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but I have a beef with you!!! It's 10 degrees here in connecticut and your down in florida enjoying your new RX-8!!!!
I don't believe any car is jumping off the lots right now or any car really ever does. Before I purchased my new car, I also looked at SUVs. I was all over the place in my selection. It was mid-December and they were giving discounts on SUVs as well...so slow selling isn't just attributed to sports cars. Unless a car has just come out and is extremely limited (which is rare in itself), salespeople have to put some work into selling it. I was fortunate with my S2000. It was 1 of 2 2004s that the dealership had and I was able to get a nice deal. The Honda Penske dealership is one of the biggest in the country so I was lucky. They sell about 12 to 15 S2000s a year. Though, I had to go to the GM of the dealership to get the deal I was wanting. The inital salespeople weren't giving anything off of it and I became frustrated in dealing with them. My best advice for anyone looking for a new car is to skip the initial salesperson...and go directly to the sales manager or a higher up. I know they are busy but they know exactly how much they can give on a car and are concerned more with moving a car to add to the bottomline on numbers (than solely with commission). You will also get a better feel of how the dealership operates when you are able to deal with a person who has more control over things. If you know exactly what you want and what you are willing to pay, a sales manager or GM can't claim in being too busy to assist you. I called ahead and set up a time and that's all it took. If they claim they don't have time for you and some Joe Salesperson will be glad to help you instead, you just got an incite on how that dealership works. It amazes me on how intimidated people are who go shopping for cars (no matter what their age is) and take whatever the dealership gives them...whether in price for a car or a salesperson. Good luck!
The "chug" sound you mention on initial take-off is normal. That is just the ABS calibrating itself.
Im entertaining the fantasy of leasing an RX8 as a second vehicle. Do any of you drive this car full time in Canadian winter? Im talking Edmonton type winter - snow and ice on roads, etc. How does it handle that?
Jarrett
The combination of DSC (dynamic stability control) and ABS as well as near 50/50 weight distribution in combination with low torque from the rotary makes it a breeze to drive.
Before one of you Americans askes how he gets around the tire pressure monitor, we don't have that in Canada (yet). Some of those in the US who have gone to winter wheels just ignore the light. Some taped it over. Some purchased four new sender units for the winter wheels.
Jarrett
He was not impressed with the power reduction issue or the mis-truths or whatever they were MNAO put out about it. So he considered returning it on the return program and looked at his options re other vehicles. Turned out nothing was more tempting, much of the other stuff was worse (he had a 350Z trackpack ordered etc. but the dealers were so silly he cancelled). The WRX Sti was very tempting, but the Canadian dealers are crazy if they think we are going to give them $6000+ over invoice. The G35 was considered, but rejected.
He has since fixed the power reduction issue (see Canzoomer's Stage 1 mod.). The car is a hoot. There are so many well thought out "little things". It handles, and is fast even without his fix. It just doesn't throw you back into the seat. Speed kind of sneaks up on you with this car.
I want one too! (I have a 3rd gen RX-7 as my toy)
no telescopic steering wheel - I think the Mazda 3 (I have one) spoiled me for that.
the driver side door closed in a sorta rattle-y way. Seemed to lack that solid feel. Kinda surprised me actually. The window was down though, so it might be that.
Im only 5' 11" and my hair felt like it was brushing the ceiling. That surprised me too.
Other than that: sweeet.
Jarrett
Telescopic wheel would be nice, but I don't know that I'd change the position of mine.
I'm 6' and don't have any issues headroom, but I have more "leg" than I do "torso".
I've had black cars in the past. When black cars are clean, they are the best looking cars around. That said, I could rarely keep my black cars looking good for more than a couple of days. Plus, black tends to show things like swirling, which becomes more prevalent as the car ages.
Sure they'll help but of course not so much on hard-pack that's freezing up. But in a 2-inch snow they should grip much better. Of course, you have to keep an easy foot down at all times.
