baz995

iTrader: (8)

Hi all,

My Mrs loves these cars and i am debating whether or not to get her one for her 40th as i can not bleeive how bloody cheap they are now, i have seen them around the £2500 mark. Has anyone had one, know a mate with one or driven one? I am concerned about the 500ml of oil needed every 1000miles (there is no way the Mrs will chaeck that!) and the fuel costs but any feedback, experiences or advice would be most welcome, cheers.

what would scooby do

no torque and bad mpg that's why they are cheap

jono300

iTrader: (8)

Bad reputation and yet to here anyone keep one longer than a year :-)
Wife's workmate bought one just before winter last year and did say never again,its performance during the last winter was terrible but to be fair most cars on the road struggled with what we had. She like so many sold it before the year was up.

At 2500 l would personally give one a try providing I found a nice low mileage one with fsh, most I have seen for sale have had low mileage so guess they must be being bought for fun /social use more than an every day commuting car.

garymate

ive only just sold mine there a lot of car for the money and not as bad as people say on oil, really heavy on fuel though and rear wheel drive so bit **** end happy at this time of year but if you do get 1 the 231ps is the better 1. be careful what year you buy though mine was 2004 and the road tax was normal kind of price, my mate has 1 on 2006 and his four hundred plus.

Luan Pra bang

I liked driving the one i had but diddnt love it. They use comedy amounts of fuel if you put you foot down. I had one for 5 days.

The Zohan

they are cheap for a reason - reliability and fuel consumption.!

BrownPantsRacing

iTrader: (6)

Yep, wife had one till few months ago. 18mpg and only got 21 on a long run. Had to check and top up oil every 500 miles of 2 weeks. Went through 2 sets of rear tyres in 1 year of ownership. At £350 a pair for the bridgestones recommended it wasn't cheap.

Other than that, great little cars. Nice to drive. No torque at all but still good fun.

Paid £7k for ours and got £2.5k trade in exactly 1 year later. Ouch.

Andy

Skoobie Dhu

iTrader: (3)

Still got our 231 model - 5 years+ now.

Have a look at this thread for more info, I have a post with info half way down.

https://www.scoobynet.com/other-marq...ut-an-rx8.html

Only thing I'd add is steer clear of high mileage one's, there have been some (very few in % terms though) with engine problems, these all tend to be 70+ kmiles cars.

SiPie

Colleague has STRUGGLED for 5 months (holding out for £3k) to eventually sell an 04 plate in very good nick, for 2500....

He had it for a year and all he said was

"Why didn't I listen to my brother and every one else that told me not to buy one"

subaruturbo_18

Mate used to have one and i drove in on several occasions... It felt nice and solid, clutch bite point was very low, but was nice. Steering felt good, although it was a little twitchy.

Great fun to drive although they didn't feel torquey like my Scoob of the time. As a womans car (although she wont get much shopping in it) i suppose it would do. But yes very expensive on fuel, almost as if it was a highly tuned scoob

BrownPantsRacing

iTrader: (6)

Ours was a top spec 55 plate (cheap tax version) with 2 owners and full Mazda 32k mile history. Only got £2.5k trade in, and that was good. They not worth much now. Something like 380 of them fro sale on eBay when we advertised ours.

47 NAT

I've just sold my 2008 231.

Lovely looking car with great spec and I loved the way the rear doors opened.
Great car to drive in the dry and it handled really well until the road had any water on it, then it wanted to swap ends.

I done a lot of research before I bought mine into the fuel/oil consumption and other things that can go wrong. It generally seems that they are reliable but they need mothering like no other car I've ever owned. In fact I'd go to say that when you use the mazdarx8 owners club forum it kind of puts you off with most people saying "get a compression test before you buy", "makes sure it's in warranty", "check this-check that", etc, etc. That aside there a very helpful and happy bunch of people

I only done a few 0000's miles in mine and it hardly used any oil and it didn't drink the litres that some people say. If I drove it very calm, I'd manage to get mid 20's. If I drove it to get the beep and have max rpm then at least half that!

Mine was the dearer road tax bracket. The guy I got mine off paid £20k+.

Would I have another one? No, it was easier to own and run Cosworths and there renown for making any owner paranoid of what's going to happen next

Rotary engines should be unique in some sort of grand way, say for fuel, ultra reliable or some other achievement where as there not IMO. What's the point in been different and not been able to offer anything combustion engines don't offer?

Luckily I broke even on mine but the fastest thing about an 8 is the depreciation of it ....

Andy M3

RX8 article.

http://bridgetogantry.com/2/index.ph...&Itemid=300091

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Drove one - very nice to drive.

Stupid novelty, comedy doors

Stupid fuel consumption

Stupid oil consumption

Engine needs rebuilt every ten minutes

Other than that - perfect!

wieczor25

iTrader: (8)

Had two Rx8's
Yes you do have to check oil every two fill ups (500 miles) but it doesn't use much of it ! not more than some Alfas and diesel cars.., And you can NOT switch the engine off until its warm or it will flood and yes 20mpg is about right.
Great fun to drive,50:50 balance, rwd , and you can rev it to 9k+ rpms,
Comes well equipped as standard.

Andy M3

Also I've read this:

"If you premix with a good fully synthetic ester two stroke oil at a ratio of 400-1 (about 150ml per tank) this will not only lubricate the ssv valve and the third port runners but it will also help to keep any carbon build up softer and less likely to brake a seal."

wieczor25

iTrader: (8)

yes. i used Protek R
http://www.pettitracing.co.uk/pettit...lubricant.html