truemagellen

definitely don't pay more then 1200 for your extended warranty Rob Tomlin is right on...you mom is feeding you bullshit because she doesn't want to buy you the car...this car is no joke don't get it if you aren't prepared to treat it like it should

Chrisbert

You are worried about the difference between 14MPG and 13MPG? How many miles a year are you planning on driving that 1MPG is going to break you?

jtimbck2

C'mon guys, keep it civil.

flatso

By nature of boards like this, they are a good place to vent and gain information about similar issues. However, if you read between the lines you can see most here even if they have a problem or two are very happy with their purchase. Plus as noted all the issues you mentioned have been addressed except for the brakes.

ptiemann

The warranty is 4 years, 50k miles. As I said, I drive 26k miles a year, so I'd be through my warranty in less than 2 years.

My warranty covers now 5 years / 100k miles.

My last car (Pontiac Firebird) had a seal break 3 times (at 10k, 36k, 60k). Yes, always the same seal. Warranty was 3 years/ 36k so I only paid for the 3rd repair at 60k. Then again the cat converter broke at 81k (part warranty: 80k), muffler needed replacement.

Transmission started acting up at 95k Sold at 96k before it got worse.

While that was an American car (what do you expect from a Pontiac), this RX-8 is a first year model.

That's why I bought the warranty.

Question remains will there be damage worth $2000?

So far not even a seal broke. I like it that way.

-Peter

ptiemann

Well, yes, I would like to have that deal. I guess I made a mistake paying $2000 or I should've researched that better. I actually didn't do any research on warranties and I had never bought one before.

In a few years - if I will part then from my 8, I'll know better. Thanks.

-Peter

spork

I consulted my mom about buying it cuz she's a really practical person so I can hear that side of it and she LOVES to haggle. I can't even come close to her skill in haggling (I'm a push over especially if I want something). In fact I think she's the one who bought nearly every car my family has. When I told her I was thinking of getting a car, the first thing she told me was "Ooh, let me help. I love haggling." But I have a feeling some people got the impression that she's buying it for me, which let me assure you, is not the case. If it were, I wouldn't even worry about whether or not the car is going to have problems.

But yeah I like to bounce ideas off of her because like I said she's practical. She'll point out things that I wouldn't even think of cuz I'm too into getting the 8. The thing is I don't have THAT much money so I can't really afford to buy a car that's going to cost me thousands of dollars to keep. Ever since I saw the 8 though, I just HAD TO HAVE IT. I just don't have enough to wind up spending thousands of dollars on maintenance or to almost double my gas costs.

I'm really happy to see a lot of the responses here though. Because a lot of the threads make it sounds like those are serious issues that everyone experiences, but with this thread it seems to be a lot more minor. That's pretty much what I was hoping for. Like checking oil every other fill up sounds scary because... well, as we all know you don't go very far before the 8 tank empties. I'm getting around 220-230. Checking every 3-4 fill ups sounds a lot more reasonable. I do realize that the 8 takes more oil, but it just worried me that I'd have to check every 2 fill ups vs the every 12 I was doing with the Camry. I didn't want to have to be constantly worrying about it, which apparently, I don't.

(The engine not lasting thing was in a thread. I don't remember it well, but it was by someone who started off with saying "some of you will figure out who I am".)

As for the warranty... the Mazda people said I could get the warranty anytime before the end of the normal warranty. But they insisted they could not come lower than the $3000 (unless I wanted to pay a deductible, they'd drop it down to like 2.2K, but the deductible was high). My mom made the point that it's probably better to lease then consider the option to buy in the case for this car just because there seems to be some uncertainity about how long this car can last. And while some people can easily afford that, I can't afford too much. There's also hope that Mazda might drop their cost for the warranty or the residual value too. *Crosses fingers*.

But yeah again, thanks for the reassurance!

phee

If you're the Spork from the BR page, you should be used to a bit of ragging and abuse Regardless of whether you are or not, welcome. This forum is a great place to get info. I hope you're gonna be lovin' your 8!

