Maxda RX-8

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If I had a place for an RX8 in my life (this isn't a question of want - I'd like one), and only had £3k to buy a new car then I would still buy an RX8.

I do not see the potential for problems to be a big enough issue to require a backup fund from the word go.

That said, I would not go and buy the first RX8 I saw, and I'm pretty confident that I'd be able to distinguish between a genuinely good car and a tidy looking lemon.

For a private sale, I'd probably insist on a compression test, too.

Obviously if you do not have the patience/knowledge to root out a good one, then I'd probably say have that fund spare before you bought it if £1500 isn't a figure you can raise quickly. That isn't because I think all RX8s are dying, mind you, but average Mr. Joe Bloggs is far more likely to end up with a Lemon than an enthusiast who likes the car enough to spend months reading up on them.

Personally i think thats madness. If you have £3k to spend that should direct you in a certain direction.

A cheap buying price still has expensive running costs even if its mechanically sound. There is nothing about having £3k to spend on a car that puts you in the RX-8 ownership bracket.

 

[IvanDobskey]

Surely the car at that sort of price has alarm bells ringing all over the place?

The RX-8 was a relatively expensive car to begin with and its depreciation and current second hand value should be enough to make potential buyers very concerned. To then be shopping at the lower end of that already suspiciously cheap market is surely an accident waiting to happen?

Spot on

 

[IvanDobskey]

There are plenty of nice looking coupe's / sporty cars at around the 3k mark that will be a much better and more reliable purchase than an RX8. Get a celica or mx5 or something!

 

[Flibster]

My brother got his with the extended warranty (which was handy or it would have skinted him) in the space of a year it threw over 3K's worth of bills and Mazda still didn't fix it properly. He loved it to bits but when the car is spending as much time at mazda as it is on the drive it's time to get shot. Of course you may be lucky but the odds certainly aren't in your favour especially when it sounds like you just want a cheap flashy coupe. As said by other posters this car is now really only for enthusiasts with all the problems it has.

*comes back for one contrast post*

Owned mine for 3 years, only had regular servicing, a pair of droplinks and a new set of spark plugs, ht leads and coil packs that I fitted myself *these were meant to be part of the regular servicing, but were around £1k for Mazda to do, so I did them myself for £400*

So, around £1200...

Although, I have added a few of the optional emblems and things in that time as well.

There are plenty of nice looking coupe's / sporty cars at around the 3k mark that will be a much better and more reliable purchase than an RX8. Get a celica or mx5 or something!

MX5? Coupe? Errrr...
Celica loosk fantastic fromt he outside imo, interior is the most dreary pile of nasty 1990's plastic. Seats gave me backache too.

 

[crinkleshoes]

My brother got his with the extended warranty (which was handy or it would have skinted him) in the space of a year it threw over 3K's worth of bills and Mazda still didn't fix it properly. He loved it to bits but when the car is spending as much time at mazda as it is on the drive it's time to get shot. Of course you may be lucky but the odds certainly aren't in your favour especially when it sounds like you just want a cheap flashy coupe. As said by other posters this car is now really only for enthusiasts with all the problems it has.

Just because your brother got a bad one doesn't instantly mean they are ALL bad

Yes - if you get a lemon, you'll have some big bills thrown at you.

There are still a lot of good ones out there.

 

[IvanDobskey]

MX5? Coupe? Errrr...
Celica loosk fantastic fromt he outside imo, interior is the most dreary pile of nasty 1990's plastic. Seats gave me backache too.

I did say /sporty cars, i didnt mean the mx5 was a coupe

 

[MikeHiow]

Personally i think thats madness. If you have £3k to spend that should direct you in a certain direction.

A cheap buying price still has expensive running costs even if its mechanically sound. There is nothing about having £3k to spend on a car that puts you in the RX-8 ownership bracket.

I've spent more maintaining a Clio 182 than I ever would have had I spent £3k on a low mileage RX8. Fact.

 

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I've spent more maintaining a Clio 182 than I ever would have had I spent £3k on a low mileage RX8. Fact.

So?

Its not FACT because the second part of your statement is pure suposition.

Cars cost different amounts to maintain, you can also be lucky or unlucky. However if you are spending at the bottom end of a market that is already very low due to maintainance costs it doesnt take Columbo to work out that there is a probability of big bills heading your way.

