Generally a coupe cannot be both a true sports car and practical. Many coupes that have sought to be both have achieved neither. To accommodate a rear seat and trunk they were too large to be sports cars, yet the seats and trunk were too cramped to be practical.
So many were doubtful when Mazda announced that that its next RX would have rear seats. The RX-7 was one of the few Japanese cars to earn a mystique and the strong following that attends it. The beautiful twin-turbocharged third-generation RX-7, sold in the early 1990s, was perhaps the purest sports car of the era. Ultimately, it proved too pure, with cramped quarters, a harsh ride, and the high price required by expensive engine and suspension componentry conspiring to limit sales to unprofitably low levels. Everyone admired such sports car purity, but too few put their money where their mouth was.
Mazda learned from this experience that the next RX, to be tagged the eighth after three generations stuck at seven, had to be a more practical car. Among other things, they decided it would provide seating for four. In the past, when two-seaters have been redesigned as four-seaters they gained so much size and mass that the car’s original sporting character was lost. Would this also happen to the RX? Would it become just another fat “grand tourer.”
Well, with the new RX-8 Mazda has finally cracked the code. The RX-8 is a true sports car, yet is much more practical than many larger, heavier coupes such as the Infiniti G35 (my reviews of the related G35 sedan and Nissan 350Z can be accessed by clicking on the hyperlinks) and Hyundai Tiburon. Compared to the last RX-7, weight is up only about 200 pounds, and length by only half a foot, while a balanced weight distribution has been maintained. No doubt the relatively light weight and very compact dimensions of the rotary engine compared to a conventional reciprocating engine help, but amazing nonetheless.
If I only had one less kid, I’d like to own one myself. For the details, read on.
Mazda RX-8 Reliability
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Styling
Sports cars often sell based on their styling alone. Well, I personally don’t find the RX-8 terribly attractive, especially not compared to a striking design like the G35 coupe. The RX-8’s front end is distinctive and full of character, and the tail end is reasonably attractive, but the midsection owing to the high rear roofline and rear door cutline looks thick to me and lends the car awkward proportions. But I’m sure others less concerned with proportions will find the RX plenty good looking.
I have fewer qualms about the RX’s interior. It’s very practically styled in the pure sports car idiom, but even in the standard black cloth possesses enough interesting textures and materials to not seem dull. The seat cloth is especially nice, with high-quality untextured gray cloth down the center and ribbed black cloth on the bolsters. The ribs both lend the interior a sporty character and add to the bolsters' already excellent lateral support. Those desiring more color in the interior must order the leather. One option then is red leather covering much of the steering wheel, door inserts, and seats. To my eye, it’s a bit much. Make mine black cloth.
Interior materials look and feel higher in quality than those in the Z and G35. Not luxurious, mind you, but solid and durable. My major quality issue with the RX-8 concerns the door closing experience. Because the RX has small half doors providing access to the rear seat and no B-pillar (much like on crew cab pickups), the front doors latch to the rear doors rather than to the more rigid body structure. As a result, when shut they shudder and make a low quality sound. On two different cars I looked at the passenger side door took a bit more effort than I’m used to with today’s cars to get it to close all the way.
Accommodations
The front seat is mounted low, as in any true sports car, but is high enough off the floor and designed intelligently enough to provide foot space for rear seat passengers. The view forward is expansive, as the dash is mounted very low. To the side the beltline is moderately high, but significantly lower than that in the Z. As a result, the Z’s “in a pit”:sensation is absent here.
The instruments are a bit odd. There is no analog speedometer. Instead, a digital readout is nested in the bottom-right quadrant of a large tachometer positioned directly ahead of the driver. I found it a bit difficult to monitor my speed this way, less because of the digital readout than it’s fairly low placement on a fairly low instrument panel. A head-up display like that found in the Chevrolet Corvette would be very welcome in this car, as it would project the speed and RPM as well directly into the driver’s sightline, allowing said driver to continuously monitor both without ever taking his/her eyes off the road. Drive a car with an HUD (mostly GM products thus far, though one in coming in the 2004 BMW 5-Series) and you’ll be converted much like I was.
