i would buy it. i've been looking for an 04-05 brillinat black 6spd touring for quite some time. i would jump on it if it checks out ok.

 

A note on the warrenty. I would shop around. The $2K-3K price tag is high. There are lots of aftermarket warrenty companies. The dealer goes through a warrenty company and passes their cut on to you.

As far as the compression test, I would request that you be there when the test is ran.

It's almost always better the go through a private party to get the best cost on a used viehicle. This is a big investment, shop around.

On the interest rate. Your getting whats considered a ballon loan. This is one type of loan that got people in trouble with the current housing market. I suggest anyone getting a loan to get a fixed rate loan. Having a co-signer can lower the interest rate also.

 

my 20 year old POS mercedes drives smoother than just about anything really. it also handles really well, although the 8 is better

i worked at a mazda dealership from 2004 to the end of 2007, we replaced 1 rx8 engine. one. thats way better than even the 3's, i think we did 3-4 of those?

 

So I went back to the dealership today. I filled out the initial paperwork. I go back on Tuesday to put the deposit on it, and again a week from Tuesday to pick up the car

They provided me with the service history and TSB/Recall history for the car. The guy invited me to look up any TSBs/Recalls I like and if they aren't on the list, bring them to his attention on Tuesday and he'll make sure they get processed before I pick up the car. So I'm going through the list of 60+ TSBs/Recalls on finishlineperformance.com (thanks rx8club!) and reading them all to see which ones apply to my car and find out if they've been done.

I took the car for a longer, unsupervised test drive today. It runs very well, but I found a few small things that they've agreed to address. Here's the lisst of stuff they've agreed to fix for me before I take delivery:

- Shift **** (yes they're installing a stock one for free as part of the deal)
- Barely audible "clunk" sound in front end on hard decel after cruising (ball joint?)
- They will double-check the TSBs/Recalls on their own again on my special request
- They WILL provide actual compression test numbers. Not just a paper saying "compression is OK" but actual numbers in kg/cm2
- The heater **** and coin tray cover need attention

Overall not too bad. What I'm finding amazing as I read through these TSBs and Recall notices is how they have official service bulletins and procedures for things that we do in the 1st Gen section on our own all the time. For example, TSB 01-015-08 is the Deflooding procedure to follow when your car gets flooded because it didn't fully warm up and you popped the clutch and stalled it. 01-050-06 is the cure for "lung mustard" as we call it, or as they put it "milky substance" - a PCV valve installation procedure basically. It's cool to see that this stuff is so common that Mazda produces documents for its techs on how to deal with customers complaining about this stuff!

For those curious, my VIN ends in -40101500 so I'm included in pretty much all of these TSBs. It's a really early car it seems, so I'm going to have to deal with alot of the issues that come with being the owner of a vehicle that was just out of the "beta testing" phase when it hit the dealer lot. Well, it's probably the best way to learn I suppose!

They've been very good about dealing with me as someone who knows about these cars. They don't treat me like Mr. Stupid Customer, and they've been happily dealing with all my questions and concerns. I didn't expect this much from the dealership, but these guys are living up to the good name they have in this city so far!

Which reminds me, I verified with them that the engine warranty does indeed apply. In fact, it was one of the first things he told me when I walked in today. The file folder containing all the car's info had "out of dealer warranty" written on it so he had assumed that meant -all- warranty, but in fact it was only the powertrain and comprehensive warranties that it was referring to. I got the 4yr comprehensive extended warranty with it, along with his promise that I can drive the service guys crazy as much as I want, showing up all the time with issues for them to fix under warranty, lol.

Very exciting. I'll take scans of the print-outs he gave me on Monday and post them. A lot of stuff has indeed already been done on this car. The oil cooler lines for example. Joe warned me about corrosion issues with those and sure enough in March of this year they were replaced under bulletin 08-04, so that's good!

I'll keep you guys up to date as stuff happens

Jon

 

Re: the compression test. Be sure they record/report the ACTUAL cranking rmp of YOUR car and just dont base it off of the standard figure of 250. Granted, the 8 SHOULD be putting out around 250 but that figure is diff in cars with weaker battery/charge as well as diff with one putting out higher.
Below is graph posted by a forum member at 8 club and shows the range from which to guage the readings you get. Dont mind the colored in parts in the middle or the notes off to the left side, act as if they werent there, they are just marking what readings this particular members car put up. Pretty much the closer your figures are to the blue line the better. If they are near/below the red then thats bad. As you can see, getting a proper rpm read is critical to getting an accurate assessment of ur car's compression. Sometimes they will get the chamber readings (eg. 7.8, 7.5, 7.5) and compare those to the standard cranking rpm of 250 without actually getting YOUR car's rpm reading---where just 10-20 cranking rpm can be deciding factor on whether or not u get a new engine or keep a weakass one, you want to know the exact cranking rpm's of your car, not just compared to the standard.



