Obligatory new car review...
 

OK, I've decided to take a quick break and type up some comments on the car. For reference, I got a 6MT Green Touring package, no other options. Only Nordic Green in San Diego county, and I believe the only one that has been delivered so far. Let's see...

Manual Transmission - about 9/10. It's not quite as effortlessly smooth as a Honda, but easier than most I've driven. t's wierd, I'm not that concerned about changing gears in most traffic scenarios because 2nd gear is so huge (about 15mph to 50mph easily) that I can stay there pretty much whenever I need to. I do agree that the 6th gear probably won't be used most of the time, it's pretty close to 5th until you get over ~70mph. But I'm glad to have it, it provides much better gas mileage on long trips. I could comfortably do most of my driving in 2nd and 3rd gears, although I don't think I would want to go on a long trip at that. Considering how close 4->5 and 5-> 6 are, they probably could have cut out 4th gear, it seems most useless - I can easily jump 3 -> 5 without missing too much vs 3->4->5.

Engine - I think that the 0-60 numbers are actually a bit misleading. Most of the time the car drives like it should get a FASTER rating. I say most of the time because under ~15mph, it drives like my old Pontiac 6000 with only two cylinders firing (AKA like cr@p). I bet if you drew a graph of the acceleration at each speed you'd see significantly less at the very bottom end compared with almost all other cars. It's almost like 1st gear's ratio is too low. That's why the 5-60 time was so bad, because at 5mph the engine's speed is actually BELOW IDLE. Idle is around 1000 rpm, 5mph was around 700 or so. BUT, if you get it up around 2500 (yeah, only 2500) it drives like a champ. I put it in 6th gear going 45mph UP A HILL and was able to accelerate slowly, shifted to 3rd and took off. There's no apparent huge jump in power at the 3rd port opening, it's a steady increase all the way. My wife will appreciate that, the VTEC popping open on the Lude always drove her crazy. It's a paradox, because the engine feels like it winds up so quickly, but at the same time feels like you can keep going forever because it goes up so high in the RPMs. Finally, in reference to whoever took a test drive and hit 100 before they realized what's what - I'm right there with ya. I wanted to pass a Lexus on the onramp, and before I realized it I was about 1/4 mile away before she had even hit the freeway, and I was at 80 in 3rd gear.

Ride - Smooth. I drove over a variety of pavements and most things felt like a hum instead of a rattle. Corners like it's on rails.

Seats - I have the standard seats (touring package, cloth) and they are great. They're really comfortable, sticky at the thighs to prevent sliding. There's plenty of support at the lumbar, and the side bolsters are like walls. Any firmer they would be painful if you accidentally sit on them, but as is they're just right. Good range of heights.

Radio - easy to use. Great sound quality to me - bass reproduces without adding any mud at high volumes, high end is aimed right at my head.

View of the road - eeks, problem here. Definite blind spots that you just can't get rid of because of the huge C pillar and the angle of the outside mirrors - they just don't cover enough of the road to get all of the area that the pillar blocks. I'm going to have to be careful here...

Moonroof - Works with switches to automatically tilt or open. It's funny, at one position with it partially opened I really feel wind directed DOWNWARD, it adds a nice extra breeze if I'm looking for that. The glass seems slightly shaped to conform to the roofline, which is a nice touch to maintain the shape of the car.

Dealership - John Hine Mazda. They were all friendly, easy process because of the pre-agreed-upon price. Ted Gawle (the internet manager) kept a close eye on the car to make sure nobody drove it, he showed me the invoice from the truck to prove that it was driven less than 0.2 miles for them to wash it down and do PDI. They were able to give me the front two teeth instead of mounting the bracket after signing a waiver, and told me they would install it for free after my fix-it ticket. They also gave me the first oil change for free (upped it to three years if you get the extended service contract). Ted told me that he had to remind Mr. Hine himself that this was a customer's car and not to drive it, and based on the reaction from everybody at the dealership I believe it. More on that in a second.

Item most likely to break first - the rear seat cupholder. I leaned on the center console to get something from the footwell on the other side and I could swear I felt that cheap plastic bend before it started swinging down. It seems to be one of the few really cheap pieces in the car.

