Hi guys, I finally graduated from high school and its time for me to move on to college, I've had an Rx8 as DD for about 2 years until it blew up and decided on purchasing another one because I'm familiar with the platform. Now in college, I know rent expenses and etc are a big factor and the RX8 isn't really a student-friendly car since it does cost quite a bit to maintain and the mpg is eh, debatable. If you owned an rx8 during college what was your experience? and what kind of things did you have to do to keep your rx8 with you? any changes to your daily schedule? also, I know a lot of you guys are going to tell me to buy another car, but I'm not going to do that since I already have plans and resources in case something happens to my car and would rather not have them go to waste.

 

It’s very risky and you’ll want to really ensure the RX8 you buy doesn’t have any apparent issues and has a solid engine. In college I drove an Acura TL, loved that thing. I’ll always recommend Honda or Toyota over any Mazda for a college student. Use the money for your studies and your time in your books and not under your car.

 

you might want to focus on English instead

 

It's a bit hard to judge not knowing how well off you are financially. If buying a new engine for 5-6k us no big, on top the usual college expenses, then sure, why not. If that's a stretch you may want to rethink this. 5-6k can go a long way.

Do you plan to do short trips every day? Not a great idea in the 8.
Is it in good shape now? Have you kept up on ignition and cat health?
What killed your first 8?

 

I've owned an RX-8 throughout college with 0 issues at all, doing about 25-40k miles of driving. Only actual CEL I've ever had to "fix" while in school was a faulty gas cap lol.

The only complaint, and this will depend heavily on the type of person you are and your plans while in school, is the lack of space for transporting your belongings. I always was moving between apartments and many times leaving for summers so it was always very difficult to play Jenga and not damage the interior of the car. That said, it's really only something I encountered a couple of times per year and depends on what you think you'll want to keep with you during holidays etc.

It should also be mentioned I was really picky when looking at RX-8s and ended up waiting for a pretty good deal on one with under 50k miles. I like to believe that all of the preventative maintenance I "enjoy" doing when not busy with school and the few extra things I've installed to better track indications of engine wear will help me exceed the average lifespan of the Renesis. Though I haven't run a compression test recently since it's been driving so well... for now.

I guess my 2 important questions for you to ask yourself are:

How well do you know the car or are you willing to learn about the car?
Though I haven't had any serious CELs I have done a fair bit to the car electrically and have had to diagnose and fix a few superficial things like: condensation in taillights, failing seat-warmer, A/C controls going bad, coils having the car idle weird, and minor rattling in door panels. That's naming a few, again you could definitely live with many of these problems but would you want to? Also if something more serious does come up while at school you have to be prepared to take care of it as with any car.

How far of a drive will you be making in the car and how often?
I consider myself a fairly infrequent driver, at one point only driving 1-2 times a week. That was a while ago now but if you're going to be at a school that gets awfully cold and you're not driving it all the time you need to be prepared for things like a dead battery and having to deal with a dead car in winter. If you're putting a ton of highway miles on the car you also need to be aware that this car will cost a bit more due to fuel economy and requiring premium. Also you'll want to be hitting some higher RPMs at times to try and reduce long-term carbon build up, just make sure you have plenty of oil.


... Oh yeah and if you were planning on buying an automatic, I think that merits a recommendation to choose another car

 

If you keep up with all the maintenance it should be fine. I would suggest that you baseline the compression so that you have a general idea on engine health. Then check on regular intervals so that you don't have any surprises..

Thinking back to my college days when I had an FC insurance and gas started to add up quickly. This is where going with a boring/reliable 4 door car could help with the budget.

 

Also your success with this depends far less on what you do with the car than what the previous owner did with it.
Compression test, etc, should give you more confidence, or highlight issues before they become roadblocks.
Said another way, what we think doesn't really matter if your specific car has problems specific to your car.

 

Exactly, if the person before you was careless and didn't care to check and top off the oil or change any of the fluids on time it's highly likely you'll run into trouble quick.

Many of these cars are becoming less expensive for a reason, it'd be foolish to think you can get away with buying one cheap and expecting no issues throughout your time in school.

 

dont

 

I've really enjoyed my car, I feel like this is one of those things where if you have to ask the question then the answer is no, so maybe not yet.

 

most people weren’t that lucky whether in college or not, but there were plenty who came and went that were

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8s-sale-w...5/#post4917691

but more often than not, they left poorer than when they started

 

My first real car was an 83 FB which I drove everywhere. I went to college with it, it was our only car when I got married, (my wife drove it, I rode my mcy.) It went from Queens NY to upstate NY to Boston, to Florida, to Montana (-30) to Washington state. It was used to move, get groceries, and I even fit 4 people in it once, and 3 people plenty of times. I used it to transport my firstborn all the time, after we got a second car.

Now, the FB was a different animal, but many things were similar, like 14mpg in town with the ac on.

I really never thought about owning a different car, all through that time. I will never forget that car, because of the time in my life that I owned it, all the ups and downs that it went through with me. And believe me, money was super tight all through my ownership time.

So, if you have a car drive the car you have, I guess. I doubt you will regret it, especially if you like your car already.

But, the college life definitely took its toll on the appearance of the car, especially trying to find parking spaces on Boston streets. That kind of incidental damage might change your mind about which car to use.

If not, I recommend a mid 2000 Mazda 3. I work on a a lot of cars, and own too many right now,and have not been impressed with Honda and especially Toyota products since 2000 or so. The mid 2000 Mazdas are great cars, very little maintenance, and tend to hold up better in my opinion than T/H, especially from the more modern era. Honda still cant build a transmission. Sorry, they can't.

 

The others have said it, pretty much.

Gas cost aside, these cars do require attention so you gotta spend time and money on it. They are rewarding but you probably want to be financially stable to consider it.

If you don't have much experience wrench, grab something like a Miata or a Civic Si to start.

The Ford-Mazda era Mazda cars are pretty prone to rust from what I have seen(and this includes the 8). I talked to a guy that owns a 3 from that era that said the rear suspension might also need some work down the line, but otherwise it seems okay.

Can't go wrong with a Toyota reliability-wise other than maybe some oil consumption. The fun factor is a different story, naturally.

Honda transmissions are fine unless you are talking about the V6 autos in the late 90s and early 00s. Their manuals aren't as good as the other makes; even the mighty Civic Type R has the notorious 2nd gear grinding, but they are at least functional if you know how to drive a stick properly. Haven't driven a Mazda FWD manual trans to compare, but I have played with the manual trans in an Elantra and a Golf and both have better feels than a new Civic I tried.

 

best “dad” advice ever

 

If you have extra money laying around in case something does go wrong I don't see a problem. I had no issues with mine!

 

^^^ well your RX8 was a newer model year with reasonable mileage that you likely paid a lot more for than the avg college kid buying one today, but then you should also post up real compression results with rpm rather than “they sort of went like x-x-x“

did we mention 15 mpg ???

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