Mazda 6 or Rx8
 

I currently have a Mazda 6 and the transmission slips from time to time but it's a great car. I was wondering if trading t in and getting an RX8 is worth the chance of the Rx8 breaking down. I've read some bad things about the engine and I've read a lot of good things. But what're the chances of the car breaking down. And I test drove one the other day and it had trouble starting. Do all of these have this issue?

There are plenty of people who daily drive their 8's and have very few issues. If you are going to trade get a series II with less than 100,000 miles so you will at least have a bit of engine warranty left. I think all the series I's are out of warranty? No one can guarantee the 8 you buy will not break, in the end it's a car. The chances of it breaking are pretty good if the maintenance was neglected. If you decide to buy an 8 read all the stickies there is valuable information in them. It's a great car, but not for everyone. I don't recommend one if you are on a tight budget.

How has your Mazda 6 been reliably? I have several coworkers with 2004-7 model years (all 4 cyl except one with a V6) with all sorts of problems from vacuum lines, blowing through coils, clogged cats, that it makes my RX-8 look good.

Is the Rx-8 reliable? No.

If you drove a Mazda 6 the same way you'd drive an Rx-8, which would be more reliable?
Easily the Rx-8.

Rx-8 is a sportscar, not a camry. If you're worried about reliability, it's not the car for you.
Any sportscar, is going to have something wrong, Porsche, Nissan, Toyota, Subaru, don't get me started on Italian or German cars outside of Porsche.

I've seen Subaru WRX/STi/BRZ(lol) blow up at 80,000-100,000 miles, same with the Nissan 350-370Z's. Rx-8 just has a horrible reputation because of the early 04-06 models.

In all honesty, I've never really had that much of a problem with my car.

My 04 was a different story, but my '07 has never left me stranded, EVER.

Engine, I saw signs around 74,000 miles that it was losing compression, I probably could have kept going to 100k+ but I would consider myself experienced with rotaries to know, so I had it replaced under warranty.

The reman had issues the day it was in the car, so I don't count that motor, (lasted only 2k miles, died 4-5 months later)

The reman in my current car is solid. Never had any issues. Starts up cold/hot instantly, gets 20ish average MPG, even with spirited driving.

Overall I loved my Rx-8. I am debating on replacing for a newer vehicle only due to the fact I've owned one for such a long time and I feel it's started to get dated for me. But I will never talk badly about the car, it's a blast to drive and with some minor suspension modifications, It would out handle cars with double or triple the value. Such an amazing piece of machinery.

If that answers your questions and you're still interested, buy yourself an Rx-8, if you want something reliable, with good gas mileage, go buy a civic.

But don't be one of these inexperienced guys who cannot afford the car, see the low price tag, think it's like their integra, and another Rx-8 ends up being trashed and salvaged up.

2 very different cars. I have an 04 6s, and an 04 8.

For the 6, what year and when was the last time you looked at the trans fluid? Might be real easy to get it happy, then buy a fixer up 8.

The 8 requires regular and proper owner maintenance, like any car. However, its margin of error for owner neglect is, I'm afraid, small compared to most cars. For that reason, I'd be wary of buying any RX-8 unless you know for a fact that its current/past owner(s) properly maintained it. I would need to see detailed service records proving regular oil changes, and I would need to see a really clean used car - one that obviously was loved by its owner. And, of course, I'd need to see the results of a compression test. Short of that, I'd pass on a used 8.

That said, I've had my '05 over ten years / 35K miles. I'm the original owner and have never had any major mechanical issues. But I'm anal about maintaining it right. How many people out there really are?