WOW!! Just got back from test driving an 8.
 

WOWOWOW. I test drove an 04 Silver 8 today for the first time ever. Planning on purchasing one, so I took it for a spin. Let me tell you, they only had the auto in stock for a drive, I took it anyway. It was SO much fun, so I cant even imagine the 6 speed. I fell in love, so smooth and comfortable. Hopefully this week I'll be a proud new owner of an 04 WB 6speed GT. Question though, do you guys think an 04 with 35k miles on it, GT, fully loaded, for 18k is good? Ill be trading my car in, so in total i'll be paying about 9500 for the car. Thanks guys!

Maybe you could add location to your profile. It's hard to advise on price when I don't know where you are.

Btw, is an 04 an OK choice? Or have they had plenty of problems? What should I be looking out for?

Thx for the update to location
I have an 04 GT 6MT with 58000 km
It's had the usual service and a few TSBs for sunroof rails, squealing brakes, contact marks, goo on dipstick, headlight levelling sensor plus recalls to check the engine and suspension

Still getting the beep every day.

I am not sure also about the 2007 RX 8. I love the drive, but I drive a lot to work (350 miles + a week).

What is the reliability of the RX 8?

Gas will be a fortune for premium because it is $3.73 a gallon for premium and rising here in California Bay Area.

When buying and RX8, there are a few "common-sense" things to check off or otherwise watch out for:

a) Random erections near redline or during midturns
b) Jack Nicholson, style, Joker smile while driving
c) Mob of hot chicks chasing you down
d) SEARCH button on the upper right hand side of the screen.

I've got an 04. Aside from a few dealership visits, I highly recommend em.

List of dealership fixes from what I can remember...
Water in tail lights (replaced gasket / tail light)
Poor starting (replaced battery/spark plugs)
Vibration (replaced motor mounts)

All warranty covered, no questions asked.

I have an 04, and for that price and that many miles I'll buy another one in a heartbeat..

You might be able to find an 05 GT for about $19500 - $21000.

ZoooomZooooooom get a GT:)

Wow, thats insane, I thought it was too much here ($3.22)

The car will run fine on 87 octane. Even out here in the SW desert!

Look for 2006 base 6MT models if you've got such a healthy trade-in to use. Or, at the very least, ask to see the entire warranty service history for the 2004 model. If you can find a 2006 around, the rebates and incentives will maked the price pretty ridiculous!

Not a bad deal but think you could find a05/ 06 in that ballpark if you stick it out a little longer. Silver is known on here for being in an uncommon amount of fender benders so I'd look at it's history for sure.

Well, we've managed to talk them down so far to high 16's. Im pretty content with that. Carfaxed it and came back clean, was a company car for about 2 years. Only other thing I have to check on when I go back today is the TSB/Recalls, and to see if the notorious tail light flood is an issue.

Btw, it is a GT :) Fully loaded / Nav.

Who are you buying it from? Wayne Mazda? I'm in NJ - Parsippany. I hear decent things about Wayne. I wouldn't say I know of a better Mazda dealer in North Jersey. I have gone through Grecco for a few cars mostly because they have a few sales people who know they don't know much and will leave you alone and just fetch keys for test drives.

For an 04, I'd definitely make sure the emissions recall was done. You should have 25k miles of warrantee coming your way to shake out any other problems. Buying a moderately used 04 might be better than if you had bought it brand new as any catastrophic failures should of occurred already.

One thing I would recommend is take it on a highway, put it in 6th, and at 60 mph floor it. 90% of angry 8 owners seem to have thought they bought mustangs. The other 10% had lemons of one sort or another. The vast majority of us love the car.

Oh, and go to the NE forum and start looking up meets.

Yeah its Wayne Mazda. Thanks! I'll be going down there tonight, so I'll definatly ask for the emissions recall, anything else? I took an Automatic out for a test drive since they had no manuals, and I saw the car after we got back, so we'll take it out tonight. What should I be looking for after 60mph? Decent acceleration? Oh, and I was planning on checking out the flooding in the tailight. As for the meets, it'll be a first for me but i'll definatly check it out!

I will take the mob of hot chicks to go please and a side order of holiday inn with that

Yes - the rotary engine lacks tourqe. - simple solution : shift to fourth - then floor it!!!!!!!!!! :) see - ya!!!!!!!

The flooding in the taillight is a non-issue. It happens so often that most dealers probably have taillights and gaskets piled up in thier stock rooms. Chrism has gone through something like 5 sets of taillights. I think it's 90% how the gasket is installed and 10% the minor gasket design change they made. They only replace the tail light if there is water or water spots in the tail light. If they can dry out the tail light without noticeable spotting, it's 30 min labor and 5$ in parts covered by warrantee. The emissions recall is big as it was the one that identified the engines running on bad OMPs and destine for failure/low compression I think. The starter/spark plug/battery recall is decent too but thats probably been done as well.

At 60 mph in 6th gear, almost nothing will happen when you floor it. You're in a sports car and you think "ZOOM ZOOM POWZA!!!" but you are 2k short of the power band and a rotary generally has very little low end. Every time you want to put boot to ass from a cruising speed, you will need to down shift 2 gears. That's more or less how I drive anyway so it suits me. A lazier driver or someone used to a low torque peak car will want magic kick in the ass at highway speeds. The 8 doesn't have it. Every review you read is something like "handles great, dead sexxy, great ride quality, mediocre gas mileage, lacks punch."

I've found 6th gear to be completely pointless in this car. :rofl:

Ok so let me get this clear. If it has NOT had the emissions recall would that be good or bad. If it has had it, that would mean it has been fixed already most likely...correct?

A danger with used 8s is also you don't know if you're going to get one that guzzles gas more or less than others. Some 8s will get 22 on the highway and some will get 17 going the same exact speed.

Ya the 6th gear is more like an overdrive gear

I think that poster meant that 6th is NOT a very good overdrive gear. 6th is way too similar to 5th.

6th gear on the 8 needs to be higher so that the revs are lower while cruising.

To get any meaningful acceleration, one has to shift out of 6th to 4th, most likely, so 6th should allow super low RPM freeway cruising.