xyzzy

Krankor, I don't ever remember making myself out as a nice guy. Quite the contrary - I am an ***; a total bastard! But this bastard is sick of seeing BunnyGirl's uninformative posts appear at a ridiculous rate (33 posts today alone, and there's still 7 hours left in the day for her!).

Isn't there a Star Trek rerun on SpikeTV you should be watching?

abs016

You count all the posts?! ::

Krankor

Well then, we are in total agreement. I'm glad we were able to reach a satisfactory conclusion.
Then my advice to you would be not to read them. As I outlined previously, I generally manage quite well at this without much difficulty.

chaq. chotIch 'e' DanIDchugh, vaj jIHvaD ramqu'.

opus_opus

I am a Miata owner, but occassionally read post here. Wow, this post is making want to go out and look at a RX-8 again, which I did a couple of months ago. But, I can't afford another car.

BunnyGirl,

Congratulations on your car. I enjoyed reading your post - full of passion. Since you frequent RX8Club website, you must be quite familiar with RX-8s. What made you pick 2006 model year versus 2005 since the 2005 can be had for well-below invoice? Aside from the automatic one model, what's the difference between the 2005 and 2006? I am quite curious.

BunnyGirl

Well, when I was actually looking to buy my car this fall I couldn't find one available that had all the options in it I wanted in the color I wanted, so that meant I needed to special order one, so I ended up with the 2006.

I am getting the manual so there aren't a whole lot of changes, mainly just cosmetic. The ribbed leather on parts of the seat are now supposed to be smooth and the chrome accents on the inside are supposed have more of a shiny finish as opposed to the matte look they have now. I haven't seen an 06 yet since they are just now coming into dealers the end of this week. The main difference is on the grand touring package which now has a keyless entry/start system. It comes with a flat credit card-type device that is a transmitter for your key. It allows you to open the doors and trunk without actually having to push buttons on the remote as long as your transmitter is within range (approximately 2.8 feet). The car will start if your card is pretty much anywhere inside the passenger compartment of the car and the ignition can receive the signal. If I recall correctly, if you have the ignition off and locked you can't unlock it to try to turn it on without the transmitter.

I wasn't aware of the keyless system until sometime after I ordered my car and I wasn't sure I was going to like it but after reading up on it in the 06 owners manual I decided I actually really liked that feature. The new Miata comes with a keyless system also. I believe it is the same one but I am not positive.

If you want, I can email you the 2006 owners manual for the RX-8. Just PM me with your email. It is a large file though.

DOMINION

Great what kind of problems will Mazda have with that kind of keyless entry system? Lets hope none.

silvernite8

Congrats to you Bunnygirl for getting an 8
I'm still waiting for my 8
I live on the wrong coast so it a bit longer wait.
I was also deciding between the 05 and 06 models, but decided that i would like the keyless entry key card and the 05 at my Mazda dealer has been sitting on the lot since Sept last year. Really want to give it a home but it just didn't have all the features i wanted just like the other 8's-well a good three of them were AT so not like i had much of a choice and the other 2 MT are without the GT package.

BunnyGirl

My brain hadn't quite thought that far yet. That'd suck pretty bad to have all those problems. The only thing I am aware of being mentioned as a problem is if someone has a similar device in the car with you it may cause interference, same as it may cause interference with pacemakers. This is pretty much the same type of technology higher end cars have been using for awhile now, so hopefully it's got the bugs worked out by now.

New Yorker

Is it my imagination or did I read somewhere here that there's a minor change in the Bose stereo? Something about how the bass will be a little different? Also, I think I read something about late '05's (and 06's, I assume) having a little screen to protect the AC condenser.

I was all set to wait for an '06, too, because I couldn't find an '05 in a color I like (blue, grey or silver) with the GT package, nav and no rear wing. But then, searching inventories one day from work, I found a dealer not 25 miles from here with three unsold '05 Shinkas. All 6-speeds, and one had no rear wing—and just 6 miles on the odometer! I had always liked the Shinka—even with no nav—and had assumed they were all gone. So I bought it! I'll probably buy an aftermarket GPS (Garmin, TomTom or Magellan, though maybe I'll get a Treo 650 and use that.) Oh—and I almost ordered a custom plate (WANKLED) but then decided the car didn't need any help getting attention.