The front seats are very comfortable and very supportive. Adjustments are minimal in the base car, with no power anything, but they are sufficient. The side bolsters are close enough together and firm enough to provide excellent lateral support even to men of a moderately slender build. The non-telescoping steering wheel felt a bit close to me when I adjusted the seat so I could comfortable depress the clutch to the floor, but I readily got used to it. The dead pedal is positioned perfectly.
The rear seat is a surprisingly pleasant place to be considering this is a 174-inch, 2900-pound sports car. The Infiniti coupe is eight inches longer and over 500 pounds heavier, yet it provides less legroom and far less headroom. No one much over five feet in height will be comfortable in the back of the Infiniti. To keep my head from hitting the steeply raked rear glass I had to scrunch down a tremendous amount. (The Hyundai Tiburon requires scrunching as well, but not so much as the Infiniti.) In contrast, when the front seats are set for me in the RX-8 I fit into the back with an inch or so of knee and head clearance with absolutely no scrunching. Thigh support is even decent, something I cannot say for many midsize sedans. On top of this space, it’s easy to get back there because of the rear half doors. (These doors cannot be opened without first opening the front doors, a safety feature for those with small children but a minor inconvenience otherwise.) The rear half doors are short, so they should not be hard to open in parking lots.
The rear seats like those up front are divided by a center console that is tall and wide enough to be sporty but not so tall and wide that it dominates the interior (i.e. Honda S2000). A couple of storage compartments are provided in this console, and the glovebox is of a useful size.
The trunk is small on paper—only eight cubic feet—but looks as if it could carry a good amount of stuff. It’s shaped to fit a couple of golf bags width-wise at the rear. I don’t golf, but can see putting a stroller there. The rear seats do not fold down to enlarge the trunk, but a six-by-twelve-inch passthrough is provided above the console. To access this passthrough a panel is removed and not just opened.
On the Road
A bit on the rotary engine: Rotary engines use a pair of triangular rotating rotors instead of reciprocating (up and down) pistons to generate power. Back in the 1970s many companies explored using rotary engines, Audi and GM most notably, but only Mazda was able to get the design to work well enough. Even then the rotary nearly sank the company, and conventional engines were substituted in all but the RX sports car. The advantages of a rotary engine include smoothness, fewer parts, compact size, and light weight. The disadvantages include poor fuel economy and dirtier exhaust.
The third-generation RX-7 used a pair of sequential turbochargers (once for low RPM, one for high RPM) to produce 255 horsepower at 6500 RPM from 1.3 liters of displacement. (Since each rotor fires every revolution, while the cylinders in four-stroke reciprocating engines fire only every other revolution, this 1.3 liters equates to roughly 2.6 liters when comparing to reciprocating engines.) To cut costs for the RX-8, Mazda decided to do without turbochargers. Through an improved rotary design that relocates the ports to the sides rather than the periphery of the chamber, the new “Renesis” engine produces nearly as much power as the old one, but at higher RPM: 247 horsepower (inexplicably down three from initial figures) at 8500. (The redline is at 9000, with a fuel cutoff at 9500.)Displacement remains unchanged.
Update: It appears Mazda overstated the horsepower figures for the new rotary. The revised figures are 238 horsepowr for the manual, 197 for the automatic. This is at least the second time Mazda has had this problem in recent years. People who bought an RX-8 before the revision get an extended warranty and $500 rebate.
Mazda’s technical achievements with its latest rotary are admirable. But how well does the Renesis engine actually work? Sadly, putting the RX-8 in motion unveils the car’s second major weakness: this engine. (The first weakness being the body’s awkward proportions.) I’ve driven high RPM engines before, most notably the four-cylinder that puts out 240 horses at 8300 RPM in the Honda S2000, and been less critical of them than most others. I found the peaky four in the Honda plenty punchy even before the higher-lift cam lobes kicked in at 6000 RPM, for instance. I’m less enamored of the RX-8’s rotary.
