This is a serious question...by the time the FD was discontinued in the U.S. 9 years ago, its retail price had reached near $40K. It had essentially the same engine as the 8 (albeit with turbos), no airbags, no traction control, no CD player, no HID headlights, and so on...in other words, few "modern" features. Prices on all other cars have certainly gone up since 1995. So why is the RX-8 such a relative bargain?

Is it greatly increased manufacturing efficiencies? I don't perceive a lot of cut corners, compromises, or build quality issues with the 8; i.e. it isn't cheap quality.

Any thoughts?

 

I dunno... up here in Canada its a 45-50K car

 

Maybe because it's competitors are all in the same general price range? I am sure they would love to be able to sell it for more

 

Good question.

But, even at invoice price they're still sitting on the lot, so clearly they're not under-priced.

 

TODreamer
If i were you I'd shop around the GT with out nav or moonroof msrp is under 40 K and with it , it gets closer to your 45K and there not likly to get that.

Not to mention there talking $US

 

I think it has to do with the market perception toward the rotary engine issues, or should I say the "older" rotary engine such as in the RX-7.
It takes time to build the trust again, and if all goes well my feeling is that the RX-8 should increases in prices in the next following years. It's all about supply and demand.
In the meanwhile, we are getting them for way less than what they are worth! I would say around 20%-25% undervalued.

 

FD is a different to 8. FD is a pure sports car. 8 is a 4 doors sports car.
and also the competitors is different. FD's competitors was supra 3000gt .... those kinda car is around 40k i think that's the major problem of the price.

 

Another thing also is that in the RX-8 price range you are starting you get alot of other choices for a few extra grand and people are willing to squeeze themself a little bit more for a higher end car.

 

What???? I've got a 40k deal on a GT with a sunroof without nav, and nav is 3k here. You can get a nice GS for 35k.

 

I own an 8 and don't mean to burst anyones bubble. There are lots of great performers out there right now. Obviously for the price and what you get I like the 8 the best. But look at the 2005 Vette. Read about it in the new Car and Driver. Here is a car that's base price is around 43,500 with 400HP and some think can out perform a Porche 911S($80,000). I agree with the above post that it is Market perception. But also this is a day when manufacturers seem to be making every car performance minded and making it a really competitive market for sporty cars. That said, there is no other car i would rather be driving then the 8. As an engineer(computer) I love the great ideas that went into this car. There is nothing like driving a rotary and most people don't even realize I have back seats until i show them. The list of things i like could go on and on. But just as the post says, this is a great car at a great price and I don't see where corners have been cut.

 

Why are you questioning why the RX-8 is so inexpensive?! Just accept is as a given. This is great. The price gave me the opportunity to actually own a rotary engine sports car.

 

I think its just priced right.

 

Its priced to compete in todays market.When the rx-7 was out,most cars that performed like it were in its price range.Since then the rsx-s,s2000,srt-4 etc have all brought more to the table for less money.The 8 is just competing in todays market.

 

maybe I should have elaborated.... the 8 I want is 45-50K

Thats a GT with the entire body kit, spoiler, rotary accents, strakes, moonroof+PDI+Frieght with 15% sales tax on the road.... yup.... that'll do it

I don't want the GS and I cant just chill with a base GT..... I wanna dress mine up a bit. I never treat myself and its about time i did

 

Whoa. Since when was an S2000 less than an RX-8, and where can I sign up? :D

 

Let's see...one of the threads listed total sales of RX8s near 75,000 worldwide. At an average selling price of, say, $30,000, Mazda just grossed 2.25 BILLION DOLLARS on the RX8 alone. They priced it competivitely to sell, and given what it is, it does! Zoom, Zoom!

 

CAD CAM
Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing

Cad Cam has lead to a revolution in automobile development and construction. It takes fewer actual full scale models and bucks to create a road going product which means less up front money to develop a new vehicle and a stronger lighter more efficient chassis which is cheaper to manufacture. This is the greatest reason for flat price increases fore vehicles which are leaps and bounds better than their predecessors. Over the past decade, many cars have remained flat in price while including more and more luxury features. Basically, it is manufacturing efficiencies that permits cheaper prices. Mazda would not and has not priced the RX 8 below its profit threshhold. It was just cheaper to develop and build than the FD because of changes in manufacturing techniques.

 

Here is how price is decided:
The car is driven by several demographics. These demographics then form into focus groups and they then drive several other cars. Then they are asked: Would you rather have ___ or an rx-8? This is done with cars in the same class from the bottom to the top. So you would say yes to a 911 and no to a Tiburon. When a favorable percentage say yes and the demographic can afford it, you set the price close to the competing cars (for the rx-8: G35, Mustang). If the car can make a profit after costs, then you make the car.

 

besides trying to be competitively priced with the Z and other cars in the low-30's, the rx8 will be sharing platform with the upcoming miata, so there will be some shared costs. i believe that wasn't the case with the rx7. i'm sure they did their math, if they priced it right, they could sell more and make th profit from volume. but obviously this car isn't selling very well. i have yet to see $5k off the z in my local paper! Which I just saw last week on the 8. still holding out for the turbo 8 or the next rx7. the gas mileage thing is a big issue that mazda has to fix.

 

They have 2 at my local dealer.One for $32,and change and another for $31,and change.Not less,but competable.

 

...remember, the other BIG thing that killed the the 3000, 300 turbo, etc....was the god awful amount of insurance one had to pay.......people got sick of it.......

 

I think you answered your own question - price is one of the things that killed the FD.

 

Supply and demand economics.

 

Hmm. I bought my 8 for about $33,000, tax and fees included. I imagine the S2000 would run about $38,000~40,000. I win. :D

Personally, I prefer having not to spend so much money on such a car of quality as the RX-8. It's priced fine if you ask me. Yes, there are better and more powerful cars, but they come with a price, not to mention a high insurance premium. My RX-8's premium is high enough as it is.

 

Inexpensive relative to what? other cars, the rx-7?
A couple of things: I see that Honda, Toyota sell well. Nissan coming off a banner year, let's price the cars aggressively and hope they sell well over the next few years. That'll amortize the tooling costs, design costs, ramp up of production costs.
Let's use the same platform across several models, further amortizing costs.
So, it may just be juggling the numbers, and trying to grab market share.
Lexus did the same thing when first introduced. They were offering comparable product to MB and BMW, at much lower prices to grab market share.