See, I fell for this car when I saw it at the auto show and waited awhile for funds before I test drove. After the other possible vehicals, the test drive sealed the deal and my wallet/checkbook fell outta my hands. I was hooked. But after my purchase, my co-workers all said, "Cheeze, that's a babe magnet! You'll have girls all over ya in that car!". The thought of buying a car just for it's sex appeal never crossed my mind. Never has. (well, except for when I thought about getting a Countach, but that stems from "CannonBall Run" and Adrienne Barbeau!)
I will now sum up all the "babes" that have come a runnin to see me and my car since I got her in October:
-one beautiful blonde, who happens to be a friend and is both a lesbian and spoken for.
-one 50ish couple from upstate New York who thought the car was "quite attractive" and wanted to know if "it would be suitable for their 20ish college student daughter?".
-a car load of four mid 40's women, mix races and sizes, all married and thought the car looked so "cute". (upspeak the 'cute')
-and countless 20 to 30 year old males, wanting to know: how fast? how quick? how big an engine? do I have nitrious added? have I raced anybody yet? etc etc etc
as far as I can tell, GGuy got all the babe magnetism with his 'Girl on the Hood' story. Darn him anyway.........he's married for cripes sakes! :-)
Comments are welcome. :-)
I am unmarried, very hetero and very available for those who have the inclination that I'm as "sexy" as my RX8....;-)
Yes, have a sometime GF....on again, off again! Gotta be real careful who you bring around the house if you have a kid at home.
Girl on the hood was "startled" by me using my remote lock and hearing the doors unlock. Or maybe she saw this dark haired Italian with a with a surly attitude coming her way yelling "badda-bing...badda boom";-)
On a sadder note, we've been hit with 3 sn1ow storms this week....about a foot of it on the ground and I can't shovel it fast enough to clear my driveway. The RX8 has been sitting patiently in the garage for a week wondering if it's ever going to get a chance to wind out again.
It doesn't happen often, but when snow hits the OH Valley, it comes in full force.
The good news is I've got the cleanest car in the neighborhood. The bad news is it's sitting in the garage where no one can see it.
I still can't believe some teen was on your hood. Where are manners these days? I would have had to call cheeseboy's lawyer if I would have seen some stupid girl do that. The one thing that really sets me off is when people aren't considerate of my property (especially a car). My goodness!
Cheeseboy - Like I told graphic, you're the real reason why those women talked to you. They just used the RX-8 as an excuse. Unfortunately, we can't use the same explanation for the guys who showed interest.
Actually, I'll be real envious of you if you tell me you've got a nice Grand Marguis you're using for wither duty. I looked, and looked to find a good used Crown Vic or GM to use as a snow car. To me, those are perfect snow cars.....big, comfy and with enough weight that they pound the snow into submission. No wonder police forces love them. Put some big ole' snow timres on those things and you can go anywhere.
Yes, I wish I could be driving the S2000 but then it would have to be spring or summer. I would hate to get the vehicle dirty (and I'm a nut about clean cars). I see all the salt and grime from the melting snow on the streets and I feel rather happy not having to drive the S2000 under those conditions. Your RX-8 is thanking you right now since you are getting the kind of weather I am. Those plow trucks can do a lot of damage to your car when you pass them and all the crap hits your car. So, fortunately, there are pros and cons not being able to drive it.
ok...now is it getting bad when I stop by my print shop to see if another print job was completed and I say, "yeah I was just driving by..." and the girl at the front desk interrupts me and says, "oh, ya HAD to just go for a drive? Couldn't just call on the phone. nope, ya gotta go DRIVE by here."....??.......and I answer, "ah...yeah!"...?? It's bad isn't it?....LOL!.....
http://www.fungistudios.com/RX8_Shima/RX8_Shima.htm
if you like to see 2 sexy 'gals', look at Gallery 4!
My Civic, is very dirty with salt and winter grime, I was passing a car wash last night and just shook my head. It was all of 5 degrees outside, yet I saw a huge line at the local drivethrough carwash. Those folks will have a clean car, but when they try to get into it this a.m. after sitting in the well below freezing temps all night, they will notice that the water in all the little "nooks and crannies" didn't get dried. End result, my guess is they will have doors that won't open because they are frozen shut.
