So, a couple of months back, I bought this baby:
Sorry for the parking lot junk. I still don't have any decently posed pics.
Either way, I had been meaning to post a thread about it for a while, but never got around to it. Then, MCompact asked about my new (to me) car, so I figured it was about time.
As a preface, this wasn’t an ordinary car purchase for me. It was more than just a good deal on a cool car. I’m deeply invested in this car philosophically and have been for a long time. So, while I generally do my best to account for bias, please take the overwhelmingly positive parts of this review with a grain of salt.
I feel like I should stress that this car is NOT for everyone. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Fuel economy is laughably bad. Engine sounds are weird, grating, and dissonant (though I find them strangely fun somehow). Refinement is lacking. Rear seat room is nothing special. Interior rattles started showing up at 22k miles. The trunk is a bit small and severely compromised by the tiny trunk opening. You have to check and top off the oil constantly. The engine needs to spend as much time as possible in the TOP half of the 9,000 RPM rev range. And then there’s the specter of premature rotary engine failure; this is a Series 2 (2009+) car, so it has a host of reliability-related modifications, but so few Series 2 cars have been produced that there’s no real data on whether those modifications have worked. Finally, the R3 trim adds some whoppers: race-ready seats with zero lower back support (ouch!), and ride quality that is very firm and doesn’t smooth out much at highway speeds.
There are shortcomings compared to other sports cars, too. Oh boy is this car gutless in a straight line, especially at low speeds. Forget sporty sedans; unladen minivans will beat it from 0-40 or so. Going fast requires real work, mostly in the form of gearshifts and careful planning. Steering feel isn’t terrible and beats most other electrically assisted competitors, but it isn’t great either; it loads up very nicely, but there’s little to no information about the road surface.
In all honesty, for 99% of people, a BMW 128i is just a better car. What it sacrifices in capability and handling would rarely be noticed; what it gains in ease and comfort would be noticed at all times.
So, with all that on the table, here’s my verdict in a nutshell: I’m deliriously happy with my RX-8 R3. Every day leaves me more convinced that I made the right call. There are two main reasons and a bunch of secondary reasons.
The first main reason is the handling. I’m not just talking numbers; I’m talking precision, balance, and driver involvement. If you look across the entire automotive landscape for cars with similar or better back seats compared to the RX-8, you’ll find exactly one that handles similarly well in stock form, and that’s the BMW 1M. Nothing else at ANY price compares unless it has smaller back seats or no back seats at all. It’s that simple.
The second main reason is what the RX-8 represents in the current automotive landscape. Most cars are focused on typical car buyer priorities: ease, comfort, and economy. The RX-8 makes huge compromises in those departments, but it makes them in favor of the kind of responsiveness that really makes driving rewarding. The engine is the best example: massive fuel consumption and tons of heat, but compact dimensions and low mass. Anything bigger or heavier would have hurt the handling. Other cars are built much more sensibly, and end up eminently boring as a result. The RX-8 is about as entertaining as it gets, at least for the price. I genuinely believe that everyone would be better off if more people demanded less ease and more involvement from their cars. Owning and driving this car is one way in which I make that statement.
On a related point: Most sports cars are fast, but don’t feel fast; the RX-8 feels fast, but isn’t really. I think that’s perfectly sensible for a street car.
One fringe benefit is that the RX-8 R3 seems to be a great way to nip my modding tendencies in the bud. The chassis is so good and so well set-up that I would feel horrible modifying the suspension, and the engine isn’t worth modifying because it simply doesn’t respond to power mods.
The particular car I bought came from Florida with low miles (just over 21k at purchase) and LOTS of warranty left. It hit the road in late 2011, so I still have time on the bumper-to-bumper warranty. It has Mazda’s CPO powertrain warranty, which has me covered for another few years. And on top of that, all RX-8s carry an 8-year/100,000 mile warranty on the engine. I’m not aware of anything this fun at this price that would carry such good warranty coverage. Moreover, because of its newness, this car stands a good chance of being LESS troublesome to own over the next few years than most of my alternatives at the same price (e.g. BMW 128i).
Coming back to the disadvantages for a moment: Some of them are worse than I had expected (e.g. fuel economy), but most are the kinds of things that I either don’t care about or positively enjoy. I always check oil and drive in the top half of the tach anyway, so the fact that this car requires me to do those things isn’t really a problem. Everything else, I can work around.
There's more to it than that, but really what it comes down to is that I LOVE driving it and can't imagine driving anything else, at least for now. It's that good. If anyone has more specific questions, I'm happy to answer.
