I admit I am bothered, not by the money, or my car losing value, but seeing 04 models leftover and practically being given away. For such a unique and wonderful machine, to be passed off like it's worthless makes me sad. You don't see this happening to the 350z and S2000. For one of the nicest cars out there, I can't understand for the life of me why Mazda overproduced this car. I guess I'd have done same thing, because when this car came out, I swore it was gonna be a monster success. I guess it's time to just enoy the car, and ignore the reality, but I can't help but worry about the long term success of the RX8. I really hope this doesn't happen again.

 

Embarassed... naw. Just thinking I should have waited a few more months before purchasing my 8. As far as the rest of it, excellent. Mazda wont make as many... which means higher value. Every cloud has a silver lining. And even if a worse case scenario happens, we still have OUR 8's. You will have to claw the key out of my cold, withered hands to take my car away.

 

I see RX-8's all the time. How can you say they aren't selling well? Look up how many have been sold in the first year. It's pretty impressive and one of the best selling Mazdas ever made.

 

STi/WRX sell pretty good here in Cali. I see at least 7-10 drivers a day... mostly mom w/ station wagon types. It's a good standard 4 door car for the family.

S2000s are pretty blah here ... most below MSRP. So are the EVO VIIIs.

350Zs not bad, but most people buy the newer convertibles here in Cali.

Besides, Cars aren't an investment.. you had to know cars drop in value.

 

VikingDJ, I'm torn. On the one hand, I like for my car to be unique. On the other hand, I don't want it discontinued due to lack of sales. So I finally decided I want Mazda to sell a lot of RX-8's everywhere but the San Francisco Bay Area.

 

The RX-8 has held its value much better than what I traded it for. I traded in a 2004 maxima, and the sticker on that car was 33,000.

Doing Kelle's blue book, the car was only worth 22,000 a year later. I could only get 20,000 for it from the dealer which was much better then what they offered originally.

Truth is all new cars have mark up on them. I baught the maxima in July 2003 which screwed me for the mileage schedule of 12,000 a year. Since it was a 2004 it already had 8,000 miles on it once 2004 came. This banged me up a bit. So basically the maxima lost value do to all the mark up on the car when it was new.

The 2004 RX-8's are being discounted the marked up value that was put on them. So you get a better deal and are paying closer to what the car is really worth.

Moral of this story is.. If you want your car to retain value, Drive it forever.

 

I disagree on the holding it's price better then Maxima. Mine hasn't. MSRP $36k. Dealer would give me $23k as trade. Your Maxima lost $11k in a year. My RX8 $13k in a year. Rotarygod. Naturally you see them everywhere. There's a fine line between selling well, and not selling what you produced. Of course RX8 is selling well. They are pricing them up to 5k below invoice now, and they made a monster amount in 04. If you compare it to how many they made, it's selling GOD AWFUL. It's sad to think Mazda is virtually breaking even just to deplete their 04 models. This is the real problem here. For those of you buying an 04 recently or now, yes the price is great, but remember with that great deal, you are also losing all your depreciation, which is why car is so cheap. This is the real problem here. As stated before, cars are not an investment. However from a moral side, I personally do not want to see this happen to RX8. I think eventually Mazda will figure it out, and produce accordingly. However, they really ned to cut this supply down drastically bewcause if it couldn't meet the sales they projected in it's first year, it's never going to.

 

Not embarassed.
More like tickled to have the 8 take up the 4th spot on my driveway (for 10+ under its sticker less than a year past its birth) for days when the SUV or truck aren't needed, and the tC is not quite sporting enough.

 

My dealer told me that there was a fire at the factory in Japan that makes the RX-8 that completely stopped production. Just think how overproduced it might have been.

 

Viking DJ

Those of us who brought the Lightining Yellow ones are more than happy , as they are becoming rarer as everyone else buys the other colours , here in Australia there would be less than 130 Yellow RX8

You should have bought the yellow one then you wouldnt have these concerns

 

I guess it depends on where you live. The two dealers here in my area don't have any to sell.
They are going briskly.

As far as value goes, I paid 30k for mine with everything but NAV and this is what a quick search provided:

Kelly:

retail - $27,940
pp - $24,230
trade - $20,700

NADA:

retail - $28,675
trade - $25,200

Edmunds:

retail - $26,063
pp - $22,944
trade - $21,321

10% ain't bad for a 1.5 year old car with 20k miles on it.

