Mazda Rx-8 What to look for when buying ??
- Thread starter chaparral
- Start date
They were unpopular for a reason and now they are cheap.
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Whilst this is true it's sort of irrelevent because of the way people buy cars.
For somebody who wants to spend around £7k on a 2005ish performance Coupe, I completely agree with you. The cost of ownership of an RX8 will be lower than the cost of ownership of something like a 330Ci, 350Z or similar. This will be because you only need to spend half your budget to buy the car, leaving the remaining half for the additional running costs and fuel consumption.
But hardly anyone does this. People tend to try and spend what they have, which I dont think is the way to buy cars, but irrespective of what I think, it is what people do.
So the people buying £3.5k RX8's are not the people who are looking for £7k coupe but the people who have £3.5k to spend on a Coupe. This means they don't benefit from the much lower purchase cost versus the competition in the same way as they would in example one - they spend all the money they have in the budget on the car and THEN have to stomach the ridiculous fuel consumption thats more in-keeping with something that has 400bhp rather than 200bhp. In this purchasing scenario the only benefit the RX8 has over the competition (aside from the technical stuff) is that it will be newer and lower mileage.
For somebody who wants to spend around £7k on a 2005ish performance Coupe, I completely agree with you. The cost of ownership of an RX8 will be lower than the cost of ownership of something like a 330Ci, 350Z or similar. This will be because you only need to spend half your budget to buy the car, leaving the remaining half for the additional running costs and fuel consumption.
But hardly anyone does this. People tend to try and spend what they have, which I dont think is the way to buy cars, but irrespective of what I think, it is what people do.
So the people buying £3.5k RX8's are not the people who are looking for £7k coupe but the people who have £3.5k to spend on a Coupe. This means they don't benefit from the much lower purchase cost versus the competition in the same way as they would in example one - they spend all the money they have in the budget on the car and THEN have to stomach the ridiculous fuel consumption thats more in-keeping with something that has 400bhp rather than 200bhp. In this purchasing scenario the only benefit the RX8 has over the competition (aside from the technical stuff) is that it will be newer and lower mileage.
Caporegime
It's flawed because 99% of the motoring public doesn’t want an 18mpg oil burning ticking time bomb, even the RX8 forums tell a grim tale of woe.
A car is worth what people are prepared to pay for it, they can't sell a secondhand RX8 for the same as a 350z because people won't pay the price, Mazda have a good enough badge so it's not this, the RX8 has been hyped above and beyond it's abilities so it's not that either.
The RX8 is a square peg trying to fit into a round hole.
Yes, the fuel consumption is poor, but unless you do mega mileage its not really that much of an issue. Comparable cars eg the 350z only do mid 20s.
Every 5000 miles that'll cost you appox £400 more in fuel. It's not an insignifcant amount, but plenty of other cars will cost you far more to run due to more expensive, parts, labour, servicing, depreciation etc etc.
The same as above applies to the oil consumption and neither of which make the car fundamentally flawed.
The reliability issues are no doubt something to be aware of and prepared for(the same as any car!) You could also pick up a second hand 1.8t like yours and lose the engine after a few miles due to oil crystallisation, if you didn't know what to look out for.
As long as the price reflect the issues above (which second hand the Rx8 does ... and then some!) and you buy well informed, then the car can still be a good buy, or even a bargain.
But that's my point. Sure it's probably a poor choice if you were buying new, and people can't sell them 2nd hand for much because of the issues above. But for the Op, who is looking to buy an older car that has already depreciated, and who does relatively low mileage, far from being fundamentally flawed, I can see that an Rx8 is an interesting prospect at those sort of prices.
Caporegime
Like you say it really depends how many miles you do per year, but then again the RX8's engine doesn't really like short journeys either.
I looked at the RX8 extensively 6 months ago, I quite liked the idea and 6k for a top spec 231ps offered lots for the money, however the car simply wasn’t special enough to put up with 18mpg.
I looked at the RX8 extensively 6 months ago, I quite liked the idea and 6k for a top spec 231ps offered lots for the money, however the car simply wasn’t special enough to put up with 18mpg.
Caporegime
Will fit in the circle hole but boy it will leak?
Oh my, i think we've just figured out why the RX8 uses oil, silly Mazda engineers!
I reckon they would sold loads of RX-8 if they fitted a normal engine instead of that stupid motor Rotary engine
I finding it really hard to find even one good point about the RX-8 Rotary engine,,
Can anyone tell me any good points about the RX-8 Rotary engines ??
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They actually did sell loads of RX8. I was once about to pwn somebody on here with facts about how the RX8 sold 0 cars and the 330Ci Sport sold 90000000000 cars and when I actually checked the sales figures...
...Mazda sold more RX8 than BMW sold 330Ci Sport.
...Mazda sold more RX8 than BMW sold 330Ci Sport.
Soldato
If only the 2.3T from the Mazda3 MPS was in the RX8, granted it wouldn't be a RX but would be win.
I also looked at buying a BMW 330ci sport and some lower models (2002 to 2004 model years)[TW]Fox;19953924 said:
But there 1000's of BMW's over here.it seems like every man,wife and there dog owns one..So i wanted something a little different
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I reckon they would sold loads of RX-8 if they fitted a normal engine instead of that stupid motor Rotary engine
I finding it really hard to find even one good point about the RX-8 Rotary engine,,
Can anyone tell me any good points about the RX-8 Rotary engines ??
I don't know the specifics of the RX-8 engine, but it's almost certainly lighter and more compact than an equivalent conventional 4 stroke motor, with a lower CoG in the car. These features are part of what make the Rx-8 handle so well - so without the wankel it wouldn't necessarily be as good.
Other advantages include fewer moving parts (no valves, crankshaft etc), smoother power deliver and quicker throttle reponse.
I don't get the hate for the wankel. It has it's benefits over the conventional 4 stroke. The very fact that Mazda are able to create a viable sportscar using it on what is relatively a tiny development budget compared to what collectively has been spent on the 4 stroke shows its potential.
Well as I've just demonstrated there are more RX8's than there are 330Ci's.
Soldato
Massively lighter and smaller. When I was reading up on it a while back I saw some comparisons. The RX8 engine was easily more compact than the 1.6 engines in the MX5s if I remember correctly (this begs the question of why isn't their a rotary MX5 - it would be brutally quick!)
The power for the engine size is enormous.
If a standard engine with comparable performance to the wankel was put in a RX8 shell it would weigh a lot more and lose the low CoG and weight distribution that allows the RX8 to handle so well.