BuggyofMildDiscomfort

If you ever need someone for cleaning again, ring Clive at Autotronix Developments and tell him Phill with the buggy sent you.

And if you ever need a rotary specialists, Ben @ RotaryRevs and tell him Phill sent you

TangoVTEC

Very very brave sir.

A cap doth nonetheless. Just ensure that your boot contains oil, a jerry can (or two), an emergency warning triangle, AA membership card, and the front of your car contains a lady blessed with much, much patience and understanding.

k3vin

/> />

The way I figured it, yes it appears to be a greater gamble than the average car but at that price why wouldn't you.

If I maintain the car regularly and properly then there should be plenty of rotary miles ahead of me.

Legend had it that a Japanese RX8 is still going with more than 200k on the clock.

s2k4tony

They are a pretty slow car for everyday use with disastrous mpg. To be honest, you be better in an ST220 for that economy, you'd enjoy way more torque and it sounds far better.
I detect a short ownership, i'd also be curious to that mileage. I've seen dozens of these clocked by traders, dozens (as said above, the engine really is a consumable item)!

keith2.2

also be aware that you cannot "just move the car" - if you switch on, move the car (off the drive to let someone else off, for example) then switch off, the engine will seize

chilled

Forget the suicide doors, you've bought a suicide engine.

s2k4tony

The only thing that you could say about Mazda, is they were very brave creating this car. Sharp looks, great interior, unique engine, & doors, unique torque as well!! The puzzling thing, is why Mazda decided on this rotary instead of the blown 2.3 litre out of the MPS. That for me is the "own goal" with the entire package. That 2.3T was already in R&D and could have easily replaced the Wankel.
Now that would have been a much more pleasing package, so long as they had controlled the lag to make the RWD/overall handling work whilst gunning it. It would then have been a cheap coupe out on its own, with about 260hp on offer and bags of torque. Somebody somewhere that's a Mazda freak surely will have dreamed this up and shoehorned it in?
Let us know how you get on with the ownership, its probably less painful than we all expect. And its another interesting car to tick off the list of cars owned for you, I admit that I like Coupes myself and still fond of the Fiat Coupe 20VT despite it being as reliable as a chocolate teapot. Cheap cars RX8's, alarmingly cheap
If you knew it was bad / could be a bad ownership, why did you buy it anyway?

Nottm_S2

that cant be true?

i prefer a nice looking, relatively rare coupe to a ford with a blower any day. My mates uncle had one for years and he reckoned it was fine, some special edition in black which said mate lusted after for years then bought a 1.6 Focus

k3vin

It is and isn't true.

Turning the engine off when cold could result in an engine flooding. A bit different to an engine 'seizing' but nevertheless it won't go anywhere until Mazda have deflooded.

This doesn't happen every time but it can happen. If an engine has a history of being flooded then the compression around the rotaries will drop and that is when your problems begin (something about oil building up in the rotary area) and the engine will eventually cease to exist.

A bit like meeting a mason, there is a certain way to turn the engine on, a certain way to drive the car until the engine gets hot and a certain way to turn the engine off (depending on hot or cold).

A small price to pay for all that high-end revving?

Nick Graves

Indeed; it's merely a matter of warming the engine past the dew point (racist!) so that excess rich unscavenged mixture doesn't sit in the unscavenged bits of the chambers & all over the plugs. Or whip 'em out & put them in the oven.

Quality is a bit poor by Mazda standards, which means it's only slightly superior to German rubbish.

The car also drives very much in the mould of an MX-5 (it is one plank-wise)/S2000/GT86 and so even if it only has 198 bhp at best, WGAF? For throwaway money, it'll still pi ss all over any souped up Ford/VW poxbox from such a great height.

There is a lot of internet hyperbole about the Wankel - mainly promulgated people who don't understand two-strokes, let alone non-strokes.