RX-8...new MX-5?
Discussion
Been keeping an eye on the 231ps RX-8's recently, they're dropping under £4k for what I guess is an 8 year old car. Is there anything other than it liking a bit of oil to be watchful of? I understand the engine is no longer a removable item under standard service?
Thinking £3-£4k gets something fairly respectable from the looks of the Classifieds
Or are they ropey as feck at that sort of price?
Thinking £3-£4k gets something fairly respectable from the looks of the Classifieds
Or are they ropey as feck at that sort of price?
greggy50 said:
Do a search so many threads recently about the RX8 I have seen I was considering one but all the talk has put me off to be honest...
I was the same, I always fancied one after doing one of the Mazda Renesis days when they were launched, then seeing one with a turbo kit on it get a bootfull when I was in the USA.Now, no chance. Not touching one! I'm just not that brave. It'd be like ripping up £20 notes for fun.
The engine (seals) arnt as frail as the RX7's and should be good for 150,000 miles.
Wouldnt want a poorly treated one tho as theres a lot of expensive bits to replace if it goes wrong (like the carbon propshaft etc).
loved mine tho that was a new one, few teathing troubles (a '53 plate one), but never let me down and a blast to drive.
If you dont need the 4 seats at least some of the time buy a 2 seater, mx5 is more fun (if slower).
Wouldnt want a poorly treated one tho as theres a lot of expensive bits to replace if it goes wrong (like the carbon propshaft etc).
loved mine tho that was a new one, few teathing troubles (a '53 plate one), but never let me down and a blast to drive.
If you dont need the 4 seats at least some of the time buy a 2 seater, mx5 is more fun (if slower).
Mine has been 100% reliable since I bought it in April '10, but beware there are a lot of dying RX-8s for sale. When I bought mine I test drove 8 different RX's and 4 of them wouldn't start when properly warm pointing to a lack of engine compression. Of the ones that did start when warm only 2 were completely faultless; one had a clogged CAT and didn't rev past 6.5k RPM and the other had cloth seats and faulty xenon levellers, which is very common.
I also have given up on trying to sell mine as I've had virtually no genuine interest in it (£3995 for a 54 231 on 46k). Excellent time to buy, not such a good time to sell it would seem as the s
te ones are bringing prices down across the board.
I also have given up on trying to sell mine as I've had virtually no genuine interest in it (£3995 for a 54 231 on 46k). Excellent time to buy, not such a good time to sell it would seem as the s
te ones are bringing prices down across the board.No not the new MX-5, they're too big to be as wieldy and the fuel consumption means it's costlier to run.
MOST of the horror stories are pub talk, there are a lot of early RX8s around still and most haven't had engine troubles.
Troublesome ones do exist and at the 2-3K end of the market, you might get lucky, but more likely you'll find someone trying to unload one with low compression.
Some things, though, that people fear are horribly expensive to fix aren't (the Xenon leveller for example can usually be fixed for 50p!).
Biggest pains are fuel consumption (figure on about 20 MPG) and VED on post March '06 cars (top band - earlier cars are about £200 a year cheaper to tax), which is really what has pushed the prices down.
In other respects, they're very easy to live with and cheap to run.
PZs are holding up quite well, despite having exactly the same engine and transmission and all being high tax - not an indication that the RX8 is fundamentally a bad car.
Most of the 'experts' have never had one, but shop carefully and only buy at the low end if you've budgeted in an engine rebuild or insist on a compression test (worth doing at your expense if you're buying cheap).
Watch this thread degenerate into a long tedious one about why it would be a better car if it was a BMW 3 series coupe or a Camaro...
M
MOST of the horror stories are pub talk, there are a lot of early RX8s around still and most haven't had engine troubles.
Troublesome ones do exist and at the 2-3K end of the market, you might get lucky, but more likely you'll find someone trying to unload one with low compression.
Some things, though, that people fear are horribly expensive to fix aren't (the Xenon leveller for example can usually be fixed for 50p!).
Biggest pains are fuel consumption (figure on about 20 MPG) and VED on post March '06 cars (top band - earlier cars are about £200 a year cheaper to tax), which is really what has pushed the prices down.
In other respects, they're very easy to live with and cheap to run.
PZs are holding up quite well, despite having exactly the same engine and transmission and all being high tax - not an indication that the RX8 is fundamentally a bad car.
Most of the 'experts' have never had one, but shop carefully and only buy at the low end if you've budgeted in an engine rebuild or insist on a compression test (worth doing at your expense if you're buying cheap).
Watch this thread degenerate into a long tedious one about why it would be a better car if it was a BMW 3 series coupe or a Camaro...
M
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff