RX8MN

As the father of a 17 year old son, I've followed this thread with interest. There are certainly a variety of opinions! I've always been reluctant to let my son drive a "beater" as they are usually older cars without the advantage of good brakes, stability control, and modern safety engineering. If I won't drive one myself, why should I put him at risk in one? On the other hand, letting him loose in a high performance car like the RX-8 is not a good idea either, no matter how sensible he is, if temptation arises, youthful exuberance takes over. I'm a firm believer in driver training and feel the best thing you can do for your kids is to see they get advanced driver training, not the BS in high school, but professional training by a recognized school.

So, my son drives my '99 Saab 9-5, a safe, nice driving, yet still not boring, ride. I let him drive the RX-8 with me, and he handles it well.

VikingDJ

Come on guys. Why are you arguing with a 15 year old? Do you remember being 15? We thought we were responsible and mature, only to find out we were so niave and clueless at that age as we got older. He'll learn one day, but in the meantime let him be spoiled, and learn the hard way. This kid grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth and he knows no other way of life. We'd all be the same if we grew up this way. The world has changed, moral values are gone, and parents just don't think. Does a 15 year old deserve a new car like this from Mommy and Daddy? HELL NO. But he lives in an upperclass show off world where image is everything, and his friend's are all spoiled too. Personally I think it's one of the downfalls to society, but there's no stopping it. Parents just can't see the light, and have no grasp of reality. I cannot imagine being a father and buying my son a 35k sports car, even if I was rich. It just makes no sense, but unfortunately it's the way of the world. it's obvious this kid comes from a different world they we grew up in, and society has created attitude in youth today. I for one am glad that my parents gave me a POS car as my first car, and now as an adult I was able to treat myself with my heard earned money, and had nothing handed to me. it's made me a better person, and I'm grateful. We don't know, nor should we care what becomes of this young lad. All signs point to disaster and dependency, but maybe he'll learn on his own, and not make the same mistake his parents are making. Either way, you do what you want, and just ignore his story if it bothers you that much. I mean, arguing with a 15 year old is a big waste. He's just a kid who hasn't even began to understand life. If all your friend's are spoiled like you, then you'll be just fine in your own little click. Just don't be mingling with kids your age who are less fortunate then you, and get rid of the attitude. Otherwise you'll find key marks all over your rx8.

kantonm

I think that ALL of you need to stop ranting... I can come up with a ton of reasons that he "shouldn't" have an RX8. My father spent years racing cars and didn't feel that my brother or I should have a nice forst car for all of the aforementioned reasons. HOWEVER, I did test the limits of the car (a 12yr old scirocco) and I was trained to drive properly, avoid accidents and control a car. My best advise is to get the car...it's the best all around car that I have owned, and its the 16th.

I do understand that, as a teenager he has been attacked by adults one too many times...and as all of you that are older know....he will not listen to anyone who attacks him.. and on the subject...I don't see you giving people who crash their 8's a hard time

To invisible monkey: the RX8 is one of the safest cars on the road...period! according to the HHTSB... With all of the stability and dynamic skid control you can't get into too much trouble....just don't turn them off until you get some miles under your belt...and take an advanced driving course, you'll learn how to handle the car and probably have a hell on a good time...

to everyone else: this should be a place where people come to "bond" over the common love of the RX8...so lets just give a big group hug and shut the hell up already!!!!!! :D

InvisibleMonkey

well, i'll be driving for a year before i can get the car...in an elantra...i don't actually get the car until i'm 17...i've said this like 5 times already

InvisibleMonkey

...i wouldn't even know how to turn it off(stability control)....i assume it's on when you buy it?

kantonm

you can turn it off...you'll find out when you get the car....its just a button...

S2K....
get it right ...James Dean was killed because a Farner pulled out in front of him on a country road....not because he didnt know how to drive...he was going to a race at laguna seca...he died because he was drivein a 2000lb aluminum roller skate with a lap belt...not a 3000lb pound car with 8 airbags and 3point seatbelts!

