?

- Bodi

bd32322

I missed your link about the protect-all stuff at first and read it now.. it sounds neat .. perfect for my apartment lot.
Thanks!

chrism

welcome to the madness....perfect color choice too!

Astral

The red combination w/ the red/black leather is just plain hot.
Hmm, I've never gone to any places that hand-wash for $$$. You can give it a try, but I would be afraid of the mitts that they have and the drying towels that they have scratching up the car. For example, if they don't take off the dirt on a particular place and then dry you with a chamois, it's very likely to result in swirls.

Check autopia.org forum for all the mad detailing advice. They have set me straight many times.

I'm extremely skeptical. If there was indeed a miracle application that lasted 5 years, you bet that everyone here would be talking about it.

I can't find the agreement/terms, but most of these products say that you have to (or sometimes don't have to, but *can*) go to the dealer every year to have this reapplied.

It's snake oil that dealers make $300 worth of profit on. In this Autopia discussion, a former F&I manager says:I think in the same thread someone put it best: "Save youself the aggrivation of the dealer installed swirl option and do it yourself."

*Maybe* the interior protection is worth something, but I really doubt that it lasts for 5 years.

Basically, they are selling you a paint sealant that will stay on for 6 months to a year. For 6 months, you will be happy about how shiney the car is and how nice everything beads and dirt seems to come off easier than it did on your last car. Then it will fade away.

Problem is, can you trust the dealer technicians not to swirl your car up when they do this? They can apply the sealant and top it off with natural/carnauba wax, which will fill the swirls and give you a swirl-free look for a week or a month. Then, next time you bring your car through a harsh-detergent auto wash or as time passes, those swirls will reveal themselve.

When I bought my car, it came lightly pre-swirled from the dealer. I was so overjoyed at owning my car that I didn't notice until a week or so later (they must've waxed it). The swirls were pretty minor (nowhere near as bad as on my last car after 90K miles) and I managed to conceal almost all the swirls using Zaino Z5 product, which is a polymer sealant designed to reduce the appearance of swirls.

I've seen dealers prep their cars by using the same wash mitt on the wheels and then proceed to use it on the paint. Chamois drying is popular, but unless you're in a dirt/dust free area, it's that much more likely to scratch the car because there's nowhere for the dirt to go. Etc etc.

I guess I made myself paranoid (but then I drive my car in the winter, so I *will* get some swirls and scratches and paint chips no matter what).

What I did is bought the Zaino stuff (the $90 starter kit) and applied it myself to the car. Unfortunately, I only had half a day to do it, so I only applied one layer of Zaino Z5. It almost eliminated the minor swirls I had and added some reflection. However, I wish that I added two more layers of Zaino Z2-Pro, which is their "shine like crazy" polymer sealant.

So what you should do for paint protection is apply some sort of polymer sealant. This will give you as good of or as better protection than the Simoniz stuff, but will not mislead you about how long it lasts. It should last at least 6 months, can last a year.

There's lots of good stuff out there. If you don't want to apply it yourself, search around on Autopia.org for a Massachusetts detailer that will: 1) claybar your car [to remove surface contaminants], 2) apply a quality paint sealant. The reason you want to ask on Autopia is to help ensure that you get a detailer that doesn't swirl up your car and knows his stuff. I almost went with this guy in Braintree (an Autopian), he had a Paint Protection package, where he did all the right things (I think used Klasse Sealant Glaze, good stuff), but I cheaped out and did it myself instead (turns out, after the Zaino kit plus towels, not really much cheaper, but I learned and can do it myself again now).

Check out these Autopia threads: all acronyms/abberviations explained, sealant durability, what's your favorite sealant?. Mind you that Zaino produces a highly reflective shine, but many say that it's not quite as deep as what some other products produce. Here is one thread discussing that.

I am still looking for a crazy shiny look... I will try one of those "deeper" looking waxes/sealants later.

Sounds like awsome service! Excellent snow tires, I have those as well, but in a narrower 215 size on a 17" rim.

I haven't been out in Worcester in a while, but I always loved driving up Salisbury St to Main St in Holden (boring part), then taking Bailey Rd to Reservoir St (fun part, and looks nice too) (map). There were more fun roads like that in that area, but I forget most of them now.

bd32322

wow .. after reading the autopia posts .. I am having a brain overload. But in summary it looks like the zainos are durable which is important for me since the car sits outside and is a daily driver (hourly on weekends ) in NE weather.

Anyway the dealer sealant stuff now seems pretty fake now. Thanks for saving my butt there

So I think I cant even use touchless auto washes for now because they will eat away at whatever little protective stuff is there over the original paint. So the first thing I should do is what you described in your post: 1) claybar, 2) sealant, 3) layers of wax or have it detailed at some good shop - like the one you sent a link for.

After that I can do touchless washes for around 3 months / or hand wash with that protectall stuff. I am guessing a hand wash with protectall is preferable - however the ernie's site recommends against this (ofcourse). Then rewax/re-seal.

I should have gotten narrower and smaller tires (read cheaper) but I didnt want to spend extra for the wheels for now. We'll see how it handles in the snow with those wide tires.

I'll check it out and its also close to where I live anyway.

I used to live in Southbridge and they have some pretty good backroads. Theres one that goes to the Southbridge airport. To get to it, you have to take route 20 east from I-83 (near 83 and 90 intersection), then route 169, as you are going on 169 and before you reach southbridge there will be green aeroplane sign pointing to a small road. That road has some major twisties along with ups and downs at the same time. It goes through a wooded area and there are some houses in there during a certain stretch and for another stretch its just deserted.

