Spoken like a true gentleman.

Important thing is enjoy what your buying without any doubts.
Make sure the car no matter if its AT or MT that there are service records, current flashes, and do a carfax.
You'll be happy with the 8. It's purpose is to handle well not straight line speed.

It's great your doing your homework on the car thou

 

/\ Then it's poop. That's not a good argument. It's like saying you get the slower version of the car because there is no point in getting a faster one. Why would people buy the 6 port then?
Just sayin

Im not anti AT, I just want more involvement when I drive a sports car.
Everyday car I would take AT, less of a hassle too.

 

Shazy, my 4 port is faster than most 6 ports. It corners better than most 6 ports and your trying to tell me I don't drive a sports car. Your words are poop cuz you have that virus. Depends on what your trying to do with it....as a daily driver it does quite well........for a AutoX car it does exceptional......is it a little under powered stock? yes, Mazda did not do us 4 port AT owners any favors. Mazda did not do any owner with ether trans any favors with horsepower. You buy the 6 port because it's now all that is available except for used cars that are now available to people that would like a sports car at a less expensive price. If they do their diligence then they know that there is a disparage of HP between the 6 port and the 4 port and don't complain about it or discourage others from purchasing one like it. If you want a faster car you can always mod it (as I did) or trade it off for a faster car but less style and handling.

 

yup phil is the perfect example ... mine is an auto too ... its a dd and not my ONLY sports car so i dont really care that its auto ... to each his own and that includes the tranny my friend!

 

See you are basically just saying what shazy said but apparently without realizing it. You have modded your car and like to talk about how it performs so well and how it's faster than a lot of 6 ports, or even mt's, so obviously you care about the power, right? So then why not just get the faster one from the start, and the mod that? This is basically what shazy is saying i think. you are contradicting yourself.

 

Some people don't mod for power though. I mod because I think it's fun and gives my car its own personality. I know I won't get any power from my mods but I still do them like most of you do. If hp mattered to me I would have gotten a different car. (That's just me though)
LOL I can't figure out why this MT and AT argument is still ongoing... I don't think I can read this crap anymore.

 

I didn't think my question would bring forth this much of a fuss. Sorry about that. And as far as power, I like the power and speed, but there's so much more in my price range for power. I just love the styling and handling of the RX-8. I'm pretty much done with speed, as I could have been killed when I totaled my MR2 Spyder. Plus, I'm driving a Jeep now, so almost anything I get will seem way faster and the Jeep is plenty fast enough for me.

I didn't get a call from the dealership today and I was much too tired to wake up early to go look again (don't want to seem desperate to them either).

I figure, if I can't get this one at a decent price and a decent trade-in on my Jeep then I will just try and sell the Jeep outright and find an RX-8 somewhere close.

Either way, I HOPE to have my RX-8 by the summer of next year!

 

Good luck, and hope you get it!

 

I was under the impression from reading posts on here that the one oil cooler in the AT models tended to make the engines more problematic in comparison to the two oil cooler MTs.

 

both the AT and the MT have problems. and they both have problems tied to the transmission is more like it.

the AT is just slow. even the 6 speed auto. 1/4 mile in 16 seconds for the 6 speed auto? what does the 4 speed do? lol. vs 14.4 for the 6 speed manual.

the MT is just weak. that transmission sucks and be prepared to replace it.

 

Good luck to you.

 

This may be a bit off-topic, but do the new RX-8s use a variation (or the same) transmission as the FD RX-7s? My friend is having to replace his transmission in his 93 FD right now. He is replacing it with a 2001 Transmission if I remember correctly.

So what you are saying is if I go with the Auto I'll have as slower car, but if I go with the Manual I'll have a weaker transmission? I never realized the Transmissions caused this much issues. Only issues I knew of really were the flooding issues and the over-consumption of oil (which is just a Rotary thing).

 

Both transmissions are fine as long as you don't abuse them. Some think you can just hit the "Start Over Button" after you drop the clutch at 9000RPM and Kill your car......welcome to the real life dude. The flood issues were with early software loads and mostly eliminated. The engine is oil injected and if it's not consuming oil then you have a problem. The Rotary is like driving a smooth electric engine on a rail and if you enjoy that then you will be hooked like us.

 

4 port AT have just one oil cooler
6 port AT have 2 oil coolers

Both the 4 and 6 port engines have their good and bad points

Nevertheless, Good Luck with whatever you choose to buy.

 

From what others have posted (Pico above) and what I have read on here for US/Canadian 8's:

4-port engines=1 oil cooler (04-05 automatics)
6-port engines=2 oil coolers (all manuals, 06+ automatics)

The AT models 06+ have two oil coolers.

 

I'm not really experienced enough to be able to explain it; there's just something different about the way I drive a stick vs. an automatic, and it puts me in a better position to act on my driving decisions more immediately. I think it has to do with being able to put the car in a low gear for future acceleration needs while coasting with the clutch disengaged in the meantime so I don't have the drag from being in a low gear. Stuff like that becomes important when you drive through towns where the stoplights are designed to meter traffic and the only way to get through them is for everyone to ride each other's bumpers the whole way through the light.

 

Oh god no, are you kidding?

Okay, I'll concede that what matters is whether the car will always try to jump into the highest gear it can as soon as you take your foot off the gas for a split-second. If it does that, then manual shifting is a must-have in city traffic; if not, then an automatic is probably workable. My dad's NC is probably the best car I've ever driven in that regard; I think if it senses lots of twitchy driver inputs, it stays in lower gears and holds the throttle open a tiny bit for you so the car doesn't drag when you try to coast a few feet. All automatics should be like that.

 

Isn't the sport shift a manual mode without a clutch? Or will it auto-shift once it gets too high in the RPMs? So I could drop a gear just like a Manual and it will stay in the gear until I shift?

 

Yup

 

In manual mode you can bounce off the rev limiter all day
The computer will take over when down shifting --- If the speed of the car is to great for a downshift from say 3rd to 2nd you will have to wait for the speed slow enough to make a safe downshift.
In time you will know when its safe by the sound the engine makes in each gear

 

Your correct but Mazda installed a revlimiter in there some place and they will stop you from over reving. Now you can buy a Cobb AP and have those limiters extended to 10,000 RPM.

 

^ True
But, if your looking for that 10K redline then you should beef up the torque converter. The OE stall speed just won't cut it pulling 10K rpm.
A beef up would cost around 600-1000 bucks depending on where you getting the work done

 

I said you could........I have mine set at 9500 and it work great. 10K is even hard on the alternator.

 

Can yours do 9500 on the stock Torque Converter? Or would I need to beef it up? Also, is there anyway to change out the gauge cluster for one from the Manual? I take it I cannot because of the gear indicators and whatnot for the AT.

 

My AT was set at 9000 and it works fine. Stock converter

Down shifting limits are as follows,,

4th to 3rd 125 mph Never actually did it. Speed limiter shuts off at engine at 125 mph.
3rd to 2nd 70 mph
2nd to 1st 30 mph

There is no way to change the down shift points and the upshift is operator controlled.