15th Oct 2007, 09:09

92,000 miles now on my 2004 RX8. Very trouble free until I heard a cracking plastic sound after pushing the clutch pedal in yesterday. Now, it engages one mm. above the floor level. Love the car! Never had starting problems. I did have to replace the temperature control knob for the A/C at 50,000.

Four six foot tall adults can fit comfortably in this car. Seat is amazingly comfortable. Sound system is good. Performance has not degraded in all these miles.

7th May 2008, 11:32

Hello! I have a 2004 RX8 and it sucks gas tremendously. It also has battery promblems, and now my CD player doesn't work, nor my turn signals. If you have any ideas on the gas, please post an idea. I don't want to do much engine work.

29th Sep 2008, 08:48

Hi, I have a 55 plate RX8, and I have owned it for 2 months now, and have no problems with starting. But I do have a problem when changing into 2nd gear. It's a great car and I wouldn't swap it, love it to bits.

5th Oct 2008, 18:46

I just purchased my son a 2004 Mazda RX8. I have had it for 4 days and it is sitting in my drive way and will not crank at all. I wish I would have read all the comments before I purchased this car. I am planning on going to the dealership first thing in the morning to try and get my truck back.

2nd Dec 2008, 03:39

Hello, to start off I want to say that every car performs according to how it is treated. No one can really go by what other people say because; one we all drive differently, two we all don't give the same care to the care.

The rotary engine normally leaks, it is technology that still needs a lot of adjustment. The car also burns oil, keeping in mind that the car has only 3 moving parts inside the engine.

The interior (to my opinion) is beautiful, has a center console like no other.

I live in Miami, so honestly I cannot talk about the car not turning on in the cold, the coldest it gets here is about 50 degrees and the car runs very clean at that temperature.

Other than that, yes the car has a high revving engine, that does not mean the car needs to be revved all the time. Also keep in mind that when a car is taken to a "mechanic", you really don't know how well he is going to do the job, or if he even knows how to do it for that matter. That is why I work on my own car, because there is no one that is going to treat your car better than yourself.

By the way I am only 20 yrs old, what I mean by this is that, you gentlemen are older and wiser and should know better than to make judgments on other peoples experiences. Again, we all don't drive or treat the cars the same. Hope this helped.

9th Dec 2008, 09:58

Hi, I'm currently 19, and in college. Even though I do have a very good part time job, I don't have a lot of money to spend on repairing a car.

I love the look of the car, and I have test driven a couple and love the handling.

I would like to do the repairs on the car on my own, but know nothing about repairing a rotary engine.

Currently I am looking at a 2004 RX8 with 108,000 miles on it, and I'm wondering if it would be a good buy because I read in some forums that people putting up to 200,000 miles on their rotary engines, and it still runs great.

Also I would like to know if they are easy to work on?

22nd May 2009, 14:32

I've got a 2004 RX-8 with 46000 miles on it. Runs beautifully.

Not had any problems with it.

Reading the comments here it looks like people didn't read the manual very well when they got it... It's got plenty of info in there on how to prevent flooding and maintain the engine (without mechanical knowledge)

I wouldn't recommend getting an RX-8 unless you want a car that you want to look after properly. As in topping up the car with oil a couple of times a month. It uses oil to lubricate the inside of the engine due to the design of a rotary.

Never gonna get rid of my RX8... unless an RX-9 comes out maybe :)

17th Jun 2009, 03:04

I have a 2004 model RX8. It has now done 51,000 klms and the clutch needs replacing. I find this very frustrating. I have never had a car, with such low mileage, and the clutch needs replacing. Living in South Africa this is an extremely costly exercise.

22nd Jun 2009, 01:14

Very unreliable car. I had so many problems that I sold mine after two very troublesome years. (Crappy resale value as well.)

20th Jan 2010, 09:18

If you buy a rotary powered car, you need to learn how to use it correctly. People complain about replacing many engines, most likely because they turn it off when it's cold, which floods the engine.

You cannot treat the rotary like a piston powered engine, you cannot just turn it on and go. Let it warm up, when done driving it, let it idle for 30 seconds. At the end of the day, rev it up to 3k rpm and let it sit there for 15 seconds, which will push the carbon build up from that day out of the car. Yes, it is very high maintenance, but worth it. I have had my Rx-8 since it was new, and I followed these steps and have had no engine problems whatsoever. There is now at 50k on it and I still love it.

26th Nov 2012, 12:42

Use non ethanol and you will get thirty one to the gallon.