If you are coming from the worcester area, you can get onto 20 west towards auburn/southbridge (I believe the exit is 6 from 290 west).

I am going there as soon as I get comfortable in my car.

Bodi

Astral

I think you're ok for Ernie's touchless for now. There is almost nothing on your car right now, maybe dealer-put-on wax, *shrugs*, which won't last all that long anyway.

Your process sounds good. With Zaino, it's more like layers of sealant. If you put on a layer of wax, it reduces Zaino's durability a little (no biggie), but you can't layer on any more Zaino (so you have to start over with a paint cleaner). Hopefully this spring, I'll be able to put on like 5 layers of Zaino

BTW, the "Laser" touchless washes, like the ones owned by Scrubadub in Shrewsbury on Rt 9... those are pretty bad. They don't clean well at all and I remember (w/ my last car) that the jet streams were inproportionally powerful on certain parts or sides of the car.

So far, my procedure is to go to a local self-service coin-op to wash off major dirt/salt and spray as much as I can off the underbody. Only use the rinse setting. Then I go home and use Protectall QEW.

That sounds about right.

It's a little funny, I just read the part that talks about home washing, with all the studies they are quoting. The German study says: "[significant damage] using home detergents, low water volume, buckets of water, sponges and towels commonly used to wash a car at home". Indeed, if you wash using Dawn wash with a kitchen sponge and dry using a kitchen towel or some other substandard towel, you can indeed mar your finish pretty bad.

Good luck, some major snow today. I didn't take mine, instead chose to carpool w/ a friend who drives an STI and has snow tires. I'm sure I would've been fine, but I was worried about the idiot drivers.

I will definitely have to check that road out one day.

bd32322

thanks for the advice again ..

one last thing .. to clean snow off my car .. should i use a standard brush ? Wont the bristles damage the coat?

Took it out in the snow today because I didnt have a choice - but should have some carpool buddies lined up for such cases.

Bodi

Astral

Yup, most snow brushes are pretty bad. The bristles get stiff and esp. if you don't let the ice out of it and leave it in the car, the ice will freeze up, giving you hard iced-up bristles to scratch your car with.

Unfortunately, there's not much you can do to avoid brushing snow off.

I am using this OXO snow brush, which has split bristles. They feel considerably softer than the old $2 dept store special I was using. Link: http://store.yahoo.com/autopia/oxo-17014.html

So far, I've been taking off almsot all the snow, leaving about a 1/4" layer below on certain areas. That layer is small enough that it blows off quick (or melts off in the parking lot if it's sunny and warm enough).

I carpooled today! Primarily, I wanted to avoid getting the car all dirty after I washed it Saturday. It will get all dirty anyway, but I will have 1 more day of it being clean(er).

bd32322

Drove down reservoir road - very nice road and its narrow enough for no cops and its deserted AND the view is nice

Here are some pics.

my10ae

Nice pics :D

Spin9k

Welcome bd32322 Hey nice VR color you got there...ummm ...so nice and new and shiny.

Astral

schweet, looking great!

bd32322

thanks guys ..

- Bodi

Aydalh

Hey, grats on your awesome new car. I'm in Westborough atm and I find myself driving west on route 9 a lot. There's lots of crazy twisty cop-free roads around here in the 495 area

bd32322

Do tell where these are I tried out the one that goes to Stow, past the exit to Hudson/290. Pretty nice roads and even found an airport there. I work in Hudson .. so I am usually roaming around there.

- Bodi

midlifer

Welcome!
I live in worcester also. Great choice in color. Nice pictures. My 8 is garaged for the winter but soon as spring rools around we should get a group run together. it sounds like there are more from this area popping out. Just like aydalh said, I too find myself taking roads like RT9 instead of 495 or the pike.

Bob

bd32322

Sounds good .. I will post something about a group run in this thread once spring shows its face. We can decide on the route, dates etc.

Bodi

Aydalh

Yeah, I'm down.. I'm garaged too but I found myself taking it out a lot with this insane January weather. I got a beater for the heavy stuff and I still have the potenzas on my 8.

Q: what's a decent dealer around here? I went to the one in Shrewsbury and well I wasn't very impressed from talking to Joe Piston in the service dpt I think I knew more about the rotary than they did and I'm pretty newb.

As about local roads... I drove all over in the area.. didn't get as far as Hudson but I'd say the triangle between Milford, Milbury and Marlborough is so deserted you can have a nice spirited drive and never run into a cop. There's a few on route 9E usually though so I'd be careful there.

Astral is in Waltham as an ex-Worcester native so he might join in too.

Astral

I like Ira Mazda in Danvers, but that's really the only one I've been to. I had "decent" experience w/ the Sherwsbury dealership with my Protege, but I've never taken my 8 to them and I stopped bringing the Protege there after they lied about how worn my brakes were.

midlifer

I take my 8 to Sentry Motors in Sherwsbury. I think they are great. I didn't buy it there (was not impressed there), but the service manager there is really good. I bought my 8 in Worcester and was not impressed at all. They didn't even show me the service dept.

As for the local roads, if you go northwest you'll find some good ones. Out towards Holden, Paxton, Barre, Rutland. If you want a day trip head out to the berkshires

Bob

bd32322

I have no experience with any dealers yet, but if you are willing to drive a little to Manchester, NH, "my10ae" told me about werner mazda where he recommended a service tech who also owns a rx-8. I wouldnt go up there for oil changes and the like, but in case of problems.

As for the group drive, got a lit of scenic roads from here (complete with pics etc):
http://www.byways.org/browse/states/MA/

Bodi

Bodi