Faults:

Check engine light came on, Problem was with burnt coils.

Both front and read lights had water condensation in them.

Air bag light came on, problem was with one of the side air bags.

General Comments:

Very misleading when it came to the power of the car. When the car was first released, Mazda claimed an output of 250HP in Canada. That number dropped to 232HP. With numerous dynos done by other people. The REAL horse power is from 210 to 220HP, with 159lb ft of torque.

The handling was very good and predictable for a RWD. Which made driving the car fast a pleasure around the twisties.

Brakes were very good as well. They only made noise when driven lightly. Under harder braking they performed very well with no fade.

Fuel economy was a nightmare!! Sprinted city fuel economy was 20L /100km, and highway fuel economy was 13.5L / 100km.

In my experience, with the rotary motor I understand why Mazda is the only company that still produces the Wankel motor. It is underpowered and heavy (a V-8 Corvette motor is only 50lbs heavier). Very bad fuel economy.

Faults:

The brakes squeal & the dealership says there is nothing that can be done about it, "All RX-8 brakes do that".

The plastic piece below the front passenger seat seems to dangle loosely and not stay attached.

The gas mileage on a good day is 15-17 mpg, but I've noticed that I get better mileage when I'm on the highway going more than 75 mph. Unfortunately, most of my driving is city/town driving & the RX-8 is more of a highway vehicle.

I LOVE this car, & so far wouldn't trade it for anything. This car is SEXY, sleek, stylish, FUN to drive & takes off like a scalded dog. Thank you Mazda for my RX-8!

General Comments:

The trunk is a joke, but handles small amounts.

The console & trunk both seem to get extremely hot, so I wouldn't put anything that could melt or was flammable in the center compartments of the car.

I love the leather seats, paddle shift (automatic), handling capabilities & look of my RX-8.

The gas mileage, oil adding & premium only gas are expensive, but well worth it; I think.

Faults:

Changed CD player twice.

My visor over driver seated has changed 4 different times.

My middle console has came off track and broke 3 different times.

Engine replaced.

Back headlights leak in moisture, so they are cloudy.

Floods out if moved short distance.

Replaced batter 3 times.

Air Conditioner quite cooling after 5 months of owning car.

General Comments:

First off, I'll start my saying I absolutely LOVE the way my car looks. I get compliments on it, seems like, all the time.

My first car was a Mazda 626. I bought it second hand and had it for about 1 yr. I had problems with it and should have known better, but in 2004 I saw the RX8's and just HAD to have one.

I have had some major difficulties with my RX8 though. The first year was great. I bought this car in 2004 and I thought that I was in heaven. Then it started nickel and diming me to death. Small things started going wrong with it. My visor (still) breaks at times in the seam when I pull it down. Its like there is too many wires that operator the light for such a small visor. This has happened at least 4 times. My middle console slides and it has broke several times also. I kept bring it to the dealership and they just kept replacing it. My car was under warranty. My cd player has been changed out 2 different times and then they told me that I couldn't play "burnt" cd's in my cd player. They tried to tell me that that was the reason it broke. Which, is a bunch of crap, I never stopped playing burnt cd's and it hasn't happened again.

My car has been towed from my home 5 different times. I didn't realize that I couldn't move a small distance without it flooding out. For example, I could back out of my garage, sweep it out, pull the car back in and the next day, you could mark it down, it would not crank. Finally after it being towed in so much, I received a letter in the mail stating that there was a recall on my car, claiming that when I was about to turned my car off, I needed to put it in park, ramie up the RPM's to 3000 and get off the excess gas out of the engine. Made sense.

Around 34,000 miles my car started acting as if it had bad gas. Infact, that's what I thought it was for about the first 2 months. I would put an octane buster and fuel injection cleaner (Sea Foam) in my car, on top of Supreme gas and it would run fine for about 2 weeks then it would start missing really bad and it did not have much power. After almost one whole year my dealership told me that it needed a new engine. My dealership worked with me well and I have no complaints about them actually fixing most of the problems. They gave me an extra 50,000 mile warranty on my engine and it seems to be running fine now.

I've said all of that to say this. I really do like my car even though I've been through all that I've been through. I just think that when you spend 32,000 dollars on your car (Rx8 Grand touring Pkg), you don't want to have to deal with all this crap! My first Mazda gave me problems and I should have known better! I still currently have my car, (54,000) and it seems to be running fine since they changed the engine. (Knock on wood!!!)