This hard start thing seems to be a common theme. I sadly enough did not do my research on this car.. fell in love with it... paid way too much for the miles, my 1st clue should have been they had to put in a new battery before I could take it off the lot... my next clue was having to spend $200 for FOUR spark plugs.. and $100 to have them installed... Last week into the dealership for diagnosis: hard to start (yep after $300 for spark plugs..) they had it for the entire day - no solution..-they were kind enough to not charge me. Hopefully NOT because they knew I would be back! It goes back in the AM, hard to start, and again, the check engine light... wish me luck please!!
It does handle VERY nice, almost as good as a TR-7 that I owned... I love the looks and the convenience of the hidden back doors.. the sleek lines - the comfort of the seats... Lucky for me the previous owner had gone for all the cool options on the car.. very nice...love the deep blue w/the silver undercoat!
I think if you take good care of the RX8 it should be fine.
General maintenance is important.
Just trying to help.
The RX-8 has garnered a reputation for poor reliability. Sadly, I can confirm this through first hand experience.
I bought my 2005 RX8 in December 2008 with 36000 miles.
After one month it had to be towed due to flooding.
Five months later it had to be towed again because it did not start. So the dealer put in a new engine. Thank god I bought an extended warranty.
Now it is running great. The trick maybe is to let it warm up first for 2 minutes.
Otherwise I love this car. It handles terrific.
This is a rotary engine works different than a piston engine. You have to let it warm up before you drive, and let it cool down before you turn it off. The flooding problem is an easy fix with a fuel cut switch. Instead of turning the ignition off, you turn off the switch and it kills the fuel pump and the engine dies. Turn the ignition off, turn the switch back to on, then when you go to start it, tada!!
Well, perhaps Mazda should have equipped RX8's with a fuel pump kill switch as standard equipment.
Sorry, but no modern car that is purported to be a daily driver should have problems flooding.
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