sferrett

This is excellent news - it's good to see some constructive input on this issue and a positive indication that there are some decent dealers out there willing to help resolve problems. A shame you had to go 100 miles to find one.

I agree that dealers seem to be short changing customers in some cases, and we need to make sure that people who are experiencing legitimate issues aren't bullied by their dealers.

Oh - (not in reply to TheTick) by the way, I'm not certified. There's a big difference between certified and certifiable.

Simon

TheTick

Well I hope all this works out so far it is just words but the dealer was trying to find an 8 on his lot that he could trade me : )

canzoomer

Not so funny.

I went for a drive today with my friend in his Nissan Pathfinder.
Big *** SUV, weighs 50% more than my RX-8.
4 wheel drive, all the bells and whistles.

So?

He gets about 50% better fuel economy than me.

sferrett

You just need to make sure you have 100% more fun when driving the '8 then to make up the difference.

TheTick

The fun factor is there but not when I have to go to the pump!

klegg

I think he was making a joke.....any thoughts on a canzoomer fuel mod??? The cost of rodent food is going up, and KLEGGSPEED orders are hurting...

GiN

Greetings!

I've got about 2200miles on my RX-8 now, and CONSISTENTLY get 19.5 mpg. 13gallon fillup every 250 miles, give or take 10 miles. These numbers consist of roughly 75% (often slow/traffic) freeway miles. Driving slow or driving hard doesn't seem to make much of a difference in my car's gas mileage.

I'm not complaining at all, considering my previous turbo and non-turbo RX-7's have always done much worse. I think the new Renesis driveline is, at the very least, superior to the previous rotaries in this aspect.

Gas mileage is the same with friends' G35's and 350z's, and probably the same as all the other Nissan VQ35-equipped cars that are *so common* around here.

canzoomer

Congrats! You are one of the lucky ones.
Add a little altitude, and a heavier foot and it is not so pretty.

I can live with it. I did not take the buyback, have not put it up for sale.

JaegerNH

Worst gas guzzler story I can think of is a guy I knew back in high school in the early 80's that bought a used Oldsmobile 442 (refer to http://www.442.com/) that had a 400 engine, 4 barrel carb, and dual exhaust.

Going out with him cruising was always expensive since someone would inevitably ask to see him "smoke 'em up" or challenge him at a stop light. I think he was getting 8-10 MPG, but the sound when that thing was breathing fire was (almost) worth the price of riding with him.

TheTick

Latest story is that mazda said "as is, as delivered." Now if that isn't one of the biggest cop-outs I have ever heard of. Essentially they are telling me that since they cannot find the cause there is not problem. Also the fact that I took delivery of the car makes it my problem. Now I don't know about you but I would not have taken delivery of this car if I would have known that it would only get 12.9 mpg in the city. Especially considering I live and work in the city. Any suggestions on what to do next would be appreciated.

thanks

93rdcurrent

Tick,

Yeah I have an idea and I've suggested it before. We need to get a buch of RX-8 owners together and look at Mazda's legal responsibility to us. We were only able to go by the posted EPA estimations when we purchased and I know that I was not made aware, at the time of purchase, that my car wouldn't come close to what was posted. If we want to get this corrected then we have to band together. Posting about this may let each of us know that we aren't the only ones who are experiencing this issue. Now that we know (and keep discovering everytime a new owner discovers the forum) it is up to us as a group to decide what to do. Mazda isn't going to do it for us. We are going to have to do it ourselves. Cowboy up folks and let's get it going.

TheTick

I am more than willing to get something going I just don't really know what steps to take. Any suggestions would be goof though.

93rdcurrent

Well we need to talk with an attorney to get the show on the road. I am guessing that we need to put some pressure on Mazda. If they don't respond favorably then we need to consider a class action lawsuit. I figure that we could look at sueing for the difference it will make financially to drive for the next 8-10 years depending on what the life expectancy of the car is. We can look into hiring an attorney or maybe there are a few on the forum who are interested. If not my uncle sits on the "board of regents" at Gonzaga Law. I can always get a nice referral from him. Let me know what direction you would like to go.

TheTick

I know that you need a few more people to get a class action suit going. I'm not sure exactly what to do so I think I will do some research.

93rdcurrent

I just want to take this moment to make a comment. It seems to me that there are a lot of people on this forum who want to complain about poor gas mileage and loss of hp but when you actually say let's do something... wait for response from crowd... still waiting... hello? is anybody out there?... still waiting for response....

westie

Dear Tick:

Sorry to hear about your troubles. This is exactly the kind of Mazda NA crap I was talking about in my post. If you proceed further some forum members will call you alarmist, "rotaryholics" like SFERRETT will defend this car to the death despite the fatal flaws. He's lucky he doesn't have to fill up every 175 miles! A brand new 2004 car getting 1/2 the published MPG is a fatal flaw! I agree with your idea about the class action but I have a better idea first. I'm surprised I haven't seen it yet.

