I went to the L.A. autoshow today and I was quite disappointed with the quality of the RX-8 they had there. It was red leather package they had. For a 30k car, I expect better. The quality in an IS300/Altezza is much better for the price.

Buying this car is a step down in quality from my 96 Accord LX.

I'm still going to buy this car, but I feel I'm stepping down in quality. To be fair, most automakers have been goind down in quality in last few years. I checked out the 350's build quality, once again I was disappointed. Even the Mini's build was disappointing.

See the post by RX8@mazda in my "interior-base car" thread.

I bet we will see good things when our 8s roll in!

Well Don, having sat in a 350Z I can say for myself, that while the car is livable it isn't up to my expectations. Where that car was quite a bit bloated for only a two seater (weight wise), I'd expected some better materials in the car.

However tradeoffs are always made, and in Nissan's case it seems to be the powertrain over the rest. The steering wheel and seats had a good feel to them in the 350Z, but the rest of the car especially the console I didn't care much for. Even the gauges for the speedometer/tach cluster were boring and dull.

That being said, I take it on rotarynews.com's advice that the interior is made of good materials. Some kinks may also be worked out. I've been in a 93 RX-7 and the material quality wasn't great but from what I've read, the RX-8 is much nicer than that. And a good point was made, you don't want a heavy material that gives a solid 'thud' when knocked on, but a strong material that is good to the touch.

I think though, that the lacquered black plastic throughout the car will have insane amount of smudges unless wiped down often, and this can be a complaint of many people that have seen the car. It takes away from the fit and finish when you see smudgmarks throughout the car. My car however, will not have this problem :)