Jeager76

Ok, now all test drives have basics (how it handles tranmission wise, going up hillsm, turning, acceleration, braking etc)

but for the Rx-8 are there any tips some of you old hands would recommend that are 8 specific or AT/MT specific to mazda?

KYLiquid

I only test drove MT, although I have driven and AT a few times...

I would say you want to (and the dealer is supposed to) take you on a trip that will include freeway onramp (to test the power of the car on accele) stop and go traffic (to show the smooth/quite nature of the car in town) highway (to show passing power and how well the car cruises) (freeway off ramp (to show the brakes of the car) and a few twisty bits (to highlight the handling and balance)... of course most dealers just have you drive around the block, I told them I want to really test the car, and they gave me the keys and told me to be back in an hour, so I tore it up in all my fav spots around town, on their gas...lol.

If they wont lend you the car for a bit, tell the sales guy you want to really see the car, and you cant do that in a 15 min drive, he might let you zip about more.

youpey

i test drove the 8 for 10 minutes and knew as soon as i got in it that i was going to buy it. although when i test drove my explorer i drove it for over 1 hour. the sales guy was so cool. he worked in pharmaceuticals for 25 years and retired. he was selling cars because he loved cars and was bored in retirement. i too work in pharma so we hit it off. he let me drive the v6 explorer for 20 minutes and then the v8, and i knew immediately i wanted the v8, but he said to make sure because it was 35k and he wanted me to be sure it was exactly what i wanted. i was at the dealership for 8 hours and got the monthly payments from 550 a month to 430 with nothing down. they really did some trickery to get the payments that low, which included a rediculous rebate, low finance numbers etc.

Nocty

When I test drove the RX8, the salesman knew I was coming in overnight from out of town (about a 2 hour drive wach way), so organized for me to borrow it overnight. There were provisos in the form saying that I wasn't to travel more than a certain distance in it, and so on.

As for the actual test drive, I thought about what I wanted the car for (a sporty performing yet more practical vehicle) and did a whole heap of normal type stuff in it - shopping, visited friends, played with the traffic on various main roads, went out to dinner and showed it off to the population of the town, and so on.

Sure, you could give it a good hard run only (I definately did that as well), but if you're planning on having more than two people in it (for example), see how they fit. If it's to be a daily driver, then do some of the more normal daily tasks. See how well it works with your normal routine, as well as the fun stuff.