Stephan

I am strating to be a little pissed by all these young boys spending their dady money buying the 8 ...

I don't want to end up in a car that will be assimilated to these golden (by their birth) childs that will crash the car sooner or later ...

I lately seen a lot of post of very young guys n that direction and it makes me jump sometimes, as (very stupidly) I thought we will be (buyers) around 30-40 years old ...

But It's not politically correct to say so

AndyPearce

I'm neither a Mazda fan or a rotary fan (in fact the rotary engine was the main thing putting me off the RX8 initially.)

I had a WRX STi on my shopping list alongside a few others. My requirements for a car is something that is fast and that can seat 3 adults. I currently have a Volvo C70 T5 but my commuting passengers are sick of my 2 door coupe - it is a pain for them getting in and out.

I looked at the STi as it is the same price as the Hi-Power RX8 in the UK but they are becoming far too common on the roads and are as ugly as sin.

I think anyone who likes a sporty performing car , with good looks and the practicality of a true 4 seater will be drawn to the RX8. At the relatively low price it will attract many 'mid life crisis' middle aged dads IMO.

P.S. can you do a American English --> English translation for me? Whats is rice or ricey?

MrWolf

I'm 31. Recently married, recently bought a house... and I liked the look of the RX8 since I saw it, I think on a tv commercial last year.

I drove a Dodge Stealth last year, but didn't end up liking the ride as much... I'm more into comfort than feeling every bump in the road. But I loved how much power it had.

Rotary? Cool, but not that big a deal to me. It'll be different, that's about all. I liked how quiet the engine was when I test-drove it.

4-door 4 seater, with good performance and handling, at a price I can afford? We're looking to have kids in a few years, and 2-seater cars don't appeal to me, so this is *the* selling point.

I'm upgrading from a base-model Dodge Neon, mmm, econoboxy... and wanted something with performance, handling, that didn't look like everything else on the road... and the RX8 fits the bill, with 4 seats and 4 doors.

I'm looking forward to getting my preorder... end Aug / early September... hopefully...

Stephan

I am happy to see that my profile has not became rare within the RX8 buyers :p

Please more people like that and less posing in front of dady's house with the 8 ...

Or we will end up again and again into the street racer endless discussions ...

I am exactly like you : 31, recently married, flat bought in Paris, one 3 months ADORABLE daughter, a dog, but I don't want to buy a convertible Or at least a RS4, but too expensive

So I finally chosen the RX8. Sorry, I never drove a rotary, feel this will be fine with me who is used to motorcycle powerful high revs engine, but it wasn't the selling point for me.

The 4 seats, sport design price and motor exclusivity was ...

Elara

Mazda's stated target RX-8 buyer: late 20s early 30s, college educated, male, unmarried, makes over $70k a year. They've stated this in several trade magazines now.

Genom

I think the original question doesnt make sense if you spend any amount of time on these forums.

Why market a street car that can do 0-60 in 5 seconds? Street racing is illegal. yet there's tons of them. Cause people like them for one reason or another. I was never a rotary fan, hell, I didnt even know what that was up until 3 months ago. I dont have a family (cant have kids and dont want to anyways).

I just think it's a awesome looking car. I love the sound of the engine, I love the feel of the engine, and I think the einside fits me like a glove. So I wont be the first guy off the starting line. I dont give a crap. Big f***ing deal. I dont street race. If I am gonna race this it's going to be me on a track enjoying the car.

For example, using that same logic, why would anybody buy a Roll's Royce? Cause it's ultra expensive? Thats about as good a reason as "It's got a rotary engine".

8_wannabe

Ike, I think the very first answer that was posted is right on the mark except I would change the AND to an OR: "Those who want a sports car but have families OR for rotary enthusiasts."

I'm in the first category. Family of three, rarely more than two of us in the car but occasionally need the back seat. Now the son needs chaparoning with his gf, so sometimes 4 of us. 75% of the time I'm alone in the car. Consider this my stepping stone from the minivan dad I was to the roadster I'm gonna get once the son is driving on his own (and no, he doesn't get the 8 when I get my roadster. He'll start with something more humble. I agree with the many comments that this isn't a car for a spoiled 17-yr-old.)