MarthaStewart

May I ask what your monthly lease payments are and what options you got on the car. Front air dam, rear spolier etc. etc.

Thanks

Toadman

I have a question. If you keep your warranty records(as Mazda does also), why not purchase aftermarket extended coverage later as the factory warranty draws to a close, instead of paying up front with a company who may no longer be in business in 5 years? The extended warranty at point-of-sale is just additional profit-padding, like under-coating and 3M upholstery protection. Don't let them threaten you with "waiving your rights" to extended warranty coverage in the future if you decline now. Many aftermarket companies will provide extended coverage if you or the dealer can produce the OEM warranty and prescribed dealer service history records.

Grabitquick

Toadman, that's exactly what I intend to do in my case. Here's a very helpful link at Carbuyingtips.com:

http://www.carbuyingtips.com/warrant...40x41x40x71x40

Maximus

If you bought ANY OTHER car and went on the forums, you'd still have the same feelings.

1) Keep the oil level under observation, 2) dont worry too much and 3) just enjoy one of the finest automobiles on road today :D

spork

24 months, 497/month. 1759 down.

Black/Black-Chapparal, 6 speed manual, Grand Touring package, navigation - nothing else. I'm in southern california though so it's probably higher than most people's?

And yeah I do plan to buy it after the lease is over (and get the warranty then - my dealer was nice enough to tell me that I can purchase the extended warranty anytime before the normal warranty ran out) provided I don't hear anything about insane maintenance costs and the mileage is around 18. If not maybe I'll go for a used later model which hopefully fixed most of the issues.

Oh and I'm not the spork from the BR forum. Not even sure what that is. Battle Royale? And you better believe I love it. :D

Out of curiousity how many people got the additional security things? Lojack, proximity alarm, window etching etc? The window etching sounded really really stupid to get and Lojack seems a bit excessive for a 30K car. Kind of wondering about the proximity alarm but I don't really think I need it.

phee

No BR is Bad Religion :D

I did opt for the GPS2000 which is like LoJack. We've had attempted car thefts in the lot where I work, and I just feel alot better about having it. I also opted for the extended warranty. If I'm gonna spend a bundle, I spend a bundle and this transaction was no different! I know I spent too much. I didn't haggle. I didn't care. No regrets

graphicguy

Ya know...I haven't been here in a while and just stopped to "check in".

Begin rant.....

I bought one of the first ones off the boat. Went through all the "HP" broohaha. Got the free maintenance and $500 plan. I've had all the TSBs done by my dealer with no hassle whenever I've taken my car in for a free oil change and tire rotation.

I added oil to my engine once when it had under 2K miles on it. Haven't added any oil ever since between my 5K oil changes. Yes, it uses about 1/2 qt every 5K miles, but it's designed to do so. Like anyone else who is even moderately vigilent in taking care of their cars, it's always a good idea to check oil levels every 2nd or 3rd fill-up. That's just proper maintenance habits with any car (and takes all of 10 seconds).

I've never flooded mine, no matter how little or much I drove. Still, I got the "M" reflash TSB during my last oil change. Those of you who did have a flooding issue, I'm sure Mazda has fixed it by now.

A/C cools just fine in 90+ degree and very humid midwestern weather. If you had a problem with your A/C, Mazda has a fix. Get it taken care of. My dealer put in the A/C "magnifier" during last oil change. Didn't really need it, though.

Brakes don't squeal. If they do, I'll have Mazda fix them.

I've got 18K miles on mine and use it as a daily driver. I don't even think about any of the issues I've read here.

I can say that this is probably one of the most dependable, let alone most fun, new car purchases I've ever made...and I've owned BMWs, Saabs, Camrys and Accords.

MPG...well, it is a sports car. If you drive it like a granny (where's the fun in that?) your MPG will improve.

I do think some people try to talk themselves into having "problems" once they read somewhere that there may be this or that issue with the car.

Any car I've ever bought has some issue I wish it didn't have, including my RX8 (who was the moron that put the remote trunk release where you can't see it?).

