4eyeGT

Just joined after reading posts for the last few hours. I'm in the market for a new car and was considering the 2011 Speed3 until I saw a black 2009 R3 with only 5K miles. Here is my issue:

I bought a used 2004 RX8 back in summer of '07. During the two weeks I owned it I began smelling oil burning AFTER the car was parked and shut down. Being a new car for me I took it to the Mazda dealer that just happened to be the one that sold it new and also replaced the motor 3 times according to the service advisor. When I heard that I went back to the dealer that sold it to me and just as luck would have it they needed to re-write the sales contract which gave me an "out" on the deal. I loved the car and they way it drove and even the little quirks like driving in the Phoenix summers. But 3 motors was a red flag.

After reading about the series 2 I feel more comfortable with the series 2 but I did find a few new "issues" I need to look into. One seems to be the rising cost of insurance due to the model being discontinued. I do deal with Geico currently, having switched from USAA. I will call both tomorrow to see what the premiums will be. I really hope the inflation in premiums isn't related to the demise of the RX8 model. If so it will only get worse?

Also it seems Mazda fixed a few of the issues related to the series 1 but what about the temp issues? I live in Yuma, Az and we reach 115 in the summer and the temps stay rather high most of the year anyway. I see there is an upgraded thermostat for the series 2 but will that suffice in these temps? I drive 30 miles each way and for the most part it's a steady 55mph drive but we do get traffic in town. Any plans for a water pump or will the series 2 pump suffice with the T-stat upgrade.

I read that cobb is not offering a AP for the series 2 but has anyone ran a megasquirt with the 8? I use that (MSII) stand alone on my turbo car and love it but never really looked into adding it to a rotory.

Edit: found a post about MS3X and the issues MS users face with the RX8. Looks like MS is out of the question. Which means I won't be going turbo with an RX8.

Last question: I don't like to mod the car in anyway that would void warranty so I plan to limit mods to cosmetics for the time being. With that said is there an aftermarket for the series2 with it being a short production run? I'm not looking for record breaking power or speed but I would like to know that when the car does go out of warranty there will still be products available for it.