RE: Shed of the Week: Mazda RX-8

[R8Steve]

re33 said:

R8Steve said:

Some people say they have great handling, i can't comment as it wasn't fast enough to find out. That was the higher BHP model as well. Rubbish.

Edited by R8Steve on Friday 5th January 10:41

LMAO. "Wasn't fast enough to find out." It's hard not to attack you personally for a comment like this, maybe you were trying to exaggerate for effect, but what on earth does amount of power got to do with a cars handling? What do you think of the handling in a Yaris? Wow.

It's quite simple, it's underpowered for the chassis. I thought that would have been quite obvious from what i said. For a rear wheel drive car it was difficult to break traction at the rear and it understeers into fast corners.

I've only driven a yaris a fairly short distance so didn't really test the handling, it felt well balanced though. HTH

[TurboHatchback]

It's a nope from me. I never got the appeal of these, V12 fuel economy with supermini torque, pig ugly looks and catastrophically poor reliability. I'm sure they handle nicely but so do many other cars that don't come with the enormous downsides.

[ReverendCounter]

Ironic isn't it, that three paragraphs into the article you read about how a fictional dodgy "used car garage, 'do a number' on Ian Carmichael, the naïve young hero", and the garage being promoted in Shed is exactly the same!

[PhantomPH]

R8Steve said:

re33 said:

R8Steve said:

Some people say they have great handling, i can't comment as it wasn't fast enough to find out. That was the higher BHP model as well. Rubbish.

Edited by R8Steve on Friday 5th January 10:41

LMAO. "Wasn't fast enough to find out." It's hard not to attack you personally for a comment like this, maybe you were trying to exaggerate for effect, but what on earth does amount of power got to do with a cars handling? What do you think of the handling in a Yaris? Wow.

It's quite simple, it's underpowered for the chassis. I thought that would have been quite obvious from what i said. For a rear wheel drive car it was difficult to break traction at the rear and it understeers into fast corners.

I've only driven a yaris a fairly short distance so didn't really test the handling, it felt well balanced though. HTH

I totally disagree.

And as much as I could try and convince, I will simply post this video and not how much understeer there is and difficulty in breaking traction...not: https://youtu.be/g5FNjyaLfC8?t=3m15s

[chow pan toon]

I miss mine although the rusty wheel arches and bootlid was disappointing on a modern car. The tail lights filled with water as well.

Loved the handling though and the advantages that the engine gave to the packaging of the car were brought home to me when I looked at the "seats" in the back of a similar sized GT86. I'm not sure I'd have another but 9500 rpm was always fun.

[R8Steve]

PhantomPH said:

I totally disagree.

And as much as I could try and convince, I will simply post this video and not how much understeer there is and difficulty in breaking traction...not: https://youtu.be/g5FNjyaLfC8?t=3m15s

Top gear videos are always representive of real life and not edited in a certain way of course...not.

I have driven thousands of miles on race tracks so do have a rough idea what i'm talking about. My honest opinion is that the RX8 was the biggest disappointment of any car i've driven...and i've driven hundreds, some that should be terrible.

You and Clarkson may disagree but that is my opinion from spending 5k miles in one.

[PhantomPH]

R8Steve said:

PhantomPH said:

I totally disagree.

And as much as I could try and convince, I will simply post this video and not how much understeer there is and difficulty in breaking traction...not: https://youtu.be/g5FNjyaLfC8?t=3m15s

Top gear videos are always representive of real life and not edited in a certain way of course...not.

I have driven thousands of miles on race tracks so do have a rough idea what i'm talking about. My honest opinion is that the RX8 was the biggest disappointment of any car i've driven...and i've driven hundreds, some that should be terrible.

You and Clarkson may disagree but that is my opinion from spending 5k miles in one.

See my post on the previous page where I outline my own ownership.

It's all personal opinion of course, so it's fine that we disagree. Although you do seem to disagree with the overwhelming majority of both owners and reviewers who all state that the RX8 is a great handling car.

I'll give you your 'thousands of miles on a track' comment, although I will say that I have spent thousands of hours playing golf...doesn't mean I'm any good at it.

[sr.guiri]

R8Steve said:

I doubt these had £5-6k of driving pleasure even when they were new.

They're gutless, sound dreadful, overly expensive to run and have loads of issues, even taking the engine out the equation.