 

I'm glad I purchased mine right off the truck - with no idiot salesman test drives b4 the engine was properly broke in. I would hate to think of the shape of the remaining 8's on the lots sitting there with their rusting brake rotors, and salesman test drive miles of abuse. I think they should donate a truck load of them to our forum for mod testing :D

Actually, the dealership lost my order - WTF So, I settled for one right off the truck that matched my order. It was still shrink wrapped I got 2-Large off the price because of the screw up.

 

my 04 with 10k miles on it was only worth 22,500 after 9 months of owning it. i guess the good thing about ridding me of my leased rx8 is that i dont have to deal with the whole special procedures behind moving the car or anything else.

 

Just proves you can't trust the "book value". Some dealers are doing $26-27k for a NEW GT so the real value of a used 8 with GT will be far south of that. Also do a search at cars.com or autotrader.com and see what folks are asking for used 8s. Sure some are trying to get "book retail" but there are a lot of cheaper cars around. Auto tranny cars seem to be easy to find cheap on the used market, if someone wanted one....

My local dealer still has 04s to sell and took in a couple of used 8s trade on Shinkas. He is asking $24k for the used one with 11k and GT - and has new 04s sitting on the lot with "$5000" off painted on the window. So go figure.

Just enjoy your car, none of them should have been purchased for an investment - but it sure looks like bad resale values ahead

Dennis

 

^^^ Once again - it depends on where you live!

Around here, the dealers don't have any used OR new RX-8s to push. Price is a function of demand and supply.

I loathe to use them for a comparison, but it is a market indicator:

CarMAX

 

Yep, loathe away.

CarMax USED to be a good place to buy (or sell) a car, but no more. Their prices are so over-inflated it should be a crime. The local ad had several used Kia Sedona mini-vans in it - while at the same time Kia is running TV ads with $5000 rebates on new left-overs. You guess it, the used ones at CarMax were a few thousand more for a used one than getting a new one. That is just one example - in the same newspaper the "brand x" dealer has an ad with new cars that are close to the same price as the CarMax used ones. I guess folks are just too dumb to hunt up deals on their own - but this is in the same paper! Sometimes on the opposite page.

Since these are new cars, distance is not a problem (for me). I got the "repeat customer" discount from the car hauler last time I used them :D

I just have to decide if I REALLY want an 8, sell one of my current cars, then find the right left-over 8 to get (in that order). I guess if I wait long enough they will be all gone, but I predict this will repeat to some degree with the 05 models later on...

I think I will go test drive again Thursday and see if that hurries me up....

Dennis

 

Most cars drop significantly in value over the first couple of years. I think the most telling stat is where the car's value sits after 4 years. I've noticed that that is where they either hold their value or drop right off.

 

A co-worker purchased a brand new Dodge Intrepid in 1999. Probably paid around $24k for it.
When he went to trade it in on a Toyota Solara last year, they offered him $2k. He ended up selling it outright for $3k. It was in perfect condition.

Loosing 80% over 5 years is bad.
I think we are in a better position than that.

 

I, for one, am absolutely ecstatic. Without the over production (as some may claim) I would not have been able to pick up my 8 for 22k OUT THE DOOR! :D So I'm definitely a beneficiary. Were it not for the huge discount, I probably would've waited a lot longer before purchasing the 8.

 

I love cars and I really love sports cars - but I love getting a good deal most of all.

I am again shopping the 8 mainly becuase of the discount deals. If I was looking at paying full price, or just a modest discount I don't think I would be considering it. But with the smoking hot deals on left-overs, plus maybe the Gerber rebate (sure wish I had a scan of that flyer) I am seriously thinking about it.

I need to get my wife a new car - so I am thinking something we can all fit in for her, then getting the 8 as a daily driver for me :D Besides, I think it will look super next to my S2000.......

Dennis

 

They do look good next to each other in the garage!

 

Mine is doing okay I suppose:

Average Trade-In /Average Retail

$24,625/$28,100

I paid $26k + Tax in december.

 

Even though the retail value may still look good in the NADA and KBB, try to sell it for that and see what happens. Look at the rx-8s for sale on this web site and you will see what I mean. You can typically purchase a used car for the loan value not retail.