Sniperwolf3x7

Hello all, my name is sniperwolf and I'm new to this forum. I've been in deep thought for some time now and was wondering if I could get some help. I currently drive an 06 altima 2.5 and I long for an amazing rwd car. I find myself mainly coming back to the s2000 and rx8. I have reached the verdict that these cars are definitely something worth owning though the situations differ for me from normal cases. In buying the 8 it would be a secondary car(me keeping the altima) and probably an 04 or 05. However the s2000 would be a dd(getting rid of the altima) as well as probably being the ap1 over ap2. Both cars will be kept at least a length of 5 years(maybe longer if they give me no issues), and shall remain stock(or at least as stock as they come bought). I like both of these cars, can't figure out which one I really will love. So the main questions I guess would be: What's the rx8 like as a daily or weekend car? Does it ever get tiring? Which deal would be better, the second car or swapping the primary? And lastly any experience with these cars, whether owned or just driven a cool minute would be greatly appreciated I love opinions. Haha. Also I live in southeast Texas so any relations of winter problems don't tend to apply but cooling problems for the summer can be bad. Slight negative on the rx8. Anyways, any info would be greatly appreciated. I've spent a little time passenger in an 8 and remember enjoying it. Thank you all for your time, sorry for such a long question! Glad to be here!

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

The RX-8 will generally be the better DD, and this is mostly because of the practicality of having a LOT more usable space inside. The S2000 is also a lot more 'on edge' than the RX-8, so in poor weather conditions (including rain), the RX-8 is the car that will be easier to control and deal with.

The S2000 has a higher threshold of grip than the RX-8, thanks to the lower weight and still a very good chassis, however it won't really tell you when you are closed to it. When you cross it, it will snap loose on you without warning. By comparison, the RX-8 will talk to you about the threshold plenty, and when you cross it, correcting is simple and easily done. It takes a VERY good driver to actually extract more handling performance out of an S2000 than an RX-8. Not that you will be trying to, just in low grip situations like lightly damping rain mixing with oils on the road, the S2000 is easily the riskier car.

Maintenance will be slightly cheaper on the S2000
Gas mileage is about the same between the two
Power potential of the S2000 is leaps and bounds better than the RX-8

Having driven back to back an S2000, a 2009 RX-8 Sport, a 20009 RX-8 R3, and a 2012 BRZ... I'd even call the RX-8 the quicker car in every day driving. The S2000 has better peak power to weight certainly, but that damn VTEC light switch of power is REALLY annoying. And if you aren't above it, the engine is REALLY lethargic and not much better than a boat anchor (in my opinion). VS the RX-8 has 6,000rpm of usable power band, without any annoying jumps, bumps, or leaps in power.


The S2000 is still a good car, but between the two, the RX-8 would be my preference for literally every driving situation. Even track driving, since all but 1 of the cars that I have seen blow up on the track were S2000s, most of them were stock in the engine department.

You just have to determine if you want to deal with the rotary's quirks and generally shorter engine lifespan.



And no, the RX-8 never got tiring for me over 5.5 years and 113,000 miles of daily driving, year round. Mostly in New England, though I drove it across the country three times, and many other long trips, through most of the major cities in the US, cross country, in traffic, in bad weather, good weather.... it never got old, uncomfortable, or nervous. I ended up having to sell if due to other stuff going on in life, but want it back.

Fickert

iTrader: (6)

As I do not have any reference to the s2k, the few differences I can touch base on with you would be that 1. The rx8 is lacking a bit of the power that the s2k can provide, but handling on both cars seem to be superb. I had a friends uncle drive my car that owns a miata that used to own an s2k and said they both handle fairly similar, with the rx8 not feeling as confined as the s2k with the back seats he said. He said both sat well in turns and came out quick, but the s2k was just more powerful. I love the 8 for my reasons of it being a rotary, always a great thing to bring into conversation, and still has four doors for the practical use of picking up friends or carrying my gaming pc around (I do not dare put it in the trunk). I do not like the outdated digital gauges in the s2k either, I think they just look bad. But thats my personal opinion. Maintenance on the 8 will obviously be more than the s2k, but if the s2k is a dd, then it would be probably just as bad if not higher. I would wait for more people to chime in that have both experiences of the cars rather than just me. Best of luck!

platano47

i had an s2000, ap1 to be exact....and to be honest i did not really like it. i had skunk2 lowering springs and the redline was kinda fun, but its not really that fast, handles good but i dont know....didnt like it, the girls loved it though. i would literally drive down the block and get minimum 3-4 numbers....lol memories.