Some people say they have great handling, i can't comment as it wasn't fast enough to find out. That was the higher BHP model as well. Rubbish.

hahaha, say it as it is, Dude. Some proper Mazda hate going on there I couldn't even muster up that amount of hate towards a person that buys are Range Rover Evoque

Edited by R8Steve on Friday 5th January 10:41

[R8Steve]

PhantomPH said:

See my post on the previous page where I outline my own ownership.

It's all personal opinion of course, so it's fine that we disagree. Although you do seem to disagree with the overwhelming majority of both owners and reviewers who all state that the RX8 is a great handling car.

I'll give you your 'thousands of miles on a track' comment, although I will say that I have spent thousands of hours playing golf...doesn't mean I'm any good at it.

I never said it was a bad handling car, I simply said it's underpowered for the chassis.

You could take that as an underhanded compliment to the handling if anything, i just pointed out that the car is not fast/powerful enough to exploit this wonderful handling everyone goes on about.

I have no doubt that Clarkson (or more likely the stig) can Scandinavian flick it into oversteer on an empty wet runway but on a track it understeers on the entry to fast corners and bogs down out of slow ones due to lack of torque/power.

You may not be any good at golf...but you'd still know if you had a really crap club or not

[Phil Dicky]

R8Steve said:

PhantomPH said:

See my post on the previous page where I outline my own ownership.

It's all personal opinion of course, so it's fine that we disagree. Although you do seem to disagree with the overwhelming majority of both owners and reviewers who all state that the RX8 is a great handling car.

I'll give you your 'thousands of miles on a track' comment, although I will say that I have spent thousands of hours playing golf...doesn't mean I'm any good at it.

I never said it was a bad handling car, I simply said it's underpowered for the chassis.

You could take that as an underhanded compliment to the handling if anything, i just pointed out that the car is not fast/powerful enough to exploit this wonderful handling everyone goes on about.

I have no doubt that Clarkson (or more likely the stig) can Scandinavian flick it into oversteer on an empty wet runway but on a track it understeers on the entry to fast corners and bogs down out of slow ones due to lack of torque/power.

You may not be any good at golf...but you'd still know if you had a really crap club or not

I had mine for 2 years and totally agree it wasn't as fast I was expecting, but it needed an adjustment to driving style as there is no torque below 4k, you really need to be ringing its neck constantly to get the maximum out of it, which they love. Any bogging down in my experience was due to being in the wrong gear.

[R8Steve]

R8Steve said:

I doubt these had £5-6k of driving pleasure even when they were new.

They're gutless, sound dreadful, overly expensive to run and have loads of issues, even taking the engine out the equation.

Some people say they have great handling, i can't comment as it wasn't fast enough to find out. That was the higher BHP model as well. Rubbish.

sr.guiri said:

hahaha, say it as it is, Dude. Some proper Mazda hate going on there I couldn't even muster up that amount of hate towards a person that buys are Range Rover Evoque

On the contrary, i do hillclimbs/sprints in a Mazda MX-5 and think it is one of the best balanced and enjoyable cars to drive.

It's just the RX8 i thought was rubbish, the values of them would certainly tell me i'm not alone.

Edited by R8Steve on Friday 5th January 12:07

[PhantomPH]

R8Steve said:

You may not be any good at golf...but you'd still know if you had a really crap club or not

True! Although (full disclosure) I haven't spend thousands of hours playing golf...I played enough hours to know I'm st at it. Then threw my clubs in a skip.

You really had to (as the poster above says) learn how to drive the RX8's engine. The torque is not terrible but it was quite flat/wide (pretty flat from max at about 5.5k up to almost redline, if I recall) you had to be in the right gear at the right time - often a higher one than you might normally have been.

In order to drop out of the top 20% of the available torque, you'd have to be dropping to about 2k revs, which is way too low. Anything above that and the torque was pretty linear...just not gobs of it.

Regardless, it's all personal opinion and preference so...

Agree with your above about the MX5. One of the best parts of the RX8 experience is the MX5 gearbox it used. Lowed that short-throw shift and stubby gearstick.

ETA - I'd guess the used values reflect the perceived reliability of the product - not it's ability.

[nmckay]

These are great cars and fantastic value for money if you can get a good one.

