Just completed my first week of ownership with my new 8 and I must say that I'm appreciating it more everyday. It's been 16 long years since I had my '85 RX7 and my interim vehicles (2 Exploders and a basic Nissan pickup truck) have dulled my senses to a responsive vehicle. After my first week I find that I'm beginning to "feel" the car again; the powerful brakes and the very responsive steering and throttle. I'm also starting to get a better feel of the 6-speed shift gates. My truck is a pig and my Exploder seemed to drive so much better. Now the Exploder feels like a pig! (but you already knew that. LOL!!!)

Anyway, the first tank full of gas worked out to 21.7 MPG, but I'm not counting that as indicative of what's to come or that it's even accurate (I didn't "top off" the tank, but stopped filling at the first auto shutoff). Whatever the MPG works out to be, my driving was a pretty even mix of city, highway and country road driving mixed with some brief, but spirited loud pedal mashing (I kept the RPM's below 5k).

Oil consumption: well, other than an occasional little whiff of burned oil in my nose, the oil level still checks out on the full mark. We'll see how this goes after I get a thousand miles on it and start standing on the throttle a little harder.

1.3L (feeling alive again)

 

21.7 mpg is great. But you're right. Wait till it's broken in will be a challenge to keep it under 5k rpm .. then your gas mileage goes down the tube. But it's worth it! I'm getting around 17 mpg.

 

i'm supposed to pick mine up this week. (was told possibly wednesday) i had a miata 9 yrs ago, then got an intrepid. (talk about drastic changes) i can't wait until i get the joy of driving again. what more could one ask for? rear wheel drive, a 6 speed and telepathic handling.

yamajj

 

Great description!!!! :D

 

As long as you shift before 4500 range, your fuel use should be decent.

 

Ive got 2K miles, and just got 21.2 mpg's on my last tank, but I didnt drive it that hard last week. However, even when I do drive "spirited" I get 19.5 or 20 mpg's. The lowest Ive had so far is 17.5.

 

damn that's nice. i wish i got even 18 mpg.

my gas tank meter is weird. my last tank of gas i was at like 35 miles and 3/4 of a tank. (I was like this could be really bad). Then I was at like 80 at half. But by the time the light went on, I got 15.6 mpg.

My current tank of gas I had like 60 on slightly more than a quarter. (Thinking alright! This tank is gonna be awesome!) Now I'm at like 80 with slightly more than a half. What's up with that? I've been consistently getting aobut 15.6 mpg on the 3 tanks of gas I've had so far. I'm driving conservatively too. Sigh.

 

I just got 18.7 mpg on my first tank.

Of course the dealer may not have exactly topped it off completely, who knows.

Even if they did, 18.7 isn't too bad considering some of the posts I have read here. I'm interested to see what I get on my next tank. I will continue to be conservative during the first 1000 miles (break in).

 

I have never reached the bottom or even near the bottom. I fill up at 1/2 tank. The car is fantastic. Mine is getting 19.8 and its an Auto too. Had to use the pedals the other day on steep mountain hill climbs on the interstate in Colorado. It keeps up with the best of them and making the curves, well it makes one feel good the car can hold the curves real well. Nice feeling. Don't want to see the days where we could be paying close to $3.00 a gallon but our nation is too dependant on oil so we pay, and pay and pay some more.

 

oops. forgot to say mine is not broke in yet. I'm at the 200 miles range for an 04. Its only two weeks old. Love the smell of the leather interior.

 

There in lies the problem. I find it impossible to drive that way, as all the power is above 7000 rpm. This baby loves to rev! :D

Oh well, if I cared about mgp I would have bought a Prius.

 

Yep!!! we did not buy these cars for the MPG. and we knew it took 91 Octane too. So, let's just get out there and drive our cars and not worry about it.

 

bah, just have to say that the "it's a sports car so we shouldn't be concerned about the mileage" thing is crap because everyone SHOULD be concerned about the mileage unless they were filthy rich.

