buzzwordenabled

If you're looking at numbers, there's only one performance metric that's meaningful in the real world: Slalom speed. The faster the slalom speed, the more fun the car is to drive.

Outside of that, you're just looking at clutch abusing motojournalism.

2QT2bSTR8

you just like to argue for no reason. when I said the rx-8 was unique, I am talking about the car (the engine, the doors, the design) not the volume. I hope they sell a boat load of them.

Sit in the subaru and sit in the rx8 ...drive them and tell me the build quality of the subaru is as good, not to mention the refinement.

And your last statement, you notice I said if you want to say they are based on economy cars rather than economy cars it is fine with me. Its the same to me.

AMRAAM4

I have been here all of a week reading and now just started posting. I am a vet on the RX7 board....and I must pose the question....why the hell is IkeWRX even allowed to continue here, let alone have the post count he does? I have seen nothing from him but arguing and posts against Mazda and/or the 8

2QT2bSTR8

Ike just wants to show off his superior sportscar to us little people that could not afford such an amazing machine.

swoope

iTrader: (5)

ike has been here longer than i, and his posts are for the most part objective and usually damned entertaning.

it takes more than a weekend or a week to understand the people like ike that contribute to this board.

beers

Rotarian_SC

Seriously, I can't stand when sumone tries to dog on one of these sweeet cars out of envy b/c their own car is an econobox. :p

Ok, really that wasn't serious, but the WRX is a good car. EVO I wouldn't want because of reliability, and STi would need the turbo lag fixed for me. Bascially what it came down to for me is I predicted the N/A rotary (very reliable history) to be more reliable than a FI Subaru engine. I think the RX8 has a nicer interior, not that the WRX interior isn't nice, and I liked the RWD of the RX8 better than the AWD on the WRX as a personal handling preference. Those factors made me chose the RX8. They are not really very similar cars. AWD vs. RWD, FI vs. NA, a sedan vs. a coupe. Remember for the only time I can document the RX8 pulled a faster time around the Top Gear track than the WRX did, but not faster than the EVO or STi. The RX8 isn't THAT slow.

Seriously we bought the cars because we like them. The WRX is a good car, RX8 is a good car, that is usually pretty much agreed upon. Which one is better however, is not, it is just a matter of personal opinion.

Ike

What have I said that's so bad about the RX-8 or Mazda in this thread or any other thread? I'm just defending other good cars that people seem to feel the need to bash. Every car has it strong and weak points and I'll gladly point them out in my or any other car I've ever driven or owned. If I ever own an RX-8 the rotary accents will still be cheesy, just like I don't try to deny the things I don't like about my WRX. The day I find the perfect car is the day I become a fanboy, somehow I don't think it'll ever happen.

TheGreatRenesis

This thread has got me wondering...



2001 Dodge Viper GTS ACR
0-60 mph: 4.3
Price: $53,140

2001 Ferrari 550 Barchetta Pininfarina
0-60 mph: 4.9
Price: $258,000




Do the VIPER guys go on the Ferrari boards to boast that their car is faster?



/shrug :D

Hornet

Personally I think you bring balance to this place Ike. More than some of the other guys who come in here briefly from other forums just to criticize the 8 with little to no knowledge. I actually agree with what you have to say sometimes (especially in regards to the likes of the WRX, STI, and Evo) and I don't really percieve your posts as bashing the 8 (that is possibly just my perception though).

strider_gts

Hi everyone, I've been lurking for some time because I'm in the market for a new car and the RX 8 is by far the frontrunner in my mind. I've checked out about every 20-35K car and the RX 8 is just too sexy to pass up.

I must say though, I loved everything about this car until I came to these forums. The maturity level in here is abysmally low. I drive a 2000 Celica GTS, have put 70K miles on it and love the car... I haven't had any complaints, problems, concerns thusfar. It's been incredibly reliable and a fun companion 4 years after I bought it. I'm just looking for an upgrade and I think JKonquer is looking for the same. We come here hoping this car will be awesome and you guys will offer some good information for us that will encourage us into looking further into the RX8. I loved how this thread started out but it soon turned into a flame fest bashing everyone's cars and making illogical statements littered with fallacies.

Instead of hitting back at the Celica and making fun of it, why not talk about how great the RX8 is? I come here to be encouraged, to here about the road hugging handling and sexy stylings, not for you guys to make fun of my car to the point that I will think anything is better and I must get rid of it ASAP... I'm smarter than that. My GTS is hella fast and is far better than every single one of my friend's cars. I don't have an identity problem or have problems getting girls with this car, trust me, it’s fast, sexy and fun. And yes, this car has gotten sub-15's before in car reviews stock. If you don't believe that then educate yourself and research these cars before you talk about them. To me... I can't tell the difference between 14-15 seconds so I don't really care.

