This is a 2006 Mazda RX-8 and it's one of the more interesting modern sporty cars most of the reason for that is the rotary engine which I'll get to shortly but it isn't just that and if you're looking for a quirky fun sporty car and you're tired of seeing all these Nissan 370zs and Mustangs and Challengers and BMWs you might consider this today.
I'm going to write a Blog on RX8 to find out if you should and I'm going to start with a little background now the RX8 came out back in 2004 and it replaced the Mazda RX-7 after a 10-year The gap in Mazda's North American lineup but while the RX7 was a two-door two-seater the RX-8 had four seats and it had four doors Two normal front doors and then two half sized rear doors the RX-8 was sold in North America from 2004 to 2011 and you could get it in one of two ways with a manual transmission or with an automatic if you got the manual you got 238 horsepower and about 160 pound-feet of torque but the automatic was a penalty it dropped you down to just 197 horsepower later Mazda bumped the horsepower rating of the automatic up to 212 but it was still shy of the manuals 238 the most interesting thing about the RX8 was its rotary engine which functions differently than a typical car combustion engine with pistons and cylinders the RX-7 also used a rotary engine but the RX-8 has been the last car ever to use a rotary because there are a few drawbacks which I'll cover in a few minutes these days used RX8 models are pretty affordable they range on AutoTrader from about 17 000 for low mileage late production R3 versions down to about four thousand dollars for high mileage early production examples that's not a lot of money for something that's so unique so today I'm going to check out the RX8 and find out if it's worth considering first I'm going to take you on a tour of it and show you all of the quirks and features of the quirkiest
Mazda of the 2000s then I'm going to get it out on the road and drive it and then I'm going to give it a Syed Faizan all right I'm going to start the quirks and features of the RX8 with one of its most bizarre quirks and that would be it's key your car probably has a key that looks like this or maybe like this not the RX-8 the RX8 key looks like this which is very unorthodox it's a rectangle very thin with four buttons at the top now the images on these buttons have worn off but I would imagine it's lock unlock and then maybe the trunk and the panic button the intent for this key was that you were supposed to use it like a credit card you would stick it in your wallet and then you would always have your key with you you need to carry around a bulky keychain a very strange way to do it now if the battery dies in this credit card key and you need to get out the actual physical key you can just pull it out the corner and it comes right out but generally you were just supposed to leave it in credit card form and go about your day and once you've used that key to get into your RX8 you will notice quite a few interesting quirks and features in here starting with a rather circular theme in this interior there are circles everywhere we'll start with the steering wheel
Which is of course a circle in itself then in the middle you have a circle and then within that a circle and then the The Mazda logo is a circle you also have a a circle at the base of the gear lever and then the climate control vents on the dashboard are also circles but the circle theme really makes itself known in the center control stack we have circles everywhere starting with the the bottom you have circles for the dials and the climate control that's not uncommon but you also have a circle for the climate control buttons which is certainly, unorthodox moving up you have a circle for the volume control and then on either side of the stereo you have circles for various different stereo controls but of course the biggest circle in here is the giant Circle in the middle which has no apparent function other than to focus yourself on the fact that the RX8 is all about circles and by the way if you open up.
In the ashtray you can see even more circles in the form of 37 cents the the owner left in this car when I picked it up to Blog looks like Doug is 37 cents richer anyway moving on from all the circles there are far more Crooks and features in this interior beyond that I want to start with the beeping because this car beeps every time you press a button not just some buttons but any button in the the center controls deck gets a beep take a listen foreign ly annoying change the radio preset beep change the climate controls beep it just beeps and beeps no matter what you press which it absolutely shouldn't you don't need that feedback pushing a button is feedback enough and next up another An interesting Quirk of the RX8 drop the sun visor and you can see you have a visor mirror in the middle and on either the side you have little holes which is weird because that means the sun visor actually lets in Sun through those holes which is strange I mean if it was me I would think the purpose of the sun visor is not to let in Sun but um I guess Mazda has a a different take on this issue and next up another interesting quirk in the RX8 would be the parking brake for one thing.