Without pistons going up and down the Renesis engine is very, very smooth, but this very smoothness works against it. While the rotary’s smoothness and the transmission’s low gearing make it painless enough to get the engine spinning near its power peak, unlike the S2000’s VTEC engine this one never comes “on cam.” There’s no exciting sudden surge of power anywhere from idle to redline, just a smooth flow. The engine revs easily, but lacks that friskiness that in other engines (most notably the S2000's) says, "Drive me hard." This extreme level of refinement might be technically desirable, but it detracts from the fun of the vehicle.
Trying to determine at which RPM power becomes plentiful—not an easy task given the smooth progression—I settled on 5500 RPM, maybe 6000 RPM. At lower RPM there’s very little power, and even the midrange feels soft. The Renesis engine is smooth and quiet compared to the Nissan/Infiniti and Honda engines when living in its upper ranges. It just needs to provide more encouragement to go there. Something like that feeling in the S2000 when the VTEC kicks in.
Acceleration off the line is only strong if you rev the engine and then pop the clutch. To get the car to sixty in 5.9 seconds, Car & Driver popped the clutch at 8000 RPM. Unless you are comfortable replacing your clutch lining frequently, I’d advise against this technique. When launching the car normally, C&D attained a 5-60 “street start” time of 7.5 seconds. That number much better represents how quick the RX-8 feels.
The RX-8’s shifter does help. It’s perfectly positioned, with short throws and a firm and mechanical yet not at all rough feel. Far better than the balky high-effort shifter in the Z. The S2000’s shifter is better still, but positioned a bit high for ideal comfort. The transmissions six closely-spaced ratios enable keeping the engine near its power peak.
Fuel economy remains lower than it should be with the Renesis engine. Mazda claims improvements in this area, but the EPA numbers with the manual improve only a bit over the last RX-7, from 17/25 to 18/25. For reference, the slightly heavier Chevrolet Corvette Z06 with a 405-horsepower 5.7-liter V8 earns a 19/28 rating, the Honda S2000 a 20/26, and the Infiniti G35, with a 280-horsepower, 3.5-liter V6, 20/27. So fuel economy continues to be a weakness.
Now for the best part: handling. The RX-8’s steering is flat-out excellent. It is very well weighted, moderately firm, and provides excellent feedback. I felt directly connected to the road. In this fashion it resembles the S2000’s steering, but with less nervousness. The steering in the other cars I’ve mentioned feels dull, even dead, in comparison. A perfectly sized and shaped wheel rim is an additional bonus.
A note on the power assist for the steering: as in the S2000, assist is provided by an electric motor rather than a hydraulic pump. Most such systems do not provide good feedback. Those I’ve sampled in GM and Toyota vehicles have been particularly dull, and that in the BMW Z4 does not provide feedback as well as the conventional hydraulic system that was used in the Z3. So it seems Mazda and Honda have a thing or two to teach GM, Toyota, and BMW.
The RX-8’s chassis is very balanced, with rarely even a hint of understeer. The car’s low weight (about two hundred pounds heavier than an S2000 but well below other competitors aside from the much more expensive Corvette Z06) enables a delicate, nimble feel. At the same time, its longish 106-inch wheelbase (six inches less than a G35, but about a foot more than an S2000 or the last RX-7) gives the car great straight-ahead stability, with none of the wandering that plagues some sports cars. If you try real hard you can get the tail to kick out enough in turns to trigger the optional stability control. That said, the Z and S2000 both fishtail much more readily when powering out of turns, while the Z understeers a bit much entering them. Between the steering and the chassis, the Mazda can be driven with a great sense of precision and confidence. Those living where it does not snow probably do not need the stability control, though such a safety net is never a bad idea if you’re planning to push a car with such high limits near those limits.
