RE: Shed Of The Week: Mazda RX-8
Discussion
Pixelpeep7r said:
Wish i knew more about it, someone somewhere must be able to come up with a cost effective solution. seems like there's quite a lot of money to be made if you get it right.
Such a shame. the RX-8 Doesn't deserve to be on the scrap heap just because of a weak engine.
A lot of them will be scrapped, there just isn't enough demand for cheap 20mpg cars compared to the number that Mazda sold. Once the number of remaining cars matches the demand, values will stabilise and they will be kept going with a cottage industry for rebuilds - and you'll see sensible prices for cars with rebuilt engines and cars that need it doing. At the moment the gap between a good one and a shagged one is too small. Such a shame. the RX-8 Doesn't deserve to be on the scrap heap just because of a weak engine.
I had a 231bhp 2006 rx8 for a year as the sole family transport. I have to say; underwhelming.
Positives:
Fantastic handling for a 4 seater. Felt very nimble and power at the top end of revs was great.
Looks - I never got bored of it and the interior was fabulously different - there's rotary-shaped triangles everywhere from the headrests to the gear stick. This was definitely not a euro-box.
Practicality - rearward opening door are great for kids in car seats. Boot space was pretty good, if a little narrow to get into.
Cost - cost me £5500 for a 5 year old car (2011). Not a lot of sportscars could match that.
Negatives:
Performance (torque curve?) . Below 4000rpm it felt like a 1.3! Like 75bhp. You had to get to 6000+ before you felt the force. By which time you were doing 50+mph in second with the engine starting to scream. Really caning it in 2/3/4th you were around 80mph which really isn't B-road speeds. It was great in Scotland, rubbish in England.
Stressing over the decompression issue. I hated every hiccup. When the coil packs went, I needed valium until it was confirmed not to be the compression but just the packs and I got lucky when the garage dealing with it had another one with a completely f***ked engine that they let me swap the coil packs over on. Seriously, driving a car with a fair chance of needing to spend 75% of its value fixing is too stressful.
Economy wasn't great. When the light came on, you needed a fuel stop. Now. 240miles to a tank.
Oil didn't matter. £20 on oil every two months? A bit of pain to fill though - you'd have thought an engine that treated oil as a consumable would have a more convenient reservoir somewhere.
Daddy-issue only but the transmission running between the two rear seats meant little ones couldn't do up their own seat belts.
Positives:
Fantastic handling for a 4 seater. Felt very nimble and power at the top end of revs was great.
Looks - I never got bored of it and the interior was fabulously different - there's rotary-shaped triangles everywhere from the headrests to the gear stick. This was definitely not a euro-box.
Practicality - rearward opening door are great for kids in car seats. Boot space was pretty good, if a little narrow to get into.
Cost - cost me £5500 for a 5 year old car (2011). Not a lot of sportscars could match that.
Negatives:
Performance (torque curve?) . Below 4000rpm it felt like a 1.3! Like 75bhp. You had to get to 6000+ before you felt the force. By which time you were doing 50+mph in second with the engine starting to scream. Really caning it in 2/3/4th you were around 80mph which really isn't B-road speeds. It was great in Scotland, rubbish in England.
Stressing over the decompression issue. I hated every hiccup. When the coil packs went, I needed valium until it was confirmed not to be the compression but just the packs and I got lucky when the garage dealing with it had another one with a completely f***ked engine that they let me swap the coil packs over on. Seriously, driving a car with a fair chance of needing to spend 75% of its value fixing is too stressful.
Economy wasn't great. When the light came on, you needed a fuel stop. Now. 240miles to a tank.
Oil didn't matter. £20 on oil every two months? A bit of pain to fill though - you'd have thought an engine that treated oil as a consumable would have a more convenient reservoir somewhere.
Daddy-issue only but the transmission running between the two rear seats meant little ones couldn't do up their own seat belts.
Edited by marcg on Friday 31st October 13:23
Even if it was in working condtion you get STI fuel consumption with not anything anywhere near the performance to justify it. Pointless car, yes I've been in one and yes I've driven one, it was like sitting inside Michael Jacksons jacket from the Thirller video. The lights fill up with water, it had a rusty slam panel and cheap leather, the only remarkable feature was it's looks and the CD player.
A rx8 with engine problems is worth scrap value ,there are so many. there are lots for £300-£400 the engines are not worth rebuilding due to cost and the thought of how long it lasts, plus the cost of adding oil at putting fuel in ,20mpg ,high insurance ,they are not a good buy, I have owned one and yes they drive nice but too many pit falls
cheesesliceking said:
otolith said:
Nah, you don't want an STi, you get RX-8 fuel consumption without anything like the sports car handling to justify it.
"sports car handling" is Funny, Mazda fanboy by any chance? 
I'm just carrying out a LS coil conversion on mine, and although supercharged, I hopefully won't need coils for 4 years or more.. even though mine is low mileage, does less than 5k a year, I have my own garage and ex-mazda, and I'm still paranoid about misfires!
No-one reads the manual when they buy one, or chucks in fully synthetic oil, then its goodnight, game over. They can't be treated like a Golf/Astra etc, they are a quirky car to drive and own. Use it and abuse it, service it properly, treat the coils as a service item and they can last! I have a customer with 186,000 miles on his and yes the engine is tied, but 2nd gear went first.. just put a used gearbox in it, and it still runs!
Not all of them are rusty sheds, but there is a lot of neglected RX's out there...
No-one reads the manual when they buy one, or chucks in fully synthetic oil, then its goodnight, game over. They can't be treated like a Golf/Astra etc, they are a quirky car to drive and own. Use it and abuse it, service it properly, treat the coils as a service item and they can last! I have a customer with 186,000 miles on his and yes the engine is tied, but 2nd gear went first.. just put a used gearbox in it, and it still runs!
Not all of them are rusty sheds, but there is a lot of neglected RX's out there...
Wow. In Oz you won't get one of those for much under A$10,000, & a good one will bring up to above A$15,000.
Many here have over 150,000 kilometres, & some over 200,000. May be they like the climate, here & last longer.
Looking through the car sales listing, I found it interesting that most of these had over 140,000Km, where most RX7s had much lower mileage, often down around 50,000 Km.
Many here have over 150,000 kilometres, & some over 200,000. May be they like the climate, here & last longer.
Looking through the car sales listing, I found it interesting that most of these had over 140,000Km, where most RX7s had much lower mileage, often down around 50,000 Km.
Should we not be looking at this as a £3.5K car? 50k miles, 9 years old and £3.5k with an engine rebuild seems not to bad to me. If I was looking for a new car I would be tempted by that.
You can have that, or for the same price you can have these wonderful cars:
1.1 Citroen C2
www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/citroen/...
Toyota Corolla 1.6 Auto
www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/toyota/c...
VW Beetle 1.4!!!!!
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/v...
Yes, there is some slightly more PH metal around, but it comes up, after an engine rebuild, at about the same cost as a similar age MK2 MX5. Yes, factoring in the rebuild is not within the rules of sheding, but it seems like a good car to me.
No way I would buy it as a £1k car, but I would be happy to get it as a £3.5k car.
You can have that, or for the same price you can have these wonderful cars:
1.1 Citroen C2
www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/citroen/...
Toyota Corolla 1.6 Auto
www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/toyota/c...
VW Beetle 1.4!!!!!
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/v...
Yes, there is some slightly more PH metal around, but it comes up, after an engine rebuild, at about the same cost as a similar age MK2 MX5. Yes, factoring in the rebuild is not within the rules of sheding, but it seems like a good car to me.
No way I would buy it as a £1k car, but I would be happy to get it as a £3.5k car.
KimJongHealthy said:
BFleming said:
Also, there's a build thread on UKSaabs.co.uk about a guy who has put a Saab B204 engine into an RX8. It's a lot of work...
http://www.uksaabs.co.uk/UKS/viewtopic.php?f=35&am...
Perfect way to ruin a car that's main feature is a high-revving, light and compact rotary engine. http://www.uksaabs.co.uk/UKS/viewtopic.php?f=35&am...
;-)
I'm clearly missing something as I just don't get these things at all. 
For your heady 231 bhp and 156 lb/ft of torque, you get teens to the gallon, litres of oil used between services, and even with kid gloves treatment, you are highly likely to get stiched up with a costly rebuild at a mileage where a proper engine would be just getting into its stride.
I get that the engine is small, revvy and light, and very smooth. But it fundamentally doesn't work
For your heady 231 bhp and 156 lb/ft of torque, you get teens to the gallon, litres of oil used between services, and even with kid gloves treatment, you are highly likely to get stiched up with a costly rebuild at a mileage where a proper engine would be just getting into its stride.
I get that the engine is small, revvy and light, and very smooth. But it fundamentally doesn't work
Limpet said:
I'm clearly missing something as I just don't get these things at all.
For your heady 231 bhp and 156 lb/ft of torque, you get teens to the gallon, litres of oil used between services, and even with kid gloves treatment, you are highly likely to get stiched up with a costly rebuild at a mileage where a proper engine would be just getting into its stride.
I get the engine is small and light, and very smooth. But it fundamentally doesn't work
They're not about the power For your heady 231 bhp and 156 lb/ft of torque, you get teens to the gallon, litres of oil used between services, and even with kid gloves treatment, you are highly likely to get stiched up with a costly rebuild at a mileage where a proper engine would be just getting into its stride.
I get the engine is small and light, and very smooth. But it fundamentally doesn't work
They're about something you can't quantify in Top Gear Top Trumps.For a mid sized coupe they are astonishing in the handling stakes
TREMAiNE said:
Any excuse to show my R3 off!
Love it to bits. When you get over the poor paper comparison of BHP to MPG, you realise that it is well and truly worth it!
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
someone who 'gets' it. I'm not referring to the RX in particular but the whole "BHP to MPG" (or for us Yank owners BHP to cc and MPG) relationship. You enjoy it - then it's worth it!Love it to bits. When you get over the poor paper comparison of BHP to MPG, you realise that it is well and truly worth it!
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
So much car for the money. I genuinely can't believe these are in SOTW territory now.
Looks like a nice example and with an honest seller. Shame it has the hot starting issue which could be ruinous if it needs a new engine.
Shocking fuel economy - my 4.0 Litre Sovereign does better mpg and prob a fair bit more reliable too!
Looks like a nice example and with an honest seller. Shame it has the hot starting issue which could be ruinous if it needs a new engine.
Shocking fuel economy - my 4.0 Litre Sovereign does better mpg and prob a fair bit more reliable too!
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