Ok, let's open up the forum to little things the '8 doesn't have or doesn't do that make it better.

In my '97 Honda Odyssey, when I had the front windows down, the airflow set up a certain resonance that pounded on the eardrums and was very unpleasant. To avoid this, I had to lower the rear passenger windows a few inches to change the airflow. It was very annoying, esp if the rear passengers didn't want their windows down.

This doesn't happen at all on the '8. No resonance of any sort with any window/sunroof configuration. Thank you, Mazda! By resonance, I don't just mean it was loud. It was a recurring pressure pulsing about every half-second. Obviously little or no engineering spent on Odyssey cabin airflow.

 

Actually, I have found that the RX-8 does suffer from this resonance effect if you open only one front window all the way. I discovered it when my wife wound up her window leaving me with the only one open. If she cracked hers just a tad it went away, but if she insisted on having hers all the way up, I had to crank mine up to avoid the thrumming.

 

how about:
in the trunk-
1 2 person tent
1 bag of tent poles and pegs
2 sleeping bags
2 sleeping pads
2 carry on size suit cases
1 picnic basket full of variuos pots pans and untensils etc
1 small backpack
2 gallons of water
a couple or 4 extra pairs of shoes
plus 2 quarts of oil and the tire inflation kit which are always there in the trunk.

1 cooler on a back seat, safely buckled in. and on the return trip a nice case of napa valley wine buckled in the other seat. plus me and my wife plus a couple of jackets, hat etc. not bad for a sports car on a week long,2000 mile journey through northern cali :D

 

The engine hood is wired to the Alarm system.

To test this out, open your hood.

Lock your car with your remote. No lights will blink.

Close the hood of your car.

Lights will blink.

This is also true for the trunk..

 

Time to bump this up again....

Not sure if this was mentioned before: the ignition is lit by a tiny spotlight.

For those AT owners:

The up & down shifters on the steering wheel are illuminated as well! The "down" button is lit from behind (like the rest of the buttons on the steering wheel). The "up" levers is lit by a tiny spotlight (just like the ignition & side view mirror controls).

 

Just noticed today for the first time: The passenger side door has no keyhole. Like you would ever use it anyway. This makes one less thing to break and gives a nice, clean look to the right door.

 

People think the car is worth way more than it is.

I was showing my RX-8 to some of my friends, and one them guessed that the price of the car was somewhere around $60,000. :D

 

Damn. you shoulda offered to sell it to him for $50K!:D Woulda saved him $10K.

 

God I love my car!!!!

The way it looks just sitting still with the wheels just slightly turned in the morning waiting for you to drive her.

The way she exits an off ramp at 70km's when everyone else does or can only go 35 rather.

The way the car looks as you just roll in 2nd gear doing 10 k\h and the huge *** mags are spinning slowly. Very intimidating.

And last but not least, this is my favorite. The fact that you can be driving normaly on the hignway and a punk in a modified civic,celica,rsx,protege,etc tries and wants to race with you, you can just simply look and laugh and drive off like he's a mere annoyance rather than a serious comptetior.

One more thing. If you have the windows up, closed the soonroof anf it's just you in your silent cockpit driving with the rest of the world, you feel as if you are in your own little world, your own little bubble. The chaos of traffic is irrelevant. I love that feeling.

 

For my driving position, when someone is close behind me their headlights fall directly behind the rear spoiler so I don't have to look at them. Won't work out that way for everyone, but works for me.

 

Just got back from a week in Destin, Florida. Nice place.

Anyway, that put ~ 1500 miles on my 8. I stumbled upon 2 winners for this thread during all that driving...

1) The sunroof opens all the way by just a momentary push of the button. You don't have to hold the button the whole time it's opening. Just push it momentarily & it will complete the whole opening automatically.

I dunno, am I just slow, or is this really something new? I never heard this from anywhere previously...never got around to really studying my manual cover-to-cover yet...

2) I thought they didn't carry this over from my MX-6 but they did & I'm so happy...just works a little differently. If you just want 1 wipe of the wipers, just flick the lever arm upwards. It will wipe only once. Yay! The MX-6 lever arm is pushed away from you for this feature & it didn't work on the 8 when I tried it, so I thought it wasn't there. They just changed it a little. It's a feature that I use a lot in my MX-6.

The trip went just great by the way. I love this car!

I lost count of all the conversations / waves / thumbs-up I got from all the admirers. Several ricers wanted me, I just smiled & waved --- not worth it.

 

Ugghhh!! You came here and didn't let us know? I hope you made it over the Navarre bridge for the breathtaking drive through the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

 

Um....ooops... I didn't know. Darn. And, no, didn't go that way either. Someone told us to go that way for nearly un-used beaches, but didn't really mention the "breathtaking" part of it. I wanted to for the first reason, but ran out of time. Next time I go, I'll be sure to let you know!

I saw a yellow RX-8 going the other way on 98, in kinda heavy traffic. It was getting dark, but I waved & couldn't see inside...

 

I found this out after the second day of having the car, I figured it (was/would become) common knowledge.

Classy feature, I love it.

 

Yeah, nice! I've onwed many cars w/ sunroofs & this is the first with this feature. My wife found it out. Real nice!

 

same goes for the driver window, however I do have to keep it up to roll it all the way up.

 

I love the noise it makes if you leave headlights on by mistake
I know its not a big deal but my civic didn't have that

 

Heard it by accident yesterday. I had to laugh, it's like a flatline sound telling you your battery will be dead soon. You would have to be brain dead to ignore that.

 

I never understood why car manufacturers don't make an auto up for windows. It'd be nice to not have to worry about getting the window up in 15 degree weather while juggling toll booth change or my super-giant-plus-extra-large slurpee from the drive-thru. Particularly when minimum wage doesn't attract people who can put the lid on a cup properly.

 

Some do. My VW has it.

 

If the sunroof is open, pressing either the tilt or slide button will close it.

 

People!!

Ya' making me wanna go out and get the car, like now!!! after reading all the cool ancillary in this car, I just cant take it any more :D

Every post I read just reduce the enigma of the car i have in my head. And the puzzle is falling into place...I'm not ready financially to get the car yet, and I want to wait until Mazda take care of some of the bugs hopefully in the '05 one.

Thank you all for sharing your joy, this car is awesome man!


Peace

--Pakab04

 

Thanks, Pakab04. This is a very gratifying note and is exactly the reason I started this thread in the first place. With all the doom and gloom on this site I wanted to highlight some of the good stuff.

 

8_wannabe - great idea for a thread!

I've had 5 RX-7's and in between each I tried a non-RX car I've always wanted. This time I was considering a Boxster instead of (or before) an RX-8. Not now. These postings reminded me of why I loved my RX's. Of why I'd take a drive for no reason. Of why I'd take a deep breath and think man this is a great car. The RX's didn't do any one thing the best, but everything worked so well together to please your senses. From these postings it sounds like the 8 is way above average at everything with a bit of BMW amenity, Mercedes ridigity and Audi finish added to it. I can't wait to get one (well, er, uh, as soon as I land a new job)

Paul
98 Millenia
99 Protege (wife's)

 

How about the HUGE horn area in the center of the steering wheel. I measured and it's about 2 acres. Easy for a friendly toot or an angry blast when some jerk fails to yield. I hate those small horn buttons some cars have on the steering wheel spokes; in a turn they're hard to find. No problem on the 8!

Also, darn near every control is easily found without looking. Obviously the wheel-mounted controls, but also fan speed for the a/c, power button on the stereo, etc. With a little familiarity in the cockpit, you'll never have to take your eyes of the road for anything. I like the layout better than I thought I would.