Despite the tight suspension, the RX-8 does not ride badly even over metropolitan Detroits awful streets. It won’t be mistaken for a luxury car, and a Corvette rides better, but the ride is well-controlled and in my test drive never felt harsh. The ride in the 350Z is much busier to the point of being tiring. The 350Z also suffers from more road and especially engine noise on the highway. Noise levels in the Mazda are moderate. I can see making long trips in it. At 70 the rotary is spinning about 3500 RPM, but it remains quiet at this engine speed as it is far below the 9000 RPM redline.
So there you have it. A light, nimble, very balanced sports car that can comfortably seat four moderately-sized adults. Amazing.
Pricing
For quick, up-to-date pricing, and especially user-specified price comparisons, check out the website I created: www.truedelta.com. Why yet another vehicle pricing website? Well, I personally lacked the patience to keep using the others. They were too slow and required too much effort, especially when trying to compare prices. So I taught myself some programming and created a site where there is no need to dig through option packages, prerequisites, and the like one by one -- the TrueDelta algorithm figures these out for you in one swift pass.
The following is from when the review was originally written:
The Mazda RX-7 in base form lists for $27,200. Unlike the 207-horsepower automatic RX-8, the manual comes standard with 18-inch wheels, a firmer suspension, and a limited slip differential. The manual costs $1,500 more, and these features account for $700 of the difference based on option package pricing.
Three packages are available with the manual. An $1,100 package includes traction control, stability control, xenon headlamps, and foglamps. (Add $700-800 for these package prices for the automatic, as they also include the manual’s additional standard equipment.) Another $1,600 gains you a sunroof, BOSE stereo, and auto-dimming mirror. Another $800 on top of that gets you heated leather and a power driver’s seat with lumbar. My test car had the middle package and the car’s only standalone option, the $2,000 navigation system. Personally, I’d probably opt for the $1,100 package and leave it at that. The sunroof is on the small side, the base sound system is good enough for my limited needs, the cloth is nice and fits the character of the car, and I don’t see the point of a nav system in this sort of car (and wouldn’t want it in my own car, period). Equipped as I’d prefer, the RX-8 lists for $28,300.
The 2003 Nissan 350Z bases at $26,800, but does not include as much standard equipment. Equipped like a $28,300 RX-8, but still lacking stability control and 18-inch wheels, it lists for $29,360. Demand for the Z is beginning to cool, so dealer discounts could bring its price closer to the Mazda’s. The Z provides much more grunt, and will look better to many eyes, but in just about every other way is the inferior car.
The 2003 G35 coupe (review of the automatic sedan here) is only available with a manual in top-level trim. (You cannot get cloth seats with a manual transmission.) Equipped like a $30,700 RX-8, it lists for $34,995. A huge difference, even if according to Edmunds the typical dealer discount late in the model year reduces this to $34,200. The G35 like the Z provides much more midrange and low-end grunt, and adds a greater sense of luxury, but otherwise is inferior to the Mazda.
Update: I have now reviewed the 2004 G35 sedan with a six-speed manual transmission here. With the manual the car has a much different character. I still prefer the Mazda.
The 2003 Honda S2000, with standard leather but no traction control, lists for $33,060. I have come across dealers selling them for just under thirty. As sports cars go, both the Honda and the Mazda are excellent. How to decide? Do you want a convertible, or to be able to fit four people? The Honda is more fun to drive, but the RX-8 comes in second in this department.
A budget choice would be the Hyundai Tiburon. Fully loaded its cost is only in the high teens. It can be fun to drive, but lacks the balanced handling, rear seat comfort, and refinement of the Mazda.
Last Words
A most impressive engineering feat, to provide comfortable seating for four medium-sized adults in a light, nimble sports car. If this is the combination you’ve been looking for, you can stop looking. Less awkward styling and more midrange grunt would be nice, but as is the Mazda RX-8 excels in so many areas that it is a great buy even at list price.
If only I had two kids rather than three, I might buy one myself.
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Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 31,900
Model and Options: manual with "touring package" and nav
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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