"32-page bound-in supplement in this week's Auto Express magazine offers the first results of our car reliability and satisfaction survey, which we ran in January."
and the winner is:
Mazda 6: Overall Winner (Best Car), Best Brakes, Best Build Quality

It must be encouraging for us prospective RX-8 buyers that the newest Mazda product scores so high for build quality. We have to see this in the light of the miata being the best sporty car according to JD Powers. This must give us enough reassurance that the 8 will be a quality product and very reliable.

Read it here.

 

That's definitely good news for us.

I think everyone here who loves the RX-8 no doubt have a little bit of worries concerning the reliability issue.

BTW, what are you showing us with that link ? the EVO Review or the article about the 6 ?

 

The latest magazine issue of Consumer Reports scores the 6 very highly. Heck, it made the cover!

 

I went to BOARDERS, and i read the mags there i found one of them to be interesting saying that Mazda 6 wasn't as good as it seems. It says that the stick shift gears were too long, not much of power (performance part), althought it handles very well.....:o

 

...compare a 6-S to a V6 Camry, V6 Accord, V6 Altima... drive them all, and see if you agree... *rolleyes*

for Motoring 03 (Canada's tele-automag on TSN), the 6 won Car Of the Year hands down... btw, they picked the new Altima for COY last year (over stupid Motortrend's T-Bird pick)...

 

Is it true that demand for the Manual version has been outstripping supply? Can anyone confirm this?

 

The link to EVO doesn't work. Here is the article:

Driver Power 2003: Survey Results


32-page bound-in supplement in this week's Auto Express magazine offers the first results of our car reliability and satisfaction survey, which we ran in January.

Over 25,000 readers and website users filled in our questionnaire and the survey remains the biggest and most comprehensive survey ever carried out by a weekly motoring magazine. Thanks to each and every participant. Because of your contributions, we've been able to bring you the most up-to-date and accurate information on reliability, satisfaction and dealer performance anywhere in the business.

Some statistics gleaned from the survey:

* The most improved car in the survey is the Smart city car. It leapt 43 places from 89th position overall to 46th.
* No less than 18 of the top 20 cars in the reliability charts are Japanese.
* Rover and Jaguar cars fill four of the top 10 places for ride quality.
* French gearboxes came in for a lot of criticism this year. The bottom four cars all hail from across the channel.

Winners by category were:

Mazda 6: Overall Winner (Best Car), Best Brakes, Best Build Quality
Honda Jazz: Best Reliability, Best Practicality
Saab 9-5: Best Comfort
Honda S2000: Best Performance, Best Gearbox
Porsche Boxster: Best Steering, Best Handling
Jaguar XJ: Best Ride

For full results, don't miss the current issue of Auto Express magazine. On sale now.

 

Initial build quality and long term reliability are two different issues.