I saw the car in person at the L.A. auto show and sat in one and was thoroughly unimpressed. Actually, kinda dissapointed by the tacky look both inside and out. The head and tail lights had this cheesy looking plastic piece that made the car look real tacky to say the least. I'm sure that from a performance standpoint, the car will be very impressive but the looks just didn't do it for me. If it was toned down a bit with better matierials, it would look great. It looks real nice in pictures but check one out in person and see if you agree. Maybe some people might like that certain look but I'm so happy with my S and have no regrets.

 

They had TWO RX-8s at the LA auto show. The gray one on the platform was modified for the X-Men 2 movie, and it had some really stupid looking plastic inserts in the front grille. Maybe that's what you were referring to when you said "cheesy looking plastic piece."

The other one was red, and that was the car that visitors were permitted to examine up close. That car had a more normal grille, but it did have some cheap looking plastic parts inside the tail light housing. I thought they looked sort of dumb, but they were not large enough to be extremely noticable.

I agree, overall the car looked a little disappointing, but of course I haven't driven one yet. That might change my mind.

 

Yeah, the X-Men car was ridiculous to say the least and the red one which i was referring to since I sat in that one had a really wierd looking center console. Parts of the car were appealing but the rest of it didn't excite me nor did the engine bay. Ah well, poor me. I guess I'll have to deal with my S

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the "X Men" car was blue, not grey. Either way, it was ugly.

I was also disappointed, truth be told, with the RX-8. I sat in the red one, played with the shifter, noodled around the storage compartments, and overall I was ho hum.

The exterior is still a blatant rip off of an S2K with a hardtop, IMO, and the interior (while it has some nice parts) just seemed un inspriring. The materials aren't that great and I don't know. Just not my thing, I guess.

Still, the RX8 (like the Z that I think is unbelievably ugly and cheap inside) represents a magnificent amount of car for the money and I respect that crap out of that.

 

Da Hapa,

You're correct! I remembered it being blue but thought, oh well, blue..gray...looks butt ugly either way.

I could not agree with you more on all your points. The stereo looked el cheapo as well.

Now, again, performance wise and the fact that it has two extra seats with the low price will be it's saving grace but the looks/materials were off. Too bad.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Da Hapa
[B]Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the "X Men" car was blue, not grey.

 

Looking at Mazda's preorder site I was extremely dissapointed. One early blurb said the interior would be color-matched to the exterior and gave a gorgeous yellow car as the example. Reality however seems to be a red/black interior only and with a limited exterior color set at that. [sigh]

 

Haven't seen one myself, sounds plasticky (main complaint of the Z for most people), but then again the S2K interior doesn't light up my life either (don't like the dash set up/cheesy digtal speedo-the Z31 had that.) Nicest interior so far, 911 TT w/Carbon Fiber Package.

 

The interior of the S is stark. Many find that disappointing, but I like it.

The digital speedo and tach are purposeful in that the S was created to embody a modern open wheel race car. I originally hoped for standard analog gauges but have learned to love the set up. Still, I do wish Honda would give me a few more real gauges (tranny temp., actual oil temp, etc.).

The quality of the materials is worlds better than that of the interior of the Z and even to or slightly better than those used in the RX8. But that's just my opinion.

 

I love the S2k interior. I think it's juse about perfect.

 

Hmm, the RX8 isn't as bad as a 2-door: