Anyone live day to day with an RX8?

The time has come to replace my Protege. I'm drawn to RX8s for a few reasons, including the ability to take both my children to track days (right now, it's hard to get the Corvette or Miata to the track with two kids, unless I am going with friends).

Are the rear seats useful for younger children (7 to 10)? How is the car on a day to day basis? Anyone drive in the snow with one (I'd be getting snows).

I know about the oil consumption and fuel consumption characteristics of the rotary.

Thoughts?

My buddy owns one. I fit EASILY in the back at 6'2" and he drives it every day for him, his wife and his 4 year old. Way more room in the back than a Mustang or something. The back doors are surprisingly useful. His mileage isn't great - 17-20 mpg. He has no issues driving it back and forth to work.

Anything with snow tires is drivable in the snow.

Perfect LSX swap candidate

Not a personal experience, but a friend had one and was driven nuts by the fuel consumption and oiling issues. He was very happy to finally get it sold and move on.

2002maniac wrote: Perfect LSX swap candidate

You would think so, but the closest Ive seen is a aborted swap attempt engineless chassis on the local craigslist.

In reply to ZOO: I work on Mazdas in a dealership in MD. I think that since you are a car guy it is worth having if you can deal with the crappy gas milage. They can be much to take care of if you neglect it but keeping up on the maintenace is key to long life. The early ones have more problems so an 07' and up model may be best for you. We see a lot less flodded engines on those due to the upgrades in the pcm programming by Mazda. you can buy an earlier on but you will have to do a few things to it if you want it to stay in good shape.

damn, I thought it said "anyone live day to day IN an RX8."

That would have been an entertaining thread...

MrJoshua wrote:

2002maniac wrote: Perfect LSX swap candidate

You would think so, but the closest Ive seen is a aborted swap attempt engineless chassis on the local craigslist.

IIRC, the RX-8 has a much more cramped engine bay than any of the RX-7 models. It makes forced induction an issue as well.

While an RX-8 will probably be more livable day-to-day than an old FC like mine, I'm still hesitant to call a rotary-powered car a good DD. Staying on top of maintenance is an absolute must. Plus, while I do see RX-8s driving around in the winter, rotaries don't run as well in the cold as they do in warmer conditions.

I was a passenger in one being driven by a local autocrosser, and co-worker, in the Pro class. I'm 6'1" and my helmet kept banging against the roof on the right side. I asked the driver, also tall, how he fits and he said that he drives hunched over a bit when autocrossing.

Stock LS1 in an RX8 1/4 mile

I love that he starts off in 2nd

my jeep gets better milage

EricM wrote: my jeep gets better milage

Your Jeep would suck on a race track, or an autox course :)

My car is a semi-daily driver. (It's more than a weekend toy, but I probably only drive it to work once or twice a week.) I do use it a lot for running errands with my kids or the whole family in tow. You can use that to weight my comments accordingly.

I'm about 1/2" over 6' with a 33" inseam, and I fit just fine with a helmet in a non-sunroof/manual seat car. The sunroof and the power seats will both eat headroom. However, fitting in the car depends more on torso length than total height. Even with my long-ish legs, I drive with the seat two or three clicks forward.

My kids (4yo and 1yo) are smaller than the OP's, but the back is fine for them. My full-grown coworkers don't mind riding to lunch back there, but I doubt any of them would want to go on a road trip that way.

My car burns so little oil in street driving as to be a non-issue. It burns maybe a quart in 3k miles. Track use (HPDE) is another matter entirely. I'd estimate that it burns around half a quart per hour of track time. If I start with a full tank of gas and a full crankcase, it will need gas before it needs oil, though I usually fill both at the same time. Other guys at the track seem to have less oil consumption than that.

The gas mileage is not great, but if you drive the car sedately it's possible to get much better than what most report. Driving carefully I get 24mpg on road trips and about 20 in town (on pretty sticky Dunlop Z1s). Driving what I consider "normally" (probably still slightly sedate), I get about 22 hwy and 18-19 in town. On track I get around 8mpg. The key to getting good mileage is not revving the engine into oblivion when you don't need to. I typically shift just under 3k when driving sedately.

We don't get much snow in Houston, but I think it would be just fine, especially with snow tires. If you're really worried about it, look for a model with DSC (stability control). The DSC program is pretty good. It's substantially less intrusive than the ASC on my E36 M3 was, and can be switched off for track use. (Unless you're trying to set a lap record, you can leave it on during track use. It will let you slide the car and/or step the tail out slightly if you're smooth about it.)

Rob, All I have to say is that if you get to have an rx8, a miata, and the vette you are one lucky guy.

2002maniac wrote: Stock LS1 in an RX8 1/4 mile I love that he starts off in 2nd

Any more info on that car? I am always wary of youtube vids, I saw a duramax vette doing a nasty burnout once too!

My daughter has an 04 RX8. Besides the lousy gas mileage, it's a decent car. Hers has been lowered with a set of Mazdaspeed springs and it handles very well. She has some flooding issues with it and it's currently at the dealer getting a new motor. Under warranty, its apparently how they fix early RX8 with flooding issues. I have spent some time with it and find it a pretty good dd. Even autocrossed it a few times, she used to regularly until her current job usually has her working on autocross days. I'm almost 5'11" and my helmet rubs the roof but the car has a sunroof, manual seats. It also currently has wider than stock RE01 tires (which causes a tire pressure light when warm), DSC and HP+ pads. It is a bit more expensive to maintain than other cars (a lot more than my 99 Miata). Spark plugs are >$20 apiece (X4=$85 a set) and wires are more than that. The rear doors are very useful to access the back seat and the back seat is useable. Although more difficult that a real 4-door to use, have to open front door move passenger or load close to the front door then open back door for access if your in a parking slot with cars next to you. Oil consumption is outragous and tells you when it's low, when the light comes on it's about 1/2-qt low. I have thought about taking the car away from her and getting her something more affordable to drive (she thinks the Miata is too small for dd) since she does complain about the mileage and premium fuel usage.

ZOO wrote:

EricM wrote: my jeep gets better milage

Your Jeep would suck on a race track, or an autox course :)

dissagree, the motor is torquarific. Lower it, race rubber, lsd for the front, etc....

I wish i lived day to day with an RX8, and last i knew, my girlfriend wishes the same thing.

Yeah. She's drooling on my shoulder right now.

I've had an 04 as a DD for three years now. I echo billy3esq's comments 100% except for the gas mileage. I get 20-21 mpg during my highway commute. It probably doesn't help that I have a roof rack on mine either. Right now I have three year old blizzaks on it, and it handles the Michigan snow like a champ.

I'm 6'2" w/33" inseam and I too have the seat forward just a touch. Mine has power seats and a sunroof. I wish I didn't have either, b/c there's no way I can fit with a helmet. I'm looking in to installing a race bucket for track days, which should give me a couple of extra inches with the right brackets.

I have to throw 3/4 a quart in every 2500-3000 miles of normal use, which seams fine to me. I did flood it once, but that was my fault for not letting the engine come up to temp before I shut it off. Spark plugs are $$, but they're easy to do (half hour tops), and beats the $350 my stealership wanted. Oil changes aren't stupid easy, but they're not hard eitiher, unless you have troubles like I did:

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/the-persuader/9249/page1/ (had to change usernames, something was borked with my old one).

I don't have kids, but I do use the back seats a bunch for storage. My only real gripe with the car as a DD is the mileage, but every time I think about it, I run it up to 9000 rpm and smile.

I'd say do it, they're stupid cheap right now for what you get.

Buy one and give the Vette to your father!

You can get an LS2 GTO for almost the same money and have 200 more hp and near 30mpg on the highway.

The RX8 is a sharp car, and I almost bought one. less than 200 whp and mileage in the teens killed it for me.

wlkelley3 wrote: she does complain about the mileage and premium fuel usage.

Premium fuel usage? I thought rotaries were the exception to the rule, and thrived on the cheapest low-octane swill you could find? Is that a difference between the Renesis and 13B, or am I totally off the mark?

And I have to vent a little here, people complaining about something needing premium fuel is a pet peeve of mine. It's a $2 difference for 10 gallons. That's it. TWO BUCKS. If you're getting 20mpg, that's a difference of ONCE CENT per mile, and that assumes that you get the same fuel economy with either. Usually, the price per mile DECREASES with premium fuel, as you can run more advanced timing (admittedly not applicable for a rotary) and therefore get better mileage. In the case above, if gas costs $3/gallon for regular and $3.20 for premium, one mile costs 15 cents or 16 cents, respectively. If with premium you get 21.3mpg instead of 20, it's a total wash. And yes, I have seen increases of 1.3mpg and better by bumping up timing and switching from 87 to 91 octane.

In reply to ReverendDexter:

I agree

My s/r takes premium, but will run ok on mid-grade. I tried mid-grade once and the mileage suffered enough to make it a worse deal. Since then it's been 91 octane or better.

I've been trying to convince wifey that an RX8 is a good commuter for me to replace the s/r - which is dying.

No go so far...

klipless wrote: I did flood it once, but that was my fault for not letting the engine come up to temp before I shut it off.

I laughed out loud when I read that! That's right, in this day and age it's COMPLETELY unreasonable to think you can shut your car off when it's still cold outside.

As attractive as the prices on these cars are, the fuel economy-power ratio kills it for me. GTO, Corvette, M3, 911, M5 all offer better fuel mileage (in some cases dramatically better) and more power (in some cases dramatically more!).

Put me in the camp that doesn't really see the point of using an "odd" technology that isn't really better at anything than the status quo. I know the motor is compact, but that hasn't really resulted in a smaller/lighter car. Don't get me wrong, I think they're "neat", and if the prices fall low enough I "might" consider one as a non-DD....but probably not.

There are far too many good things about the RX8 that outweigh the slightly lower gas mileage numbers.