It's over on the passenger side which is a little strange but they had to do that for packaging to me the weird part is that it's huge not just a parking brake but it's actually like a whole handle which you don't really need and when you pull it up it really sticks up in this interior almost like you're waving the parking brake flag and next up another A quirk of the RX8 is a cool Easter egg As I mentioned this car has a rotary engine and one of the main components of that is a rotor that kind of spins around which is shaped triangularly sort of like a Dorito people call it Mazda has integrated the look of the rotor into the interior in a few places one is on top of the gear lever you can see it's kind of triangular up at the top which is a cool look and it reminds me see that you're driving a special rotary the car you also have that rotor integrated From the seat back you can see on the seat backs you have this triangle which is the rotor that's in the engine one of the things that makes the car unique again brought into the interior your non-rotary passengers probably won't even notice but you will and next up another interesting quirk in here this the car has a coolant sensor that's broken and so the coolant light is on which is not really a problem I only mention it because the coolant light is rather interesting take a look at it it looks like like a circus tent that would contain a carousel or maybe the front of a trolley is a very weird light and if I saw that light illuminate my first thought wouldn't be coolant it would be there's a trolley in my midst and finally our last interesting Quirk up front here is the cup holder placement which is absolutely terrible it is inside this little center console storage area you pull the lid back and it reveals the cup holders but being inside the storage jury that's not my the biggest problem my problem is actually the fact that it blocks your ability to shift gears take a look at this with a drink in the cup holder you can't reach over it blocks your forearm from easily being able to shift gears it is a terrible placement for the cup holder especially in a car that was presumably designed to be a manual car first and foremost with an automatic second they really should have thought that through better and next up we move on to the back seats which is where the rx8's real quartz start to begin and that's because of the door situation now I guess that when Mazda brought back the rotary engine sports car they figured they couldn't bring it back as a two-seat two-door car there just wouldn't be enough Mass Market appeal to justify the cost so they did something a little different there are back seats and there are half rear doors in this car and to get in you first have to open up the front door and then there's a little handle in the door jamb you take that little handle you pull that and that will open up the rear half door which is hinged in the back and so that way.
When both doors are open you can see there is a rather large opening on the side of this car since it's basically one and a half doors worth of opening but that's how you get into the back seat obviously not as practical as a true four-door car but more practical than most sports cars with only two doors where you have to kind of fold the seat forward and climb but when you create doors like this some interesting things happen one of which is the way that I showed you to get into the back of just now is the only way you can get in you have to open the front door first if you want to get in to the back you can't open the back door independently and here's another one the front door won't close unless the back door is already closed so you don't want to accidentally close the front door and then try to close the back door because it will damage things that's not how it's supposed to go you have to first close the back door and then the front door will close because the front door latches in to the back door and next up once the doors are in this position it's time to climb inside the back of the RX-8 and I will say it's a lot easier to get into the back of this car with doors like this than if you were getting into the back of a normal coupe with normal Coupe doors
Trust me I've tried of course that assumes that the seat is far enough forward but in this case it is so getting in is as simple as just kind of sitting down and you're in pretty easy now I will say when you're in the back of this car you don't really get all that much room my leg room right now is deceptive because I've moved the front seat as far forward as it can go which won't really be a comfortable position for most drivers the owner of this car told me he considers it to be a three-seater you have the driver and then two people Seated on the passenger side if you have to actually put someone behind the driver it can get very painful and very tight now next up back here there are a few other notable items that involve getting in and one of them is the front seat belt you can see when you open up the back door a seat belt kind of comes out along with it that is the front seat belt for the front seats because it's the only place they can really put it where it would still be reachable if you get into the front seat and you want to put on your seat belt so if you're climbing into the back you have to kind of climb over work your way around that front seat belt another interesting item back here once you're seated in the back even though you have your own door you don't have your own way to get out like I mentioned the front door has to open first and then the back door opens and that means even though you have a rear door handle back here it doesn't do anything unless the front door is already open so in that sense it's like a coupe you basically have to wait to get out until the people in the front let you and next up another interesting item back here is the rear window even though you have a relatively large window and your own door the window doesn't roll down it does however open up you can open it just a little bit with this little plastic clip you can push it out and get a little air back here which is useful but you don't have the ability to roll down your rear window like in sedans now aside from all
That there's not really all that much interesting back here obviously you only have two seats like I mentioned before two in the front two in the back four total seats so there's no middle seat back here other than that though you have a little storage cubby in the middle you can open it up and see that there's storage in there although frankly not really all that much behind the storage cupboard between the seats you have another piece that opens and that would be a trunk pass through you open that up and you can access the trunk in case you have long items like skis or Lumber that you want to load into your RX8 interestingly this trunk pass-through has a keyhole on it so you can lock it if you want and that way you can make sure that nobody gets access to your trunk except you and Next Step moving outside the RX8 we move on to one of my very favorite quirks about this car and that would be in the fuel door you open up the fuel door and on the inside it says premium fuel only like a lot of cars but it also says super unique don't just put in regular premium fuel if you have an RX8 you need Super unique premium fuel or maybe it's saying that you need to put in premium fuel because the car is super unique but either way that's ridiculous I don't know why it says that but I love it and next up moving around to the back of the RX8 we have another interesting Quirk and that would be the trunk now you open up the trunk and you'll find that it.
