The Mazda RX-8 Is a Fun Car You Probably Shouldn't Buy

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The Mazda RX-8 is weird, cool, and special -- and you probably shouldn't buy one. Today I'm reviewing the Mazda RX-8, and I'm showing you all the quirks and features of the unusual RX-8. I'm also driving the RX-8, and I'm going to show you why you shouldn't consider one, even though it's cool.

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[yugodealer]

Doug leaning on the hood "I'm gonna start the features with one of it's most bizzare quirks..."
Everyone : The engine
Doug : Key

[christopherstarnes]

The owner going driving his car after Doug reviews it:
“Hey where are my 37 cents”

[jakumeitgerd]

RX-8: has a engine with a triangle, and several triangular design pieces

Doug: starts off by telling us the car is all about circles

[jrbetances]

this guy talks about rx8’s like his girl left him for a guy with an rx8

[joetacchino]

Doug: “the owner says he hasn’t had any real issues with the rotary engine”

Me: Eyes the stains on the engine cover that looks suspiciously like the coolant cap went full Fukushima on him....

[SugarJRay]

Fun facts about my rx8 story
- Had it for 10 years as a daily driver, including in harsh Canadian winters
- Went snowboarding in it and managed to fit 3 guys and 3 snowboards
- Bought a 55" tv from best buy and managed to bring it home in the backseat
- Had no mechanical issues besides basic maintenance, even though I bought it second hand with 100, 000 kms

[reinisvimba]

“car isn’t beautiful” said guy who owns convertible G Wagon

[WorldOfSinMusic]

"It's not that fast." In the hands of Top Gear's Stig it was exactly as fast on the racing track as a BMW M3 back then. But with a 1.3 liter engine... I think you just gotta love this one.

[maxweinbach]

"There is too many circles in this car. Let's start with the steering wheel" - Doug

[Tej]

Lots of "Circles" he says, have you ever seen the interior of a mini cooper??

[toddepley]

Doug: Owner said this car has had no issues

Also Doug: Kneeling in front of engine bay with coolant sprayed all over it.

[isaachelgens]

That coolant light made me laugh. In 1998 I bought a one owner Toyota Supra Turbo with 30, 000 miles - and I started driving it 100 miles a day every day. During my first week of ownership that light pops on. No cell phones, no internet research, I just had to stop at a payphone and call the dealership. They asked what was going on and all I could explain was "My Lincoln Memorial light came on..."

[Alextheskater]

“The owner says the car hasn’t had one single problem” as there is remnants of coolant splattered all over the engine.

[josephpantelidis]

Doug the type of guy to be like: “Even the wheels and tired are circles in this car”

[thephao]

When Doug was pressing the buttons, my microwave started beeping back

[Kevbo]

I owned the RX-8 as a daily driver for 8 years. was active in the user groups on line and worked on the car. So I think I can add a lot here. I will start out by saying this was a love hate relationship with this car. I hated the fact that the engine could go out on me and knew many who had engines fail and rebuilt sometime multiple times. The RX-8 engine was different from the earlier RX-7 engines and was not as reliable. Engine compression seal failure was the problem and due to a variety of reasons that Mazda only really knows for sure. Heat and oil had a lot to play in this issue. The second major issue for me, as a daily driver, was the fuel economy. I averaged 12 mpg combined. Now I did drive the car hard but this was hard to swallow.

The above being said this was one of my favorite cars. It was quick if not fast (0-60 in 5.9sec) and was so smooth and sounded so great. The car handled like it was on rails but kept a subtle ride and did not knock your fillings out on bumps. Don't know how MAzda did it. The car had a 50/50 balance and the engine sat behind the front wheels so was considered mid engine. Really one of the best handling cars I ever drove. The breaks were also outstanding some of the best of its time. One of the big car shows would time the cars they tested on the track and the RX tied with the BMW M3 of the time despite having significantly less power, the car was that good. The car weighed less than 3000 lbs yet could seat 4 comfortably and had great truck space for a sports car. It was such an easy car to live with. Driver ergonomics was one of the best I have used. Everything right where you needed it. Just great. Build quality was also excellent for its time, no rattles just that great rotary noise.

In 8 years of ownership I have very few problems. here they are below:

- I used the sunroof a lot and it would develop a rattle, when opened, after round 30K miles. New one started to rattle at 60K, this was a design defect but not a big one.

- I drove this in Chicago winters where road salt is used in large quantities. In the 8 years the car developed a Oil line leak to the oil coolers. The cars used some metal piping that was not treated for corion and rotten out. Had to replace it with a braided steel line throughout the car.

- Failed ignition coils. This is a common problem that all RX owners had. A rotary engine's coil sparks 3 times as much as a piston engine and the coils used were not up to the job. They would fail at around 30K and if not addressed immediately would dump unburnt gas into the exhaust system which would then melt the CAT. If you get one of these the first thing you do is upgrade the coil packs to either a corvettes or GM Yukon's coil pack. There are kits out there for this.

[PatrickGSR]

Viewer: "hey here's my RX8 you can review!"
Doug: "Here's why this car sucks!"
Viewer: "yeah well, that's like, your opinion man!"

[mattm]

I wish Mazdas engineers had a larger budget to take risks again damn it.

[austinradtke]

I always thought the reason why the rx8 technically has 4 doors and rear seats was to make it cheaper to insure. Because all the insurance company would see was that it’s a 4 door, 4-seater car with a 1.3L engine. Might as well be a Toyota Corolla lol.

[dadtype]

Test drive one in 2005, was super easy, probably the easiest manual to drive I've ever driven, also a neat thing, some models had a pop up GPS screen that cam up from the center of the dash. Burns oil up like nobody's business, but I always thought these were cool cars. It's starting to look aged but hey, it still looks cool in my opinion and it's nearly 20 years old.