Sorry for the parking lot junk. I still don't have any decently posed pics.
Either way, I had been meaning to post a thread about it for a while, but never got around to it. Then, MCompact asked about my new (to me) car, so I figured it was about time.
As a preface, this wasn’t an ordinary car purchase for me. It was more than just a good deal on a cool car. I’m deeply invested in this car philosophically and have been for a long time. So, while I generally do my best to account for bias, please take the overwhelmingly positive parts of this review with a grain of salt.
I feel like I should stress that this car is NOT for everyone. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Fuel economy is laughably bad. Engine sounds are weird, grating, and dissonant (though I find them strangely fun somehow). Refinement is lacking. Rear seat room is nothing special. Interior rattles started showing up at 22k miles. The trunk is a bit small and severely compromised by the tiny trunk opening. You have to check and top off the oil constantly. The engine needs to spend as much time as possible in the TOP half of the 9,000 RPM rev range. And then there’s the specter of premature rotary engine failure; this is a Series 2 (2009+) car, so it has a host of reliability-related modifications, but so few Series 2 cars have been produced that there’s no real data on whether those modifications have worked. Finally, the R3 trim adds some whoppers: race-ready seats with zero lower back support (ouch!), and ride quality that is very firm and doesn’t smooth out much at highway speeds.
There are shortcomings compared to other sports cars, too. Oh boy is this car gutless in a straight line, especially at low speeds. Forget sporty sedans; unladen minivans will beat it from 0-40 or so. Going fast requires real work, mostly in the form of gearshifts and careful planning. Steering feel isn’t terrible and beats most other electrically assisted competitors, but it isn’t great either; it loads up very nicely, but there’s little to no information about the road surface.
In all honesty, for 99% of people, a BMW 128i is just a better car. What it sacrifices in capability and handling would rarely be noticed; what it gains in ease and comfort would be noticed at all times.
So, with all that on the table, here’s my verdict in a nutshell: I’m deliriously happy with my RX-8 R3. Every day leaves me more convinced that I made the right call. There are two main reasons and a bunch of secondary reasons.
The first main reason is the handling. I’m not just talking numbers; I’m talking precision, balance, and driver involvement. If you look across the entire automotive landscape for cars with similar or better back seats compared to the RX-8, you’ll find exactly one that handles similarly well in stock form, and that’s the BMW 1M. Nothing else at ANY price compares unless it has smaller back seats or no back seats at all. It’s that simple.
The second main reason is what the RX-8 represents in the current automotive landscape. Most cars are focused on typical car buyer priorities: ease, comfort, and economy. The RX-8 makes huge compromises in those departments, but it makes them in favor of the kind of responsiveness that really makes driving rewarding. The engine is the best example: massive fuel consumption and tons of heat, but compact dimensions and low mass. Anything bigger or heavier would have hurt the handling. Other cars are built much more sensibly, and end up eminently boring as a result. The RX-8 is about as entertaining as it gets, at least for the price. I genuinely believe that everyone would be better off if more people demanded less ease and more involvement from their cars. Owning and driving this car is one way in which I make that statement.
On a related point: Most sports cars are fast, but don’t feel fast; the RX-8 feels fast, but isn’t really. I think that’s perfectly sensible for a street car.
One fringe benefit is that the RX-8 R3 seems to be a great way to nip my modding tendencies in the bud. The chassis is so good and so well set-up that I would feel horrible modifying the suspension, and the engine isn’t worth modifying because it simply doesn’t respond to power mods.
The particular car I bought came from Florida with low miles (just over 21k at purchase) and LOTS of warranty left. It hit the road in late 2011, so I still have time on the bumper-to-bumper warranty. It has Mazda’s CPO powertrain warranty, which has me covered for another few years. And on top of that, all RX-8s carry an 8-year/100,000 mile warranty on the engine. I’m not aware of anything this fun at this price that would carry such good warranty coverage. Moreover, because of its newness, this car stands a good chance of being LESS troublesome to own over the next few years than most of my alternatives at the same price (e.g. BMW 128i).
Coming back to the disadvantages for a moment: Some of them are worse than I had expected (e.g. fuel economy), but most are the kinds of things that I either don’t care about or positively enjoy. I always check oil and drive in the top half of the tach anyway, so the fact that this car requires me to do those things isn’t really a problem. Everything else, I can work around.
There's more to it than that, but really what it comes down to is that I LOVE driving it and can't imagine driving anything else, at least for now. It's that good. If anyone has more specific questions, I'm happy to answer.