mzdoggmann

I'm looking at a leftover '04 model RX-8, Red on Red, at a Mazda dealership in Alexandria, VA... this is the first real sports car to come in my income range, but I've been warned by others whether valid or not, on buying a rotary engine car. I just moved into the city, and anticipate 90 percent of my daily driving will be short distance commutes, good amount of stop & go in the Wash beltway rush hour traffic scene.
I've heard about Carbon Lock up problems in this type of driving with Rotaries in the previous generations, and suspect Renesis also prone due to its nature. Also, I have liberal use of a company car and travel out of town, so the RX-8, if I buy it, will be sitting sometimes for days.
Reliability and durability are important factors for me, but looks are also up there, and there are few new cars that can go head to head with an RX-8 on the Looks factor.
With all this in mind, I would like suggestions if the RX-8 is the right car, especially taking into consideration the short stop & go city driving, sporadic, that I anticipate for the unforeseen future.

therm8

as long as you let her rip once or twice a trip, you shouldn't have any carbon buildup problems. The biggest thing you might notice is lackluster mpg. I can get 23-24 (26 if i go the speed limit :p) on longer highway trips, but only about 15 for all city, stop and go type driving. But I've always had one of the higher mpg 8's here.

There have been some issues with letting the car sit, for some people. Mine sat on 2 occassions for 3 months, with no starting. The first time I came back to a dead battery, but started right up when jumped. The second, no issues at all. But it seems that each and every 8 is quite unique, and some have issues while others don't. Doesn't really help with your choice, i know :o

dazygirl415

I'm about 95% city driving and I haven't noticed anything but yucky gas mileage, but that's a part of the deal.

mzdoggmann

How long have you had it, & how much mileage racked up so far??

sco

I second therm8's comments.

90% of my driving is city driving - trips of 15 minutes or less. I've done 17000kms with no hassles. I try to give it a good rev when I'm on longer trips when the car is fully warmed up. I get 14.5/15L per 100km (around 16mpg) around town. I've never flooded and never had problems starting.

TCReedy1

I do a pretty large amount of city driving in my 8 which I`ve had for 1.5 yrs and have clocked up 30,000 miles. There are some precautions with repeated short trips. It all boils down to the following things;

1. When the engine is cold, the combustion mixture is kept very rich (choke operation). Repeated driving with a cold engine will result in carbon build up which will later result in effects like pre-detonation or pinging. Not serious so long as you clean the engine out with a good hot thrashing reasonably often. This is normal for any gasoline engine - rotaries just do it quicker!

2. A cold engine has a lot of water vapor kicking about (every gallon of gas you burn produces a gallon of H2O which comes out of the exhaust as steam - hence cloudy exhaust on a very cold morning). The point is that repeated trips where the engine does not warm up fully will result in you getting some water vapor in the engine oil and a milky gunk builds up on your oil dipstik. This is normal - the H2O vapor finds its way through the crankcase pressure equalization system (PCV). Again, nothing to worry about so long as you regularly get the engine well warmed up. This is also normal for any type of gasoline engine - again, the rotary just gets there quicker.

3. Mazda just released a video telling us about correct cold start and short journey procedures. In essence, a lot of owners have been experiencing poor start up and/or engine flooding in the cold. This is all avoidable if you make sure you do the following after a cold run; When you get home or to your destination, put the gearbox into Neutral, apply the parking brake then rev the engine to 3000 rpm for about 8 seconds. Then switch off the engine after that. This simple process will guarantee starting consistency - especially when its cold outside.

How can you tell if your engine is thoroughly warm? Theres several ways but the best and simplest is let the coolant temp gauge get to its nominal steady-state operating point for at least 2 to 5 minutes. By the way, repeated acceleration in city traffic is one good way to warm up your engine fairly well. Slow warm up generally only only occurs on easy boulevard type runs where you are cruising along at a steady 40 to 50 mph without stopping much.

Overall the Renesis engine is fantastic. Give it regular oil changes at the dealer only, not at any high street place or you`ll eventually regret it. The grade of oil is not yet commonly available onthe high street and the dealer is only about $35.00 or so. Finally if you are buying a used 8, double check as priority #1 that they have changed the oil at least every 5000 miles and that all ECM flash upgrades have been done by Mazda.

Good luck with this awesome fun car!!

Tom