Khurram

I guess it all boils down to, what suits your circumstances better.

For me 4 seater with decent trunk space was a must, and a rwd that could be driven all year long which means snow and crazy snow.

Iv'e owned my 8 for 14 months and driven 70k kms on it by now. Its been a dd, through snow storms, thunder rains and hot summer. Its been towed only once due to a blown starter. I find my 8 to be very reliable. I guess the credit goes to the prevous owner who kept it well maintained and I just continue to do so.

Yes it requires a little extra attention, hey thats the least she can ask for, for being the only machine wearing the Rotary badge on the road :-)

I came from a FWD and trust me rx8 is packed with fun, wether it be daily driving, track driving, my favourite moments are entering the ighway ramps and merging on the incomming traffic in my 3rd gear hitting that redline and she flies through ripping the wind like no tomorrow.

Hope you fidn this helpful.. All the best

Sniperwolf3x7

T hank you all very much for your replies. These are all very helpful and I'm glad this forum is so friendly. Haha. I can say that the rotary definitely makes me itchy yet at the same time curious for this car. And since it would be secondary, I'm not as worried in the event the car turns out to be not so mechanically sound as I have other means of transportation. Plus I can handle this insurance added on to my own. Lol. Thanks again for the replies. I'll keep checking for more posts. :D

Chucky Norris

I would go with the rx8, because race wars are coming and that's my weapon of choice.

braybern

Awesome...Just awesome

RXtur8o

good logic lol

ken-x8

Just conduct that race war on the sidewalk, because this site does not tolerate street racing.

Ken

braybern

You didn't just tell Chuck(y) Norris what to do did you? Because he can have a race war without a car. His roundhouse kicks fly faster and harder than any car by far!

poacherinthezoo

From my experience driving both cars (AP1 S2000 and my 2009 R3) back to back on autocross courses as well as on normal/daily driving type-conditions (both stock, but the old and tired bits of the S2000's suspension had been replaced within the last 10k miles or so):

On the autocross track (I have not yet had a chance to take my RX8 to the track):

The S2000 is far from the "knife edge racer" that it gets labeled as (specifically the AP1 and it's "snap" oversteer), but it's definitely more "frisky" than the RX8. This can easily be attributed to the ~300 lbs less weight its carrying and the (much) shorter wheelbase. Both cars turn in nicely, but the S2000's weight advantage becomes readily apparent. The back end lets go much more easily than the RX8, but it never "snapped" and spat me off (I lost it and spun out, but each time I had done something to deserve it - like trail braking way, way too hard). That said, I found myself being able to be on the power more often and harder in the same corners in my RX8. The longer wheelbase of the RX8 makes it just so forgiving if you do over do it and the back starts to try to overtake the front. Both cars have very good, talkative steering and chassis. Hands down, the S2000 has the better shifter - my personal favorite of all the cars I've ever driven (the RX8 has the Mazda-curse of a crunchy 2nd gear). Straight line speed - the S2000 FEELS faster, but I have no numbers to back it up with and the convertible-effect cannot be discounted. Both have excellent driving positions and sight lines. If I had both parked in my drive way and I got to pick which I wanted to run that day, I would probably find myself in the S2000.

Also, noteworthy is that the AP1 has staggered wheels and tires, and not being able to rotate them for more even wear bugs the hell out of me. Good tires aren't cheap and I like to do what I can to make them stay as sticky as possible for as long as possible.

On normal roads/daily driving:

No contest - the RX8 is far, far better. It's much quieter, the ride quality is better and it has 400 times the interior space of the S2000. The S2000's interior is "enough" and that's it. Little things like finding a place to place your ipod when 2 people are in the car takes actual thought (and I drove a miata for a number of years so I'm familiar with a small cabin). For instance - the passenger's side foot well of the S2000 has a lump where a beam goes under the floor EXACTLY where you want to rest your feet. This makes getting comfortable in the passenger's seat a constant battle. Take a look at the torque curves for the RX8 and S2000 - the RX8's is pretty flat compared to the S2000. Neither car pulls hard at low RPMs, but the RX8 is more "tolerable" (perhaps "usable" is a better word) at the lower end of the tach. Not to mention the RX8's engine sounds much more pleasant when your just driving normally.

The beauty of the RX8 is you get a car that's dynamically comparable to the S2000, AND still has the qualities that make for a good daily driver (sans gas mileage) in the same car. Really, you can't go wrong with either the RX8 or S2000, both are great driver's cars. However, when I went through this same RX8 vs S2000 (and FRS/BRZ) debate I ended up going with the RX8.

