First time 8 owner, bought during a blizzard!!

R

rrwilliams64

Member
:
'04 RX-8 Grand Touring AT
Glad to join the forum, I will be visiting often to acquaint myself w/ the"how to's" and "what not's" of my new baby. My story--> I'm at Park Mazda, Akron, Ohio looking at a 6 on their lot plus a S40 Volvo...and I spot this '04 RX8. It's a Grand Touring, EVERY option but nav, ti-gray, 28k mis....but it is an auto Better than showroom, traded in by local gal who got a new style 6. ANY way, I end up falling in love, i buy it but it's snowing so bad I cant drive the car home (I live in Youngstown, hour drive) and there's 6-8" snow on roads and I didnt wanna chance it. So here I sit, I'm picking it up Monday andhere I am, a 45 yr old fella tickled like a 16 yr old

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I actually left this dealership paying $10,800 for this vehicle. NE Ohio, snowstorms, middle of winter and sales staff seemed oblivious of KBB value. I think I stole this car, no??? (LOL, figuratively)Not a scratch, accident/collision repair free, and rides like new. I just had to share my news, I'm giddy and doing handstands. (idhitit) Just trying to absorb the info I'm seeing /bout starting, oil consunmption, etc etc.

Anyway, glad to be here and I'm excited bout my new baby!!
 
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Yep, sounds like you stole it!(five-0)


Congrats! The handling and brakes on the RX-8 are very hard to beat. I always enjoy driving my fathers 04' even though its an auto.

Hope you get a chance to find some nice curvy roads once the snow thaws!
 
coyfish said:
Damn thats so many mazda's mazdadude. . .

you bought 6 mazda 626's lol . . .
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that many on this site, and other forums I've been on, are still kiddies who go through cars quickly. I can't say much. I did it for a while, myself. Finally, I found quality instead of quantity. However, some of these guys have bought more cars before they're 25 than I've bought in a lifetime.

I understand your giddy feeling. I'm 62 and still get that feeling every time my wife and I buy a new car. Of course, we usually buy sports/sporty cars and stay away from SUVs, minivans, four door sedans. I don't think I could ever get giddy over buying one of those. Somebody does; or, they wouldn't make them, I guess. Our recent purchases of the Roush and the LS6 Miata have been real giddiness builders.

I think you'll enjoy your RX-8. I don't drive my wife's -8 often; but, it's does drive nicely. She really likes the heated seats in her Grand Touring, right now. I recently drove our -8 from central KY to Virginia Beach to pick up the Miata and found that the car is a good ride for long trips, as well. It handled the mountainous highways with power to spare. I'm not sure how it handles on snow and ice, though. We keep our cars in the garage on snowy days. The truck is used for that. I don't want salt on our cars.

Anyway, enjoy your new ride. Be sure to read up on the quirks of the car. It uses oil. It may be hard to restart if you kill it right after starting it. It can be restarted, if you know how. Newer plugs may eliminate much of that, though. See if you have the new plugs installed, as per the service bulletins. You can find those on the web, if you care to look them up. How much warranty does the car have. Our car's warranty was doubled, last year. Maybe the older ones got the same benefit. I hope so.
 
JMMJ- vehicle's service date was 4/05/04, so since 28k mis, the powertrain is up 4/05/09. Core warranty is 8/100,000. What was funny with this car is I pride myself on not being spontaneous, I'm every salespersons difficult customer, as I deal with my head vs heart, I'm well researched, know my needs, budget, etc and am not one to get goo goo eyed. This one broke that mold and I was like in a trance. Too funny. But the car blew me away. Funny story was my fiancee and I went to take it for a test drive and it wouldnt start- needless to say my eyebrow raised as I was told a story that "the sales rep didnt;t raise the RPM's for ten seconds or so after he started/stopped it to burn off the fuel yada yada"- I was ready to leave right then. The service mgr and staff were indeed able to enlighten me on some of the quirks you cite. I also know when I took it for a test ride (see my previous post, it was Iditarod sled weather,) it wasnt pretty and the car was a chore in the snow. But I understand the nature of that beast, it's not a snow-cutting Subaru.
We'll see- I'm a drug rep, I'll use the car occasionally for work..stops and starts. Hope thats not a problem, I'll need to learn the car and hown it likes to run.
Curious,other parts of the country, whats the norm retail for this car? KBB says 17k, I think that may be a tad optimistic. Again, all options but nav- and I mean all, w. 28k mis. (Just like to know how good a deal I received , the forum community would know best..what would/should this car have gone for)
 
