westie

well, did anyone know about the seal?

canzoomer

The mileage claims are based on tests performed by labs hired by the manufacturers. The reporting is VOLUNTARY.

93rdcurrent

And wrong...

sferrett

My issue is when newbies come on the forum and say stuff like "What about the crappy gas mileage?" and "Aren't I going to get in a train wreck when I stall and flood on a railway crossing?". Going on about "fatal flaws" is the kind of detremental FUD that gets cars an undue bad name. I don't believe the '8 deserves a bad name - there are some folks having some problems, but it's not chronic as far as I can tell and certainly calling them "fatal flaws" is somewhat melodramatic. There's just as many folks saying they are getting 20+mpg consistently as there are folks saying they are getting sub-13mpg.

I'm not defending anything to the death - I'm trying to prevent these kinds of real issues that are affecting some people being portrayed as a widespread "fatal flaw" that is happening to everyone, thereby giving people unfamiliar with the car the wrong impression. They shouldn't be shielded from the information, but it needs to be put in perspective and considered rationally.

I think people who are experiencing real issues such as abnormally bad gas mileage or chronic flooding should proceed as far and as vigorously as they can about getting their issue resolved - just don't make it out like it's something that's chronic across all owners. So your statement about me is wrong and hence I'm a little ticked off.

If I somehow managed to offend you then I'm sorry, but please don't generalize me, group or categorize me or speak for me again.

Simon.

Elara

In the US, they're based on outdated tests by the EPA, and they AREN'T voluntary.

TheTick

Well after mazda had my car again for several days to examine the mileage problem they once again told me that my car is operating within "operating limits." Not to mention they washed my car before I got it back and it looks like they used 100 grit sandpaper to dry it!

93rdcurrent

Read my post on this thread: https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=21292 . I am getting the PCM/ECU re-flash. Apparently it is supposed to improve the gas mileage. I will post my results later.

cvan707

TheTick,
Hummers, by the way, get about 8-10 mpg, so at worst you were her equal.
I don't plan to have kids. I'll adopt. That means in the next 100 years I have prevented 4 more people to join this planet. Therefore, I can use twice as many resources during my entire lifetime and still be way ahead of the game. Whaddya think of that logic? Don't buy into the hummer hippies argument, industry collectively pollutes much higher per capita than us residential folks. You do more harm to the environment from constantly buying everyday stuff that was manufactured in some plant, especially from plants in Asia, Mexico, and India. Scientific American just put out an article about global warming- as worried as I am about it, it's a hard sell to blame RX-8 exhaust alone as the cause...

93rdcurrent

Actually I test drove the H2 for 2 days and I will say that they get 13 mpg average with 85% city and 15% hwy driving. I was pretty impressed with those numbers after everything I had heard.

DemonRX-8

I don't think the 8 deserves a bad name either - but Mazda NA does. From what I've read, there is a disproportionate number of people experiencing well below EPA figures than there are people experiencing actual EPA figures (not to mention better than EPA figures). Now I know that cars will vary from the EPA numbers, but wouldn't that average include an appropriate percentage of people getting better than the EPA rating? I don't see many, if any, of those. That leads me to believe that the EPA numbers were skewed - possibly from an ECU flashing sleight-of-hand trick.

On a side note, my other new cars (both piston engines) were dead spot on the EPA numbers (if not slightly better on occasion). I always thought that the EPA ratings were conservative, if anything.

I'm not happy with my gas mileage, if you haven't caught on yet. I'm not complaining just to whine about it, and would be willing participate in some kind of organized complaint/class action against Mazda. If anything, we may all at the least be able to get the ECU reflash if Mazda is put against a corner . . . from what I've read, ECU upgrades such as the CZ Stage I is able to give us some of the missing power back without upsetting emissions (except maybe CA). So why couldn't/shouldn't we expect Mazda to step up and give us what we were lead to believe we were getting?

westie

Exactly my thoughts, but written in a much more clever way!!