124Spider

James Dean died because he was driving too fast to avoid the collision when the farmer pulled out in front of him; the guy pulled out, not seeing Dean, who was approaching the intersection far too fast. Dean already had received one speeding ticket that day. He likely would have died even if he had been driving an SUV (in which case he probably also would have killed the other driver). It has nothing to do with "knowing how to drive." It has everything to do with good sense, and knowing where to drive fast, and where not to. Any time you drive 100mph on a public road, unless you are absolutely certain there is no place someone can pull out of, you are running the risk of just such a collision.

erl

Having read through all 8 pages, I'm astounded by the anger and (what comes across as) jealousy. It seems like people are getting pissed at this guy because he has the chance to get what YOU wish you could have had when you were younger.
Step off your high horses, answer the question and move on. Oh, and calling him "son" does not create a sense of credibility and wisdom in your comments, it merely makes you look condescending.

To answer the ORIGINAL question:
I drive about 8 miles each way to work. I have had my RX-8 since October, and I have not experienced any problems so far. It has, on several occasions, saved my butt due to its great stopping ability (accident in front of me on I-20 in the rain where traffic went from 70 to 0 in a heartbeat for one example).

Good luck in whatever car you purchase; I have been extremely happy with the -8.

PS - For those of you that feel you need to save the world from dangerous drivers, please look into repeat DUI offenders and those that drive without insurance.

Thank you for your time.

rotten42

Whatever, there may be some jeolousy....but not from me. I'm 40 now....maybe I'm mellowing out...maybe I'm getting smarter..

I just think its wrong for a kid his age to get this car or any other sports car that costs this much.

1) The kid is never going to learn the value of a buck when his parents buy him a car....and pay his insurance...and probably pay his gas..and repair bills.

2) If he has to get this car, I hope he would consider taking a driving course at a racing school...not driver's ed. I don't care how quick a learner you are, but at his age you don't have the experience behind the wheeel. Combine that with the aggression that a typical teenager has and you have the recipe for an accident.

3) His major reason for getting it is for reputation..

Well good luck and post the pics are you crash it.

better not get a silver RX8, they're cursed! :D

jsh1120

Good. Condescending was an appropriate stance.

124Spider

What you see as anger and jealosy I see as fear and concern, mixed with frustration at a spoiled 15 year old wanting a fancy toy acting like a spoiled 15 year old wanting a fancy toy. Other than the danger a kid poses to others when given the keys to a fast car, I couldn't car less what his daddy buys him; that was the dominant strain of the posts in this thread. Jealosy? Surely you jest. I was grateful that I got to drive one of my parents' cars on occasion, and I am grateful that they had the sense (i) not to give me the keys to a particularly dangerous car, and (ii) to make me earn important things, so that I grew up with a healthy sense of value. If others wish to spoil their kids, and to put their kids and others at serious risk, so be it, but jealosy is not the emotion which comes to mind; resignation is.


The fact that drunks and uninsured motorists are a huge menace does not detract in any way from the fact that kids in powerful sports cars are a menace.

Our pleasure.

Riggs

Monkey, take this for what it's worth.

My dad's a doctor. Off duty one night, driving home just before dusk. Driving down a meandering two lane road and comes across a commotion.

A Renault 5 GT Turbo - powerful Euro hot-hatch favored by boy-racers and car thiefs/joy riders - has hit a tree. He stops and approaches to help. A couple of people are already on-site, crying, screaming and puking.

He gets to the car, the 17 y.o. driver is sat there in the drivers seat, hands clasp tightly around the wheel. Feet on the pedals. Thing is, in place of his head, is a 6 foot long wooden post projecting directly through the windshield into the rear seat. His head was actually just a couple of feet away behind the car. Surprising a very clean wound. No brain matter, no bone fragments and very little blood splatter.

His 16 y.o. passenger got off a little better. He had a 3 inch shard of glass sticking out of his left eyeball, a compound fracture in both his legs where his phema had penetrated his skin, his left arm was bent 90 degrees, the wrong way, and he was bleeding profusely from a nasty neck wound. No arterial spray but bleeding heavily.

Anyways, I'm dragging here. Point is, the driver had just past his test the previous day (you have to be 17 in the UK to drive) and was "celebrating" with his buddy driving the backroads. A witness claimed they must have been doing "at least 100mph" and he lost control, veered over the opposite lane, hit a biker virtually head on, and took off down the embankment, through the wooden, barb-wired fence, and into the tree trunk.

When they finally found the body of the biker and removed his helmet, my dad said that his head had basically imploded and his brain was leaking out of a big crack circumventing over the top half.

I know that back in the UK - where admittedly people drive a hell of a lot faster than they do here in the US - there are so many young lives lost due to inexperienced drivers behind the wheels of cars that are way to powerful for their initial ability.