Look at it this way, in two months, you'll have the opportunity to open the top on your S2000 and drive around with the wind in your face.
Cheeze...I've lived in OH most of my life with a couple of brief stints in CA (Bay Area), Chicago and Boston (with a couple of 2 month stays in Brazil and one 3 month stay in London for work). Every year I tell myself I'm moving to a warmer climate. Then Spring rolls around and I forget all about it. The first, and sometimes 2nd snowfall I don't mind so much, particularly if it falls around the Holidays like it did this year. It's the lingering snow and cold that get to me (like we're experiencing now). In reality, there are only 2 or 3 months when I get antsy around here....January, February and sometimes March. The rest are, in general, pleasant.
Can't help you with the sunroof fear. Perhaps some sunroof "therapy"? Of course you had to drive to the print shop. You got the good weather. You've got the RX8. There should be no question.
That's a big boat. One of the pics looks like it's getting ready to plow into your 8.
I may have to take the RX8 out today, even with the salt on the roads. It's just too tempting.
Reason I ask is the heater/defroster in my Mazda 3 flat out sucks in my opinion. Im very dissatisfied with it.
Jarrett
Keep your eye on your temp guage. You should be able to tell when the thermostat opens up by the movement of the temp needle. If the temp needle stays unusually low all the time, you may have a thermostat problem.
I've driven my 8 when it was in the teens. Didn't notice that the heater was having problems, but that could be because I used the seat heater.
Can't comment about the 3 because I've never driven one, but I suspect it may be similar to the one in the 8.
Not sure why Mazda thinks they are so smart!
After all these "cold weather" posts, I am so happy it was just rain and not snow!
At -25 degrees, there's going to be slush in the radiator. The battery probably won't generate enough juice to turn the car over. The oil is going to be the consistency of vaseline. And, I doubt the heater is going to operate the way it's supposed to.
By the way, this would be true of any car, not just the RX8.
The RX-8 actually cranks over quite well. It even fired (sputtered) a few times. He's tried 5 times to start it and the battery is still working fine. We think it just flooded (fuel just doesn't want to vaporize at these temps.).
As for that dealer, it was an advertizing gimmick. Pretty much any car you buy new here comes with a block heater. They are kind of necessary. Dealer just forgot to delete that reference or check before tacking the list to the vehicle paperwork.
As for any vehicle having problems, if properly prepped, most vehicles will start at -40. They will not like it, but they will start. Unless you flood them, and not just RX-8s will flood. At these temps. any car can flood very easily. If it does then you're sunk!
Back to the heater. I suspect this car was designed to not overheat (a problem with the 3rd gen RX-7). I'll bet the heater would work much better with a "cold front". That's a solid bug screen placed over the rad air intake. Until it wouldn't start, the heater worked fine, even without a "cold front", at temps. just below 0 F. It does take a while to warm up, but no different than most other cars we've had experience with.
Depending on the state of charge of the battery, even brand new ones, some will crank (albeit, slowly) and some will only turn over a half dozen times before running out in extremely cold temps.
As you point out, very cold oil doesn't have very good flow characteristics.
I still haven't taken my 8 out for over a week, but the last time I drove it the temps were about 15 degrees F. No problems with the heater then.
I've test-driven the S2K ('03), RX-8, and Crossfire coupe. My impressions: The RX-8 has the best interior by far. The S2K is a bit bare-bones, though I do like the remote radio controls and the engine start button is pretty cool (though unnecessary?). The Crossfire's radio controls were tiny and the read-out unreadable in any sunlight. Plus, I love the steering-wheel mounted controls on the RX-8. All were fun to drive in their own ways. I loved the feel of the Xfire's wide tires, and the go-cart handling of the S2K. As for the RX-8, it was the first of the bunch that I drove and I think I could have let the RPMs scream up there a bit more--there were also a lot of cars on the road when I drove it which hampered my fun a bit.
