My 2 cents:

Comparing the 8 or 7 to a vette. The vette has a different buyers base. There are allot of them, a playboy type of history, and American. There are tons of people out there that have always wanted a vette and tons who want to buy American. Personally, I never thought of a vette as a sports car cause I was brought up on English sports cars, small, light, underpowered, and you have to push them to get what you want out of them.

The 8 is more of a tech nerds car. OK, so I am a nerd! Those that want big power and sex appeal will buy a vette. Those who want something interesting, different, and sex appeal will buy an 8.

I think the re-sale value is about right. No comparison, but my Passat's resale was about the same as the 8's is now and VW is supposed to have a good resale value.

Resale aside, I still get wows when I show people the car and give them a ride in it.

 

I have no idea why I returned to this thread. I believe that a lot of 8 owners (including ones on here) did not buy the 8 for what it was truely intended for. A driver's car. Something that the 8 has won tons of awards for. When they were comparing it to a Corvette, they kept bringing up 0-60 and quarter mile times and fuel economy as a reason the Vette is better. GET A CLUE. THAT IS NOT WHAT THE 8 IS ABOUT!!! There is no doubt in my mind that, if Mazda targeted the Vette with the 8 and charged as much for it, the Mazda would kill a Vette. The point of the 8 is to give drivers a car that can straighten out a piece of curvy road or racetrack like nothing else in the price range.

As for the fact that Mazda could have put a turbo 4 in it and got the same results is true. But I LOVE how smooth the rotary is. I would not trade it for anything. I was driving a Honda S2000 when I bought my Mazda. The ONLY thing I miss is the few times I rode with the top down. The S2000 was modified and so faster than my 8 is now. The suspension was more telegraphic because it too was modified. A little time and a little, (ok, in the 8 a lot) of money will have it running with anything on the street. Probobly leaving it behind. And when you think of the money that you saved by buying the 8 in the first place, you can spend money on mods and still come out cheaper than buying a lot of other cars and leaving them stock.

IF YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT 0-6 AND QT TIMES, BUY SOMETHING ELSE LIKE A MUSTANG OR GTO. IF YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT GAS MILAGE, BUY A PRUIS. IF YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT RESALE AND HAVING A CAR YOU WILL WANT TO GET RID OF IN A COUPLE OF YEARS, BUY A LOTUS OR AN ACCORD.

Ok, I feel better now.

 

Dave,

That was pretty well stated. Whats sad is how few real driving enthusiasts are left to appreciate the RX8 for what it truely is.

Then again few of them have been able to experience the roads of NC, particularly in the days when driving to work was like a few laps at the track. When I first moved to Raleigh in 1977 my Sunday mornings were consumed on the back roads. I can remember when Apex was exactly that - the center of a curve on Penny Road. As Raleigh grew and traffic stacked up I still found plenty of great roads near Falls Lake and Granville county. RX8 country. I very much miss it living in Texas these days. But I still love driving my RX8.

 

My car goes 0-6 in .04 seconds!

 

That is nothing. Mine will go 0-5 in .035 secounds!

 

Mine will stay in the garage at 0.00000 SECONDS FLAT! Beat that!

 

ok, you win

 

Mine starts at 60MPH.

 

There was an add in the Arizona paper on Sunday from a Mazda dealer for a brand new 05 GT and at least 8 06s'. I got my 06 Shinka for $8k under 2 months ago. Resale value is primarily a function of supply and demand, there are plenty of 8s' out there for a very limited audience. Furthermore, would you buy a used 8 with over 30k miles on it without knowing how the owner mantained it? It's a tough car for the used market.

 

No, it's because the resale value of the 8 is not worse, nor no better than anything else out there. It simply is what it is.

My 8's resale value is 100% guaranteed by Mazda, so I don't worry. For those of youwho worry..... too bad.

 

Besides, what a couple of thousand here or there?

 

My monthly bar tab is more than that.......

 

You got an 06' Shinka for 8k? Or 8k under sticker? Regardless resale sucks on the RX8.