I had my oil changed at my local dealer (Fairbanks Mazda in Longwood, Florida) yesterday. While waiting I checked the inventory in the lot and found 27 RX-8's, 10 auto, 17 manual. I spoke to the GM and he told me that the fire at the factory had reduced his inventory to almost nothing, so he did no advertising. Now he's going to push them again since he has cars.

One difference now is that he's ordering fewer "loaded" cars, as there was reluctance to buy at the over 30k range. A base manual with sport package is just a little over the 25k range, so the base is more like a "super Acura RSX type S" rather than the GT being a less powerful G35.

 

I wish dealers here had as much sense as yours, I looked forever to find a base-model 8. I don't get the allure of the low-30s GT version, myself. IMO the factory leather interior looks cheap with the weird embossing on the seats and the sunroof impairs already tight headroom. Most sports-car options tend to be toward performance. It's hard to conceive of adding 20+% to the price of your car without increasing performance even a bit.