MTI

The answer is very simple and stated by Mazda on their worldwide site. Here's the link.

http://www.mazda.com/history/rotary/

OmegaBob

Maybe those who are wondering about what market this car is targeted at should watch the Japanese video/commercial -ya know the one where the guy holds the toy car.

RX-8 Zoomster

Well, I only meet 2 1/2 of the 5 of those criteria you listed. :D

Good Duck

Really? Well then, they nailed me. Although from this forum, it seems like there are more married people than not. Could be that you married people are more outspoken here.

TomsterRX8

I think this car is going to draw people who might otherwise have bought an Accord or Camry. The two back seats are perfectly functional. If you have small kids, its much safer back there as they can't open the back doors without the parent opening the front first. It does everything a midsize sedan does, except lug lots of luggage, and does it with nice performance and appealing looks.

That said, I think we nuts who had to be the 1st to own are gonna take a real bath with this car. I'm convinced that by this Winter it will be selling for at least $2,000 less than what we paid. My dealership has another 43 coming in this month, most of which are unclaimed. Considering there are 2 other Mazda dealers in the Austin area, that's gonna be a lot of surplus RX8's.

The rotary fans alone will not sustain the 30,000 cars Mazda expects to import annually. For us to have any resale value, the Accord and Camry buyers MUST purchase substantial numbers.

delhi

The RX-8 is a preview of the rx-7. It's just my hunch about Mazda. Personally I think it's slick. Great alternative to those reasons already mentioned. The only reason would make me wonder is about it being marketed to those ppl who wants to drive a sporty rotary car and want backseat for passengers. Well with 159 lb-ft of tq, hauling a full load of ppl would be quite a challenge on the streets. I bet a Mazda6 V6 (along with camry, accord, altima, etc...) will be the better job for that. So if I am that person, I'd prolly look elsewhere. Like a WRX which is both sporty and useful to haul stuff especially the wagon version.
Nevertheless, the rx-8 is a sweet car and the fact that it is able to be this hybrid (sedan/coupe) layout makes it even more appealing.
Besides it's not that more expensive than a WRX and it sure looks better than the Subie...except for the old old style which looks wicked. :D

boowana

That's exactly right. The RX-8 is in a class by iself and appeals to a broad range of potential customers. i for one am one of the many Miata owners who loved our cars but wanted soemthing with more pace, more comfort and mare performance. The RX-8 delivers all of these atributes as well as many more.:p

Quick_lude

There is also one thing that hasn't been mentioned enough here. RWD! Most of the other cars in the same class and price are FWD.. Personally I'm looking for as much performance as I can afford.. In Canada there is not another RWD sports/sporty coupe with RWD under 40K. I'm not a fan of the WRX, inside or out and cars like S2000, 350Z, G35C are all $45K plus. So for me it's a combination of things: it's rwd, LIGHTWEIGHT at around 3000lbs, cheap(relatively speaking), handles very well, has 247hp with mid 14's 1/4 mile, (hopefully :D ) I like how it looks inside and out, the engine revs to 9000rpm which I like, great 6spd tranny, it's got 4 seats which is a nice option even though I'm single. If my budget was bigger I might look at the S2000.. but otherwise for $37K Cnd the RX-8 with all the features it has is a bargain imo. Sure it might not be as "hardcore" as the S2000.. but that's where the fun of modding begins! :D

Honestly the only serious drawback if you can call it that is the fuel economy so far. At 14-15L/100km it's on the very thirsty side. I'm hoping that if and when the ECU/HP/richness etc issues are worked out this might bring the fuel economy to more acceptable levels of say 11-13L/100km.

