Sinful7

Yeah, the funny thing about EPA-Fuel economy ratings.. I'd say on the average I experience a 30% reduction in economy versus EPA ratings. Reason? When the EPA tests a car, it's a very specific, outlined test, defined by it's purpose to extract the highest possible MPG ratings. Take this for example: My roommate bought a 2006 Chevy Aveo. Now the ratings for that are somewhere in the 30MPG hwy range. Well, due to my recent troubles with my truck, I've been borrowing his Aveo as a commuter. I live about 15 miles from work, 14 of which are highway miles at approximately 60MPH. My average fuel economy for commuting is somewhere around 20 MPG. Why is that? Well.. It's so underpowered, I don't use 5th gear with any consistency. The onramps are short enough that I have to floor it, ***** out, to hit traffic flow speed. There are lots of traffic signals downtown. All those factors add up to a significantly diminished realized fuel economy.



Enter a sports car with a 9,000-RPM redline that loves to be in that range so much it requires a chime to tell the driver to shift. Keep in mind that the secondary ports are open over 6,000 rpm (IIRC). First of all, I seriously doubt many of these drivers are commuting on long highway trips and not breaking the EPA test rate speed of 55MPH. Second, I think some of these drivers end up in the 6-9,000 rpm range, every once in awhile, intentional or not. So what happens when you open those secondary ports? Well.. Fuel happens.. it happens to dump in. Bye bye gas mileage.



Any person who honestly buys any car with a redline higher than about 5,500 and bitches about fuel economy really ought to examine their requirements for an automobile. I can pretty much guarantee a significant reduction in fuel economy from any 8 competitor when you spend a good bit of time in the upper third of the RPM range.



As for it's lack of power, it's almost as if Mazda holds back a little the first time around in order to make the Mazdaspeed version seem that much more improved.. And subsequently charge for it. I think that's an interesting marketing technique.



The Mazda RX8 will never be as blindingly powerful as the FD. Why? It has four seats. It will never get 30MPG. Why? It winds up as high as a DC motor. So what does that mean? The RX8 is a different car. It's too bad that people seem to expect something else from this machine.. Something it's not designed to provide. Unfortunatly, that leads me to believe that the people who enjoy these cars the most are the ones who knew little or nothing about its heritage before buying one.

horn4858

mazda had recall and flash bios of ecu. people of Autoweek said it made better gas mileage.

If they do the 2007 rx7 like to see a 3rotar

boxrs4sale

yeah, i drove 3 rx8's. all manual, and i loved every one i drove. sinful's right. they are nothing like the fd, nor are they trying to re-create the fd.



the 8 is really a kick *** car that imo is underappreciated. it's fun to drive, comfortable as hell, and everything is at your fingertips.

j9fd3s

yeah i really like the -8, its a lot of fun. and its not slow, it suprisingly will hang (with 2 people in it!) with a factory 5 cobra, which is 1000lbs lighter......



the fd is a good handling car but i dont know on what planet the rx-8 isnt easier to drive

teknics

the rx8 has a 20,000 mile break-in thing in the ecu, as do fc's and fd's... i doubt it unleashes an extra 50-75hp tho.



handling is pretty good, if you try it with crappy tires any good handling car will act like ****.



kevin.

Tessai

I loved driving the '8 when I did. IMO, it feels like an updated N/A FC. It doesn't have *****-out power, but it does handle nice and has some fun acceleration.



And its got a very exotic exhaust note stock, when compared to other cars.

boxrs4sale

i think the only thing they did wrong with the car were the tailights..



******* gay *** clear altezza wanna be pieces of ******* ****.

SilverSeven

Besides the fuel economy part, I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with almost everything you're saying. Most specifically.....





I doubt I'd agree with that point of view. It seems to me that Mazda made the Renesis produce just enough power that people would buy them, without getting to the point that costs were raised significantly by making it more powerful than it needed to be.



I disagree with this immensely. The problem is that people are inferring heritage where there is none. The 8 doesn't have the same soul, the same typical buyer, the same anything as the 7. It's only heritage comes from the engine, and considering how lackluster an engine it is, that's not helping it much. To say that the car itself retains heritage from the 7 would be like expecting to see the heritage of the RX-3 in an FD. It's not there, and it's people who construct that heritage that make the 8 out to be something that it's not. Which leads me to......



There you have it dead on. People expect it to be a serious sports car. People see the RX badge and expect it to be descended from the RX-7. The 7s were never intended to be bought as just transportation, not to be bought by anyone but an enthusiast. They were serious cars for serious buyers, Porsche killers. The 8 is most definitely not a Porsche killer, it's not really a killer of anything. In my mind, it's too much of a compromise, it's not as fast as it could have been if they'd made it a genuine two door sports car, and it's not as utilitarian as if they'd made it a comfortable cruiser (I suppose that puts it right in between two rather lucrative markets and as such it can draw buyers from both, but still, it's the principal). A .88 on the skidpad isn't terribly world class, nor is 63.xx through the slalom. Not when a typical example of the same class of car (Japanese sport coupe) was nearing a G on the slidpad 10 years ago with less tech and less tire. I guess I don't really have anything against the car itself, just the droves of people who think it's something it's not.



But that's just me, I respect anyone else's opinion on the matter, but I still think they're tosh.







Besides, for the same money as a new RX-8, you can get 00-01 M5. No-brainer what?!?!

Rob x-7

with no warranty, and your pockets better be deep when it comes time to fix it

boxrs4sale

like an rx7 or 8 is any better