Slow? Lemme tell ya about s l o w.
 

I dropped off my beautiful wankelwunder at my local dealer to have 'em chase down two rattles (driver airbag and somwhere in the sunroof) and a curious condition which stalls the engine while idling immediately following a fill-up. And the sometimes-very-rough-idle which I suspect is tied into the stalling thing. AND, last but not least, that buzzrattle I get when going past 6000 rpms.

They put me in a Chevy Aveo. Now all you whiny bench racers may say the 8 is slow, but I can assure you, she is not. This Aveo, on the other hand, is so slow...

How slow?

So slow the TAIL has bug-splatter, not the nose.

So slow, I get passed by kids on powered skateboards. Leg-powered.

So slow, you mash the gas, and then see all the traffic behind you get bigger in your mirrors. With your foot in the floor. And the horrid slushbox in "D".

So slow, you wonder if you'll hear the results of the '08 presidential race.. on this stupid Aveo's radio while waiting for it to hit merging speed.

So slow, it makes me wish I still had my Miata. And we all know the Miata's teh gayest and slowest car ever crafted by mankind.

So slow, it makes me wish I still had my SA/FB.

So the next time some benchracing, magazine-number and timeslip-quoting pundit gets up in a roar over how slow the 8 is, I will give 'em a ride on Die Nurburgring in an Aveo.. with a pack of cyclists behind us.

My money's on the cyclists.

I want my car back. :tear:

You make me smile...

That's how slow my daily driver is, 1.3L piston engine with slush box

And the Aveo is ugly as well!! It could be worse, your car could be the Aveo and the rx8 the loaner they gave you. Think what it would be like knowing you would eventually have to give up the rx8 and go in and claim your Aveo.

Please, please PLEASE tell me what they tell you is the cause of the buzzrattle.

I'll ask the tech about the buzzrattle. I have my conjectures on what it is.

1.3 liter piston?! Gotta be an old Sprint... :D: (I like 'em!)

I not so much mind the ugly, but to be honest, I've driven Skodas and Seats in europe that felt better than this aveo. That's.. um.. frightening.

I won't argue that a stock miata is slow, but I have to argue with the spirit of this statement. The miata, from first year to last, was a well crafted (for the $) purpose-built car.

Fixed!

^ I wont argue with that either.

gay means happy here?

It's an inside joke to owners (with sense of humor).

Somehow, the car got saddled with that rep -- while in reality, it is a very capable little whip. I miss mine. :)

I think it was Mad TV that had a spoof on gay men and Miatas...pretty funny. Some web sites also put Miatas on their chick car lists, alongside the Golf cabriolets of this world.

I'll admit to owning one and loving all 2300 pounds of it. Having raced karts for three years, the Miata was my "everyday" kart, and the one car I wish I kept.

The gay jokes never fazed me...'cause we all know it is the guys who must have the most powerful cars out there who are compensating for their perceived lack of masculinity. :)

They gave you an Aveo loaner? That's outrageous! My wife test drove one - she likes small cars. Anyway, she's about 5'6" of slim build and her elbow hit the driver's door when she tried to turn the steering wheel. I find that especially odd since her arms are shorter than average for her height.

(explanation: Sit flat on the floor with your legs in front of you and your back straight. Can you put the palms of both hands flat on the floor? She can't - not at all. Average folks can push the floor and lift an inch or two).

Anyway, the Aveo may get great mpg, but it's not at all comperable in form, fit or function to the RX-8. Your dealer has a lot of nerve.

Dunno if its lots of nerve, or just no class what-so-ever. I'm fairly certain the paperwork on my 8 somwhere says "...or comparable" regarding a "loaner"... this isn't a loaner, it's an Enterprise Rent-A-Wreck. I would've gladly taken a 3, even with a slushie. I do intend to look into this further -- when I had the car in for the gas-tank blanket recall they put me in an Enterprise Altima (which was utterly incapable of a civilized takeoff... a little pedal would get you all the throttle.) Somehow I don't think it is right to be handed off to Enterprise and be put in.. well, bare-bones entry-level cars.

I may just need a new dealer... :D:

Now, I have to make an observation.. chintzy as it may be, stripped-down as it may be, and crooked panels notwithstanding, the Aveo I'm uh "enjoying" for the moment has *no rattles*. Zero. How can a chintzy Korean wannabe be devoid of rattles while mazda's flagship sounds like Concerto for Rattles and Buzzes in C Minor?

Those arent rattles, those are the gremlins.

Didn't faze me either. Had mine for 10 years. Like you said... big go-kart with AC, heat and radio. What else could a driving nut want?!

I took some heat from co-workers about the car... little, puny, no big v8... I paid no heed to it, I mean, these were pickup truck guys.. they'd never "get it."

Sports car drivers tend to get no respect in this country, I tells ya :D:

:mdrmed: thats a shame at least at my dealer they gave me a pt cruiser dark blue and this gave me a little brake from my six speed in rush hour for a couple of days!!

That's what they wanted to give me when my car was in shop. It was so pathetic I was begging for an upgrade to a Neon! :rofl:

On a plus side, Aveo's make your boobs bigger.


The story behind that was a girl I knew who drove one who had the most excessively large rack I'd ever seen. Each one needed a car seat.

Odd - when they use a rental agency they should have plenty of reasonable choices. I've received a Jeep Liberty, Pontiac G6, Hyundai Sonnata (also V6), and (this one was at my stupid request) a Toyota Celica. Are your dealers getting the economy/efficieny class cars instead of the standard vehicles to save a couple of bucks? That's shady. :nono:

Show me a dealer that isn't shady.. :suspect:

Point.

This was the insurance company that wanted me to have an Aveo. If my car was at the dealership I could have had a 3 or a 6, which would have been just fine. The insurance company told me I could have UP TO $30 a day, which included the Aveos, Neons, and something else that wasn't quite so terrible for under $30. When Enterprise told me what I was getting I asked for something else that was at least slightly more comparable to my car, which meant moving up car classes. They told me they were out of everything but Aveos because "Neons are extremely popular." My other choice was some big old SUV that I would have to pay money out of pocket for. Forget that. I skipped the rental car out of disgust and paid my mom to drive me around in her Tribute.

Glue. Buckets o' glue, slathered all over everything. Glue will prevents rattles, and the Koreans love the stuff! I once heard that one of the most expensive dashboards to replace was in a first-gen Kia Sportage because it was glued into place. No way to take it out to service any components behind it!

Currently I'd prefer a new MX-5, but my wife, of all people, insists that we have a 2nd 4-seat car. Despite that the MX-5 would really save us a BUNCH of money in the long run, both in payment and in gas/oil, compared to an RX-8.

I want a lightweight, RWD sportscar simply for my long trips through SoCal to photograph cars. I don't need much room. I don't need much storage. The mileage would be great, and the handling sublime! Where can I go fast here? There are cops everywhere, and the LA freeway system is under constant radar and camera monitoring, not to mention perpetual grid-lock and construction!

Choices here in the US are supremely limited at the moment... Grrrrrrr! :mad: There ARE sports car drivers here who would SNAP UP Nissan S-15 Silvias (4 seats, RWD, turbo power, nice handling and looking) or a new entry-level Porsche front-engine/RWD machine using the Audi 2.0 direct-injection turbo 20V engine, but trying to get these companies to see beyond "product planning committees" is virtually impossible. I can see now why the Kabura concept vehicle exists. It's Mazda's own internal answer to "What would we build if we killed the rotary engine?" And you know what, for the same money, if that had the turbo 4 that's in the new Mazdaspeed 3, and RWD, I'd pick one up in a heartbeat!