RX927

iTrader: (1)

Im 17 and yes i will admit i was part of the "pedal to the medal" boy racers I started out with a $700 stealth TT, got full of my self pushed it too far crashed it etc... ( sold it for a profit). I have my 04 MT 8 and i thank god i took it over the typical choices ( evo sti supra rx7). But i do believe if the responsible younger crowd works on the rotary now by the time we fall into the "older crowd" the contributions we can make can make to improvement are endless. I still recommend the younger crowd to at least start off with something basic, owning a civic at 17 does not make you less of a man.

AmKorp

Who are any of you to say that young people should or should not buy or drive this car?

It's not like you are in some elitist club of only 500 members. This car is a mazda and it always will be a mazda, don't think any of you who own an 8 is driving a ferrari or lambo, because you're not. Just because its a "sports" car and looks "exotic" don't think us current owners can look down on or govern who buys or drives this car.

I am 21 years old and I just PURCHASED a 2007 RX-8, not because I want to look cool or go fast, but because I appreciate the technology and inginuity that goes into making this car what it is.

You can't stop younger kids from buying this car, especially when the price drops, why do you think the price is dropping so hard on these vehicles? Because this car is a peice of crap to anyone except the few who appreciate it.

The sad reality is that when the price does drop to the level when teenagers and "younger" people can afford to buy it, it will become nothing more than an exotic looking civic, people will buy ebay bolt on "enhancements", add 25 foot aluminum wings and put 23" chorme spinners after flaring the wheel wells with a baseball bat. Hell, people on this forum who are "older" are already doing that ****!

So get off your high horses everyone and get ready for the impending battle that is to be: Us TRUE Mazda RX 8 enthusiasts vs. the Pimp my car with tv screens and spinners horde!!!


AMKORP

Canadiann

As I would most definetly be considered a young driver, I dont believe many of you have to worry about people buying into 8's. Mainly because as posted earlier several times, kids these days want something that they know goes fast and costs next to nothing. I dont know if this is just my area or what, but a lot of people are into the Civic's, Evo's, and all the typical fast and furious cars. The majority of kids/students dont have the type of money to pay for this kind of car and most of their parents wouldnt buy it for them either, especially at the age they are. And statistically, Young Drivers (17-21) have the most reported accidents.

eforer

Come to think of it, your 100% right on that one. My perception of the prelude has changed alot since its become part of the "honda tuning" scene. Exactly what many on this thread fear will become of the 8.

CarAndDriver

Kids today seem to have much more disposable income than they used to...

Krankor

Admit it. You really did fart in their face.

Razz1

I wish people kept their 8's longer.

rovic

correction credit is much looser than it used to be...

It doesn't bother me if younger people get 8's. We live in a free economy. If they can afford it than by all means get one. While the accident rate increase for the 8 will rise, it's a pretty safe car. Rather have a youngster driving an 8 than a SUV.

Besides it's widely known you don't get the 8 to go fast, it's more of a style thang. BTW I'm 32. In case the youngsters are listening, I'd consider a new base miata before the 8. Ahh my first car bought with my own moolah. If I didn't need the back seat for my kid, I'd trade in and get a hardtop grandtouring miata.

refugeefrompistons

Same reason why I'm looking at this car. I'm in high school, I am kinda of a boy racer but somewhat more reasonable. I am actually going to buy new... so this thread really does not apply to me but when I've been saving up money for quite a while for a good car, this was the car that I chose, even though I can afford a IS-350 or 335i or mustang or evo. But rotary heads are one of a kind, rumors of unreliability (yea read bs) n crazy modders severely limits who is going to buy this car, no matter the price.

Chrisbert

I'm pretty sure this is a contributing factor to the re-rating of my 8 by my insurance company to a higher symbol.

otakurx

I bought mine 2 months before I turned 23, the car is cleaner then when I bought it. I think it depends on the person. I grew up around 400-500hp vettes and other vehicles so I have a kind of respect for a high performance car.

9291150

In my line of work, I must have facilitated a dozen focus groups with the <25 / Gen. Y crowd and I agree that they tend to think in absolutes – no grey area. That’s really nothing new, in my youth I was certain that I was all about my 455ci. muscle car, then I was certain that my 1900 pound hot-hatch that replaced it was it, and on it went. But even though their conviction is probably stronger than any previous generation, their absolutes remain in a constant state of flux, most wouldn’t admit it but they really have no clue want they want.

Not to disrespect the <25 crowd, but IMO they tend to believe they are much more informed and knowledgeable than any previous generation, yet often don’t truly realize that the sources of information they rely most on are lacking i.e. internet is a fool’s university, word of mouth is a pauper’s counsel, etc. I don’t know of any segment more consumed by consumerism, making choices outside of their own head more often than not.

