Just want to introduce myself to the forums. I took the plunge in to the rotary world and picked up a manual 2004 RX8 today. Has just a little over 100k miles.
So far I love it, I've learned a lot so far reading these forums and I plan to do everything I can to take care of the car just as I did my last one.

It's pretty clean, not much body or interior damage. The transmission grinds into 4th gear so I'm going to Mazda tomorrow to get it taken care of and to have a compression test done on the engine - which seems to run fine but as far as these cars go my experience with a rotary is zilch so I'm not too sure yet what the normal/abnormal feel and sounds to this engine are, plus it has a bit of an oil smell to it after running for a little bit, but it could be in part to it sitting at the dealer for almost a month. I'm pretty sure it also has the original weak '04 starter as well. Just have to wait to see what the tech says there before my next step. But anyway I like to do a lot of work myself so I'll probably be stopping by here to read/post often. I really like the design and feel of the RX8 so I'm hoping this car can go a long way over the next couple years.

 

Welcome to the club! I wish you would have had the compression checked before you made the purchase. With a little over 100,000 miles in a 2004; just hope it is not the original factory engine. You can have that looked at in the dealer, as well. If you don't mind telling us, which car lot did you purchase and how much did you pay for your car? In the meantime, you can start by reading the first few pages in these helpful threads:

Congratulations, you got an 8!
New and Potential Owners START HERE!
Suffering a misfire, START HERE!

 

It was a small lot in Montclair, CA. They included a dealer warranty so if there is a problem I just need to take it back to them.
$9k on the lot and around $10 after sales taxes, licensing, etc.

 

Just make sure you go to a certified MAZDA dealer because they are the only place which will have the proper equipment to perform a compression test on our engines.

 

I shall, I'm scheduled to go into Mazda tomorrow. One of those threads lead me to calling Mazda and I found out the engine had been replaced in 2011, the car has seen about 13k miles since then so I'm hoping for good results on the compression test. Just have to take care of this transmission thing.

 

Nice car, looks just like mine, wheels and all. I rarely see them with the chrome wheels. Mine s a loaded GT, what is yours? Congradulations on the new ride, I hope all is well with the compression test.

 

Welcome SoCal762, good luck and have fun with it.

 

I couldn't tell if it's a GT or not honestly but I just received word from Mazda on the compression.
Rotor 1: 6.5, 6.5, 6.6
Rotor 2: 6.9, 6.9, 6.6
So, crap, not where I was hoping. They suggested I look into a new engine and transmission lol.

 

Yeah, that's too bad. You may be able to pull at least another 20,000 miles with those results before you start having the hot-start issues. Anyway; if you have the six-speed manual transmission, leather seats, BOSE speakers, and 6-Disc CD Player, you got yourself a GT.

 

6 disc was optional on all trims, was not included by default on any package. My GT did not have the 6 disc.

You can also have an automatic with the GT package as well.

The leather seats with seat heater switches is usually the tell-tale sign. Moon roof with cloth would be touring.

All can change if interiors have been swapped around.

 

Yea I'm a bit bummed out about it. It's at the dealer I bought it from right now, they're going to replace both the transmission and engine, probably won't have it back until Friday or early next week. I'm pretty obsessive about taking care of my vehicles and doing my own maintenance so as long as the replacement engine isn't a dud I think I can squeeze quite a bit of miles out of it. I mean I take care of my other car which is pushing about 227k miles and running pretty strong. But anyway once all the major issues are taken care of I can't wait to get it back so I can enjoy it and start putting my own personality into it.

Ah okay, so yea it's a GT then.

 

I forgot about the Moon/Sun Roof.