As a former RX-8 owner, I can honestly tell you that it was a great car with a lot of flaws. It was really fun to drive around the bends, a lot more balanced than the Z. You could throw that thing into a hairpin turn with confidence. Reving that engine was fun. The only downside of course, was the very lacking amount of torque. A minivan could smoke you off the line. The rotary has power, but not until you reach 4500 rpm's. I also had a lot of mechanical issues with the car. After 40K miles I had to replace the ignition coils, engine mounts and a few other parts I can't remember at the moment. I also had coolant issues, hard starting, flooding engine....the list goes on.
There have been quite a few RX-8 owners that have had their engines replaced due to lost of compression and out of warranty. The Mazda service dealerships near me didn't help matters. I once contacted Mazda's US corporate office to try and replace a defective SSV and they were just as rude and dismisive as the dealership. Really bad customer service. It took me like 6 visits to finally have them replace the part.
The Renesis engine also doesn't handle FI very well and very limited in terms of aftermaket performance mods. Top it off with having to add oil every 1500 miles or so and it becomes a headache after a while. The manual gearbox on the RX-8 is much smoother than Z though. If you've ever driven a manual Z, you'd know what I mean.
The 370z is very much more refined than the 350z. The 350z needed a lot of growing up. The interior really turned me off when I was cross shopping with the RX-8. The 370 interior on the other hand, fits the personality of the car nicely. There's plenty of power and the handling is top notch. The steering feels heavier than the RX-8, but you get use to it. I guess you could describe it as the best all around performer.
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[09][MB][6-Spd MT][Touring][Stillen Gen III][K&N][Borla CBE][Evo-R]
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