Rootski

iTrader: (1)

I agree with Ike. (Whoa, never thought I'd say that... )

I got my 8 in my last semester of high school (I was able to afford it due to free college). All my friends loved how it looked, one of my gear-head buddies begged me for a chance to drive it, and it got compliments all around school. Except for many of the kids who fancied themselves "tuners" (although many of them didn't own cars...) would constantly come up and tell me how their friends' civics, S2000's, or SRT-4's could take me. This one guy would always say stuff to me like "We topped my friend's S out at 152 yesterday" or "The wing on my buddy's civic really helps when we're doing 120 on hilly roads" (actual quote) which would always get a big shrug from me.

The 8 is the darling of people who don't know much about cars, because it looks spectacular and far more expensive than it is. These people comprise the younger demographic that will buy the car and don't know or care anything about it, like the girl in the school near mine who's got a white auto because she wanted a pretty car. But the ricer crowd will stick with their civics, tiburons, and eclipses. After all, they'd rather buy slower, cheaper cars with lots of parts for them to upgrade and actually generate horsepower rather than a car like the 8 that has most of the power rung out of it already, save for FI. That leaves us, who truly understand and appreciate the car (and therefore bash it all the time ).

toxin440

this thread makes me realize that when I sell my RX8 in about a year towards the new M3 or GT-R I will get nothing for it since it will most likely have 50K miles on it. But it does have some rather sweet mods. flywheel, clutch, MS Suspension, RB Exhaust, RP SuperCat, blah blah


Sad to think the car I paid 30K for is only worth 1/2 that no more then 2 years later. Equates to (without mods and stuff) to be about 20/bucks a day to have an RX8 (assuming I get 1/2 my money back at sale)

Herblenny

Interesting thread.. And quite a few youngins jumping in to put their 2 cents in... so, I guess i should put mine..

I've been around rotary scene pretty heavily for past 4 years. I been organizing the DGRR for past 3yrs and state wide rotary car clubs for about 4yrs. I don't want to say all teens are bad drivers or less of an enthusiasts than the adults.. Because I've seen some teens really wanting to learn as some adults just wanting to own. But regarding having responsibilities and driving, you just can't compensate experience for what you think you know about driving. Hence why insurance for 16-18 year olds are far more higher than those who are 28 and over. But there are exceptions.. and I'm sure those of you think you are that exception.

Another thing I don't understand is how some 18 year old buys a 20+K car in cash and say they bought the car on their own and that they are also paying for insurance and gas. When I was 18, I dreamt of owning a fast sports car.. I had 2 jobs and I could bare save enough money to pay for insurance and gas on the car that my parents bought me (1979 Chevy Malabu) and goto school.
I don't think some of you 18 year old know how much work it takes to save up 20K.. Most people in this country are in debt and most people don't have 20K saved up in their bank accounts. Just because you bought it with your own money doesn't mean you know the meaning of being responsible. Us adults have mortgage, health insurance, retirement, family, job security, car payments(which I have none), etc etc to worry about.. Until you are in that situation, you really don't know the meaning of being responsible... But don't get me wrong, If you did save up 15-20K to buy an 8, then you are far better than most kids I've met. At least you know the meaning of saving up instead of asking your parents to buy you because your friends parents bought your friend a brand new car... Which I've seen many many many times.

corners

I don't really care, its not like kids buying used cars makes them more common on the road. I didn't buy mine for exclusivity anyway, when I want to be unique I drive my 1950 pickup truck.

I plan to keep mine until I'm an old man so I don't really care what its worth used anyway.

The '04 CR-V I bought for my wife has depreciated about the same amount as the '04 RX-8 has anyway, so I don't know why so many people complain about it.

laythor

One thing to keep in mind for the people wondering where a teenager get's 20k from... most teenagers lie.

When a teen tells someone "i saved up 20k for my car" they mean is "My grandparents gave me 5k, my dad gave me 10, my mom snuck me another 45 hundred and I ponied up the last 500."

I'm not knocking any of the kids who were able to afford the 8. I wish I had the money at that age to spend on a toy. If you're driving an RX8 you don't need to justify yourself to anyone, just enjoy your ride.


My first car was a 4 year old mini van I bought of a guy in exchange for teaching him how to fly model planes. Nothing says "i have no girlfriend" like driving to highschool in a mini van.

Rootski

iTrader: (1)

Or flying model planes.

eforer

Look at it this way, teens buy used rx8s, tokyo drift there way to a FGR (f'ing gaurd rail) and yard sale the car. Intact non-salvage cars become more scarce. As someone said before, its not like the car will become any more common place even if the demographic of owners changes a bit.

