Napboy

On the front page of yahoo from Car & Driver, there's an article on surprise gas guzzlers with picture of your wonderful little car. Here's what it says about the 8:

2008 Mazda RX-8
1.3-liter 2-rotor, 6-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
16 mpg city/22 mpg highway

The little Japanese automaker that can, Mazda consistently produces vehicles that make us smile. No other company imbues its entire product line—including entry-level vehicles—with such focus on driving fun. This focus apparently isn’t lost on the public, as Mazda’s sales numbers grew more than any other major automaker's in 2007.

An unavoidable trade-off for entertaining driving, though, is fuel economy. The RX-8 scores worse than some might expect because of its rotary engine, a design inherently thirstier than a piston engine. Displacing just 1.3 liters, the RX-8’s 232-hp Renesis rotary with 159 pound-feet of torque sucks down fuel like Homer Simpson chugging Duff at Moe’s—returning just 16 mpg city and 22 highway.

We like the RX-8 enough that it made our 10Best list from 2004 to 2006 and won its last comparo despite being in its fifth year of production, but the rotary is certainly not without its compromises. The bingo-and-buffet-express Honda Accord V-6 runs a quicker and faster quarter-mile, and the Chevrolet Corvette makes 204 more horsepower and 269 more pound-feet of torque yet bests the RX-8 by 4 mpg on the highway.

It is rumored that the RX-8 will receive the next iteration of the Renesis rotary, dubbed the 16X. It weighs less than the current 13-B but gets a bump in displacement, and with the more precise fuel metering of direct injection, it is entirely possible that more horsepower and torque could be coupled with more mpg. We love 9000-rpm redlines and hope the rotary’s flatulent exhaust note will pour from generations of Mazda vehicles to come.

mysql

gah. I hate it when people say rotaries are bad on fuel economy.

Look at this RX-7 getting amazing economy:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=81GPj-oOoY0

Detrich

nice article. and, thanks for sharing.

we WILL have our day in the sun eventually. i know we will...

keep the faith everyone.

Napboy

lol... that tailpipe flame burned more fuel in those few seconds than I drive in a week.

New Yorker

I hate that rap, too. Yes, the 8 does get relatively poor fuel economy for a car with a little engine. But the rotary is unique, and what nobody bothers to explain is that, while most small engine cars give you good fuel economy, the 8 offers you something else: sublime feel and handling (a direct result of the tiny engine's size, weight and placement. Sports Car International's editor-in-chief just wrote that he considers the 8 one of the five best-handling cars you can buy today. At any price.)

In other words, because of what people are used to, it's ok to trade fuel economy for power; it's not ok to trade it for handling. Oh well.

loco-8

We knew this. Now non-RX8 drivers know it. I stopped driving it much since gas went to$3+/gallon. (I've put only 3000 miles in the past 2 years!) I do fill it up with premium and red-line the hell out of it on the weekends. Nothing, I've driven takes corners so well!

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

I dont see they mention anything about *1.3 liter can do 230-ish horsepower is impressive*

Try that with a Piston

Haze

It bugs me mostly because the mileage is pretty much right in line with my last car. My last car was a 1993 Nissan Maxima SE. It generated 190HP, and got 21/25. In real world it would sometimes do better on the highway, but the RX8 gets 18/24 for me, and it generates 232HP. That seems about right.

I think that the thing which really shocks people is that they see 1.3, and immediately think of a tiny little 4 banger. That is inappropriate. The mileage should be measured against output and not displacement.

As for the 'vette, it does get better mileage, but if I drove it the way that I drive the 8 I don't think that I would be seeing the EPA estimated mileage.

Razz1

^ Ja that's the problem with gas comparisons. If you drove the Vette, Mustang or Z the same way you would get sucky MPG too!

CyberPitz

Quick, use scare tactics to get readers!....

Wait a second, this isn't new news!

Really, this cars MPG isn't bad....look at 1985. Cars back then had the same avg mpg, and they were bolstering it like that's so awesome. What changed now, besides oil companies wanting more money from us?

RotoRocket

iTrader: (1)

I love the 8.

But c'mon. GM has full size trucks with V8s that get better highway mileage.

They do need to improve the fuel efficiency of the wankel. If anyone can, Mazda can.

Raptor75

Wow the RX-8 is a gas hog and the press recognizes it, what a shock!

Common guys do you live under a rock this car is a great ride and a blast to drive but it has the worst fuel economy for what it puts out. In the cold weather here my MPG dipped below 11 MPG in normal driving.