If your budget takes that into account then there is no issue. However if you thinkyou are getting a cheap car thats a different matter.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I've spent more maintaining a Clio 182 than I ever would have had I spent £3k on a low mileage RX8. Fact.

How can that possibly be a fact? You can't claim something is a fact when half of it is based on an estimated outcome of something you never did.

Classic Mike.

 

[Joshy]

Or around £1200 for a used engine supplied with a compression test and warranty.

£1200 for a used engine with a warranty and compression test results that won't be worth the pieces of paper they are written on if the engine decides to go? Nice.

Replacing a engine with an inherit design 'flaw' for another second hand, un rebuilt engine with the same design flaw is absolute madness.

I've spent more maintaining a Clio 182 than I ever would have had I spent £3k on a low mileage RX8. Fact.

Isn't that due to the fact that the 182 you bought was broken?

 

[[TW]Fox]

Isn't that due to the fact that the 182 you bought was broken?

Of course not, he told us it was a complete minter and easily worth the £3500 he subsequently attempted to sell it for a few weeks after buying it

 

[Spamalot]

It's hard to see a £3k RX8 costing you more than £3k over a couple of years, how much do they sell for on ebay with shot engines (or other aliments that'll write one off)? £1500? Even if you spend £1500 on "this and that" then it goes bang and you sell it on ebay you've only (granted it's a bigish only) lost £3k. Although said scenario could happen in the first weeks or months of ownership it's hard for even the most pessimistic of person to suggest that that's the likely outcome.

 

[IvanDobskey]

Lets face it, despite being a nice car, the RX8 is more trouble than it's worth (even at 2K).

 

[MikeHiow]

£1200 for a used engine with a warranty and compression test results that won't be worth the pieces of paper they are written on if the engine decides to go? Nice.

Replacing a engine with an inherit design 'flaw' for another second hand, un rebuilt engine with the same design flaw is absolute madness.

Yeah, a specialist breaker is going to stay in business for a long time by selling crap engines and not honouring warranties.

Isn't that due to the fact that the 182 you bought was broken?

No - the fact it was broken only cost me £140. Edit: in fact, £40 after the dealer contributed £100.

Bare in mind what it has cost me is for parts only and all either common service items or common failures, the Clio has cost me £1500 on pretty much essential maintenance in the year I've had it. This is all stuff that would be due on a 70k example, too - so you can't put it down to the mileage

There's probably around 30 hours of labour in there, too - that's at least £1200 at the cheapest of garages.

A 40k RX8 would not have needed a suspension refresh, cambelt or any of the stuff I've done to the Clio bar an oil change and perhaps some coilpacks.

My point is that no one warns people away from Clios because they can cost that much to maintain, so I cannot understand why people state you should avoid a fantastic car that offers ridiculous value, because it might need a £1200 engine (however unlikely if you find a looked after example)

 

[Spamalot]

Yeah, a specialist breaker is going to stay in business for a long time by selling crap engines and not honouring warranties.




No - the fact it was broken only cost me £140. Edit: in fact, £40 after the dealer contributed £100.

Bare in mind what it has cost me is for parts only and all either common service items or common failures, the Clio has cost me £1500 on pretty much essential maintenance in the year I've had it. This is all stuff that would be due on a 70k example, too - so you can't put it down to the mileage

There's probably around 30 hours of labour in there, too - that's at least £1200 at the cheapest of garages.

A 40k RX8 would not have needed a suspension refresh, cambelt or any of the stuff I've done to the Clio bar an oil change and perhaps some coilpacks.

My point is that no one warns people away from Clios because they can cost that much to maintain, so I cannot understand why people state you should avoid a fantastic car that offers ridiculous value, because it might need a £1200 engine (however unlikely if you find a looked after example)

That argument is based on a fair few semi-wild assumption.

 

[Joshy]

Yeah, a specialist breaker is going to stay in business for a long time by selling crap engines and not honouring warranties.

And you think a specialist breaker honoring iron clad warranties on second hand, un rebuilt engines that are widely accepted to last not much more than 60,000 miles are going to stay in business much longer?