RufusVonStorm

For what its worth: Thinking back to what I was like at 18, if I had been given an 8 I probably would have driven it up a tree. I'm 25 now

hornbm

iTrader: (1)

its not all that bad. Im 21, ive had 2 fb's and I have a turbo FC, and finally i can have a rx8 because its remotely affordable. Been a rotorhead since I started driving, all I want is something not... 20 years old.

chickenwafer

iTrader: (9)

I think as '04 RX8's become more and more cheaper (even tho they are still around $17K Plus around here) more and more young people will be attracted to the car. You have no idea how many kids and young people I have compliment me on my 8. I just started a new job the other day, and everyone in the office complimented my car (most are over 28 years old, though). The only guy who didn't like it drives an (drum roll please!) SRT-4!!! Go figure. He's 24, BTW.
The main benifit is this- say the 8 attracts a younger generation to the car because of the lower prices. A big influx of people into modding could flood the RX-8 market, forcing companies to create more parts for a little cheaper. I know this would inveitably create some real crappy aftermarket pieces because they're inexpensive to purchase, but I think more FI options would be realized and more custom parts for less would come out. This would force companies that are currently selling nitche products for the 8 to lower prices because they now have serious competition, so qualitly parts could be had for less.
You can look at the Honda S2000 market and see what happened to that car. When the S2000 first came out, it was epensive and rather rare. No "kid" owned one. Now, first and second year S2000's have fallen under that magical $15k threshold and are attracting more younger buyers in the used car marketplace. In turn, younger buyers are purchasing the S2000 and modding them even more. GReddy recently released a whole slue of bolt-on parts for the S2K because of this, and Comptech is lowering prices on parts (among other performance part companies). So the S2K is benifiting as a whole because of cheaper, higher-qualitly parts being offered, but the "older" crowd may frown upon this because they think the younger drivers will tarnish the reputation of the S2000 and make their rates go up.

And just to breifly touch on insurance rates- younger drivers are more of a risk (i.e. money loss to insurance companies) than older drivers, that is very true. The rate at which younger drivers get into any kind of accident over more experienced drivers is around 1 to 3 (3 young people accidents to every 1 older person accident).
BUT, your insurance rates won't change a penny (unless you do something) just because a kid 10 years younger than you wrecks his RX-8. Insurance companies get the pricing from some key variables including; age bracket, car you drive, married/kids, location where live, and driving record.
Let's just say you are 32 years old and drive an RX8, you are married with 2 kids, and have had a clean record for 5 years now. Your insurance is rather cheap. Some 19 year kid in your area buys an RX8, isn't married and has no kids, and has already totalled one car before. He totals his 8 within a week. Your insurance won't change because you aren't even close to the age group as this kid- you are 13 years his elder. Insurance companies group age brackets- like 16-18, 18-20, 21-24, 25-29, 30-34, and so on. That's why your insurance drops drastically when you chane 18 (if you're paying it you would know), then again when you change 21 (not by much), but then it drops a pretty good amount when you turn 25, because you are now officially entering the "experienced" driver age bracket.

I know all this, BTW, because a guy at my new job used to work for State Farm, and I talked with him at length about this last week. It was actually really interesting to find out how insurance companies get their prices.

Dave

Wizerud

I'd like to think the RX8 will attract some of the more responsible drivers in the younger crowd. The ones who research their vehicles a lot before they buy and consider themselves more as driving enthusiasts rather than your typical boy racers. Sure there are always exceptions but if you asked the 16-24 crowd what car under $20k they would like to own I would bet the RX8 wouldn't even be in the Top 20 most popular choices.

So really, the make-up of the 16-25 crowd would probably be fairly similar to the RX8 crowd in general. Just people who enjoy the concept of driving typically more than others. Unfortunately it's very very difficult for a lot of young people (and older people too) to get past the hp/torque numbers. What was the first stat that you looked at when you first heard about or started researching the 8?

My insurance rates went up $4 a month from my "old" 2006 Mazda 3

Rhawb

22 and not even so much as a ticket in my 8.

Wizerud got it right though. I get a lot of HP/TQ questions and concerns from people in my age group that don't really understand that there's more to driving than drag racing. I, along with most of my friends, enjoy driving for driving's sake and GT racing, so we really understand what this car's all about. More power would be nice, but I'll gladly take the awesome balance and driving feel of this car over a big, beefy engine.

dontfeedthenerd

I dunno if the 8 will ever turn into a very popular car for my age bracket. (I'm 22)

I just bought a new 07, paid my own way after saving up for it all 4 years in college. I knew it was the car I wanted. I've known ever since I saw that concept put out all those years ago.

When I told my friends about my purchase, the initial reaction was usually, "Duuude bra buy an Evo" or "Duuuuude isn't that the car with the wiener engine?"

My age bracket tends to look at cars from a couple points of view.

a) Does it look sexy?
Yea the 8 is sexy, so I think it passes this test.

b) Did it kick *** in Fast and the Furious?
Heh.....

c) Can it beat Car X in the quarter mile?
The 8 ain't a drag race car.

d) The number of horsies under the hood, or the size of the engine.
Nobody wants to hear about the Wankle or a 1.3L displacement. They want a V6, a V8...