8_wannabe

A slightly different way of looking at this: Few, if any, of us bought these cars as "investments", which typically is the context of "bath-taking" as you use it. Everyone who has gotten the RX-8 presumably now has a car they love at a price they believe is reasonable. If others pay $2000 less later (which I agree is likely) hey, we got to be first on the road and reveled in the admiring and envious looks as we cruised. Plus, we got to enjoy the car for the summer, which is one reason I wanted mine so quick. I couldn't bear another summer in the minivan. To me, it was worth every dime.

BTW, I thought Mazda was shooting to import around 15-18K 8's annually to the US, at least for now. Are they now saying 30,000? Bummer. I hope this doesn't turn into another PT Cruiser, which was exotic for about a week until you were tripping over them all over the K-Mart parking lot.

jonalan

All I can say is, when I was in my late 20s/early 30s I was no where near making OVER $70k/year!!!

Skyline Maniac

Let's wait another 2-3 months then we'll know exactly how well this car will sell. I think IkeWRX makes some good points regarding the target audience issue. Mazda is targetting people in their 20-30 singles that are making around $70k.... then I think they are way off. How many recently graduated single males are willing to spend around $30k for a Mazda crossover?

However, look at the sales data from Japan and you'll see the RX-8 is selling like hot cakes there. (comparatively) Mazda Japan doesn't have the reputation for below avaerge service/quality issue that Mazda USA has. I believe this will haunt the RX-8 in the US more than anything else.

SGC

If you can't afford to buy it, don't buy it. If you have to worry about resale value you're in over your head, IMO.

I was satisfied with the price I paid for mine, and the price tomorrow or 6 months from now doesn't affect me at all. I'm certainly not going to worry about +/- $2k.

I seriously doubt there will be 30,000 RX-8s in this country for a long time. As far as I know this initial batch will be it until next year; they still need to produce for Europe and other non-Japan, non-North America markets and then catch up with Japanese demand....

SGC

SGC

Please note that the RX-8 does not smell like hot cakes.

SGC

Skyline Maniac

A note on resale value~

When I was in market for a brand new Mazda Millenia S back in late 1994. (MSRP $37500) The dealerships would not sell for less than $500 off MSRP since it was such a hot car and won a comparison test done by Motor Trend (?) against the BMW, Infiniti and Mercedes. Mazda at the time claimed the Miller Cycle engine was the way of the future, power like a 3L V6, consume gas like a 2L I4, and has reliability of nothing before it. I was very tempted to buy, but decided to wait a year. By June of 1995, I ended up buying a 8 months old Millenia for $22000 from the dealership. That is over $15000 off the MSRP in depreciation within ONE YEAR. (Not accounting in what that the seller got by selling it in the first place) I don't know about the RX-8, but for your sake I sure hope this won't happen to the RX-8.

Synopsis: The Miller Cycle engine was unreliable (in shop every month), went through 3 trannies in 6years, tires lasted no longer than 20,000 miles due to alignment problem the dealership refuse to fix, lots of minor annoyances. In the end, I concluded the car wasn't even worth the $22000 that I paid at 1 yr used.

Haze

All the cars that I looked at against the 8 were sedans of varying sportiness. I have always owned sport sedans ever since I could afford one. I am replacing a 1993 Nissan Maxima SE. So I drove a new Max, G35 Sedan, Volvo S60 [don't know what I was thinking there], cadillac CTS Manual trans. Out of these only the G35 and the Cadillac were even close to the quality and drivability of my 93 max. The new max was a massive disappointment to me being too heavy, a skwungy suspension and a very loose shifter feel. The G35 was very tight and very competent on the road, but the Cadillac nosed it out for me as a sport sedan with a better all around interior, but the two cars are very close in quality. The suspension was a little loose, but it was a lovely feel, powerful and a great drive [I drove it without the sport package that the Infiniti had].