Public - awesome reaction. If you remember the car commercial from a few years back when the people in the car say "lots of traffic today" and it cuts the freeway and it's empty except for other motorists surrounding that car to get a better view, that's what it was like. I drove past someone driving a 2nd gen RX-7 and they honked and waved. I could see other drivers on the freeway jockeying to get behind or beside me to check out the car (almost made me miss my exit from the person on my right looking at it). It seems like every person at the dealership came out to congratulate me when I walked over to it (and ask to sit in it) and they all came up to me again to ask how it was after the test drive. Be prepared to get some attention. Maybe not as much as the first MINI owners, but enough.

Whoops, my wife is home, time to show off the car. Later dudes!

Edit: I was showing my wife the engine (not that she really cares, but at least she humors me) and I noticed a little sticker in the Engine compartment on the top right corner of the hood. It says "port campaign" and has three fields: Rework #, Port Code, and Date. I don't suppose any of the super-sleuths with inside info would care to investigate whether this was from installing the port-side options, or whether it was related to the port-side delay?

Great review... nice and easy to read. Congrats on the car.

Strider-

Thanks for the review!! Have fun!:D

Excellent review. Thanks.

A winner every time!

Good report. Keep 'em coming please!

What's your thoughts on the Nordic Green?

great review.
congrats!

cant wait to get mine, hopefully tomorow!
________
Drug rehab forum

Congrats on the great car and thanks for the excellent review.

The commercial, by the way, was a staples commercial (I think).:)

Where are you?!!!! I wanna see..I wanna see...still waiting for mine at El Cajon Mazda....Pleeeeeze?

I actually ordered a bunch of stuff (goodies) from Hine that I have to pick up tomorrow.

See ya,
norats

Pics DD.. we need pics.. not for proof, cuz I believe you! But I wanna put a face to the name.. hehe.. :D

I agree with your View of the Road part.. it will take some getting used to.

Good Review
 

It's good to see that at least this owner has about the same impressions we did about the 8 in our reviews. Thanks for sharing, we were curious what the actual owners would say when they got their cars.

-Bern
http://rotarynews.com

I agree with Rx-nut we need some PICS!!! i reallly wanna see some more pics of that green!! hehe

LOL that was it, same principle though.

It's REALLY dark. In the shade it almost looks black. But in the sun it shines with a few different colors of flecks, besides the green tint.

Unfortunately, our only camera is a broken 35mm. John Hine took some so I'll be getting copies of those, but they're not all that high-tech so I doubt they'll be digital (so I'll have to scan). I'm going to visit my uncle this weekend who is a professional photographer with a digital camera, I'll ask him to take a few pictures. I'll try to get some in the sun so you can see coloring.

LOL living in Rancho Penasquitos, working in La Jolla, but I'm not staying in one place too long. I've already put on almost 100 miles. I try to vary RPMs, mainly by changing gear and passing people. ;)

We'll have to set up a meet soon, I want to see all the other colors (especially blue, that was my second choice).

Hehehe, by the way, talk about people wanting to see the car! I went to dinner, and when I came back there was a big oily spot on the window from where someone was trying to see into the car and bumped his head.

Well, we were finally able to pick up our car in Pensacola, Florida today at about 6PM CDT. It is winning blue and absolutely gorgeous. It had 3 miles on it when we picked it up from the dealership. Since I, being the good wife, just got to ride in this awesome car, and have yet to drive it, I will leave the review up to my better half.

Only 3 RX-8s arrived in the Northwest Florida Panhandle today, 1 in Panama City and 2 in Pensacola. Since they were all preorders, they are not available and have already been picked up by anxious owners.

I have taken several pictures with my digital camera, but can't figure out how to post them on the forum. Oh well, I am losing valuable car riding time!

El YUCKO!! MUCHO NASTEE-O!!



RX8-U-UP, congrats!!! Blue? Need much reviews from the both of you's with pic's!!! Start your own thread!!! We'll be waiting...

