Hi, so I own a Mazda RX8 and have done for two years. It's never put a foot wrong since I bought it and I don't really have too many bad words for it. It's a 1.3 rotary wankel engine, which not only sounds great but works well too!
Despite the small capacity, the RX8 has around 230bhp, so it is very fast. It revs up to around 9,000rpm, so when you're seriously nailing it, it sounds biblical.
The only downside, really, is the shocking rate at which it sips petrol and oil. I've never had a car that uses so much oil in my life, and i've been told it's because of the wankel engine layout.
Just be careful if you do go for an RX8 because this will seriously alter your perception of economy. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm struggling to hit 23mpg - it's that bad!
Great car overall, though, as it's practical, has four doors but can still go like a stabbed rat.
the mazda rx8 is an excellent car to drive. its handling and performance is great especially at higher revs. build quality is also good but the only thing that lets the car down is the running costs. having to constantly feel like you have to check and change the oil because of the wankle engine and i was only getting around 230 miles on a full tank means i didnt keep it for long.
The Mazda RX-8 served me well for about 5 years but after that it gradually started giving me problems. I had compression trouble and the car refused to start pretty often, particularly when hot. The fuel consumption also seemed to get worse and worse after around the six year mark. I don't know if I got unlucky with my Mazda RX-8 but eventually I just decided to buy a new car rather than keep spending money on it.
I'll talk about the car and how it was before it started going wrong so as to give it a fair review. Before I started having problems with it I really loved this car, it's a great, fun drive, it feels very light and nippy, it's very well built. The fuel economy was also initially very good.
The oil gets burned up pretty quickly in the Mazda RX-8 so that's something to watch out for. I've seen quite a few people reporting this. Generally a good all-rounder and worth a buy, but I'm afraid I'll have to mark it down for reliability just because of my own personal experience.
I had to get rid of my RX-8 recently, thought I'd write this as a warning as much as anything else!
Basically it's really not what it's advertised as, which is a kind of half way house between a daft sports car that would fit two midgets, and a boring saloon with no excitement. As it is, the engine really lets it down, and after 5 years it was clearly on the way out so I could either replace it or sell it for not much. After some thought I decided to go with the latter option, and it was a very annoying decision to make. Aside from that it gets through petrol like nobody's business, I'm sure it's worse than it was listed as. Another problem was rust developing inside the alloy wheels, which apparently was quite common - not a reassuring thing to say dealer!
But, putting the problems to one side for a moment, it is an impressive car and loads of fun to drive. It does actually fit four normal sized people inside pretty comfy, and the boot is big enough for more than a sandwich and a hat, and with people and stuff inside it still delivers loads of lovely POWER, rips away from standstill and tears round the bends like a beast, seldom loses control and delivers plenty of feedback (but like I said pretty comfy ride too).
It gets a bit flabby at around 55mph and needs a gear change to accelerate there, but once you know what you're doing you don't really notice that. The dials in the front look totally top notch, really special. All glowing and nicely lit up in the dark too. The nine speakers on the sound system never failed to impress
It's a tricky one to park cos of the really tiny rear windows. I could have done with those parking blipper things but I never really bothered in the end.
Ah but yeah... well you can see why I kept it for 5 years before jacking it in. I did love this car but it didn't really love me back. Sad, really sad.
The main talking point about the Mazda RX8 is the rotary wankel engine. Basically, it's a 1.3-litre engine that performs more like a 2.5-litre. I've no idea how the technology works, but trust me, it does. My car is pushing out around 240bhp and it feels fantastic on the open road. The power only comes in later in the rev range but it's more than worth the wait.
The practical side of the Mazda comes apparent when you have kids. The fact that this is effectively a coupe but still has four doors is incredibily helpful. The suicide-style doors look the business and make the school run a doddle.
The only issue I have is how much oil the RX8 sips. If you're used to standard engines then do your research and make sure the rotary engine is something you can put up with.
L