I love my car 99.9% of the time. I like the way she handles on curvy roads. The way I can sit back and smoothly shift into low and high gears around the curves at the right moment.

I love how low she is to the ground! How, with the right driver, she'll blow away the other so called speedsters. Just apply a little pressure and you can go from 60 to 90 in about 7s.

The 0.1% that I don't like is SNOW! She doesn't like snow at all

 

If you have winter tires, it works great in the snow. The cars perfect balance helps.

 

I love the way the rear window is shaped. The way it curves. It's classy and sporty and different.

 

I like the way the rotary insets in the seats gleam at night when you're approaching the car and the streetlights hit the metal . . . just so.

 

how about the short shifter and the polished pedals and the red or hyper white display

 

this vehicle is a def. " panty dropper"

 

I like the versatile driving that's possible with this car - the rev band makes it possible to drive any style between come-up-from-behind-bycycle-killer (by driving without any noise at 2000 RPM) to scare-people-on-the sideway-to-death (by entering the jetfighter roar mode above 7000 RPM). I drive the car 100 miles each day and I actually never get bored.

Another thing is the handling aspect. This car is glued to the road in a way that's hard to believe. It always reacts exactly according to the command of the driver and always gives proper feedback of its current roadhold status. To me, this is not only a fun aspect, but also a major security pro.

Of all the little things, I value the case where I can stash my sunglass clip for my glasses above all. No more need to reserve a certain space or wear a shirt with pockets when driving in the summer.

And there's a dozen other possibibilities to store small things from CDs to cans to keys to my company ID card in the car.

This car is fun as hell and practical in the same time. It looks outright gorgeous and is just a major source of fun if you happen to own it.

 

I like that I don't have to look at the key to see which button I need to push to lock the car. The lock button has two pips on it, I can do it by feel, unlike my 2000 Jetta.

 

I have had my RX-8 since early december. It was time to top the oil, so I went to the dealer. I am quite pick about using the right stuff. They did not know that there is a special brand for the RX-8 (Dexelia), so I had to order it.

This is what I got: I had already ordered five quarts, so I got five of them :p :D :p :D :p :D :p :D :p :D

 

I like passengers reactions. I took my soon-to-be 18 year old daughter on a college visit. Comming out of the rest stop I needed to accelerate to merge back into 70 mph traffic. I did that very nicely, with 3 gears left to spare!

Her: "guess you like this car?"
Me: (with a big grin) "what's not to like?"

Silly girl.

On the other hand, when my 21 year old son is with me and I redline the first 2 gears, we just look at each other with big dopey grins.

Go figure.

 

Don't know if this has already been mentioned, but I just noticed the little molded in rotor insignias in the front trim bezel on the low-beam headights. That's pretty neat!

Bill

 

Well, it's doubtful the Mazda folks designed it for this, but if they did have this in mind, I am very impressed. I picked up an FM tuner for my MP3 player. I plugged the tuner into the power source located in the hidden compartment behind the cup-holder area. Anyway, I strung the tuner's antenna out through the lid around and underneath the plastic trim and feed the antenna along the plastic trim and into the trunk through the back seat center storage area to be close to the car's FM antenna. While hiding the antenna between the carpet and plastic trim along the drive-shaft hump, I noticed a depression right where the hidden compartment's rear hinge is located, and got an idea. Here's the cool part, because of the depression, I was able to use my fingers and re-feed the antenna through the hidden compartment's rear hinge opening and out behind the plastic trim. Now the antenna is completely hidden all the way and into the trunk. No more unsightly loop of antenna hanging out the lid anymore. Additionally, the hidden compartment has molded slots to aid in feeding the audio cable back into the cup-holder area where I keep my MP3 player, sweet. I love this car!

 

I like the way my Rx-8 flexes its taunt muscles on uneven pavement curves.

 

I like the radio antenna in the glass, no more burned out power antenna motors.

I like the Diamond Coat paint protection from Zeibart. So far, it looks like I have been buffing wax.

I like the low end torque as is.

I like the cockpit feeling I get.

I like the uniquely quiet engine.

 

Wonderful thread!
How about those lights that illuminate the doors from beneath the wing mirrors! Nobody has mentioned them!!!
Totally agree about being able to see the curve of the wheel arch from the driver's seat.
3 people and 3 golf bags in a 'little' SPORTS car (you need to put one set in the back seat).
The fact that UK's Top Gear say it's as quick around the track as the BMW M3
The bark as you start it up in the morning
If you have the stereo on you can red line it without knowing until ......beeeeeeeep!
The whole family ask "How's Rex today?"
Being able to afford a car that is so cool and so fast - thank you Mazda!

 

Love that little secret compartment that's above the hood/trunk release. I keep my valet key in there, and that's what I use to drive the car. Combined with the remote, I can get in the car and drive off without having to fish my big wad of keys out.

After driving my mom's Rav4 which is quite torquey, I love the rotary even more. It is just so smooth and easy to put the pedal to the metal, without slamming me into the seat at every stoplight. The sense of refinement just puts a big smile on my face.

 

I like having a car that I need to raise the hood on every now and then and actually lay hands on the goodies underneath. I'm from the era where if you went more than a week without being under the hood of your sportscar you were either not driving it enough or you were headed for big trouble. One note, though. It would be nice of Mazda to put the oil dipstick collar a little higher so it could be seen/found easily. They also should have designed the oil filler cap so that you don't have to remove the engine cover to top off the oil. It could actually come throught the cover and be flush so it would look nice - And maybe they could even figure out how to make it rotary shaped....

I also like the way my RS8 starts in the morning. It may be an idiosyncracy of my car, but it actually has a mild roughness to it that lasts maybe two seconds or less. It seems to sort of rumble to life and then it comes up on fast idle. I like it

 

When I have had som high rpm and take my foot off the throttle, I just looooove the sound of a turbine under the hood. It sounds just like an airplane.

:D :D WOW :D :D

 

when people step on the ankles of those in front of them whilst checking out the 8 as they cross the lights at the pedestrian crossing.

 

I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned, but the sunglasses compartment can be used as a "center" sun visor. A few days ago, I had the sun right between the passenger visor and the rear view mirror. I just opened the sunglasses compartment door, and it blocked the sun perfectly.

Also, most of us have noticed the "dancing water" in the rotor shaped groove of the hood on rainy days. One day, I had a small blob of water rolling around there and actually played with it for a bit. By braking, turning, and accelerating just right, I moved it forward, around the corner, and back up the other side a few times. Very satisfying.

 

ahh yes , the pedestians... must not forget the ones that are along the observational pathways...they're votes count to...

 

I like the fact that the seat-belt alarm is not annoyingly loud. I like to start the car then buckle up. In some cars, the alarm is darned annoying.

 

I just wanted to thank everyone that posted in this thread.

When I first took the 8 for a test drive all these little things came to mind from this thread. I switched between wanting an M roadster to an 8.

Thanks everyone

 

You can release your seatbelt upon arriving near your destination without being DINGed! repeatedly. Nice touch that I didn't notice until after taking an M-6 rental while my 8 was in for some TSBs. Also, though the rental was also a Mazda with apparently the same cruise controls, the one on the M-6 was noticeably more difficult to operate. Just slightly "off" from the 8, enough to cause carpel tunnel after some use. Use CC 90% of the time on the 8, instead of the pedal with never a twinge. Go figure!

 

The rubber floor mats have a honeycomb pattern, and in each cell is a -- wait for it -- little rotor design!