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rrwilliams64 said:
JMMJ- vehicle's service date was 4/05/04, so since 28k mis, the powertrain is up 4/05/09. Core warranty is 8/100,000. What was funny with this car is I pride myself on not being spontaneous, I'm every salespersons difficult customer, as I deal with my head vs heart, I'm well researched, know my needs, budget, etc and am not one to get goo goo eyed. This one broke that mold and I was like in a trance. Too funny. But the car blew me away. Funny story was my fiancee and I went to take it for a test drive and it wouldnt start- needless to say my eyebrow raised as I was told a story that "the sales rep didnt;t raise the RPM's for ten seconds or so after he started/stopped it to burn off the fuel yada yada"- I was ready to leave right then. The service mgr and staff were indeed able to enlighten me on some of the quirks you cite. I also know when I took it for a test ride (see my previous post, it was Iditarod sled weather,) it wasnt pretty and the car was a chore in the snow. But I understand the nature of that beast, it's not a snow-cutting Subaru.
We'll see- I'm a drug rep, I'll use the car occasionally for work..stops and starts. Hope thats not a problem, I'll need to learn the car and hown it likes to run.
Curious,other parts of the country, whats the norm retail for this car? KBB says 17k, I think that may be a tad optimistic. Again, all options but nav- and I mean all, w. 28k mis. (Just like to know how good a deal I received , the forum community would know best..what would/should this car have gone for)
Click to expand...

Yep, our car's warranty is the core; so, you're good to go. About the only thing I'd ever worry about is the rotary core, to start with. That seems to be the sore spot of the car. After four years, about every other bad thing has most likely already reared its ugly head. I suspect our car will be gone by the time the core warranty runs out. She'll be wanting something else.

So, you already got the restart experience. It's funny it happened at the dealership. Our car came with a quick reference card that we keep in the car. In fact, Mazda pruduces a CD that takes you through some of this stuff. You may have it or may be able to get it. We have two of them. So far, we've never encountered the restart problem; and, I seldom do the engine run up to 3500 before shutting it down. I've pulled the car out of the garage into the drive to wash it many, many times without doing the rev up. That seems to be a favorite time to make it fail. It never has. Our service manager told us the car is just fine. It's the operators that are the problems with them. I tend to agree. If one reads up on them and follow the lead of those who have had success with them, they do well.

Like you, I'm a customer from Hell. When we were looking at Mustangs, I was going from dealer to dealer making them work hard to get my business. The guy who sold us the Roush had to work hard to sell the car to us. The neat thing is that it's the same dealer that sold two cars to us in 2006. For some reason, they don't mind taking the price to the bone to sell a car. I can remember when they weren't that way, though. We didn't buy a car from them for about 20 years because a salesman told me he could sell the truck I was looking at to someone else, if I didn't like their price. I bought a truck from someone else and never looked back. In 2006, I found out a lot of that bunch got fired when another fella bought into the company. Now, they're very competitive. We've bought three new cars from them in three years. They've had to earn our business on each one.
 
altspace said:
Welcome aboard. I completely understand your story. Check out my experience in buying/owning my 8 here. http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123661161

FYI - A good set of snow tires does the trick for winter driving. DSC and traction control works great!
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Your find sounds like you got one of our cars. :D When we bought the Roush Mustang, we traded in two cars that were cleaner than the Roush we bought. Yeah, we needed to get rid of an extra car; so, we made it work for us by helping us buy the new one. Anyway, I did talk with the sales manager about it, when I got it home. It took me hours to clean it the way I wanted it. I was really upset. When I took it back to get some things fixed, I also told the service manager about it.