Feel free to post up examples of RX8 specialists who are banging out supplied and fitted 231 units with absolutely iron clad warranties for £1200. A very quick spot of reserach shows that you'll struggle to get a complete 231 lump for that sort of money full stop, let alone supplied, fitted and a with a warranty worth the sheet of A4 it is written on.

No - the fact it was broken only cost me £140. Edit: in fact, £40 after the dealer contributed £100.

You're taxing my memory a little bit, but didn't you buy the clio with an issue with the deflection pulley/timing belt issue. I will admit to knowing sweet FA about Clios, but even I know that a deflection pulley and/or cambelt costs much, much more than £140.

Bare in mind what it has cost me is for parts only and all either common service items or common failures

In a similar sort of vane, a replacement/rebuilt engine is practically a service item/common failure on a RX8!

the Clio has cost me £1500 on pretty much essential maintenance in the year I've had it. This is all stuff that would be due on a 70k example, too - so you can't put it down to the mileage

To be honestly honest Mike, it had always sounded like you bought a bit of a duffer. The mismatched tyre, deflection pulley issue and didn't you eventually munch through a gearbox? You're comparing a 182 Clio that you have had problems with against a RX8 that in theory would have had absolutely nothing go wrong. With how flawed they are I struggle to believe they exist plentifully full stop, let alone for the dregs of the market that £3k buys.

A 40k RX8 would not have needed a suspension refresh, cambelt or any of the stuff I've done to the Clio bar an oil change and perhaps some coilpacks.

And perhaps a uprated starter... and maybe an engine too .

My point is that no one warns people away from Clios because they can cost that much to maintain, so I cannot understand why people state you should avoid a fantastic car that offers ridiculous value, because it might need a £1200 engine (however unlikely if you find a looked after example)

People warn others away from cheap Clios that have been abused for reasons that you and your wallet discovered with yours. The same thing applies to the RX8s, for the money we are talking about they will have been 'abused' and for the money that buys a half way decent example you could get something that isn't as inherently flawed, you know, a car that doesn't consume oil as a part of the combustion process, or drink an excessive amount of fuel for the comparability poor performance it produces, an engine that won't flood after being ran for 15 seconds or effectively runs the risk of becoming a paperweight at anypoint past 60,000 miles.

Believe it or not, I am not inherently anti RX8, I actually considered one myself for a while but after doing my research I came to the conclusion that they are cheap for a reason and aren't really worth the time, effort and risk involved with buying a cheap one.

 

[flibbage0]

Yeah, a specialist breaker is going to stay in business for a long time by selling crap engines and not honouring warranties.




No - the fact it was broken only cost me £140. Edit: in fact, £40 after the dealer contributed £100.

Bare in mind what it has cost me is for parts only and all either common service items or common failures, the Clio has cost me £1500 on pretty much essential maintenance in the year I've had it. This is all stuff that would be due on a 70k example, too - so you can't put it down to the mileage

There's probably around 30 hours of labour in there, too - that's at least £1200 at the cheapest of garages.

A 40k RX8 would not have needed a suspension refresh, cambelt or any of the stuff I've done to the Clio bar an oil change and perhaps some coilpacks.

My point is that no one warns people away from Clios because they can cost that much to maintain, so I cannot understand why people state you should avoid a fantastic car that offers ridiculous value, because it might need a £1200 engine (however unlikely if you find a looked after example)

Is your Clio a Veyron, either the wrong choice of words or you really do think spending £1500 on a clio in 1 year is fairly standard.

 

[gurusan]

As I said before, the RX8 would have been a decent car if they put anything but a horrid rotary engine in it. Horrible gas mileage, no torque, reliability problems......dreadful things.

 

[JonnyGeee]

Believe it or not, I am not inherently anti RX8, I actually considered one myself for a while but after doing my research I came to the conclusion that they are cheap for a reason and aren't really worth the time, effort and risk involved with buying a cheap one.

Then your clearly an idiot and the "research" you did is none existent.

They do NOT need a rebuild after 60k!! The RX7 yes! The RX8 no!

 

[chaparral]

I've spent more maintaining a Clio 182 than I ever would have had I spent £3k on a low mileage RX8. Fact.

Eeeeer


I guess you have never ever priced up parts for an RX8



(And yes am an RX8 owner )