reliability issues are exaggerated, I think. I did not have a single issue in 15K miles of ownership.

 

IBTL!!

 

test drove an rx-8 before i drove the s2k...i'm not s2ki now, so guess which one i thought was better.

 

no match

 

I almost bought an RX-8. LOVE the car. In fact, I'd prefer to have a 2+2 coupe instead of a 2-seat roadster, so in that regard I made a big compromise getting the S.

I did not get the RX-8 because of the combination of poor fuel economy and poor power/weight.

I could've lived with sub-18mpg and 105mph in the quarter.
I could've lived with 25+mpg and just under 100mph in the quarter.

I decided I would absolutely hate life if I had a car that got ~18-20mpg and could only manage 95mph in the quarter.

(not that I'm a 1/4-miler, it's just a very handy real-world power/weight ratio measurement!)

FWIW, I used to have a 2nd gen. RX-7 convertible. Sweet car! But SLOOOOW and THIRSTY.

 

That's a little like saying that the RX7 is a pile of steaming crap compareed to the F-40. The cars are so different in their orientation that such comparisons are meaningless.

 

I had two RX-7's and do not see the RX-8 as a piece of crap. Maybe one should speak only for one's self.

 

I've owned two RX-7's and autocrossed a half dozen or so RX-8's. LOL, maybe that's why 98% of the people here don't seem to agree with me.

 

I wll say that some of the shifters in some of the RX-8's I've driven were among the WORST shifters I've ever experienced, but the cars in question had been beaten to death at the Zoom Zoom events by inept drivers and weren't representative of what the car shifts like when it isn't broken. The shifting is fine as long as the thing ain't broke.

 

"RX" is the designation Mazda uses on all vehicles that have the rotery engine. Doesn't have anyting to do with succession.

Gotta give your friends at least a little guff about their cars.