From the 8 manual........

 

j9, so you would have me believe that the complaints about the rx-8 engine needing to be replaced are all based on one that was replaced in a three year period?

 

LOL, oh boy. No offense man, but posting something like this without a shred of actual evidence other than "heresay" of someone you know who knows a guy who.....you get the picture. Normally, comments like these come from people who were unlucky and bought a bad apple (or didnt know properly maintain the car) or know someone who did, and then make gross generalizations.

The Renesis won internationally acclaimed awards and lets not forget the RX-8 was named C/D 10 best cars list in 2004, 2005 AND 2006. It has also won every comparo test it has been in in its class from 04-08 (consistently beating Z's, S2000, TT, Stang GT, ect..) despite being the slowest in the acceleration category. I would hardly consider a car with those accolades as one 'I wouldnt touch with a long pole'.

http://www.carpages.co.uk/mazda/mazd...r_27_05_04.asp

 

If I ever go for the 8 it will be a 2009 edition with the R3 package and of course ditching the renisis/warranty for a 13b re with a standalone and a single turbo, that would be so sick.

 

Those seats in the R3... I want them.

 

Forget the seats, I want the whole interior! I find the red/black leather to just scream "ricer".... Personally I'd prefer one in black, blue or silver with a grey interior... but hey, I couldn't pass up the price on my red ricermobile so I'm buying it anyway.

That car is indeed sexy, but since I can't afford an Rx8 new, I'd be waiting another 4-5yrs to get my hands on it at a price like what mine's going for!

Jon

 

Get out of my head!!! Stop reading my mind!!

 

Jones, I guess you mean that we should listen only to you and ignore all the complaints posted on the internet about this car. You must be a mazda salesman, if not I hope you buy an rx-8 are are happy with it. And although the car may have won awards when it was new, the evidence is that Mazda has replaced allot of rx-8 engines. Or else the internet postings are all bogus.


t posting something like this without a shred of actual evidence other than "heresay" of someone you know who knows a guy who.....you get the picture. Normally, comments like these come from people who were unlucky and bought a bad apple (or didnt know properly maintain the car) or know someone who did, and then make gross generalizations.

" The Renesis won internationally acclaimed awards and lets not forget the RX-8 was named C/D 10 best cars list in 2004, 2005 AND 2006. It has also won every comparo test it has been in in its class from 04-08 (consistently beating Z's, S2000, TT, Stang GT, ect..) despite being the slowest in the acceleration category. I would hardly consider a car with those accolades as one 'I wouldnt touch with a long pole'. "

 

Do you own one? This car is like most rotary, it should be owned by people that know about cars and can take good care of it.

 

Okay dude, just butt out. You've said your piece, now leave it be.

The engine's got an 8yr 100,000mi warranty on it. I don't care if it blows once a year for the next four years, they'll give me a new one. That's my point. And if it wasn't covered by the factory warranty, my extended warranty *also* covers it for the next four years.

Now if Mazda is really having (or has had) these kinds of problems with the engine, would they have extended this crazy warranty back to the '04s? It doesn't make economical sense for a company to do that.

Companies don't just put out "we'll replace your engine if it blows in the first 100,000mi" warranties out for the hell of it. It costs a ton to replace an engine. You have to pay the cost of the crate RENESIS, then the labour for the removal and reinstallation.

If they did have problems at the beginning, Mazda must be ready to make good on that, since they've basically offered to replace any engine that blows in the first *almost a decade* of a car's life, which is longer than most cars up here are on the road. Salt and snow will kill my car's body and suspension *long* before that engine warranty runs out.

And if they did have lots of recalls you can bet your *** their engineers were there to try and figure out why. It doesn't make sense to replace a faulty engine with another that has the same fault. They'd be better off paying a team of engineers to study the problem, come up with a solution, roll that solution into every RENESIS to come out of the factory from then on, and offer to replace any that blow with a good one. Then the problem slowly dissapears as all the faulty engines are replaced with good ones and everything goes back to being good and profitable.

I plan to buy the car, and unless you can give me the VINs of more than a couple of Rx8s that have had their engines die of proven defects or faults, I'm taking what you've said with a grain of salt. A really big one. There were OMP issues that were fixed (that could blow engines, but that was fixed with a simple ECU reflash), and who knows, there's also an element of user error that could cause this. If someone buys an Rx8 and never checks their oil, and drives it for weeks with the low oil light on (like my mom has done repeatedly with vehicles over the years) people are going to blow engines. It's a fact.