I see you use snow tires. The reason our cars are traded in so clean is because we leave them in the garage for much of the winter. I refuse to take them out on salty roads. Heck, many times they stay in when it's raining! We do drive the RX-8 in the rain, some; but, I try to avoid that. We use the old truck, instead. My wife's -8 is Velocity red.
 
I only have snow tires just in case I have to drive my 8 somewhere. Otherwise she stays nice and clean in the garage as I own my on biz and work from home. ;) In fact I am beginning to receive withdrawals. Although we have a Jeep for winter fun.

The Roush is a bad ass Stang. I'm proud to say I owned a 85' Mustang GT Convt. many years back. Loved it!
 
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rrwilliams64 said:
Glad to join the forum, I will be visiting often to acquaint myself w/ the"how to's" and "what not's" of my new baby. My story--> I'm at Park Mazda, Akron, Ohio looking at a 6 on their lot plus a S40 Volvo...and I spot this '04 RX8. It's a Grand Touring, EVERY option but nav, ti-gray, 28k mis....but it is an auto Better than showroom, traded in by local gal who got a new style 6. ANY way, I end up falling in love, i buy it but it's snowing so bad I cant drive the car home (I live in Youngstown, hour drive) and there's 6-8" snow on roads and I didnt wanna chance it. So here I sit, I'm picking it up Monday andhere I am, a 45 yr old fella tickled like a 16 yr old

img_popup.jsp


I actually left this dealership paying $10,800 for this vehicle. NE Ohio, snowstorms, middle of winter and sales staff seemed oblivious of KBB value. I think I stole this car, no??? (LOL, figuratively)Not a scratch, accident/collision repair free, and rides like new. I just had to share my news, I'm giddy and doing handstands. (idhitit) Just trying to absorb the info I'm seeing /bout starting, oil consunmption, etc etc.

Anyway, glad to be here and I'm excited bout my new baby!!
Click to expand...



Looks nice.. however is that a blemish on the front of the car or bad picture
 
altspace said:
I only have snow tires just in case I have to drive my 8 somewhere. Otherwise she stays nice and clean in the garage as I own my on biz and work from home. ;) In fact I am beginning to receive withdrawals. Although we have a Jeep for winter fun.

The Roush is a bad ass Stang. I'm proud to say I owned a 85' Mustang GT Convt. many years back. Loved it!
Click to expand...

I understand the withdrawals. I have a bad case of cabin fever. Fortunately, our weather isn't that bad; so, our cars have been coming out of the garage, some. It's hard to keep them all exercised, though. I like to drive them, from time to time, just to recharge the batteries and prevent rust and corrosion buildup. Since my wife drives the -8 to work when it's good enough weather, it does get enough road time. It's the Miata and Mustang that can suffer. Believe it, or not, I've never owned a set of snow tires in all my 46+ years of driving.

The Roush is our 4th Mustang. I had a '65 Hipo, when I was a wee lad. That was the only one until we bought a '96 GT coupe in '99. Then, we bought a '02 GT vert in '03. The '03 was traded in to get the Roush. I like the looks and power of the Roush; but, it's 380-390rwhp is no contest for our little LS6 Miata that has 440rwhp. It's a little subtle about being a badass car.
 
jmsj578 said:
If you'll look at all of the photos, notice the car is wet. It could be that instead of damage. Didn't he say he bought it in a blizzard?
Click to expand...

Lets see... he did not take those pics and it was not snowing when the pics were taken.. yes the car was wet but the dark spot looked out of place..

it was just a question.
 
Cabin fever....you can say that again. That's why I plan to go ice racing in a couple weeks.
 
altspace said:
Cabin fever....you can say that again. That's why I plan to go ice racing in a couple weeks.
Click to expand...

Man, just the thought of that makes me cold. Brrrr! We have a thin layer of snow, this morning. That's too much for me, anymore. The cars will stay in the garage, this morning. Since my son will be taking my wife to work, this morning, I won't have to brave the cold to take her. She hates driving on snow and ice. We have yet to try out the RX-8 on it.

I really need to clean our cars; but, it's not been warm enough to do it. All are starting to look dirty from dust, brake dust, etc. I need a warm day without rain! What do you guys up north do about that, in the winter? Do you ever get the salt off?
 
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