Really has nothing special about it it's just a trunk it is fairly deep for a car like this but really it is just a place where you put cargo pretty standard the interesting thing though is how tiny the opening is for the Trump take a look at this it's so incredibly tiny it's only maybe 12 inches from the bottom to the top you can barely fit anything large back here even though the trunk is big enough to handle it now this happened I suspect because Mazda wanted to put usable back seats in this car and that meant that they had to extend the roof line pretty far back but they also wanted to make it sort of a small sporty Coop so space had to suffer somewhere and where they took it from was the trunk opening it's just a really really tiny basically slot back here but since I'm in the back of the RX8 another item.
I want to talk about is the brake lights which I find to be super cool the brake light itself is in this little red circle on the inner part of the brake light then you have these little silver bars that extend out from the brake light they look very cool interesting futuristic then you have the turn signal behind those bars it's a very neat brake light tail light assembly and it brings some interesting style to a piece that is often kind of forgotten about and next up I want to move on to another interesting exterior item and that would be on the B pillar which doesn't actually exist because of the doors but anyway you have the word shinka printed there this is the RX8 shinka which was a Japanese word meaning like transformation or Evolution it was supposed to be an evolved version of the original RX8 and it was a special edition so special in fact that there's only 1400 shinkas here in North America but it didn't really add that much a couple of cosmetic changes slightly better shocks for improved handling and some other small changes to improve ride quality he that was about it still it's pretty cool a slightly better version then your typical RX8 and next up we move under the hood in the RX8 where you can see we have the Renaissance multi-side Port how many ports do you have multiple and they're on the side now but this is the rotary engine I'm not going to get into how the rotary engine works there's a lot of great YouTube videos that go into depth on why it's different from a traditional Engine with pistons and cylinders but I want to discuss why it wasn't used in more Vehicles the RX-8 went out of production in 2011 and no automaker has used a rotary sense and even before that it was very rare only used in a few cars over the years so what are the drawbacks with the rotary engine well one is fuel consumption this is probably the biggest in today's world of fuel economy standards for automakers it's difficult to justify making a rotary engine here's what I mean when the RX8 came out back in 2004 it had worse fuel economy than a Chevy Corvette which had a 5.7 liter V8 with 350 horsepower whatever this thing had 238 horsepower and worse gas mileage
Another problem that rotaries have is reliability and specifically sealing the rotor within the engine these seals are known to wear out and replacement can be expensive and difficult I will say though in terms of reliability the owner of this car has had it for more than 10 years and he told me he hasn't had any real issues with the rotary powertrain for the RX8 the original two model years 04 and 05 were known to be the bad years and supposedly things improved beginning in 06 whether or not that's true is a source of contention but either way the owner of this car has had it for more than 10 years and more than 60 000 miles with no real major problems that is anecdotal evidence of course you shouldn't base a purchase decision off of it but I thought it was worth mentioning now the other issue with rotary power plants is oil consumption most car owners are used to never really doing anything about their engine oil it's just dealt with when they get an oil change but with rotary cars you have to top up the oil constantly because the engine is designed to consume oil a lot more quickly and so oil consumption could be a problem especially if you're not good good about staying on top of it and when you combine fuel economy issues oil consumption and reliability problems it makes sense why the rotary hasn't really been used again although Mazda swears every couple years they're gonna bring it back but it's been 10 years since this car went out of production and they haven't done it since and finally we have to talk styling and this is the part I'm dreading because this is.
Where I'm going to get all the hate mail from the RX8 owners and that's because I don't like how this car looks and more specifically I hate how this car looks I think it is a really bad looking car one of the least attractive modern cars on the road now I want to start this by saying I'm in the minority here most people are either indifferent about the RX8 styling or they kind of like it most people don't have such a strong negative reaction like I do but I really don't like it there are a few reasons why for one I always felt that the wheelbase is too long the car looks like it's stretched out in the mid middle which is just not an attractive look now they did that to get those extra rear doors in but I think that came at the expense of The Styling and I think it looks really strange another thing I don't like about the RX8 styling is the front wheel arches they are unusually huge they're way too bulbous and giant and they just don't belong they're doing the car no favors another thing I didn't like about the RX8 design was the rear window it has this weird wrap around rear window and the shape doesn't work at all with the shape of the glass on the side of the car and it just really didn't work that well altogether and finally the last thing I didn't like about the RX8 was the front license plate situation Mazda did not design this car with any semblance of front license plate in mind so when you stick one on there it looks like a buck tooth and it blocks The entire front grille it just screws up.
