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StillZooming,
The extended warranty is not always the answer. I was being a bit sarcastic when I said you needed it. The warranty, in my opinion, is only as good as the dealer, and with Mazda not taking the lead, many of us have very sad stories. My 2004 Rx8 6m was babied by me. I made a ramp so I could change the oil myself, and I did. With over 20K miles, it looked like it just came out of the wrapper. But countless recalls, the dealer going out of business, so many parts replaced under warranty, and the lack of good people working for Maxda, it had to end badly. The last time the car sputtered and died, it was towed to the nearest dealer 2 blocks away. After two days, I was told the RX8 was ready to pick up, and the bill was $1300. I picked it up and explained it had an extended warranty, and I was told it was only on the power train and not the parts and labor. I was being charged for the alternator, battery, and who knows what else. I pointed out that the alternator had just been replaced, but it was not their problem. After the constant breakdowns, Mazda not responding to my pleas for help, and reading the writing on the wall, I sold the RX8 to a dealership and bought an 08 Corvette, my first American car since a used 66 Mustang in high school. Mazda let all of us down, and people should beware!  

I've owned a 2004 RX8 for about 3 months now. I have had very few issues in the 15000km that I have put on it. I've done a battery, gas cap, and an air filter. I've had the engine flood once since I started it cold and turned it off right after since someone else decided to drive. Won't fire when I wanted it to. Well every RX8 has a tow hook in the trunk and a little hole in the grill where it will go in. get a buddy to tow you, go about 20km turn the key on and pop the clutch in first gear. if it doesn't start to run just started playing with the gas pedal and you'll catch up to your buddy, so be careful. I've been using synthetic 5W20 and I am managing to get 23.5 mpg, or approximately 10L per 100km. Even while driving it hard and having a little fun. If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them as long as you aren't bad mouthing the car. first owner never had any major problems and neither have I.
Thanks,  

Regarding the comment on extended warranties.

Here is what I am starting to piece together.  Like many cars, the RX8 comes with a few years of bumper-to-bumper warranty and a few more years of warranty on the drive train.  After the bumper-to-bumper has expired, if work has to be done on the drive train, then parts and/or labor not directly related to the driver train may have to be paid by the owner.  Of course, a decent dealer would cover this anyway, I would think.

Now, I purchased an extended warranty in addition.  These are typically "third party" warranties that you purchase through the dealer at the time you purchase your car.  In my case, the extended warranty is provided by an outfit called Fidelity.  It cost a pretty penny (something like $1000 to $1500).  Put it (the warranty I purchased) appears to be pretty good:  no deductible, it pays for a few days of a rental car, and it covered about $1500 beyond what was covered by the drive train warranty when my engine was replaced with a remanufactured engine.  Note, however, that the dealer and Mazda gain no benefit from denying you a part or labor:  it is the third party provider that pays the dealer.

Once before, when we purchased a used car from a used car dealership, we also got an extended warranty, which was garbage.  So, be careful.

Some good news:  I just received a notice from Mazda regarding a "Special Service Program" that extends the warranty on all model years of the RX-8 (through 2008) to 8 years and 100K miles.  Specific components of the Rotary Engine are covered.  They will also reimburse people who have already paid for repairs.

So, it looks like Mazda is trying to act responsibly.

One final tip:  Always keep the service advisor on your side:  Problems are never his/her fault.  They are always Mazda's fault.  This will help smooth things.  As I always say: always treat your realtor, plumber, and mechanic nicely, even if they are wrong.  And it helps to bring them Christmas presents...  

There are some valid points in the original post (like the 5w20 is garbage thing), but there are also A LOT of pure *** in it.

Please for all Rx8 owners, go to

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=138402

for the "right" amount of information and whats does Renesis looks like.  

Wow....have had my used rx8 for a year....same story as everyone else....idles rough , flooded a couple of times and guess what?  In the shop getting a new engine.  Its a 2004 and when I purchased it , it had 32000 miles on it.  It had 52000 on it when the engine failed.  I guess it lasted longer than some.  I barely slid in on the extended warranty plan.  Mazda will replace the engine for up to 60 thousand miles or 4 years.  They also provided a rental car for a week .  I guess I should be happy about that considering the dealership told me the engine itself is 6000 dollars not including labor.  Needless to say the car would get re-poed if they didnt replace it.  I have to wonder if that is part of the reason they are replacing them?  If they didnt , think about how many re-po's there would be!  Then they most surely would have a class action law suit due to the lenders situations?  

I didn't even have to wait to need an extended warranty. With 1800 miles on a brand new RX8 I rolled through a mud puddle in a thunderstorm. Not a lake but a 4 inch deep puddle going about 5 mph. The car sputtered and died. It wouldn't start so I let it dry out for a few hours and came back. It started, went about 4 blocks and then died for good. There was fluid leaking from under the dash on the passanger side not to mention a trail of fluid about 100 ft. long behind the car. I had it towed to the dealer. They told me the engine was "hydro-locked" and would have to be replaced. Only it was NOT covered under the warranty since I drove it through a puddle. My insurance would have to cover the $6,000 repair.

