I bought a Mazda! A comparison.
 

In November of 2003, I sold my Porsche and bought an RX-8.
It was a tough move but I grew tired of paying for the costs of maintaining a Porsche. I owned a 3rd gen a few years back and thought that I would give the 8 a try. I was impressed by the HP numbers and the MPG. Not to mention the warranty.
The power and torque do not compare to the 993 but the handling and suspension of the 8 is quite superior to the Porsche.

Real world MPG and HP is less than stated! DUH!

Regardless of the negative stories on this forum from 8 owners I spent some time reading reports from other car owners.
Specificaly, The Evolution,Subaru STI, and 350Z.

After sellng my Porsche I wanted the best bang for the buck in the Jap import market. I was so torn between the STI, the 8, and EVO, but i just had to go for the rotary!!!!!!!!

Anyway....What is my point?

Well, the point is that the 8 owner community has undoubtedly acquired a better car. I've been monitoring all of the major car forums and no matter what you may think the Mazda seems to be the best performer.

Think your new car has problems?
Take a look at these major forums.

http://www.my350z.com/
http://www.imprezawrxsti.com/
http://www.evolutionforums.com/

Based on my own post-market studies the 8 seems to be the best of the "new" sportscars in regards to reliability, cost, and warranty.

Unfortunately, I may be selling my 8 shortly due to health reasons. 33 years old and found out today that I have arterial blockage! Great!!!!!!!!

Gary

1.) Those are not major forums for those cars.

2.) It's really too early to call any of these cars unreliable or reliable (save for maybe the Z).

3.) Happy to hear you love your car, and sorry to hear you may have to give it up :( Goodluck with the bypass surgery (if that is what you're in for) and I hope you make a full recovery with no hitches.

Ike

Yep. Somtimes we are all lulled into thinking somthing is crap when we know all the details about it and switch to something else thinking we haven't heard there is anything wrong with it which in reality is just because we haven't researched it. Thanks for the perspective.

For me, I read the forum before I bought. Knew what were considered major issues. Decided they weren't issues for me. As a result I've never looked back. You gota go with what you know when you make the decision. Can't live on what if's. Just make sure you do your best to make an informed decision.

Best of luck on the health issues. Hopefully your age will turn out to be a good thing in hastening the recovery.

They are some of the more popular ones that I've found.
Do you have any better suggestions?

For Subarus I'd have to go with www.nasioc.com
For Evos I'd have to go with www.evolutionm.net

honorable mention goes out to www.i-club.com for being the ORIGINAL super Subaru forum until politics wrecked it.

For what it's worth, I'm in the last 5 month of my Boxster's lease. I've never really been happy with the Boxster's power/torque but always loved it's handling and the balance. To date, the only car I've driven that that the same (if not better) feel and balance is the RX8.

I'd test drove a Z06, which on paper should outhandle an RX8, but it did not have anywere near the level of feedback/communication I felt with the RX8. Handling ability isn't worth much, unless the car makes you feel confident.......unless, it's not your car and you don't have to pay for it if you crash it. ;)

PS: If you want sheer acceleration, buy a $10K sport bike, or better yet, buy mine! :D

If you want to sum up the only common problems for those cars...


STi: Some people are having problems with pinging and detonation with lower octane fuels, Subaru just issued a reflash to fix the problem. The rest of the problems have been associated with mods, such as boost creep with TBE.

EVO: A weak clutch, and some diff problems, I think that's about it.

RX-8: Flooding and gas mileage issues, along with some rare engine problems.

Z: Someone else can fill this in, I'm not sure what issues they are having and I don't care enough to find out.

I don't think that qualifies any of them as having reliability issues, or being problem cars. Prettymuch drive the cars and buy whichever one you like best.


There are probably 5 other more popular Subaru sites than the one you listed, SJT got two of them. Others would be ClubWRX, WRXfanatics, and Scoobymods.

http://www.clubwrx.net/forums/

There's another EVO forums as well that I can't remember... The Z, again, I'm not sure.

From a few google searches, I only found one Z recall. It's for the CIRCUIT BOARD FOR THE CRANK POSITION SENSOR. Something about excess solder causing a CEL. I also found lots of TSBs for various things such as premature seat wear, tire noise, squeeling brakes, nav system malfunction, key and key fob malfunctions, steering and suspension problems with vehicle drift, courtesy lamp inop. problems, and more...

http://www.alldata.com/TSB/41/03417793.html

Politics... :D You mean 2 people having and argument and splitting up. One goes and starts his own forum from scratch and retains the domain name. The other just had to deal a with new domain name, but retained 75-85% of the members. If that's what you mean by 'political', then you're right. :)

I almost sold the wagon to get an 8, so I know what you mean about getting rid of the porsche. I just love the balance of it. We'll see what happens over this course of the year.. chances are good that I'll be in a Mazda as a next car. AWD 6? Turbo 8? We'll see.

--kC

I'm pretty certain there's more to it than just that.

The details make all the difference & I'm certain that neither Alex nor Nick will agree what those will be....

Are you sure the 8 has a better suspension than the Porsche? What kind does the 993 have?

GTF-RX-8:

Having never had the opportunity to drive (much less own) a Porsche of any kind, I appreciate the comparison. One of the magazines (I forget which) likened the RX-8 to a sort of affordable mini-exotic. For those of us for whom a $60K+ car is out of reach, it's nice to know that cars like the RX-8 are available to satisfy the enthusiast's itch.

Best of luck, and fight fiercely!

Bubble,
Not sure I understand what you are asking?
My 993 had a stock OEM suspension with about 30k miles on it when I sold it.

When I stated that the 8 was better I meant to imply that the ride, handling, and tracking were much better in stock form.

I'm certain that a slalom test would verify this as the 8 is much easier and quicker in maneuvering through the twisties.

The Porsche suspension was a bit softer and less inspiring.
I'm sure that much of that has to do with the front to rear weight ratio and the extra power sitting on top of the rear wheels.

Twozooms,

The 8 is definitely fun to drive compared to the Porsche.
The only shortfall of course is the power delivery and quality of the components. Porsche makes big strides in putting the best possible parts on their cars. The Mazda is obviously a little "cheaper" in their build quality but it's still a very fun car to drive. If you are on a budget and comparing dollar to dollar then the 8 is definitely an "exotic" in that comparison. The Mazda engineers even went as far as to say that they modeled the 8 after a 911 Porsche so there are obvious similarities.

I definitely miss the power though.
:)

Thanks for the well- wishes.

Gary

Ike,
Based on what I have read from "owners" experience the Evolution and Z owners seem to have far more problems with their cars than any of the 8 owners have reported. The STI doesn't appear to have as many problems though so perhaps I should have left that out in the original post.

Anyway, the original point of my post was to perhaps reassure 8 owners that the "grass is not necessarily greener for the other cars."


On a side note: Bypass at 33? I hope to hell not! HEHE!
I have alot more testing to undergo so perhaps my condition is just a false positive due to entirely too much stress. My fingers are crossed.
Thank you all for keeping my spirits up!!!

Now back to the car discussion........

Gary