But I do want an upgrade. I'd love to hear facts/opinions on why the RX8 is a great car but all I see on these forums are discouraging posts about poor MPG ratings and lower HP than expected. Where's the love? Don't flame me for pointing this out because some of the people already flaming in this thread have been posting the same complaint threads so save your hypocrisy and be silent. 14mpg kind of hit on that one...

JasonHamilton, your car is dead sexy. I love that thing and I would probably get a very similar car. But why the "I couldn't care less about celicas." comment? He was trying to compare his car to the RX8 so he could make an educated decision and you come with "I don't care"?


From what I can tell about the RX 8 so far (or at least the impression these forums give off).

Pros:

~Exterior Styling, duh, this car is as sexy as the come
~Interior Styling, yet again unmatched
~Great handling
~Good power for a livable sports car

Cons:

~Mileage
~Could use a bit more power
~Sounds like it has taken some time to get bugs worked out and still has a few kinks that could be smoothed


I love my car but it's starting to show some wear after 70K miles and basically, it's time for a trade in. I don't need a faster car than the celica so the 8 shouldn't disappoint me at all. After 4 years of owning this car, every day when I go outside to drive it I'm still amazed by how good looking the thing is (Liquid Silver with the TRD body kit). I do however, think the 8 looks better so that is definitely a plus. The fact that the car costs about 10k more isn't that big of a deal to me and I figure for that much money the car will probably feel a little nicer on the inside and hopefully have excellent craftsmanship inside and out. The fact that the GTS get's about 32 miles to the gallon for me atm vs. a reported low-20's on the 8 wouldn't be that big of a deal except for the fact that all of you are stating that your 8's are only getting you 18's or so (averaged). Once you get used to 400 miles on a tank of gas it's going to be a shock going to the mid 200's hehe. I love the fact that it's a 4 seater as the other cars I've looked at are only 2 seaters. Why in the world would you want a 2 seater? Don't people have friends? My car is always packed, I need 4 seats.


A few questions:

How is the trunk space in the 8? Can you hold more than a couple bags of groceries? If I can't take a few friends down to vegas for the weekend we are going to have problems hehe.

What do you guys do for aftermarket stereo's? Is the 8's stereo worth keeping? My experiences with stock stereos haven't been the greatest. I swapped my celica's stereo out in the first month after it kept skipping on rough roads. Can you even swap the stereo out with that round styling where it's located?

Is the car fun? Honestly... no BS. With all the complaints around here I start to wonder. Do you enjoy just taking a midnight drive in the country with the moonroof open listening to the motor? Any usage of the word "practical" in a response to this will invalidate your entire response.


I realize everyone in here is biased one way or the other but try to cast that aside while you respond to threads like these. Some of you look 16 considering the arguments I've read.

I desparately want to love the RX8 but some of you wildly contradict the fact that you like your car. Most of you would suck as salesmen hehe. Thanks and I'm sorry I had to waste my first post on a topic like this. :D

JKonquer

damn strider gt-s
that's was the first love in this forum......
what he said ^^^^^^
like i said, i'm looking forward to purchasing this car. so i'm not trying to hate or anything. regarding on celica, lets forget about it. its not gonna get us anywhere when facts that were said are mere opinion of what one individual thinks....
i test drove the carTHE 8, and i love, that's all i have to say.
but i know once i own the car, i will love it even more. just like my celica.

how about we officially end this forum here..??

JKonquer

i wasn't gonna say anything, but grow the f@ck up!!
celica is not a performance car? and your dads minivan is performance car right??
its like talking to lil kid, who can't keep their mouth shut

JKonquer

and i haven't heard nothing from you that contribute any kind of support.. just bunch of BS and all you did was talk **** and how ghey the celica is. so i wouldn't say ****