All i can say is AWESOME!! heh im excited

Congratulations! So I guess Quality Imports didn't get ANY cars on the first boat. Too bad for them. Dezi must be rattled. Do your rear windows have any kind of tint to them, or are they clear? I'll be joining you all next. You all and ChuckClifford got blue - what color was the 3rd? My velocity red will be here on the next boat. See you on the road.:D

DisneyDestroyer, how does the RX-8 compare to the Prelude in general? Did you have any suspension mods on the Prelude? How would you compare the handling stock to stock?
Congrats on the car! :)

the port sticker was probably just for the pcm update to conform to usa epa standards. i wuldnt worry about it.

My Lude was a totally stock 5th gen regular (not SH). The 8 definitely handles better. I was able to take the same curves on the freeway at higher speeds under tighter track, AND with better acceleration out of the curve.

Hmmm, other comparisons to my Lude. Road noise is similar. The clutch is very similar in feel / action, although the engine is much more affected by the clutch - don't know if that's good or bad. There are fewer places to put stuff, such as no good place for the case for the current CD. But the trunk is better - similar in size front-to-back and left-to-right, but higher top-to-bottom including a special well to fit tall bags directly in front that I had never seen in any previous pictures - if you've seen the movies from the Best MOTORing thread (here)with the Japanese guys doing all sorts of testing and comparisons, it's the reason they can fit the piece of luggage so much better, almost like it was designed for that test. The back seat legroom is slightly better, but ingress/egress is much easier. The shifter is just as light to move to neutral, but it's a bit more resistance to get it into a gear - but that could just be a new transmission, I got my Lude with ~12k miles so I don't know what it felt like fresh.

That's about all I can think of for the comparison.

DisnetDestroyer, good real world review info, esp. about the blind spot, public reaction, good news about engine power and flexibility (a BIG relief!). But a ?, w/no front plate, do you think you'll get a warning just go fix it from the cops, or a real $$ ticket? How strict are they in CA bout these things?

Congrats and have fun!

This depends on where you are. Many areas in CA now have red light cameras which detect if you enter an intersection after the light has turned red and if so take a picture of your car and mail you a ticket. Many municipalities also have photo radar which works much the same way.

These communities obviously also have a vested interest in making sure you have a front plate, and will not only fine you but require you to install a front plate (a "fix-it" ticket.)

Palo Alto, CA is one city where the parking enforcement officers will ticket no front plate vehicles while checking meters and for street parking time violators. If I remember L.A. also is beginning to crack down on this as well...

The 3rd Gen RX-7 also has large blind spots (caused mostly by credit card sized rear-view mirrors) but I wouldn't change a thing. You'll get used to it. :D

I've heard that people are cracking down, but I've also been driving in CA for the last 10 years and never had a front license plate (including the Lude) and never had even a warning, despite many "discussions" with various law enforcement representatives.

Nonetheless, usually it's up to the judge whether he wants to fine you in addition to fixing the problem, or whether the fix is sufficient. Hint: if you are allowed to go to night court for your ticket, do that. The judges there normally handle serious criminal cases, they really don't give a rat's patootie about whether you have a front licence plate or not. You can't do that in all areas, but if you can it's worth your while.

I owned a 5th gen SH Lude as well and I agree with DisneyDestroyer. The 8 handles much better. Obviously the 8 doesn’t have the torque understeer experienced in the fwd Lude (imo, the ATTS feature in the Lude was not very effective). I just couldn’t thrust out of curves with the Lude the way the 8 does. The 8 also launches cleaner and quicker than the Lude, again probably b/c of the rwd in the 8. The Lude did have a nice strong VTEC pull starting at ~5500 rpm to redline of 7400, but the 8 just seems like it spins with a linear power feel from 5000 to 9000 rpm.

Non-performance comparisons, I’d have to say the Lude was primitive with amenities; a radio, AC, and power windows/mirrors to name it all. The 8 has luxury like amenities to choose from (which makes my daily driving even more enjoyable!). The rear seats in the Lude was serviceable at most, equivalent to sitting on a curb with your toes pinched by the front seat; the 8’s rear seats are not only serviceable, but actually comfortable for short rides.

By in large, I love both cars. If the 8’s reliability is anything close to the Lude’s then I would say it’s the perfect daily driving sports car for <$30k!