Happy New Year!

Been told by my boss this morning that I can spend £10k of his money to buy myself a company car. His criteria is that it must be a Japanese car and less than 50k on the clock.

In our line of business (estate agents) most people buy Mini but there are three Mini's in the company and we found them to be quite unreliable, anyways I have narrowed it down to a CTR, integra type-r DC5 and RX8 he's happy for me to buy either the CTR or RX8.
The look of the Integra type R is a bit raw and the running cost is bit high so he's not keen on it at all.

Question is which, out of the CTR and RX8 is the better car bearing in mind my STi would also be sitting in the driveway...


Shof

 

I went to try and blag a test drive of an RX8 a few weeks ago. I told him I drove an Impreza and wanted something more practical. However The RX8 must be the most impractical car on the road.

The salesman told me I would get about 15-20 mpg, the engines flood if they are only used on a short journey. The boot is an absoulute disgrace. The oil needed topped up every month. I asked him what oil to use and he said it was about £15 per litre.

They are really nice cars and will be a lot of fun but I would get a CTR.

 

My sister used to have a RX8 and I had the old shape CTR at the same time and regually we swapped cars.
Both chalk and cheese, the downsides of the RX8 has been pointed out already - ie poor fuel consumption, small boot, engine flooding etc. But it does have a better ride (might be good if taking clients out), the rear seats are usuable. Brakes are very good !
CTR has less toys than a RX8, ride is more harsh, - Fuel consumption is better, boot is good as rear legroom, but access to the rear seats are bad, brakes are not as good as the RX8.

If it was my money I would choose the Honda again, either a 30th anniversary one or a late model one with the red recardo seats. (oh and a JDM spec anti roll bar for the rear)

Richard

 

If you can squeeze and extra grand or two, what about a Nissan 350Z, otherwise CTR.

 

If you're out an about all the time then the CTR. In out, in out at showings etc. will start being a PITA in a low coupe (not to mention the lack of economy!). CTR has practicality of hatch and good loadspace etc. All in a much easier ownership prospect.

If it were for longer journeys, weekend car or the "special" car then the RX8.

Best thing would be to ditch the scoob, have the CTR for day to day and the RX8 for weekend etc.

 

I was really hoping you guys would comeback pro RX8, since CTR has the majority vote I'll go and test drive few.

Would love a 350z but 10k is his max budget and on top he is actually doing me a favour by letting me buy something beefy as all the other guys have minis and micras.

Thanks for all your input

Shof

 

Hows this working, is it going to be classed as a company car and if so will you be paying company car tax ?
If your paying company car tax you may want to go for the mini or micra the others have

 

nope no car tax luckily

 

I'm sure the Inland Revenue would beg to differ!

 

Deppends how its done. If for example the manager gives the OP a 10k one off Bonus, and the OP just happens to buy a car with it then they would probably be fine with it!

 

Subject to income tax and the car will be registered and owned by the OP.

 

My sister though that when she ahad a full time pool car.

The IR always get there man (or woman) as she found out!

Steve

 

What a load of bolox, we've an RX8 along with our STi wagon. Fuel consumption is 25-28, poss touching 30 mpg if driven normally. Oil consumption also depends how it's driven, ours uses about a litre every 3 months and we use Halfords semi synthetic @ £15 for 5 litres. As for praticality, the rear space for passengers is excellent, lots of legroom, yes the boot is smallish but this is a sports coupe after all?
Engines can flood if you've no idea what you're doing - by a short journey he means tens of metres - ours has never flooded.

I wouldn't buy f**k all from that salesman..

 

A mate has an Rx8 that I drive on a regular basis. It seems to get 18 - 22 mpg. He reckons if he rags it he gets 18 drive sensible and 22 mpg. So he just rags it everywhere. We have tried allsorts and there is no way we can manage to get 30 miles from a 61 litre tank. Uses a litre of oil every 1000 miles. Regarding flooding it's fine just dont turn it off until the temperature gauge has moved.

 

Both the fuel and oil consumption depend on how hard the car is driven, a litre of oil every 1,000 miles suggests this car is being driven hard.

When I said 'normally' above I should probably have said 'carefully' instead.

Lot of good advice on the owners club forum - here's the fabled '300 mile club' thread.

From there and Mazda advice, 1 litre of oil should typically last 2,000 miles, my wife drives the RX8 and we get 3,000 miles per top up.

RX8 Owners Club :: View topic - 300 Mile Club

 

I didnt

 

So what did you buy?

 

Nothing. I was just trying to get a test drive. I had no intentions of buying anything. Still got my P1

 

What about a Honda S2000?

 

I ran a nearly new RX8 (231) for a few weeks that we had taken in part exchange.

I did drive it quite hard but was flabbergasted to only get 12-15mpg, yes it did use oil at a rate I would consider unacceptable on any other car, yes the rear doors and seats are far more practical than you might expect and no I would not plough my own cash into one !

From a performance point of view nothing interesting seemed to happen until about 6,000 RPM, I hear that the lower powered version is nicer to drive but haven't had the chance unfortunately.

If you already have the scooby, why not look at something more practical for work but still fun ? Accord Type 'R' springs to mind or a BMW 330D ?

 

I had an RX8 231 and 17mpg was the norm, all town work but didn't differ much regardless of how hard i drove it. Flooding is, as above, easily avoided, let it heat up slightly before turning off! Oil usage, again not much of a hassle, mine would take 1/2 a litre a month roughly and it wsa just 5/30 semi synth if i remember right so bout £20-£25 for 5 litres...

Great car looks wise, very well specced including a nice bose sound system, practical in my view and pretty quick.... before buying i took out a CTR and chose the RX8 but just my opinion........