I do think Mazda missed a trick by not bringing the car out with the wonderful 2.0 turbo MPS engine they fitted to the Mazda 3. Would have made it a tuners dream.

[delta0]

I get at least 300 miles from a tank in my R3. With a short ratio box that comes standard with the R3 it can accelerate very quickly when needed, sub 6s to 60. The engine and handling is what makes this car. It is extremely nimble and with the engine screaming past 9k rpm it sounds and feels amazing. The engine is very far back and actually the gearbox is between the seats. It is almost a mid engined car (front mid engine?) and has very good balance and weight distribution as a result.

Edited by delta0 on Friday 5th January 12:38

[J4CKO]

alorotom said:

J4CKO said:

There is a reason 99.99 percent of IC cars have piston engines, the wankel is a nice idea but its been shown time and again not to work well enough for passenger cars to be used by normal owners, and not enthusiasts.

youre right - fear of the unknown and the different

If there was larger adoption then I genuinely believe the kinks in the design would be worked out, the same that has happened with piston engines over the past c.50yrs with engines getting smaller, more efficient and more powerful - but with only one manufacturer persevering it becomes challenging to say the least.

personally I applaud Mazda for that perseverance and keeping at it - its dedication to the cause and makes the world more interesting IMHO

To be fair, someone has been at it, including a massive Japanese Car company for fifty years and they are still iffy, piston engines got developed, worked as intended and then got further developed because it was worth doing, the wankel has too many potential failing, even if the tip wear and oil consumption was sorted out, would they manage to double or triple the fuel economy ?

The IC engine is going to stop getting huge development over the next ten years, Mazda are still innovating on that side but it will end up where the electric motor will take over, that is already perfect, it is just the power storage that needs sorting.

It isnt fear of the unknown, people ought them, had problems and thought fk that, those arent very good, even back to the sixties people were sticking Ford V4's in NSU RO 80s, things must be bad if one of those is a better option.

I am usually a champion of the underdog and dont like dismissing things out of hand but they just arent fit for purpose a lot of the time.

[PhantomPH]

nmckay said:

These are great cars and fantastic value for money if you can get a good one.

I do think Mazda missed a trick by not bringing the car out with the wonderful 2.0 turbo MPS engine they fitted to the Mazda 3. Would have made it a tuners dream.

I think packaging was the reason, but I may be wrong.

I also had a 6MPS with the 2.3ltr turbo lump and that engine was huge and heavy by comparison to the rotary in the 8 (whole car was a decent lump to be fair). Not sure if it's the same lump as the 3MPS tho, so may not be a fair comparison.

[Turbobanana]

GranCab said:

Oh dear .....

https://www.cardealerreviews.co.uk/dealership/ayle...

I only read the first page as they're quite hard to read, having mostly been written by people who appear not to know much about punctuation, but much of these reflect my own recent experience of buying a car from this seemingly common new breed of "dealer" (NOT this one, BTW).

The problem appears to be that it's fairly simple to borrow some money, rent premises and buy stock. You then advertise it on as many websites as you can find, and wait for the punters to roll in. Advertising costs are minimal therefore prices are appealing. Ker-ching, as they say.

Except that management is only interested in making money, and sales staff are simply order-takers with no authority to negotiate or make decisions. Proper, trained sales staff in "old school" dealerships are, in the main, polite, professional and actually care about the customer experience. The market demands the best price, and the interweb allows people to search for it, so the buying experience suffers, cars are poorly-prepared and warranties generally aren't.

So you make a choice: top dollar, with the preparation, warranty and service to match; or bargain basement, with poor preparation and false promises.

I chose the latter, and regretted it.

Enough thread hijacking: this looks like a cracking Shed, even if the dealer's bona fides are suspect (which they may not be).

[njw1]

parpindog said:

What’s a bumhound ? Lol....

A knackered ST220 by the sounds of it.

And I can remember walking into a scrappy about five years and having to do a double take as there were two RX8's in the corner being stripped. I couldn't work out why two decent looking 'new' performance were in bits in a scrapyard so I went home and had a google and then all became clear!

[Liquid Knight]

I wish I had kept mine. Great car.



(I prefer the 192 four port to the 231 six port engine, sounds, feels and goes better)

[otolith]

R8Steve said:

it understeers into fast corners.

I found that a little on track, until the instructor improved my driving.