New Owner
 

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Hey guys. I got this car about a month ago so I just wanted to introduce myself since I'll be posting on here more now. It's a 2005 with a manual transmission. I bought it with almost 52k miles and just got 52k about a week ago. It does have white racing stripes that the previous owner put on but it looks better in person because it has white wheels. I know a lot of other car forums bash on young kids for having sports cars so I figured I'd just let everyone know I am 17, about to finish my junior year, and my parents did buy this car for me for having good grades (cumulative GPA 4.2) and not getting into trouble. So i just wanted to introduce myself and thanks in advance for any help you guys can give me :)

Congrats on the new ride! And congrats on the grades, you should be very proud.
Be sure to take care of it well... Start by reading the stickies at the top of the forum.

Now go prove everyone wrong and don't kill yourself in it. :)

Welcome!

Is that an all authentic Mazdaspeed kit?

Thanks for the welcomes :)

Yes it is. It has the mazdaspeed front bumper, side skirts, rear bumper, and spoiler.

So, what's the whole story... Did you know your parents were going to buy it for you? Did you pick it out, or did they? Why did you (or they) choose an RX-8?

congrads on the 4.2! nice rx8

It's a pretty long story but here it goes. I got my license a little over a year ago but I had been looking at cars since my freshman year when i was 15. I didn't exactly know when I was going to get a car but i knew my parents were going to buy it for me. At first they said when i got my license but it got pushed back until spring of this year. They told me they wanted to spend about $10000 on a car but they said if we found a good car they would not mind paying up to about $14000. At first when I did not know much about cars I was looking at a tc because it just seemed like a good basic car but as I learned more about cars the tc became less appealing and more people got them so I didn't like it as much. Then I started looking at mustangs and the lancer gts and the 350z. I had started looking at the RX8 a few months ago but I was not really interested because at first the rotary engine seemed too unreliable but as I did more research I realized that it just required more maintenance and attention. So like 3 months ago my mom and I started looking at all the used cars I mentioned and about a month ago my mom called me at school and said there was an RX8 at a dealership near us. I looked at pictures of it online and it looked really ugly but I drove by the dealership to drop off my prom tux and they had it sitting out front and I loved it so my mom and grandpa and I went to talk to the dealer. It had been one of the dealer's car but he had a kid and had to sell it so it had been moving around dealerships for almost 2 years. The sticker price was $13000 and the KBB was almost $14000 and we got it for $11000. It still has a warranty on the engine for another 3 years or until 100k miles. So that's the story and I couldn't be happier with this car :)

And i just got a job so I'm paying for gas and my parents take a portion of my paycheck depending on how much it is to pay for insurance and car payments.

Where in Cali?

Welcome to the club

^+1, the socal 8s are pretty active

looks like an authentic mazdaspeed kit, GLWSSSSS. by the way got my 8 at 17, now almost 19.

Congrats! Stripes look good with that color.

What a nice treat. Nothing wrong with parents recognizing the hard work of their children.

You'll find some people on the forum that have strong opinions about young people driving sports cars. Just stay open to hear people's perspectives whatever those may be. You sound like a responsible young person. But truth is, that's not always the case for many people your age.

The car came with the Mazdaspeed body kit. That alone has saved you some $$$. As you'll quickly find out, many people on the forum really like that kit - especially the front bumper. The kit definitely makes the car look awesome.

Personally, I do not like that sort of stripe on any car. But I see your point that in person it might look better because of the white wheels.

Enjoy!!

Not usually a SS stripe fan, though i do like it on Vipers. And apparently I now like it on RX8s, cause I think your car is HAWT!

As far as sports cars and first time owners go, I have to say that I think the RX8 is a great choice. The lower torque and pretty good traction control make it much less likely of a rear wheel spinout (compared to something like a Z), and the required additional maintenance (which IMHO are the kinds of things you would do in any car, you just pay for it dearly if you get lazy with an 8) give the first time driver a lesson in taking care of their car.

Congrats! Good job on your grades, good job Mom and Dad on a fine vehicle selection. Stay alive and have fun!

I hope to do something similar for my son (in 12-14 years :)).

Reading the stickies is a good start. For the young drivers: (a) leave the traction control on. it's unobstrusive even for sporty driving, and will save your butt someday. (b) this car is very unforgiving of distracted driving. it goes where it's told to go right now whether you intended to do so, or were reaching for your iPhone.

haha, I almost mistook it for a mustang because of the stripes XD Are you in love yet?

Thanks for all the welcomes guy. I live in Santa Clarita, near Six Flags Magic Mountain for those of you who know where that is. Yes I'm already in love with this car. Like I said before, I can't think of any car I'd be happier with unless it was a supercar. A lot of people have gotten it confused because of the stripes though. I had a girl at my school think it was a camaro and another girl think it was a viper and I've had so many people ask if it was a v6 and get so confused when i tell them it's a rotary.

If you're not a fan of stripe, it may be a vinyl and can be removed.

But congrats on the 8! that kit is rare so be careful! :)

Congrats on the car, man

Well done on the high GPA, keep it up ;)

stripe removal is up too you, keep in mind depending on how long it has been on you could get fade marks. Back in the day my first car was a grand am GT, and i put a tribal design down the side (yes, i was the high-school generation when the first fast and furious came out back in 2001). anyway, a few years after that trend faded i decided to take it off, needless to say you could faintly see the design due to the paint around it fading. When i washed it up, you could notice it more... IMO it looked badass then, like a custom paint job that didn't cost anything, lol.

so just keep that in mind if you remove the stripes, you might have two dark red lines down the middle since they didn't fade while the rest of the car did due to sun light.

just my two cents.

oh.. and premix.

the stripes are painted on so i can't remove them but I've started liking them more and more because it makes it look unique and it's kind of grown on me haha. Yeah I've read about pre mixing so I'm gonna look through the oil threads and read more about it.

Congrats dude and welcome to the addition!!

Normally I'd say I'm not a fan of the stripes, but they look pretty good with the white wheels. Looks like a great buy, and congratulations! Can you post some more pics from different angles? Love that MazdaSpeed kit. Be safe and take care of her!

Congrats man, welcome to the club. I am not a fan of the stripes but it's a great start for a new ride.

Cool racing stripes, and welcome.