Mazda RX 8 Car Review

Mazda RX 8 Car Review

The term practical sports car is an oxymoron, but in the case of the Mazda RX 8 it is not only accurate, but an understatement.

This is a tremendously fun car to drive, extremely well priced, and you get four useable doors to boot. It is without doubt the most underestimated car we have tested and only its lackluster fuel mileage prevents it from being irresistible. One caveat, don’t get the automatic transmission version because it dulls the high revving rotary engine and the engine has been detuned for less power.

Let’s start at the most interesting part of the Mazda. No, it isn’t the rotary engine, but the way the company has engineered a sports car to have four usable doors without diminishing its exceptional handling. The trick is that the smaller rear doors open forward. In the old days these were called suicide doors because in an accident when they swung open they caused the occupants to be ejected towards the impact. Fortunately, the RX rear doors only release when the front doors have already been opened and so such negative effects are negated.

Mazda RX8 video review clip

There is some chassis flex because of the vast opening that the four doors create, but the way this RX handles it hardly matters. With a terrific 50/50 weight distribution, an engine that does not wake up until it reaches 8000 rpm, and comfortable seats, this as friendly a sports car as you are ever going to find. And, here is the coup de gra; the car lists for $55,265 Australian Dollars with a six-speed manual and $54,465 if you want a four-speed automatic transmission. This car placed second in our family car of the year competition last year losing to the more practical and less expensive Toyota Prius. This is the highest a sports car has ever come in our contest since the Subaru WRX came out in fighting trim. In other words, for the price of a well equipped, but mundane Honda Accord or Toyota Camry you can have a genuine family roadrunner.

Dad’s view: It is addicting. The more you drive the RX the more compelling it becomes. The sound of the rotary engine as it winds towards 10,000 rpm is as turbine like as you are ever going to hear and the easy to shift six-speed manual makes it effortless to repeat this process in every gear. The engine produces 238 horsepower at 8500 rpm and 159 pound-feet of torque at 5500 rpm, but if you go against our wishes and order the automatic you only get 197 horsepower at 7200 rpm and 164 pound-feet at 5000 rpm. Moreover, the automatic does not have the same aggressive suspension.

This is not a road rocket, although Mazda ads proclaim in can get to 60 mph in under six seconds, but a well balanced sports car capable of enjoyable, if not blistering acceleration. World-class handling is really its forte, but you don’t sacrifice a comfortable ride for this enjoyment, as the suspension is even comfortable over troubled roads. If you learn to polish your shifting skills, this Mazda can get you around a mountain road faster than any non-turbocharged vehicle in its class regardless of price. Yes, a Subaru STi is faster and has room for four, but they have little in common as the RX is the boxer and the Subaru the slugger. Both get you there, but the RX is less a bruiser thanks to a well-tuned independent wishbone front suspension with stabilizer bar and coil springs and multi-link rear suspension and coil springs.

The RX-8 requires practice to reach its potential. It is easy to promote understeer despite its fine balance by applying too much throttle even with Mazda’s driver friendly dynamic stability control. A bit more tire would make this a super-handling vehicle, but the cost would be further road noise and a more jarring journey over tax-deprived roadways. Mazda has compromised on its tire and wheel combination and it works well for most

There are not many cars we enjoy cornering because they usually fall into two categories. Those that let go without a lot of warning due to their power and unbalanced weight distribution such as the Nissan 350Z (53/47) and the Porsche 911 (36/64). These are not for the novice driver. In fact, the Porsche is the only car we ever spun and that was on a highway onramp where there was some sand. We were barely going 40 mph when the car started to revolve on its axis. It seemed like an eternity before the front end came around and I accelerated out of the spin. The RX would have had much less of a problem with the sand, or ice, for that matter, with its better balance thanks to the light weight rotary engine that does away with pistons, values, crankshafts, connecting rods, camshafts, and rings among other items. As a result the Mazda Renesis engine is light and easy to mount low in the chassis for better balance. The upside is a car that weighs in at 3000 pounds and an engine that can rev like a Formula One engine ranges and can still be lugged in sixth gear down to 35 mph without bucking. The downside is high oil and fuel consumption.

Under normal driving I shifted from first to third to sixth and left it there. Sixth gear is a bit of a pain to find at first because it is snuggled up to reverse in the shift pattern. The other gears were easy to locate following in the tradition of good shifting transmissions that the Miata started. I only wish Subaru and Ford would follow suit.

Once on the road the tires are sensitive to following ruts and so you need to stay alert. When you decide to cut an apex you quickly learn that the RX is as capable as you are. Actually, I found that the sound of the engine accelerating out of a turn was more fun that feeling the chassis cling to the corner. It revs quite quickly, but you must keep the engine turning rapidly because it does not have the cubic engines to recover from a missed shift.

The cool part is that if you miss a downshift the extra thousand or so revs the engine suddenly must handle doesn’t fluster it a bit (Don’t ask how we found out.). In a Corvette a downshift from fourth to second at speed would induce a screaming valve train and cursing from everyone except the Chevrolet service department. Such a potential catastrophic event results in nary a complaint from the rotary powered RX-8 as it simply revs a little higher and the engine sounds even sweeter. This is a forgiving car right down to the monthly payments.

The weakest part of the Mazda were the brakes. Even though the car has electronic brake distribution and is ABS controlled with ventilated brake rotors that are fairly large at 12.7 inches in front and 11.9 inches in rear, the feel of the brake pedal is not progressive enough for me. It was too soft. Braking distance were good, but not stunning.

Young working woman’s view: I was bothered by the fuel mileage that seldom bettered 20 mpg despite EPA estimates of 25 highway and 18 mpg in the city on premium fuel. Even when I feathered footed it on long stretches of highways I was hard pressed to go more than 280 miles on the 15.8 gallons of petrol in the tank.