This example just illustrates some of the consequences in such circumstance.

InvisibleMonkey

was that in the 60's when a lot of people did lots of drugs? just curious

124Spider

I don't even know how to begin to respond to this bizarre question. But I'll try.

First, far more drugs are taken these days than were taken then; it was just new then, so got a lot more publicity. Our 40 year "war on drugs" has merely filled up prisons, but has not done anything to dampen the apparently insatiable appetite for the American people for drugs. I guarantee you that there are more drugs in your high school than there were in mine.

Second, what does that have to do with parents not facilitating dangerous behavior by kids, or anything else I have said in any of my posts?

InvisibleMonkey

2 things:
1) that story made me want to barf
2) i'm not stupid, i have enough sense to know not to go out the night after(or at all) i get my license and push the car's limits, and risk getting a ticket, or worse, having my parents find out

InvisibleMonkey

did you read the part i quoted? why the hell would you be happy that your parents didn't give you the keys to the nice car?

124Spider

Nice language.

Did you read any of my posts? I'm grateful because I'm still alive, and might well not be if I had had a powerful car to play with when I was a kid. I'm grateful that my parents taught me values, rather than mindlessly giving me very expensive toys. I'm grateful that they were a great role model for me in raising my kids, who don't feel an entitlement to a fancy car, despite the fact that many of their peers drive fancy cars, and whose self-esteem is not tied up in what others think of the car they drive, and, most imporantly, did not get a fancy car from us when they were in high school, so that my kids are still alive.

rotten42

The more you post...the less credibility you have.

InvisibleMonkey

do you honestly think i care?

InvisibleMonkey

hell hell hell hell hell

just because i'm getting a nice car doesen't mean that i don't have any values...you still fail to see that i'm paying for part of it...all you see is my parents getting me get an RX-8, when i'm splitting with them...and i'm not being told that i can't have a certain car just because it's powerful...i definately don't show maturity when i get pissed off, but there hasn't been much maturity here, and they're all driving an RX-8

you all are making it seem like i need your o.k. to get the car...i don't, and i'm going to get it any way, unless i want a different car

124Spider

15 going on 3. The thought of you driving any car is bone-chilling.

erl

Having read some of the threads on the dodge board about "my latest kill," in which people brag about their latest stoplight drag race where they accelerated faster in their SRT-4 than some other car........

Having read threads on this forum about the incredible handling, braking and safety features of the RX-8........

...I just don't get where some of you are coming from. Is it because this car costs more than you think a 17 year old should have? (I know he's 15 NOW, but not when he's going to get it, according to him.)

There are plenty of threads about the lack of torque, so we know he won't be winning a lot of stoplight drag races.
I can personally attest to the fact that this car has saved my butt from a few accidents due to other people doing stupid things.

I'm willing to bet than any person on this forum could go out and get any car and drive it faster and crazier than it is meant to be driven. I can go get in my Chevy Blazer right now and go 100mph, and I'm absolutely positive that it would be more dangerous than doing 100 in the -8.

This car has an excellent roll-over rating, an excellent crash rating, superb handling... Why WOULDN'T you want your kid to have those safety features?

Go put your own children in an aging bucket of bolts and rust and see how safe you feel when they go out on the road. It's entirely possible that they can get in an accident that is not their fault, and they might not survive because they're in a substandard vehicle.

I still can't help but feel that people are pissed any time someone younger than they are gets this car. This isn't the first time someone has mentioned their age and everyone gets up in arms.

InvisibleMonkey

i'm sorry "mr. conservative" if you were glad to not drive a nice car when you were young, but i'm going to get one, and i'm going to be happy...and just because i may not be like one of your little "angels"(which i highly doubt they are...i have ALL of my friends that are so nice around their parents, turn out to be doing drugs, or having sex with every person they see...and trust me, i know for a fact that they do) doesen't mean that i'm 15 going on 3...everyone gets pissed off sometimes, and you're going to call me immature for a normal feeling??

Overport

i agree with him. i'm 17 and have the temptation to race my 8 whenever the opportunity comes up, but most of the time i dont do it, even though i look like a complete jackass to the other dude in his srt-4, g35, 350z, etc.

yes, the 8 is dependable, like any car. but i would start off slow if i was you. not everyone is like me.

jsh1120

The inabiilty to restrain oneself when "pissed off" is a fairly accurate definition of immaturity.