I'd appreciate it if you refrain from posting in this thread any longer. I've read your "evidence" thread and read all that you have to say and unfortunately it doesn't leave me convinced that this is a bad decision. Worst case scenario if I bought the car and blew the engine *twice* per year in the next 4 years, it would still get replaced for free, so who cares? The fact that this car has 100,000km on it already and still has its original engine in it should be evidence enough that the engines are not as fragile as you think.

Jon

 

I know its a little late, but Ive got CarFax if you want that also. PM me if youre interested with the VIN.

~T.J.

 

if you haven't purchased it allready I wouldn't get the warranty.

why bother, $3000 for a warranty?

I bet a crate renesis is cheaper. And you aren't even sure it'll need one in the next 3 years.

Don't forget it's a used car, you can haggle!

 

http://www.forbesautos.com/reviews/2...el-update.html

>>>Reliability for the Mazda RX-8 is worse than average, according to Consumer Reports. Serious problems with the rotary engine are well-documented, and it is expected that Mazda will issue a recall of 2004, 2005 and some 2006 engines. Recalls already exist for engine cooling, suspension, transmission and airbag equipment on 2004 and 2005 models.<<<

and http://consumeraffairs.com/news04/20...da_recall.html
and http://www.autoblog.com/2006/08/24/m...call-the-rx-8/

Go ahead, buy it! LOL!!

 

I love how you think Recall = bad thing.

You think I don't already know about all the recalls?

http://www.finishlineperformance.com....php?pageid=11

Every car has kinks to work out in its first model year. They get worked out and recalls/TSBs are a company's way of fixing the issues at their own expense. That's corporate responsibility.

Of course, it's the buyer's responsibility to do their homework and be aware of these things, which I am. All the problems you have just named are no longer problems because TSBs have been put out for them and the parts have been replaced.

Again I ask: How fragile can my engine be if it's already got 100,000km on it, and why should I care if it's covered by warranty?

Terrh, the extended warranty that I'm paying the 3k for doesn't just cover the engine. Normally I never buy extended warranties for things I can work on myself, but I've been through experiences with friends' cars that make me believe it's a worthwhile investment. If the synchros in the transmission get messed up tomorrow and I can only get to the dealership in reverse, that warranty just paid for itself (happened to a friend of mine, obviously he towed it there rather than driving it there in reverse). Alternator or other crazy electrical issues? Covered, without spending a ton of cash or time diagnosing the complex electrical. Basically it allows me to just hand them the car and say "fix it" and they make it better. I may use it, I may not, but since this is going to be my "reliable winter car" I wanted the safety net and was willing to pay for it. I wanted to make sure that if the doomsayers like speedracer_not were right I still wouldn't have to care.

Jon

 

then time will tell if you bought a speed racer, or a garage queen.

Keep us informed, hope you have the last laugh in 2 years.

 

he said to get out of his thread a while ago. Of course linking to a thread about problems will reveal a bunch of people complaining about problems. the few that experience an issue are the ones you see bitching about it on the net, the ones that are enjoying the cars (most of them do) are out driving them! Also, a lot of the 8 owners lack the enthusiasm the 7 owners have, and don't do the correct maintenance. This Rx-8 was revving next to my FB and I denied the race. At the next stoplight I rolled my window down and said "be careful about that rotary engine getting you in trouble" only to find a 19 year old Daddy's girl Blondie reply "what's a rotary engine?" Believe me, the OP will know how to make that Rx-8 last, any 7 owner would. They're good cars, they just have the same problems the FD had, idiots buying them new.

 

Starting to sound like a better deal now Jon. One thing to keep in mind about the compression test though, they can be fudged. A squirt of oil before running the test will show good results for an engine in almost any condition...

Best of luck.

 

I take that as a compliment, thank you!

Jon

 

Hm... This is true, though I'm not terribly worried about it at this point. They have to produce some numbers, and if they decide to fudge it, they're the ones who will be dealing with a not-so-happy Jon when I have it towed back to have the engine replaced. At least I've got them agreeing to give me the actual numerics, instead of just a paper saying "Compression Test: Passed"

Jon

 

Lol at citing Consumer Reports. If it isn't a domestic then it fails in their book.

Also, by your logic, No one should buy a mazdaspeed3. The motor mounts have been known to not be fastened correctly causing the ENGINE TO FALL OUT OF THE CAR. A friend whom I know personally has had his fail, engine dropped a good 4-5 inches and ripped out the wiring harness and destroyed the oil pan, and the dealership replaced everything. Tons of recalls on that.

atleast when the RX8 blows its engine, it still drives.

 

Also, lets talk recalls:

http://www.automotix.net/autorepair/...s/porsche-914/