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

I wonder how much its going to cost if I want that keyless start to be installed to my 05 8 !

Detrich

is that even possible? if so what is involved?

Scrapula

Hey Bunny,

I chose pharmacy school over med school. First I got my BS in Biology (pre med), then another 4 years of pharmacy school. I'm in my last year, so bought my RX-8. How did I pay for all this on my own? Two words - student loans.

I'll have about 120K of debt when I graduate, but I locked in a 2.75% fixed interest rate last year. So, don't worry about not having cash for school. If you want to go to med school, then go.

BunnyGirl

Yeah. I was actually thinking about being a pharmacist last week, since there are good loan and grant programs for that, too. I can find good grants and loans available for nursing, pharmacists, and radiologists. If everything goes well with me I would be looking to start some sort of schooling in fall 2007.

I don't think you can add keyless after the fact. There are sensor/button things on the door handles and also on the trunk. Then there is the ignition sensor. In the instrument panel there is also a "KEY" light that tells you if your battery is low or whatever else in advance so you can replace it. I don't think it is a very easy upgrade if at all.

I'm getting BNY GRL on my plate!!!

SX-Tech

Congrats on the car! i LOVE the blue AHHh, your set up is just what I want too .. what does the rotary accent do though? i never understood that

BunnyGirl

It's basically the silver V on the lower front and back of the car. No particular purpose other than looks.

Duke15

Bunnygirl - congrats on your new car. I hope you are able to get it this weekend. Let us know when you do. Regardless of what some of the idiots in this thread have said, I have found you to be very helpful both here and on the edmunds forum, and I enjoyed our posts. One other note on pharmacy school - out my way in the DC area, places like CVS are offering to pay for their pharmacy tech's classes to become a pharmacist, so that might be an option as well.

I am still hoping every day to get a VIN number for my car - I find myself thinking about nothing else during my commute...

Duke

saturn

Uh...what? How does your car not have a VIN?

Duke15

It is still in line to be built, but at this point, only exists on paper and in the Mazda computer - I hope!

I ordered it about 2 weeks ago, and they changed one in line to be built to match what I wanted. Now I'm playing the waiting game. Rumors on the board seem to say that I have a 6-7 week wait once I get the VIN number, but that remains to be seen since I haven't heard of anyone getting their 2006 yet.

BunnyGirl

It has an order number until it is assigned a build date. Then it gets a VIN.

I am still waiting for a call from Legacy right now. Apparently they outsource their background checkes and job reference checks and this company hasn't returned the reference portion of my application yet.

They pay for employee education, too. I'm not sure how much and for what all things, but generally related to professions at the hospital. They also have a nursing school located there if I decide on that route. Actually, a lot of times the transcriptionists at hospitals are residents and it helps pay their living expenses while in medical school.

I still have about a year to figure out where I want to head with my career so I am still looking into stuff.

BunnyGirl

Mine's close but the dealer said next week is most likely for me with everything that still needs to be done on their end, so it looks like 7 weeks for me.

Scrapula

I'm currently doing a clinical pharmacy rotation in the ICU. The RNs have to clean up poop. Pharmacists check the patient's meds and make gobs more money. There's no way I could be a nurse. Pharmacy is nice because you don't have to touch the patients. Also, since the car is an RX-8, pharmacy is the obvious choice.

Detrich

the rotary accent really completes the exterior appeal of the car, imo. otherwise, there is a black plastic section that is shaped with the emblem, but looks totally naked. i think it's kinda dumb that mazda didn't just include the accent as part of the base package. but, i guess it's an extra $160 for them. <shrugs>

Scrapula

On the front, mine came painted red like my car. The rear one is black plastic. I thought it was weird that they painted the front and not the back.

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

It should be possible. I am waiting for more 06s to come to find out. (but Im expecting this "process/thing" going to cost a few hundred bucks)

BunnyGirl

That's a very good point!!! I would have liked to become a surgeon, so I don't mind touching patients so much. Forensic pathologist (like on Quincy) would also be pretty cool. Sort of performing surgery without the added stress that you might screw up and kill whomever you are working on.