The design of the car not that it really needs any help getting screwed up because in my opinion the whole thing is not very attractive and so those are the quirks and features of the Mazda RX-8 now it's time to get it out on the road and see how it drives all right driving the RX8 now on paper this does not seem like a car that I would like very much for one thing I already told you I don't like how it looks um I also think 160 pound-feet of torque is basically shameful it's ridiculous and 238 horsepower isn't exactly that much either it's just not a very appealing car on paper especially when you're trying to follow up the fdrx7 one of the all-time great Japanese cars but as bad as to me this car looks on paper and stylistically it is a brilliant drive for one thing it feels more lively than 240 horsepower and 160 pound-feet of torque would have you believe it is surprisingly spry and peppy but it isn't just that this car handles so well it does not handle like a modern sports car like something brand new but for 2006 it is unbelievable especially when you consider that you have reasonably practical back seats no reasonable four-seater car offered any handling anywhere near like this level uh back in 2006 and I haven't been in an RX-8 in a while and I forgot just how sprightly and engaging and fun this car is to drive it is a joy it's a treat especially because it revs fairly quickly and it gets going reasonably fast acceleration is not the high point.
It could be better no question about it but to me the steering and handling is just fantastic you go around a highway on ramp you get on a curvy road and it is hard not to be just super impressed by this car's capabilities and it's even more impressive when you consider that this car is 15 years old it's got 75000 miles on it this was this was 15 years ago I mean many modern sporty cars are still not this good at handling this thing is really an impressive tight sharp car and it's just a lot of fun to drive now would I actually drive one that is a different question um the owner told me his car has been very reliable for him he told me most of the problems were confined to 04 and 05 this is an o6 to me I wouldn't want to put up with dealing with a rotary and trying to find someone who knows how to deal with a rotary is another problem I imagine Mazda dealers are not the most friendly when it comes to working on rotary engines you show up with an RX8 and they're probably like get out of here with that thing with that said it is a a good alternative to sort of more boring normal sporty cars I think this car out handles a 350Z from this era it just feels sharper it feels better even though it doesn't have that same reliable powertrain and of course you also, get the benefit of these relatively usable back seats ultimately I find this to be a relatively compelling car it could use more power but it's not that slow it's not really fast but it's not that slow until you really start getting up into the revs but more importantly it's just very sharp it's cheap um it's different and no I don't like how it looks but it's got a lot going for it despite that and so that's the Mazda RX-8 this is a special car and a unique one and it can be very much worth considering if you're looking for a sporty enjoyable car that your neighbors probably don't have and if you're willing to take on the challenges that come with the rotary engine if that sounds like you these can be a lot of quirky fun for not that much money and now it's time to give the RX8 a dug score starting with the weekend categories and styling I've never liked.
How this car looks but I understand I'm in the minorities so I'll give it a relatively decent 6 out of 10. acceleration to 0-60 in six seconds so it gets a four out of 10. handling is really sharp not quite S2000 sharp but surprisingly close given the extra size and seats and it gets a 7 of 10. fun factor is good it'd be higher if there was a convertible or more power and it gets a 6 out of 10. cool factor is okay these are cooler than a lot of cars from this era because of the rotary but they're still not that special and it get a 6 out of 10 for a total weekend score of 29 out of 50. next up are the daily categories and features it's normal for a car like this from this era and it gets a 3 out of 10. comfort is fine and it gets a 5 out of 10. quality is poor the interior is nice enough but rotary reliability issues are potentially very problematic and it get a 4 out of 10. practicality is good it has a bigger and more accessible back seat than any traditional Coupe and it get a 5 out of 10. finally value and these are cheap but with reason most people are just afraid of ownership costs and they're not that fast but I think this car is too fun for what it costs and it gets a 7 out of 10 for a the total daily score of 24 out of 50. add it up in the dug score is 53 out of 100 which places it here against some other sporty cars from this era the RX8 is near the bottom but most of this stuff is more expensive and was back when the RX8 was new too still the RX-8 holds its own and it would jump a few points if not for that rotary engine but that's part of the charm what makes the RX8 special.
RX-8 models are pretty affordable they range on AutoTrader from about seventeen thousand dollars for the moon there is a little storage pocket behind the driver's seat like you'd expect but there is not one on the height on the hind of the passenger seat till then Bye. #somethingunique #mazdapakistan
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