hi,

I'm interested in buying an rx8 - however i have some questions for you guys/gals-

I commute about 350 miles on weekends. How would you rate the rx8 for long drives- comfy, noise, milage etc.?

I see a few cars for sale in the classified section which have "new engines". whats up with that, seems kinda high. I do have an 85 rx7 gsl-se (show car only- sunday driver) with 85k and have not had any engine problems (knock on wood). so why does the rx8 seem to have problems ?

thanks for your respnses, i look forward to them

 

For a true sports car I think the RX-8 is about as nice as you can get for long drives. Mileage is average sports car class. 18 to 24... Maybe lower or a little higher.

Engine replacement....
Lack of oil... Carbon build up....
Some people redline it once a day or so to burn off [or break loose carbon].
Some people premix to help with the oil.
But some people don't and they have no problems.

What year are you looking at?

 

id get another car if I had to commute 350 miles on the weekend. I commute 75 miles daily and it is comfortable for me(although I'm used to driving sports car with stiffer suspension than the RX-8). As far as mileage goes, you probably won't be happy, 19(aggressive)-27(very conservative) mpg(highway).

 

I drove my RX from Orlando to Atlanta (466 miles) and it was fine. It wasn't quite as comfortable as my Acura TL due to the tighter seats, but I didn't have any discomfort or complaints.

Compared to my TL, the mileage was similar though slightly higher in the TL, and the TL was quieter. Overall, I think it's a fine car but a matter of personal preference. I may not find the RX as comfortable if I was 6"-8" taller (i'm 5'7").

As far as new engines, there are many threads on that subject. I'm hesitant to start one here...

 

I wish I could get 27 mpg....

 

For long drives, it's comfortable, not entirely noisy, highway mileage is ok (20-24). You'll really need to pay attention to your seat positioning, most peopel complain about trouble on long trips because they didn't fix their seats first. With the windows up, it's pretty quiet on the inside, regardless of the noise outside.

The RX-8 seems to have those problems because a lot of people who were not knowledgeable, nor were they mechanically inclined or interested, bought the car. Certainly, there are some lemons (especially painful for those who treat their car like their baby), but I do not believe that the percentage of factory lemons for the RX-8 is much higher than other cars. Treat the engine right, and it'll last. There's quite a few people on the forum who have 100k+ engines, and a lot around 70-90k.

 

The only thing that kills me for long trips is the lack of telescoping steering wheel. I have very long arms, and I just cannot get a comfortable arm position. The suspension is stiff, yes, but not bad unless the roads are really shitty.

 

Very comfortable for long drives and fun at the same time. Gas mileage is poor I average on the Highway 18 to 22 MPG. If I drive with cruse control around 60 MPH I may hit 24. In the Chicago city driving rush hour I'm getting 13 MPG.

The RX-8 had an engine failure problem that effect mostly 04 to 05 cars. This has since been corrected and Mazda has increased the engine warranty to 8 years 100K miles. So if you do have a bad engine it will be covered. General wisdom would say get the latest model year you can afford. I have a late model 05 which I feel is pretty safe with.

 

I have a 05 model built in june of 04 and i purchased it june 7, 2005 baught it in chicago and broke it in on a road trip back to texas and took it in to the dealership for squeeling brake pads and they updated my flash and new pads!
i currently made a trip from chicago to texas roughly 1200 miles. in stock form i could only manage 19-21 mpg on the highway and 14 mpg in the city. i have a heavy foot. once you mod it a bit intake, midpipe and reflash im getting 23 mpg in the city a 16-7 mpg in the city. i do my oil change every 10k miles and i seafoam my motor every 10K miles. drive it pretty hard at times. the transmission is realy sketchy takes some time to get used to it. id upgrade to a short shifter. i currently have 65K miles on the odo and i expect to get 70K miles by aug.. its been my daily driver and apart from the air bag, squeeling brakes, tranny issues, and some recals its been running great. I did think my motor was blown but it ended up being my ignition coils lol little things like that get people sometime that they think thier motor is bad but its really not. read on it alittle more.. only major thing that needs to be done is add oil every other gas fill up.

 

I drove my 8 from Orlando to charlotte to knoxville TN to almost Erie pa and back to Charlotte about 3k miles total in about a week...not one problems a great road trip car...

also have driven from pa to Orlando last year same thing perfect ride...and this is pack full(moving) with stuff and almost have the shocks bo0ttomed out completely....

As for engine replacements I think the main problem is not enough oil or overheating....I personally premix about 7-8oz per fillup and reline AT LEAST once a day.....no problems here(knocks on wood a while)....

 

I'll be putting about 700 miles on my car this weekend and looking forward to EVERY one of them.

 

^bring some good tunes!!!

 

I've been downloading music like a MAD MAN this past week in anticipation for it.

 

Great road trip car except for the MPG. I was happy to get 21MPG recently going 70-72.

Engine question - much discussed already.

 

^I was getting 22mpg all last week driving all those miles....but i have seen 24.x once on a tank.....

 

I have an 04. So far totally dependable car. i took two 3,000 mile road trips and must say it is quite comfortable, never boring and just plain fun on the road trips. Early models had engine problems in hot climates because of improper ECU settings from the factory. They overheated and damaged seals. That problem was corrected in 2006 with a new flash. All problems were covered under warranty including engine replacements. I live in a cool climate. I passed the recall compression test and then got the reflash. All covered under warranty. My engine is fine. There is no other car like the rx8. It's a little engineering miracle.

 

^I also like to think of it as a miracle