Sniperwolf3x7

Poacher, you have helped me out tremendously. I really do think i would enjoy this car very much, and I certainly enjoy the looks. You've aided me in an on the road scenario which really gives me the perspective I'm looking for. The rx8 seems nice, and though maintenance is kinda scary I wanna go through with finding one(though i may be changing jobs soon so it may be a while). One thing I'd like to know is what is it like to take out and rebuild the engine? And is other maintenance really that bad? Costs aren't really much concern, but is it really that terrible to fix things? As well as time consumption? Like would an hour job still be an hour? Or would it be more prolonged? Sorry for the other questions. I should probably just search the maintenance bits.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

No true car enthusiast will find the maintenance overbearing, troubling, or unreasonable for an RX-8. Other than oil changes and keeping the oil topped off, the other key maintenance items are only needed every 30k or so, which is hardly frequent.

Enthusiast or not, you will find paying someone else to do the maintenance EXTREMELY expensive, but fairly cheap and easy to do yourself. The RX-8 has turned many owners into DIY mechanics because of this huge cost swing and how easy of a car it is to work on.

One common example is changing ignition. A dealer will not only not be able to diagnose ignition failure very well at all, but it is common for them to charge ~$900 to replace all 12 pieces, and not that rare for them to try to charge $1,500-$1,800 for the same 12 pieces. However if you do it yourself, it is $190-$230 from an auto parts store and an hour of work with common hand tools. Many of us could swap it all in well under an hour.

I've never pulled an engine on an 8, but I bet it would be simplier and easier than any of the engine pull/replace I've done on other piston cars, thanks to a physically lighter and smaller engine.

Rebuilding the engine is something I'd personally let the experts do. Originally I didn't have that opinion, but history has shown that there is far more care and detailed work needed than people originally expected with this engine to keep it from being a dud out of the box, or just chewing itself up on starting.

qwerty210

My bestfriend used to own a s2k when I first owned my rx8. I love both the cars but I will agree with what everyone said here with the rx8 being a great daily driver compared to the s2k. I live in wisconsin and drove the rx8 periodically in the winter with blizzak tires. It holds up tremendously well even in situations where id be white knuckle driving in a four wheel drive vehicle. Granted it still is rwd and you have to be careful. My rx8 has been my daily for at least 2 years now and if ive learned anything its entirely about how you take care of it and how the owner before you took care of it. The guy I bought mine from owned a autosports dealership and knew his stuff about the car. I spent hours researching the rotary before I bought the car and fell entirely in love with the rotary engine. The upkeep will be more expensive than the s2k but it seriously seems like nothing when you redline and you get that huge smile on your face granted the s2k can do this also but its just not the same. My experience with the s2k is a bit less than mine with the rx8. From what my friend told me about and my experience driving it its a tad more stressful car to drive. Its easier to loose control without warning when doing some more...spirited driving. I dont know too much about average maintenance but I will say once he turboed his it went through difs practically every other week. I really recommend you drive both and then make your decision.
Read this also:
https://www.rx8club.com/new-member-f...t-here-202454/

Sniperwolf3x7

Thanks for the info qwerty and riwwp. I've read the new owner sticky quite a lot. Lol. I will say the maintenance seems like it would be simple as long as you keep it routine and always check the oil. I'm also pretty good about changing oil every 3000 so that's not too bad either. I'm glad to say that I'm definitely gonna grab the rx8 when I build up the funds and can find a good one for sale. I want to thank everyone for the help and posts. I can't wait to officially join the community when I buy my first 8. x)

arkansas_rx8

iTrader: (1)

Get both. You shouldn't have to choose.

blckninja

iTrader: (1)

Unless of course you have a budget that isn't capable of including two additional cars...

Mr. Goodwrench

Mod Edit: Sell in the classifieds only please...
-RIWWP

hobbie86

on highways merging into traffic is the best love my 8

thethunderbird

I feel like enthusiasts are a lot more forgiving of German cars being unreliable than Japanese cars, just because of expectations. I poured money into my S54 Z3M like almost everyone else (the very expensive cooling system being a wear item). But the complaining about unreliability for those cars was kept to a minimum because older BMW = $$$ maintenance. It seems like people have higher expectations for Mazda.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

well that was 6 years ago and specifically about RX8 vs. S2000, but in the case of BMW vs Mazda there is a substantial difference in prestige and ego involved between the brands that likely drives that based on my past experience (formerly TeamM3 of E30 & E36 variety, TeamZ3, and TeamZ4).