All the fanboying in the world can't change physics, a rotary by nature is at least 15% less efficient then a piston engine while producing inferior torque. You do realise that their is a reason Mazda is the only company producing this engine.

This rap is 100% deserved so deal with it. Enjoy the car but deal with the facts, this car for it's weight and power output has terrible gas mileage. FACT!

kersh4w

iTrader: (3)

i love the fact that our little car is being compared to the vette, which costs about 2x as much.

fully loaded, new, the msrp of an rx8 is what. 38-40k? fully loaded corvette is what.. 100k?

lol. yeah, thats a fair comparison.

a better comparison would be against something like a porsche boxster. and OMG WHAT HAPPENED HERE? SIMILAR GAS MILEAGE? NO WAY!

CyberPitz

I don't think anybody is really DENYING that it gets bad gas mileage, just that it gets such bad press when it's not as bad as they are throwing it around as. If I didn't know anything, and I heard the way they were saying it/what they were saying, I'd think it's the worst engine in the world. Then again, if you're so strapped for cash that you can't afford a bit more gas, you REALLY shouldn't be owning a Sports car anyway....

Raptor75

Actually Consumer report compared our car to a 350Z and found our car getting around 15% worse gas mileage with poorer accelerate.....DOHHH!!!!

Now for fun lets compare it to a car with similar engine out put like a S2000.......ooowww, that MPG comparison is not pretty at all.

I believe the Corvette comparison was used to point out how ridiculus our gas mileage is. 4 sec 0-60 car with 400hp gets better gas mileage then a 232HP RX-8, pretty sad if you can look at it objectively.

Reality sucks, deal with it.

Haze

MPG as an annoyance to a great extent depends on how you view it. The mileage doesn't bother me, bu I regularly drive V12s and old V8s. I also have never gotten below 18MPG, except the couple of times that I have had underinflated tires. That can trash the mileage in the 8. The other thing that does it is to drive short trips in cold weather where the car runs most of the trip on choke. That will also completely trash the car's mileage, but I don't have occasion to make short trips. It isn't fan boying. Honestly, I don't think that the mileage is that bad.

Ike

Uhhh, a Corvette is about 45k MSP for a basic coupe and even a Z06 is only about 70k. Also, they're not comparing anything on the cars other than gas mileage compared to horsepower and the fact that the Vette gets better gas mileage on the highway and makes gobs more HP than the RX-8.

The Boxster gets similar gas mileage in the same way a loaded Vette costs 100k. Also, if you want to compare it to a Porsche look at the Cayman. It's a more powerful engine, doesn't have the extra drag of a vert, and gets nearly 30mpg on the highway. It also is a 2.7l which is only a tick larger than being equal in displacement to a 1.3l rotary. Even a much heavier, much larger displacement VQ35HR in a 350Z gets noticably better mileage than the Renesis.

In short, like others have pointed out, FACE THE FACTS.

Oh... hi guys!

kersh4w

iTrader: (3)

a base rx8 costs what.. 22k? thats still about half of a vette.

and i honestly dont see the mileage as that bad. i get 18-22mpg. for the car i get, i dont see it as bad.

edit: in the interest of true fairness, shouldnt a doubling in price also have a doubling in gas mileage, a long with a doubling of hp and everything else? i mean.. if you really want to be completely black and white fair.

dmc27

Ah Ike, the bastion of truth! lol. Where ya been? The lunar eclipse has brought out all the crazy in everyone - you're missing all the fun!


Yeah, the 8 sucks on gas. For this small an engine, and the low curb weight it should be the best mpg available on a sports coupe.


F8ck mpg.


F8ck gas prices.


It's fun.

Ike

Base MSRP is about 27k... Considering your adeptness at math in other areas something tells me not to trust your personal MPG figures.

Ike

Yo man, was crazy getting ready for the wedding and then was in Mexico for a couple weeks getting married and doing the honeymoon thing. How are things? The combines are starting so we can start thinking about the FFL again!

Raptor75

Wow!?!

turok4n64

Anyone who is defending the horrible gas mileage of the RX8 deserves to be shot. It's horrible, it has no torque, the horse power in it, while good, simply has horrible MPG on it compared to cars that have the same, more, or even 2x the HP we do.

Get over it.

mysql

I get about the same fuel economy turbo that I did NA.

gukdoebabdoe

one guy i know sc his 8 and gets 20mpg average.
so theres your solution everyone