Hello. I don't post on here much, but I had a question: I had a 2005 Shinka. Towards the end of my ownership of this vehicle (about 60k miles), I was beginning to see a degradation of the compression. After reading the forum this doesn't seem to be an isolated event. Did Mazda fix this problem, or is that what I should expect on all the year models of the RX8?

In other words, I'd love to buy another RX8, but what year(s) should I be looking at?
Thanks in advance!

 

You should expect it in all years, it's not a problem that can be fixed. Mileage may vary, some people go the car's useful life on one engine (I still have my original 2004, for example), others have gone through 2-3-4 engines over the years.

2009+s are supposed to be a little better, and a 2011 would still be under engine warranty until 2019.

The best strategy I can recommend is buying any year RX8 that has a fresh engine with confirmed good compression, OR buy one with a dead engine and have the engine replaced with a fresh rebuild (from Mazda or a rotary shop). The second option gives you all the control and you can often find mint condition cars with bad engines for super cheap.

 

Thank you, sir.