From yahoo autos "The Mazda MX-5 won the award for the best car in the class, while Mazda's RX-8, due to its high maintenance costs, was the Worst Affordable Sports Car for the Money."
Link: http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/auto...he-money-2010/
Was it the $100 spark plugs or the $250 runflats? Oh wait its the wapping quart of oil a month!

 

i saw that too. i wonder if it's still lingering misconceptions that we blow through engines.

 

Ive gone through 4 starters,,,

 

We sure do go through more coils, spark plugs, taillight gaskets, sun visors, oil and gas than others though.

 

I hear scheduled timing belt changes for the cramped engine bay can be quite expensive...LOL

 

I'd say it's probably accurate. I don't know what else was in the category, but you would have a hard time saying that the RX-8 is cheap to maintain. One of the warnings we give prospective buyers in here is that repairs are generally not cheap, and to avoid dealer work because of what they charge.

I am willing to bet that the comparisons for evaluation are pricing repairs and maintenance at the dealer, in which case I'm not sure there is an 'affordable sports car' (as per the category name) with more than $300 spark plug change, $600 coil change, etc...

Do the stuff yourself and it quickly drops in price, probably below alot of other sports cars, but I am sure they aren't pricing everything out as self maintenance, especially on the 'quirky niche car'.

 

All I have to say is who really buys a sports car for low ownership costs? I mean they all will rack up there in costs for gas and repairs. Its just like RIWWP said, do the work yourself and the price drops drastically

 

$300 plugs?
Last time I flooded it, I called the dealer for ***** and giggles just to see what they would charge, and they wanted $500 to deflood and change the plugs. I laughed and hung up the phone.

 

$300 for plugs is typical quote from the dealers that is reported here. Your dealer may vary obviously, although your dealer might have just been charging $200 for the deflood and $300 for the plugs Someone recently got a $2,700 quote to change the upper intake manifold rather than just cleaning it...

100% agree there are dealers that charge ridiculous prices, although there are dealers that don't, and those prices are still generally very high.

Just saying that the dealer's prices are probably used for the News Week rankings of cost of ownership, and our dealers have a 'no one overcuts us!' policy

 

Sports car or not your not going to find another car out there that requires plugs and wires every 30k.

 

nice find.. hahaha i don't give a **** what they say, i love this car no matter what =)

 

"Worst" here means "most expensive", since it is a value / cost of ownership rating, the MX-5 being "lease expensive".

Solidifies my choice of an MX-5 for a cheaper track car / beater

 

i changed my plugs and coils once in 60k miles of ownership. and of course 3k mile oil changes.

thats been about it.

and who sticks with oem tires?

 

Ditto.

 

I think it's awesome. Adds to the exclusiveness.

Honda owners need not apply here. Please proceed to the Civic aisle.

 

My 8 is a money pit...sitting at home now in need of a new engine. 125,000 miles so I gotta pay. Any car that can't get at least 150,000 miles relatively easily these days isn't worth spit imo. Still love her though.

 

Yeah I love her dearly but in 100k (quickly from memory) four tail lights, three or four visors, two starters, two alternators, three batteries, three engines, fuel tank, heater control, heater ****, drivers side windows switch, ABS module, and...................... now my AC is acting up and my drivers side visor is breaking

But I was smart enough to buy a 100k extended warranty so it took care of everything after my 50k B2B expired. Now I am past 100k so my current drivers side visor and the AC issue will come out of pocket which sucks but I did get a new engine at 96,000 so I am okay with everything since she is paid off.

Oh, and not to mention the many coils, plugs, premix, oils, and two floods that I have dealt with.

But man this car puts a smile on my face. I equate it to having a hot as hell, gold digging wife who is constantly spending money, burning the food, and nagging your *** everyday. You hate her guts most of the time but you forget about all of that when she is cupping your *****.

 

That is sig worthy, I might have to steal it. Pretty much sums it up though.

 

I accidentally broke a plug insulator whilst removing it to deflood my carbon locked/flooded engine (thank god for Seafoam), I called Putnam Mazda in Burlingame (Bay Area) CA because I didn't want to wait two days for a plug from NAPA, Putnam Mazda wanted to charge me $360 for ONE spark plug? I asked him "are you serious? do you really need to make $340 in profit off one spark plug? is business really THAT bad?" needless to say I waited the two days and bought a plug form NAPA for $26...

I was told that you can't reuse your plugs after a carbon lock/flood and not after using seafoam... I'll tell you though... I wrote to NGK and asked them about that, they said to clean the laser iridium plugs just as you would any other plug, sand blast or light sandpaper (I found a small wire brush and brake parts cleaner worked wonders) and reinstall, said they are actually more durable than regular or platinum plugs...

 

Well look at it this way, Mazda took first place, and last place. Which is the 2 most significant places in any race. So there! lol. I think I heard something like this on Top Gear once?

 

Gas ain't no joke!!

I need to check plugs, wires, and coils; mileage has taken a sudden drop for the worst, but honestly... at 17.7K miles should I be dealing with this already?


We also don't have the most bulletproof transmission, but then 9000rpm aren't friendly to things with more than three moving parts, and I have a warranty to get that mess sorted. ACT clutch install in the wings???

 

What yahoo should also evaluate is what car models have the best web site help forums and which car group owners are the most knowledgeable about their car model.

My opinion we probably have more RX8 women that are more knowledgeable about how their car works compared to the men of some other model cars.

 

8 is a high-maintenance car, a potential money pit.

 

Yes but one leads to another no?

You have to know something about DIY for this car... it needs a lot of it.

 

What maintenance costs?

4+ years, 60k miles: one set of spark plugs $80 at 59k miles (3 still looked good could have left them in), one set of coils and a battery at 59K miles and Mazda install/diagnose labor $533 (3 were toast), K&N filter cleaner $10, still have original wires (considering replacement) what else...? There must be something...

$3 thing of oil once ever couple of months (I look at this the same way as fuel - doesn't count), $30 oil change every 7000 miles and tires which are a given...

Is that significantly more than any other car on the road?

Maybe I had good luck w/ 8 so far.