We all bought the car because we liked it. If something breaks or isn't working right, get it fixed (all of us should still be under warranty). If you're going to talk yourself into not liking it, then don't buy any new car. Buy a used junker...that way you won't worry about any of these so called issues. You won't worry about dings. If something goes wrong, you can choose to ignore it since you're driving a junker.

Rant finished!

truemagellen

Amen!

graphicguy

A side story...When I took my RX8 into my dealer for my last oil change, there was a guy at my service writer's desk just raising all kinds of hell because he said his RX8 shakes violently. I thought, "never heard of that one...I wonder what's causing that".

Since his RX8 was sitting right next to the service writer's desk, I watched closely as the service writer got into the car to see what was wrong. He started it up and it ran "smooth as silk". Service writer looks at the owner who is standing there and asks him if it was an intermittent issue because the car seemed fine. The guy goes nuts and tells the service writer "can't you see what the shifter is doing?". Well, the shifter was shaking a very slight bit since it's connected directly to the trans. Service writer tells the guy it's normal. But, some cars shifters don't have a direct connection to the trans and some even use bushings to mask some of it at the expense of shift feel. This didn't make the guy any happier until I actually mentioned to him that I owned the RX8 right behind his and it was, indeed, normal. He calmed down after that.

Plus, his description of the entire car shaking violently wasn't even remotely close to having the shifter slightly shake.

Given my choice to have the excellent shift feel and a slight vibration we get with the RX8's shifter or the "damped" (read mushy) feel you get with other manual tranny's, I'll take the RX8s every time.

While sitting in the waiting room for our cars to be finished in service, the other RX8 owner asked me how I liked the car. Of course, I told him I loved it. He then said that he had been reading of all the "issues" with the car. I asked him if he'd thought anything about the shifter slightly shaking before he read about the issue, He said "no, but I thought it needed to be checked out". This guy was about 50. He also said it was the first time he had owned a manual tranny car and it was his first sports car.

Obviously, he wasn't exactly the demographic Mazda had in mind (even though I'm not that far away from 50).

That just goes to show, some people go out of their way looking for problems that don't exist with this car.

Nordic RX-8

Spork - If you live in a area that gets cold or snow, figure in the cost for snow tires and wheels (or re-mount costs 2 times a year). I just paid ~ $1700.00 for a set of 4 tires and rims to be shipped to my door from Tirerack ( includes the $460.00 OEM TPMS)

spork

I'm in southern california. No worries about snow here! Well, when that happens, I don't think I'll worry much about the car. I'll worry more about the end of the world. Thanks for the advice though. I don't ever plan on driving it in the snow. It's much too early for that - I'm at the stage where I'm even worried about parking it in parking lots in fear someone will steal it or hit it. The only snow around here is in the mountains and I'm still pretty newbie-ish on stick so I think I'm going to avoid that. Heh.

Oh on a side topic, I've noticed the vibrating gear **** too. I was resting my hand on it once and I was like "whoa, what the heck?" But it wasn't a problem and it doesn't vibrate that badly. Honestly, I haven't had any lasting problems with the car except maybe mileage. It would be annoying though if I drove it like a granny and still got like 15 mpg. Just worried that the mileage will bug the heck out of me once the fun factor runs out (though to it's credit I'm still giddy each time I drive it, but I only have some 400 miles on it and 90 are from the dealer driving it up from san diego).

Grabitquick

Spork, somehow I think that the fun factor will always be there and that I'll stay giddy with my RX-8 forever (or at least until the repo man takes it). Anyway, I also have the vibrating gear shift ***. Actually, it makes the car seem like it's just hugging the road better to me and is just part of the overall symmetry, feel and feedback the car provides

Rob Tomlin

Hmmm.....90 miles from San Diego. You aren't in the Riverside, San Bernardino area are ya Spork?

spork

nah, i'm from "the OC".

swoope

iTrader: (5)

great thread. back from the past..

might stop some stupid!

ok, not so much..

beers

RyansRx8

You scare me

mike[piston eater]

iTrader: (3)

lol holy thread resurection, only be scared if your posts are full of bs lol