Pics and my test drive
 

Went to the dealer today with three goals in mind:
1) Test Drive
2) See Lightning Yellow
3) See the cloth

Mission accomplished. First, the test drive. Wow, what a blast!!! The handling and steering feel is just right. A meaty steering wheel, very similar feel to the FD RX-7, quick and responsive. Car is very balanced and feels so nimble. It's also planted with minimal body roll. I couldn't really rev it the way I wanted (as the car wasn't broken in), power did feel a little lacking in lower revs, but once past 4K the oomph factor is there. The wirrrrr of the rotary and exhaust note is great!

Lighting Yellow. I've been torn between velocity red and lighting yellow. I've now seen both in person, and I'm still torn. Love 'em both. The pics I've included are a pretty good representation of the yellow. But it was indoors under the lights, it might look different outdoors. But I'm sold on the yellow. Problem is I love the red too.

It's settled. I'm getting the cloth. It has the suede feel of my old RX-7 R1 package and gives the car a two tone black/grey look. Interior quality is top notch, way better than the FD. I'm very satisfied with just about every aspect of the car.

Oh man, I want one right now! I had told myself to wait a year, as I'm always very skeptical of 1st year new model runs, especially after the problems I had with my 3rd gen '93 RX-7. But now I don't know if I can wait...

Rear 3/4 view

Front

WOW, the yellow looks even better in untouched-up pictures...

thanks for the info :)

i wanna test drive that car soo badly before i decide to get it....they arent in dealers yet....Ill have to wait till next week...:confused:

Man am I glad I switched to yellow even if it is going to cost me a month delay.

The lighting used in that dealership is very warm and really far from Daylight. It is probably ~3000K in color temperature.

The front of the car is being lit mainly by the natural daylight coming in from the window of the dealership and should be a better estimate of the color of the car.

-Mr. Wigggles

I like the Titanium one outside the dealership better!

Too lemon yellow for me. I wanted the more mustard yellow, like the one on the cover of the rotary shaped cd rom from a year ago.

But I'm sure it's exactly what you wanted. Congrats! :)

The Titanium one is the RX-8 I test drove. It seems like a very popular color, the dealer sold 2 titaniums right while I was there. All the 8s seem to be going like hot cakes, the yellow one was sold too. The yellow wasn't what I expected either. It is a kind of lemon yellow as you say, at least indoors. But it looked awesome regardless. Lighting Yellow is my current choice, but my wife is against me.

Here's some pics of the Titanium one:

another shot

oooh that's niiiiiice....... so Hachi.. when you getting your's?

I tell you, you're one lucky guy Nut!!! If the yellow one wasn't already sold, I would've been very tempted to do a deal right then and there. But a couple of things are holding me back, still gotta convince the wife on yellow, 1st year reliability concerns, and the Hawaii dealer markup. But man, I WANT IT BAD!

Yup.. I had the exact same qualms.. except for the yellow part...

But I've been wanting A car for some time now (motorcyclist for 9+ years), and I have faith in Mazda that they got it right (please God :p) As I really didnt want to spend my money on anything else.. it was a matter of timing for me.. but mostly because I HAD to have it hehehe

Good luck on your negotiations.. ;)

is the yellow fairly solid? still can't tell

btw, is that how they'll mount the front plate??

Not on my car they won't. In Nevada they don't enforce the front plate law. :D

what luck!! I happen to be in Honolulu this weekend on business. I'll have to stop my the dealer and take my pictures and look as well.

Is the yellow the same as the Protege5 yellow?

NO!!! The Protege5 has too much mustard in it..... sorry Puppy1.

Man, that yellow looks GREAT....and I don't normally like yellow cars!

Yellow looks great on some cars and it looks like crap on others. It also depends on the shade of yellow, I personally like a lemon yellow but others prefer a darker or more mustard yellow.

How much is the dealer markup? What packages were for both the yellow and the titanium?

I think of the mustard as more of a "Caution/Contruction/I'm tuff" yellow. :p

The yellow is definately not the same as the Protege5. There's a Mazdaspeed Protege in back of the yellow RX-8 in my photos, and it's a darker yellow and indeed has more mustard in it (although you can't tell from the photo). Under fluorescent lights, Lighting Yellow is a light bright lemon yellow. But natural sunlight (as you can see in the front shot) takes some of the lemon out. The sales guy said the color to him is like a Ferrari yellow.

The yellow and titaniums that were sold were GTs. The titanium that I test drove was a sport, and I think that one will be the dealer's demo car for a while. I'm not sure about how much the mark up is as I didn't get serious in negociations. The cars did not display a markup on the window sticker. So I asked if they were selling at MSRP, and they said: "Nope, selling at OVER MSRP. The car is a hot item, but I'll give you a fair price." To which I replied: "fair price is under MSRP". After that comment, the sales guy stopped talking price, and started rambling about how fantastic the car is. RX-Nut said the asking price on his 8 was $39K at JN Mazda, which is a pretty stiff markup even if his was fully loaded.

I think I may wait a few months to see if the craze for this car dies down a little (or a lot). By then the first wave of buyers should be on the streets, and reliability of the car will be a better known factor too. But after test driving it, I just can't stop thinking about the car!

Second test drive
 

I couldn't help myself, went back to the dealer for a second test drive. This car is FUN! FUN! FUN! Hit 8.5K revs a few times. Power feel is quite linear, but a push can be felt in the higher revs. You don't get the turbo blast off thrust of the FD RX-7 or the grunt of a BMW M3 (I've owned both). But that's OK, the car is still a great drive. The handling and steering feel more than make up for for that. It's a car that just wants to make you DRIVE.

I was a little worried about the a/c, given what others have said. I had my son with me, asked him if the a/c was hitting him in the back. He said yup, but I think he was having too much fun to notice either. Seemed OK to me, it wasn't ice cold though.

After the drive, the sales guy showed me how light the hood was. Ouch! I scorched my fingers on the hood, that baby was burning hot. But it wasn't as hot as my FD use to get. So I doubt it will have the overheating issues that plagued the FD.

They had a new nordic green one there, sold of course, but very nice! (sorry, didn't have my camera with me.) The only colors I haven't seen yet are black and sunlight silver, but the 8 looks great in every color I've seen thus far. Also, the dealer was now displaying a mark up on the window sticker: 10%. Not too bad for Hawaii. I hope it will be MSRP or less once things settle down.

Smart dude.. I was thinking of doing the same .. visiting the dealer so I can rip that rotary.. hehe not on my car though.. yet.. haahah

Youre right about the a/c.. I found that it's not as bad as I thought. I was running it with High and Low.. chest area and feet, and it seems to have to spread out more so it feels less cold. However if you go chest area only, it gets pretty cold. More so than the high low..

Hey Nut, haven't you driven around the island enough times to let her rip to the rev limit yet?!:D