well if anything, the car engineering is moving towards what we call: Drive-by-wire.

drive-by-wire braking, thorttle control, power delivery, and i guess clutch? o.O.. i doubt it though, not much to clutch that requires an active control system.

 

did the steering wheel feel bigger and uglier?

what was your impression of that?

 

 

Drove '09 6spd with grand touring pkg. recently and....

1. Suspension (love it, seems tigher and quieter)
2. Gauges (lukewarm, tach. looks too busy)
3. Shifter, throws seem shorter (loved it)
4. Engine seemed more torquey...maybe my opinion (loved it)
5. Auto climate control (loved it)
6. Rain sensing wipers (love 'em)
7. Memory seats (loved 'em)
8. The seats themselves (ehh)
9. Radio cluster seems to sit higher (ehh) center speaker is gigantic!
10. Piano black on ashtray lid (loved it)
11. Steering wheel design (hate it)
12. Bluetooth (loved it)
13. Front headlamps (hate 'em)
14. Side Markers (love 'em)
15. Front grill (hate it)
16. Rear LED's (love 'em)
17. Rear tailamp design (hate it)
18. Lip Spoiler (love it)
19. Wheel design (hate it)

Would I buy an '09? NO! I much prefer the styling of my '04 with appearance package and front rear rotary accents. Although the '09's have some things that I wish my '04 had (i.e auto climate, bluetooth etc, I even like my pop up navi. screen over the new ones, but I like the fact that the new ones have a touch screen) Anyway, to me the new RX8's design as been waterd down and castrated.

There's my two nickles.

 

The steering wheel didnt "feel" different, but sure as hell looked way uglier. They basically took the wheel from the CX-7. One of the few comments the salesmen said about that was that users reviewed it better or something.... not sure who they asked or how much they users they questioned had been drinking at the time.

 

You didnt say much at all about the clutch, what where your impressions?

 

I've done a bit of research on that war, given my military ties and the fact I love war history, and frankily I think success in this case cant be viewed Objectively.

The problem is that this war had no real chance for success from the get go.

If the goal of the war was to rid Iraq of WMD's then sure the war was a success before it even started, in which case I would call that failure.

If the goal was to free the people of iraq and give them a democracy, well again how do you define freedom and in what context for each of the three factions there? How would you define democracy in this case? Remember the US is as far away from a democracy as possible, we are a republic, we dont vote on the issues, we vote for people that vote on the issues.

I would argue this war had no real objectives because there was no post war planning, and as such a war with no objectives lasts forever and has no success.

 

u guys are getting off-topic w/ the war chat.

 

The wheel in the '09 looks just like the one in my new MX-5. I didn't like it at first, but it has really grown on me. What I do not like though, is that they used a finer (less coarse?) leather on the steering wheel than before and it feels less grippy. Other than that, I like it.

 

The clutch seemed a smidgen lighter than mine, but I must tell you that the car I drove only had 30 miles on it. It seemed to me that the clutch engaged a tad quicker. The center tunnel also seemed a little lower than in my '04. Didn't Mazda inject foam or something into the suspension. To me the NVH levels are much improved because of that. I likey a lot.

 

No ppf?
OD

 

I live in Japan and picked up my '09 on Sunday. 'Tis a great machine but you know that already.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rjgoodchild/2583594571

 

Agree with some of your points. The US is a representative republic, not a true democracy. And we are far more diverse than Iraq.

But the objectives were stated and have been meet. We have already won. Saddam is gone along with the WMD programs he was pursuing (He was known to have used WMD's on at least two occasions). They have a constitution. They have voted.

It is not a matter of "can we win it". The concern now is what do the Iraqi people want with their opportunity. The success is already there. "Do they want to keep it" is the question I have for the Iraqi people. And they have a tough road ahead to include the meddling by Syria and Iran.

 

Thing is, while Saddam did use MWDs before, and even on his "own" people (I dont think anyone really considered the kurds Iraqi's, not even Saddam himself) Iraq was essentially a 3rd world country after the gulf war. America desimated that country then and afterwords because of all the Trade embargos and sanctions etc, the country remaind poor. As evidenced today by the US not finding MWDs Iraq was incapable of pursuing such programs after the gulf war.

Further you are correct Saddam is gone, we can check that box, however was a war really neccessary to accomplish that goal? I'm not sure Id want to call something uneccessary successful.

Last, winning Iraq their "freedom" is alot more complicated than them just having a consitution and them voting. Plenty of countries have "votes" that mean nothing. Freedom should not be defined by such narrow terms, nor should it be defined in such a short time span. The war can not be considered a success in this regard until Iraq has had LASTING freedom, i.e. the country can stand on its own without aid and continues down the path of democracy (or whatever we call it these days) Would you think America was a free country if we had a police force from another nation patrolling our streets?

 

so how bout that 09

 

Ha,...ok enough of the political sidetrack. As far as Iraq time will tell. We've both stated our views and we could easily continue to do so. I wish we could meet in person and talk about this; it would be interesting. Something of a fan of military history and veteran myself.

In the interest of the OP's comments:


well,...I cant comment. I need to see one in person/drive it first.

This is a "feel" car. Curious how the new one feels.

 

I dont like talking in person Harder to edit what you say, cant go back in time yet :P Plus its easier to construct an arguement on the fly while you type it.

Def agree that the RX8 is a feel car, I still contend the clutch "feels" different Never heard of clutches feeling different after they are broken in, but to be honest I have never had the chance to drive a new standard vehicle. When your learnng on farm equipment it tends to be older than you :P

 

OK so this is a bit of thread necro... but I feel vindicated.

There was a lot of bitching about how I described the new clutch because of the wording I choose. Frankly, because of all the bickering I even checked the tech guide (dont recall the exact name of the document) but dont remember being able to find anything about the clucth or the transmissions.

In any case, this was described by a car reviewer:

A quick note about those pedals too; although the brake and gas operate as with any other vehicle, the clutch fitted to the RX8 R3 is easily the quickest I’ve ever operated. Engaging within the first millimetre of travel, there’s barely any dead zone, and pedal’s stroke is quite short before it abruptly rams into the floorboard. Yet another small feature that lends an even fiercer air of precision and aggressiveness, it took some getting used to, but quickly won me over with its amazingly smooth engagement. While most performance vehicles suffer under huge clutches that can be beastly difficult to modulate as a result of their requirement to take tons of abuse and hold massive torque figures at bay, the RX8’s modest power output means the clutch can be as forgiving as that fitted to a Toyota Corolla!

http://www.carguideweb.com/articles/3555/

If anything this backs up what I said about the clutch all along.