MTLbroker

I'm only speaking for myself and not trying to change n-e-1 mind when I say that I don't find the 8 slow. In the short time I've owned her, I could have been nailed for speeding many, many times already. Funny thing is I've never felt the urge to time a 0-60 run nor a 1/4 mile blast. I get my jollies in the 8 by taking a set of curves as smoothly as possible, practicing double clutching and heel & toe driving - in short, practicing racing techniques. Keep practicing till my passengers can't tell I've changed gears. I even try to clip the apexes of my single lane (I need pyschiatric help). Most aggressive drivers do exactly the opposite on the road, they tend to drive in jerky, abrupt manoevers...... quick lane changes without signalling, full throttle acceleration and then slamming on the brakes as they get within 10 ft of the car in front of them, cutting people off, etc. These are all actions that would get one's self in trouble on the racetrack or in inclement weather, but on the streets, I guess it let's them feel like king of the hill.
The 8 just seems to suit my concept of speed and may not suit someone else's. It lets me drive the way I like to drive and not how someone else think I should drive. BTW, the only other cars I considered were G35, 350z. I would have bought an M3 if I could afford it easily. In the end it was the 8 - great car and didn't even put a dent in my wallet.
I guess that's what they mean by "to each his own"!

Chameleon

I traded in a 2000 Celica GT-S for my RX-8. The Celica had more problems then any car I have ever owned. Here is the list:

Windshield Cracked
Both Headlight Casing Replaced
Clutch Replaced
Engine Replaced
Front Bumper Scratched by Dealer and Repainted
Etc.


The car was in the shop for over a month at one time. I think it was more of a problem with the dealer then the car but I will not buy another Toyota as a result.

IMAO the RX-8 is superior in every way. It is much faster even without any modifications. The choice is yours but I would suggest trading in the Celica for the RX-8.

HeelnToe

LOL, I was just telling my wife how refreshingly mature and considerate this forum is. Naturally, certain threads can become nasty, but overall I think this forum is wonderful and informative.

Pretty good. It's fine for ordinary grocery shopping. But you'd best check one out yourself to make sure it's enough for you. Keep in mind if you get the spare tire, you'll lose a good chunk of the existing space.

I don't like it. I was skeptical of everyone's negative opinions, but now that I'm living with it, it's really... hollow? no depth? It sounds like a very powerful AM radio. Loud, but no oooommph.

Bingo. THAT is the car's soul. The wifey and I constantly do that, as there's this one beautiful road where the scent of honeysuckle(?) is just delicious, lol... and it leads to these fantastic winding, twisting roads... it's easy to get into a rythym with this car, where you melt into the experience of Just Driving it.

That, IMHO, is what the car is all about. Not 1/4 mile times, comparing HP figures, etc. The car provides an *experience* which is difficult to quantify or measure. You may not be able to impress your friends much with it's stats, but you'll smile every time you get behind the wheel.

AMRAAM4

Uhm, excuse me? You were born in 1985 weren't you? If you think the Celica is a "good" car or a "performance" car, then you have been living in a small car world. I really don't undrstand where you can come off being the typical 18-19 year old "mature" tough guy considering both of our post counts here. It's young little **** ants like yourself that make all the waves in the car world nowaday. I'm sorry to get angry, but if there is one thing I do not put up with is some damn teenager evaluating my life and implying they know me (my dad drive's a minivan huh? you'd be sadly disappointed if you saw what he drives) I have experiences you haven't even logically thought of yet, and I have had more sports cars than you have had regular cars....probably even girlfriends. So, with that said lets get back on topic, and perhaps from now on when your online and in "psychic" mode you'll think twice from posting.

P.S. I agree with HeelInToe....this board seems to be pretty mature, until like most boards, the children come in.

2QT2bSTR8

RWD or AWD is a requirment for a car to be a performance car, RWD is required for a sportscar. FWD cars were designed for economy. The celica is "sporty", light and refined (as ugly as it is), but its no performance car.


FWD cars lack the weight distribution, weight transfer and can not put as much power to the wheels.

Think of the celica as a sporty alternative to a corolla or sentra, because those cars offer similar performance.

strider_gts

Good post HeelnToe.

Although posts like this really don't help your case for "maturity" in the forums.

I don't know about that 2QT2bSTR8, there sure are a lot of fast 4-bangers that are FWD. Personally, I don't care what it is. I like having the FWD because when I go on icy roads it handles like I'm on dry pavement and I've owned RWD's and they fishtailed all over the road.

"Ugly" is your own opinion so wasn't really necessary in this case.

Feras

iTrader: (1)

apparently with snow tires this car handles as good as an audi A4 quattro with all season tires in the snow and thats pretty damn good, never seen a FWD ever match an audi on snow (there are threads on this somewhere in the tire section)

red_rx8_red_int

This is easily taken care of. See how my screen looks.

mysql101

Hey there. The reason why I said that I could care less about his celica is because he kept going on and on about his car. This isn't a Celica forum. I don't come here to read about Celicas, or to hear stories about his non RX-8 car....