18/24 is what it was advertised as and if it's a little worse than that then that's fine. People should expect to fall near that value. The thing is some people are driving conservatively and getting around 12 apparently. A lot of people are getting around 16-17mpg which would be fine if it were all city. But when you throw in a fair amount of freeway too, 16-17 is much lower than advertised.

if you really think that mpg doesn't matter, would you still have the 8 if it yours got 5 mpg? i doubt it. but why wouldn't you? the same comment applies... "the car wasn't bought for its mileage." so getting 5mpg should be fine with you, right?

a lot of us bought the car expecting a certain mileage. gas is NOT cheap, i'm sure a decent amount of people would not buy the 8 if they advertised the mileage as 12/18. gas is expensive (it's about $2.28 for the cheap stuff in southern california). not everyone has more money than they can spend. :O

i'm not going to complain too much. i'm getting about 15.6 mpg with mostly city driving which is still pretty bad (considering i'm not pushing it) but i'm feeling more for those who are getting 12mpg.

no offense meant to you - i've just seen this mentioned so often that it's become a pet peeve of mine. and yes, i do love my 8. just saying the whole "you shouldn't care about the mileage" thing is b.s. (unless like i said before the extra gas cost is nothing to you).

 

update.......i get my new one tomorrow night. i'm anxious to have the chance to "drive" again. i've been bearing the torture of being in an automatic sedan for too long. my motorcycles have allowed me to keep my sanity. tomorrow, driving in a car will be fun again.

yamajj

 

Some good points Spork. Well I would like to have an M-1 Tank too cause I would not worry so much about orange peel and cars and trucks bumping into me. Then the D fuel is about 3 or 2 miles per gallons. Yes I would say we should stay within the mileage the cars are suppose to get. EPA is a trick anyway. They do it on Dynos without hill climbs and stopping and going strains. EPA is a joke anyway and a very ruff idea of what a car or truck might get for MPGs. I guess the rotary is not designed for real great MPGs then and the fact it has to move on 91 octane sort of adds to our pains. I guess we should not even talk about MPGs anymore. Its painful no matter how you truely look at it. I do surmise however, we all are going to pay for it in the next few months unless the oil situation either real or made up calms down a bit.

 

wow Yamajj!! It will be a nice feeling for you to take a spin in a new car. Its a 2005 or 2004? Watch out for the old dealer trick of a $3,000 extended warranty. They pull that one on mater what wheels you drive new when you are there to pick it up. Now's a good time to get a good deal on an 04. Welcome to the club!!! Not much is held back on these discussions for sure.

 

Congrats and I too am still thrilled with the car after 4,500 miles since August having evacuated Palm Beach county to NYC and back re: hurricanes...BUT, I can honestly say that I've gotten as high as 25mpg highway on Shell 93 and the lowest around 22mpg highway...Automatic trans average speed around 75 loaded with luggage/valuables filling trunk and back seats packed, wife and pet. Absolutely the most fun/practical sports car we've owned. Again, best of luck!

 

my red is in the break in mode. 200 some miles on it and all appears ok. Drives great and love the way this car hugs those twisties. You will know that the first time you turn in one a bit faster than what you were used too driving. Its like being on railroad tracks! Great car and the MPGs will be not far from what the EPA folks say.

 

Yeah, that's the only thing that disappoints me about the car though. If it got 18/24 there would be *nothing* for me to dislike. Oh except for the fact that I can't get the homelink to work with the gate to my community. Sigh. Still though, I'm still happy enough with the 15.6 I get. I feel really bad for those who get 12mpg. The sweet styling (exterior, interior), suicide doors, and the great cornering totally makes up for the 2.4 mpg (at least for now).

It seems like it's just a toss of the dice though. Seems like more people are getting awesome mileage recently. I'm hoping mine gets better as time goes on.

 

shifting before 4500 RPM?

Dude, they should revoke your RX-8 club license and replace your car with a Golf Diesel ...

Even in gentle around town driving I rarely shift before 5000 ...

 

Have about 850 miles on mine, and I've been steadily getting around 15 mpg or lower with a mix of highway/city. Yeah I knew it would be bad from research but not this bad. This is the first car I've driven where I can literally watch that gas needle drop steadily as I drive. I'm kind of starting to wish I hadn't been so hasty in trading in the MT Mazda3 I had owned for about a week just before I got the RX-8. With mpgs like this, I don't know that I'd want to keep this car for a long time. Yeah it's a fun car and all, but at what price...

 

I think it's less of a crap shoot than some may think. Yes there are some with really bad mpg, but for the majority of folks, I feel it has to do more with driving style and driving conditions, and also how one defines "city" driving. See my thread on the topic of the "definition of city mpg".

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/whats-your-definition-city-driving-mpg-40174/