If you want people to join your lawsuit they have to know about it. You need publicity!! The newspapers and TV would love to know about a story like this, especially "60 minutes" type shows. Just don't approach the car magazines they've probably been bought off by Mazda. In fact the newspapers and TV may refuse the story because Mazda might threaten to pull advertising, hard to say. The point of the publicity is to embarass Mazda and get people to join the class action suit. I'm sure there are a lot of RX8 owners out there that don't know about the forum. After all, it's not in Mazda's best interest to tell them.

Maybe the best approach is to just quietly trade the car in and limit your loss before any publicity.

To you 93rd current, right on!! You can see by reading my posts what we did about the bad MPG. Hold Mazda's feet to the fire, and don't give up.

Westie

klegg

Actually, you are not hearing from folks on this because it has been talked about to death!!! Do a search, you will see that it is not mazda who posts the MPG, but the fed's!! Now, rather then losing money on a lawsuit, why not just sell the car, or trade it in? the G is a fine car, you really can not go wrong with it....

Not trying to start trouble, here, or a flame war, it is just that this topic has been covered already

BTW, I average about 220 miles per tank, between, 17 and 18 MPG...not what I would like, but in line with other high performance cars....I guess we can not have everything, if any car was "perfect" we would all own them!

TheTick

If I was getting 17 - 18 that is 4 to 5 more mpg that I currently get. If you take that cost and streatch it out of the life of the car you will notice that people with low gas mileage are paying an outrageous operating cost well above the EPA's estimation. All I want is for Mazda to publicaly recognize this issue and atleast attempt to solve this problem. My biggest dissapointment is the fact that Mazda will lie to you and tell you that because they can't find anything broken on the car that there is no problem.

klegg

Don't take me wrong, I do think you guys have a problem...but I do not see a solution, except getting a diffrent car..

o_town_racer

I have determined that the real problem with the RX-8 is the range, not the fuel economy. At my avg. of 17-18 city and 21-23 highway, the mileage is not out of line with other high performance sports cars. What is out of line is the small gas tank. If the tank was 20 gallons or bigger, it wouldn't seem like the mileage was all that bad since the range would be significantly farther. What makes the fuel mileage so noticable is that on the average you have to fill up every 11-12 gallons (200-250 miles). This makes it seem worse than it really is. As for the folks only getting 10 or 11 miles per gallon....something is definitely WRONG with your car. Take it to the dealer and if they don't fix it after 3 trips, turn it in with the lemon law deal and try another. There is no reason that a properly tuned RX-8 should be getting less that 15 MPG city or 21 MPG highway.

Pirate Rex

Geez, be happy with the 17-21 mpg. I have owned 5 Mustangs and I would jump for joy if I ever sniffed 17 MPG. Best I ever got in my 2001 GT (the most fuel efficient Mustang I have owned) was 16.3. I average 15.5.

The RX-8 is going to be an economy car for me.

93rdcurrent

The problem as I have been able to gather has nothing to do with what the EPA posted on the car or cars they used to get an average mpg rating. I believe that the A/F ratios were adjusted after the EPA tested the car. If this is true and it was not reported to the EPA then we have a lawsuit. I know if Mazda called me up tomorrow and said "Hey we have an ECU flash we are doing on the RX-8 that will give you better mpg without affecting your hp (or even better increase the hp). Will you bring yours in?" I would say HELL YES. I am sure that anyone else would do the same. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that even Klegg (with his KleggSpeed Stage II mod installed) would say "you guys that's great, BUT I am happy with what I am getting now. After all, it's right in line with other sports cars."

My M3 which was an inline 6 3.0L engine and it was getting like 17-19 mpg in the city and 23-26 on the highway. That is better than most of you are getting and right in line with what was advertised.

We could ask Mazda to correct it and give us something for our trouble or we could take it up with the EPA. Either way we don't just have to tuck our tails between our legs and whine every other day about how bad it is.

I am not flaming or attempting to start a flaming war either I just am not the type of person to bitch about something and not actually get off my *** and do something. I love my car and if it weren't for the MPG issue I would be extremely satisfied with it. I just feel like Mazda new something they held back from us and that makes them responsible for it. If the power company told me that it only cost me $75/month to run my house but forgot to mention that my meter would be replaced by a new one that was going to show me paying more like $115/month I would answers from them too. Especially if they could just put the old meter back in and it would take me back to $75/month.

klegg

You are right, I would get the reflash....and I would be pissed with 15 mpg

TheTick

I have been badgering Mazda for a while now and they always tell me the same thing. Essentially they say that because the car is not broken you cannot lemon law it. Also that the EPA set the mileage not them so they cannot be help responsible. If everyone was getting relativly the same mpg then I would not have much to complain about, but the fact remains that there are those that get stated mileage or better and those of us with considerably worse mileage than stated. I put a call into the NE regional manager and he told me he would get back with me in a few days. If I don't get a reply by Friday I will try to contact the factory rep. I think I need to start recording all the calls I have with this to catch them in all the "we will call tou back" lies. Maybe then someone will talk with me.

klegg

I wonder if this is a seal problem...if there are unburned gas going back through the cycle, would that cause it? Maybe one of the tech minded here would know...