The RX-8 is a great little car. It's a lot of fun. The mileage isn't Prius levels, but it's not a hybrid. From what I have seen, it looks like there are basically two types of RX-8 you can get, one that will burn fuel like no tomorrow, always giving the owner less than 15 mpg regardless of driving style, and the other version that gets 16+ mpg, depending on how you drive it.

You can bet if I had the <15mpg version, that I'd be bitching too.

As far as lower hp ratings - anyone who's complaining about it should be ignored. If you bought a car based on it's numbers on paper, you're a fool. You should test drive it, and see if it has enough power for you. If you like the car, buy it. But if you like the car, then notice the numbers are lower than originally stated, well uh..... sure there is some liability for Mazda (and they made restitution to the early RX-8 adopters with the buy backs), but I don't feel any need to bitch about it.

2QT2bSTR8

Fast doesn't make it a performance car. And even so there are so few fast stock FWD cars.

Again, that has nothing to do with "performance". but you are correct, but if I was really concerned about ICE I would drive an AWD car such as a WRX or EVO (as ugly as they are).
I think I am entitled to my opinion. So dont get hung up on it cause I will be expressing it alot.

playdoh43

new here, friend has rx8, Ive also driven it many times, but i dont own one. Ive also driven the Evo (extensively) and the 350z.

slow/fast is a relative term, compared to similarly priced cars like Evo, Sti and 350Z of course the rx8 is slow. As far as handling goes, I personally like Evo's super precision handling better than Rx8, but the Rx8 is great too, very light and responsive.
Rx8's suspension is extremly good, I was suprised how sporty yet refined the ride felt when I first drove it.
this is just my personal opinion,

It depends on what kind of experience you really want...
cars like Rx8/350z/s2000 are more or less sports car/gt cars, with performance in mind, but mainly for driving and grand touring, they are civilized and fun to drive, and great for everyday driving and commuting while looking good.
then cars like Evo and Sti are totally performance oriented, I havnt driven the Sti but i imagine it should be similar to the Evo. They are very rough and the suspension is extremely stiff.

If you are into 0-60 and track times and quartermile and track performance, you are looking at the wrong car if you want the best bang for the bucks. The Evo can do 0-60 in 4.6 seconds and low 13s in 1/4 mile if you know how to launch it right. It also has better slalom times and better skid pad numbers than the rx8, 350z and s2k, so it should handle better on the track.
Its also cheap to mod... A simple dyno flash (500 bucks) can get you at least 260whp and break 12 sec in 1/4 mile. you can get to 400-450whp for less than $5k. The new Evo MR ($33k) coming out soon in the US offer similar performance to the Corvette Z06 (0-60 in 4.29 sec). dont worry about reliability - Mitsu isnt a very reliable brand, but the Evo is pretty reliable, after all they've been putting that car through hell in rally races in the worst conditions since 1992. theres 12+ years of refinement in that car. same for STI.

With that said... If you could care less about all that stuff above, then the Rx8 is a much better choice for you. Those rally bred cars are not nearly as good as the Rx8 for everyday driving. The 8 is fun and civilized. Sure the low-end torque is abismal, but the powerband is very smooth, and once you get in the higher RPMs, there is A LOT of power, it might suprise you how fast this car is on the highway. I wouldnt be suprised at all to see the rx8 keep up decently or even walk on an Evo (there arnt too many stock evos on the road though ) at 100mph+ on the high way. Its sort of similar to your celicas in terms of small amount of low end torque and lots of top end power. but its better in everyway imaginable. Its definetly an upgrade in just about every department. Then theres the looks... my roomate has a black 03 Evo... It definetly gets a lot of repect from car enthusiasts, but to most people, its just a boxy lancer :p. The Rx8 gets everyone's attention. Some ignorant people will call it a girly car, but they are just jealous because they dont have one :D. You can still have tons of fun when you track/autox with a rx8.

IMHO, I think you should go test drive every option in your price range. espcially the s2k, its very similar to the rx8... and in my oppinion its more trackable, but not as civilized as the 8. Dont forget the 350z either.

just my 2 cents, good luck. theres a car for everyone. Just make sure you are happy with what you get. Im sure most rx8 owners on this board are very happy with their car.

btw, this board is very mature in my oppinion, the people are generally pretty cool. If you want an example of ignorance, check out club3g (eclipse forum)

playdoh43

flame shield up :p