What didn’t bother me was the pricing and what it offered for the money. Of course, if you take the MT Sports Package with traction control, xenon headlights, Bose audio, auto day/night mirror w/Homelink, moonroof and fog lamps for about $1300, or the Grand Touring option that costs over $4000 for leather trimmed upholstery, six-way power driver’s seat, heated seats, fog lamps and heated mirrors the bargain may be somewhat compromised.

But the standard features are aplenty for this sleek coefficient of drag is 0.31 four door RX-8 Mazda with its exceptional turning radius of 34.8 feet. There are plethora of them such as air conditioning, anti-theft protection, AM/FM CD, external temperature readouts, front airbags and occupant sensors, low tire pressure warning, low washer fluid level warning, remote power locks and key fob, speed proportional power steering, remote audio controls on the tilt adjusting leather steering wheel, six speakers, terrific sun visors that you can actually look through to see stop lights, variable wiper speeds, and a four year warranty with mileage restrictions. Mazda is now offering a Sirius Satellite Radio option that is always worth considering if you travel a great deal and it would be an improvement over the weak reception that the standard radio provides.

What attracted me most to the Mazda was its strange look. It is different and I think most women take notice of the unusual. It is not a graceful car, but it is not undignified either. There is some aggression to its front view and a little humor around its backside with its small, bustle like trunk. The roof has a double-bubble to it and the hood has a hormonal bulge that you can’t ignore. The design is sort of like watching a symphonic orchestra at a concert. At first each section sounds confused and disjointed until the start to play and a captivating unison emerges.

Mazda calls it front and rear doors that open in opposite directions, Freestyle, but like my dad said, they are suicide doors to those familiar with the history of car design. They make getting into the back the easiest of any coupe, especially since there isn’t any pillar in the way. I liked this idea in the Saturn coupe and I like it even more in the RX-8 for even if you don’t usually carry extra passengers it makes getting to items in the back seat so much easier.

Driving the RX-8 is fairly simple with a very soft clutch that’s only weakness is a high take up point that makes if uncomfortable at first. If they ever turbocharged this engine you would have a world-beater, but for now there is amply power at higher rpms. In the mid-range the rotary is not at its best so don’t let the melodic tones of this engine lull you to sleep so you forget to shift it otherwise you aren’t going to go anywhere for a couple of seconds until the rotary winds itself tighter.

Mom’s view: The Mazda has head airbags and side thorax airbags for the front passengers, and curtain airbags front and rear as well as having a brake pedal that is designed to release in an accident to help prevent a broken ankle or leg. Crash test results are above average in all areas and the RX had the best roll over resistance rating given, which is to be expected in a sports car. In other words, for a light car it does very well in safety tests and when you add its maneuverability you have car that may relieve some of mom’s worry about driving such a vehicle in a world filled with gas hoggish SUVs driving by cell phone yakking pilots unskilled in the use of rear view mirrors or turn signals. Can you guess my feeling about large SUVs?

The seats in front and back of the RX-8 are quite comfortable. You can even get in and out without much fuss compared to other coupes and sporty cars. Unfortunately, when you sit in back you cannot see what is happening up the road, but at least the rear windows push out so you can get a little air circulation.

Storage wise there is a ski pass through, but the rear seats do not fold down so your cargo carrying opportunities are fairly limited to eight shopping bags and a bag or two of produce. The trunk has a high liftover with a small opening and when you use the remote to open the lid it just barely lifts making it a problem to get your finders underneath without getting them dirty or even damaging a nail. However, it is much better than the Mazda 3.

Additional storage areas are in the center console, doors, and the backs of the front seats. The cupholders are above average in usability, but could be made deeper.

The instrument panel is a problem for me. There is a digital speedometer read out, which is easy to glance at as you frequently are going above the speed limit in a car of this nature, but the indirect lighting and smallish fonts make it difficult to read. The tachometer goes to 10,000 rpm and is very entertaining to watch as it closes in on that mark. The rest of the muddled instrument panel is too busy and the radio controls can be confusing for a while. They are not intuitive.

I love the Mazda’s easy to grip emergency brake and the texture of the leather stitched steering wheel. The wiper control and headlights stalks lack feel and it is difficult to find the correct notch. The doors don’t require a large space to open so you don’t have to worry when you come back to your car and find someone has parked closely to this Mazda. The seats were easy to adjust, but I wished for both tile and telescoping controls on the steering so that I could find a better fit. The aluminum brake, clutch, dead pedal, and accelerator pedals were attractive, but the rest of the interior was rather bleak. My greatest complaint was the air-conditioning that was barely adequate even at the highest settings. I also noticed this about the Mazda 3 we recently tested.

I found the RX-8 both friendly and eager to please. It would be perfect for someone who had to give up their two-seaters sports car for a family or for those who really enjoy the art of driving well. The price is responsible and gives more evidence that Mazda is quietly producing some of the most driver oriented vehicles around with it stable of Mazda 3, 6, and RX 8 all exhibiting the potential for even greater performance.

Young working male’s view: Nice looking with a touch of spice, but a lacking in the type of storage room I need are my takes on this Mazda. The glove compartment is too small, the colored inserts on the interior too compulsive, and the Bose stereo is very limited in range and reception. No doubt it is fun to drive and certainly is not a poser when it comes to performance, but to me it was neither fish nor fowl. I would go with the Mazda 6 or even the Mazda 3 hatchback and have a fun car with more room.

Family conference: This is a good buy, if you want a sports car. The Mazda 6 is a better buy if you want a sporty sedan and it costs about the same. Regardless, if you don’t test drive a RX-8 and hear and feel the rotary engine you are missing a real treat. It is not for everyone, but is going to make you a better driver and you can take four adults and two golf bags with you.

Written by The Car Family