The thing here is that they all had one problem. They were sedans. I own three cars currently. A nissan, a 1967 Alfa Romeo, and a 1972 Mercedes. Nothing modern out sedans that '72 merz, and as sports cars go, the Alfa is very competent. It isn't going to win any great races against modern sports cars, but the feel of the car is pure sport. So what I wanted in a car is not a sports car or a sedan. I wanted a grand tourer. An honest 2+2 that rides better than a sports car and handles better than a sedan in a small package, and the only one out there is the Mazda RX 8. It isn't a kind of car people build much any more, but then neither was the roadster when Mazda brought out the Miata. The Miata was introduced when its only competition was a completely out dated Alfa Spider which sold in the low thousands a year, and in its last year sold in the hundreds, and mazda made a success of that.

My point here is that the RX 8 is hard to categorize because it is neither a sedan nor a coupe. The action of the doors acting as only half doors and only in conjunction with the front doors make the car an "uber-coupe" neither a sedan nor coupe. Perfect for me. The suspension is too soft to be a true sports car "too much body roll" from many accounts, but apparently it does not have the shock through the spine that a sports car has even though the suspension has all of the components of a real sports car. The tuning was chosen to be softer. It's a touring suspension, and again just what I want for a daily driver. If they build an RX 7 out of this, the 8 won't trip over it because it isn't a sports car. That has to have been a thought for Mazda when they designed it. They wanted something new.

It's unique, and I can't wait to get it. As for demographics. I too fall into the target audience although not at that income level, however, although the car is affordable to me. It is worth noting that the car is cheaper than the '93 RX 7 that I just couldn't flip the bill for when I was in my early twenties.

Mazda is taking a risk, but they did with the Miata and that paid. I think that this car too will be able to find a market, even in such a down time for car sales as the current period.

-H

TomsterRX8

If you can't afford to buy it, don't buy it. If you have to worry about resale value you're in over your head, IMO.

Uh, I make well over the average income of the targeted buyer. Trust me, I can afford it. That doesn't make me any happier when I see this car going for $500 over invoice in the all-too-near future. I actually got the car at a decent discount in that I know the owner of the dealership. But I, like everyone else on this board, wanted that head-turning sensation like I had with the '93 RX7 and the '00 S2000. The RX7 turned out to depreciate close to $1,000/month in the year that I owned it. The S2000 actually rose in value in the year that I owned it. The difference, obviously, is the amount imported into the U.S. You'll never, ever see a parking lot full of S2000's but, at the rate the RX8 is pouring into this country, head turns will quickly turn into head shakes, as in "Not another F-ing RX8!"

If it were females that were speeding up to check out me and the new ride then I'd say that $2,000 is a cheap way to meet them. Unfortunately, as is the case with all the cool cars I've owned, 99% of the thumbs up comes from goofy *** guys.

I hope I'm wrong and you guys are right. If I'm right then the $12,000 I put down on the car will be eaten up after the 1st year. And that, sir, does make the car unaffordable.

delhi

there's something to be said about a sporty car especially in today's modern sporty car segment that is still weighing a pifle over 3000lb. compare that to the Z, WRX, G35C etc which are way over 3000 in the case of g35C (3500lb!)
you can throw in heavy-duy stiff suspension, but it will not beat a light-weight car in terms of handlng and communication b/t car and driver. 'nuff said.
sure the 8 can still be lighter but I'm impressed that it's still comparatively lighter than the competition.

RodsterinFL

Ditto with what Zoomster said - price compared to competition, looks, versatility.

What initially drew me to the RX 8 was the body style. The front reminded me of an Italian Race car (wasn't sure which one) but that was one thing. Now I know the car - the Ferrari 360 Modena.

The second was the price. I was astonished. I am a coupe/sedan person that refuses to give up driveability and join the SUV crowd. (they are great for trips but I'll fly!

The third was the back seat capability. If this had been an RX7 remake I would have admired it but not purchased it just like the Corvette, S2000, or even Miata. (we have a miata that is solely one famiy member's car)

Fourth was drivability - sports drive and RWD (thats special)

Watch the Japanese video clip on the car on this forum under media. It kind os sums it up for me although I am not married or have a pair of bridesmaids but I do know a couple of Thai girls who...