Bye-bye RX-8
 

After 8 years of enjoying ride in RX-8 almost every day, time came to say "Good Bye". Today I picked up my new ride - Subaru BRZ. It is a nice nimble car, but its can't fully replace the excellent smooth feeling of free revving Renesis engine. Unfortunately Mazda decided to abandon us, rotary fans. So my beloved RX is for sale, Now I need to join a forum of SubaYota owners.

excuses. you know you can find an S2 RX8 R3 in mint condition for way less the money you pay for a BRZ.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/ seems to be becoming the rx8club of FRS-S/BRZ owners.

Any pictures of your new car? What color did ya get?

Good luck with the Subaru BRZ. Anyway, i had my rx8 for 5 years, and i want to keep it for a long time. It only has 37k miles, and i have a long way to go. I hope it last up to 100k miles or more.

Already sent registration request there.

As for a new car - color is dark blue metallic. I placed order for red or light blue, but was told that waiting list is way too long. So when dealer called two days ago and said that they have two in stock, but different trim an color, I decided not to wait any longer. Their "dark" blue is actually lighter than used for WRX, so car looks quite nice in person.

It's gorgeous in that color! The one I took for a test drive was that blue. That would have been my first color choice if I'd bought one. And congratulations ;)

Mind if I ask if you paid over or under MSRP?

MSRP minus $250 to compensate for accessories, I didn't ask for.

How does the BRZ suspension, body roll, ride height compare to the rx8? Is it the same touring class feel, or more sporty harder/flatter/lower?

Suspension in BRZ is firmer, with much less body roll. But a side effect is that ride is harsher (mostly at low to moderate speed). In RX-8 you better feel weight transfer from front to back when you push it through the turn, BRZ feels more even, I have more sense of speed in BRZ than in RX-8, but I consider this negative. Brakes feel better in Mazda, but wider tires will likely fix it. Clutch is better in Subaru, transmission seems a little better in RX-8.

So both cars have some advantages and deficiencies. I am afraid that I would have to pay twice the price of BRZ to get something that on par or better than RX-8 in all categories. But staying under $30K new, BRZ is a natural choice when getting from RX-8.

I am still amazed how did they managed to make the BRZ so cheap for what it is.
is there something missing?

An interior.

its not that bad. to me it about the same as the R3 but the R3 was way over 33k.
http://www.auto-types.com/images/_au...shboard_44.jpg

Is it me or does the BRZ look like the Scion FR-S?

They are the SAME car. Just different trim levels.

they shared the same platform, it's 80% the same, the 20% are body kits, some interior, suspension setup (more like the shocks, FT-86 is tuned for drifting, BRZ for road course), and couple other small little things here and there.

What the? Did they team up and design both cars? Who does that? lol. Interesting though..

I like the BRZ interior, its much nicer than the rx8. I really dont think it handles better than the 8 though. I took it for a test drive, it needs wider tires at least.

Gratz on the BRZ man, it looks great, and you probably feel much better having a new car under warranty.

It doesn't have the same perfect weight distribution like the 8, but it does have less curb weight. I still believe the 8 handles better, my neighbor has an FRS it's not a bad looking car though. Enjoy.

I'd keep both since the resale is so bad on an 8, you already lost so much money, might as well keep it! :)

Power.

Except that the BRZ likely has more power remedies in store for it than my S2 8 ever will. :(

Except not everyone wants to install aftermarket parts on their car

Got behind one in traffic yesterday - that rear end is very 'busy'.

Looks like it was designed by someone who saw an RX-8 rear, and was trying to draw it from memory....even has a little triangle piece in the middle of the rear diffuser.

Interior, power, body styling, grippy tires, brakes, cool sounding engine.

You're kidding, right?
That BRZ interior is hideous when compared to an S2 interior, regardless if its a Sport, GT, or R3 version. Holy crap, that dash is disgusting, and the shifter, I don't even want to go into that eyesore of a shifter.

Okay, I will.

The shifter looks like the interior designers were fooling around with each other, and their mock up shifter broke. One of them pulled out a huge dildo, and slapped it on there temporarily, just to get it back into the parking lot.

Unfortunately, one of the Toyota execs was in the parking lot, saw it, and loved it, so it had to stay in the production versions.

That's what I think of that shifter.

BC.

not to mention its huge list of issues but again for some reason its totally OK as long as it not a rotary, reviewers around the world praise it like this is the firs t and last car or some shit

oh its funny last last Sunday at autox, this dude with a brz was there, he got the car maybe a month ago and the tail light is filled with water already ... lmao, sounds familiar anyone?