Honestly, there really wasn't a clear winner in the bunch, though since the interior of a car is so important to me I might have to give the nod to the RX-8. However, I did look at a demo car and noticed that the center storage console looked like it was scraping along its tracks (made it look beat-up)--has anyone who has owned the car for a while noticed that component getting worn out so quickly? I also liked the Mazda dealer folks WAY better than the Honda and Chrysler guys. Still, I love to drop the top so I may have to test the Mazdaspeed Miata when that comes out. Anyway, thanks to all for the great info on this board--really helpful in trying to make my decision. One last thing--has anyone seen the titanium with the red/black interior? I love the red/black combo but would prefer to get titanium since I don't keep my car in a garage and red and black exteriors show dirt so quickly.
Take care all.
If you got your heart set on a roadster, I chose to get a 2004 S2000. I wouldn't have gotten a 2003 model since they made the 2004 car a lot easier to live with while improving everything from the engine (2.2 instead of 2.0 and better suspension) to the interior (nice metallic accents and some come with two-tone leather). Definite improvement on an already competitive car. It's too bad that the Honda dealership near you isn't very good. I bet you could get a better price on one of these if you went a little outside your area anyway.
I feel that the 350Z roadster is overpriced for the relatively poor interior, but at least it's better than the coupe. I haven't been in a Crossfire, but hopefully the convertible version has more power than the coupe. Otherwise, I'd stay away from this one unless you care more about an attractive interior and don't mind dealing with Chrysler dealerships.
I don't know how much the Mazdaspeed Miata is going to be. If it's priced around $25K and has a good amount more power than the regular version, it might be an attractive buy. Really depends on what you want to spend from that point. Good luck!
a VERY good deal if you're looking for the purest roadster on the market, now faster too!
Mazda is doing this only for the RX-8 because they know this is a very important car for the company, and they want to keep the customers happy and become their best advertisement/salesperson to their friends and family in buying other Mazda vehicles.
they also appreciate just how loyal a true rotorhead is, and how important it is to keep the faith alive! lol
I just saw the review in Motor Trend for their sports car shootout. And, again, the RX8 bested the 350Z. So far, the RX8 has bested either the G35C or the 350Z in shootouts staged by C&D, Motor Trend and here at Edmunds. Motor Trend actually called the RX8 an "exotic".
I don't know why they keep throwing the S2000 in the mix given it's a convertible....to me, that's a different class of car (if I were in the market for a roadster drop top, the S2000 would be at the very top of that list).
I also keep getting "little gifts" from Mazda. I got the die cast car yesterday. That's a nice way of keeping RX8 loyalty.
I'll be looking pretty closely at the supercharged Mazdaspeed RX8 when/if it becomes available for the '06 model.
I wonder what changes would be made to the 2006 Mazdaspeed RX-8. Obviously, the exterior will be made to look sportier, but I wonder if the price would make it less attractive than the regular. Will the increase power be worth it? Does anyone know how the Mazdaspeed Miata is different from the regular upgrade version? Maybe that would give some idea.
Only speculation, but I would think ground effects, wheels, and of course, a 300 HP RENESIS would be part of the Mazdaspeed RX8.
Mazdaspeed Miata is turbocharged to 178HP...new clutch, wheels, cloth top, leather interior.
gguy - again, I am so sorry about the snow. Do you now see why I moved to South Florida?!?....yeah, there's the bad elections and the lame football/hockey teams, and some of the poorest drivers ya ever saw.....but not a snowplow for miles!!.....don't worry, in a month your snow will melt!...then zoom zoom!!
by AutoArt at Ehobbies.com. It has working doors, trunk and hood, removable engine cover, and very detailed interior including two-tone red/black.
I have also found some smaller diecast models, 4" long. It would be nice to get one from Mazda. I purchased in mid October last year. Do you think they are sending these only to those who made earlier purchases? I bet if I talk to the dealer they could get me one. They have been nothing but helpful each time I show up there.