After getting the car back, it worked for less than 200 miles before the stalling and rough idle problem began. They couldn't figure out the problem. The next closest dealer wouldn't touch it saying, "sounds like a lemon law buy-back issue". Corporate Mazda had me take it to another dealership where it sits now. That was 2 days ago and no word yet. I've driven this car about 5 days in the past 6 weeks. I'm very frustrated to say the least. I likely will pursue the dealership on the premature decision to replace the original engine and then the failure of the 2nd engine. By the way, it also had to have a new clutch put in. I asked them if I needed to put a shower cap on the engine the next time it rains?  

I'm in.  I have already had the engine replaced 2 years ago and now the oil is a milky mess.  It is probably a cracked engine head, which means the engine will have to be replaced AGAIN.  Called mazda today and they told me my warranty has expired (even though I just had the engine replaced).  I am so tired of this car and the company.  I would love to join in on a class action law suit.  

I have a 2004 Rx8 that's been a pain since day one. Three years ago my dealer closed. Car constantly wants to flood. I purchased the 100000 mile extende warrantee at the time of purchase, only to have it extended to everyone. Where's my refund? Now with 121000 the motor blew. I was told when I purchased it that it was good for 200000 by the dealer. I called Mazda about adding the cost of rebuild to my loan so I would pay for it since the warrantee had expired. After several times of being bounced back and forth between Mazda credit and the Corp. office, they said they would do nothing and hung up on me. Talk about good customer care.  

OMG, I just purchased a 2004 RX-8 34,500 miles, and guess what?  Yes people the engine is being replaced as we speak!  I couldn't believe it, then I came here and read all this and I am disgusted that this has all occurred!  I swear if this new engine fails on me I am going to be pissed off!  I am angry now reading all these posts.  Mazda is paying for it and they paid for a rental.  Still I am way mad at this point.  This car pretty much looks brand spanking new.  It lost pressure, and is having the same exact problems as most on here.  I asked the dealer well what about the new engine, and he claims they've been updated and have fixed the problems with pressure and the computer systems where the oil is concerned adding more to the engine!  WHATEVER!  I just want a car that works!  

I have the same problem. my motor, wiring harness, computer etc. pretty much everything got already replaced to find the issue. i got my motor replaced with 46000 miles (bought a 100.000 mile warranty - which i got now twice kinda because mazda upgraded me because of so many issues. i got about 6000 miles on the motor warranty left and same crap again. i am geting slowly sick of that. on longer trips it happens that i can't accelerate above 6000rpm, the car starts to stutter and shuts down. sometimes i can 'rescue' it by downshifting but doesn't solve the problem. When i stop the car it works sometimes again right away properly. but today it almost did not want to start anymore, although i have a 2 month old battery only, replaced by mazda because they thought the old one was dead. i had my car at least ten times at the dealership for that reason. mazda palm beach even refused to fix the problem, because they couldn't find it. delray beach mazda tries to take care of the issues from now on, but they don't seem to be able to get it fixed. when i would use 5W-30 i loose my warranty. WHAT A FREAKING DILEMMA. I think we should look into a mass law suit. i have everything documented as well. I think this issue is also quite a safety problem as well. what would happen, when i loose power and due some circumstances get involved in a major accident. it is not impossible. would mazda cover that, because the car was not working right and the dealership fails to fix it correctly? i like the car overall, but with issues like that it is just a piece of crap. rotary or not. i would like to join you on your suit if you have prepared anything. just drop me a mail.  

I too am having a huge problem with my mazda rx-8. They are telling me it has low compression and the engine needs to be replaced, they are also telling me I am 2000 miles over the warranty and it will cost me $10,000 to fix it. No one at mazda service or corporate will do anything but tell me they will not do anything. Could you give me any advice on what I might be able to do or where to turn to, I have no other transportation and am going to loose allot more than a car if I cannot solve this, I cannot afford this rental car much longer and certainly cannot afford $10,000. Any advice would be very helpfull, Thank you  

I know what you are talking about. My 2005 RX-8 is in the shop in birmingham let me tell you.  Thanksgiving day started it up in the garage it ran for about 10 minutes and shut down before I could put it in reverse.  I checked the bettery that night when I returned. When I got it to the shop in B'ham they advised me that there were what looked like rock holes that had gone through the air condensor and radiator thus draining all the coolant.  I was advised to call my insurance co.  At the end they advised me I would be resopnsable for the so called deflooding and insurance took car of the rediator and condensor. My part $ 900.00 and insurance $ 900.00  now that is crazy but listen to this the Engine had to be replaced at 40,000 miles it now has 65,000 yes that is only 15,000 on the new engine, it has been nothing but a headache. ARE THERE ANY SUGGESTIONS.  Thanks  

If anyone get this law suit just let me know. There is no way a service manager should tell me it is a guessing game if your car will start just because it is cold. Therefore flooding. That is crap and part of why it is in the shop now. YES they dont care let me tell you they have already shut down one location in Alabama Montgomery if they do the rest we will be left without so better come up with something soon!!!  

Hi everyone, I bought this 2005 RX8 at a second hand dealership, buying the car from mike's auto sales in salinas, CA. was a mistake itself, that dealership sucks. it has now about 86,000 miles on it, I've driven the car for a about 4,000 miles. 3 days ago the car stopped working, I turned it on for 3 minutes just to put it into my garage, turned it off, 3 hours later it won't go on...(apparently beacuse I didn't warm it up enough the previous time hat I turned it on) does anyone knows what could possibly be happening with my car?? it's now with a specialist on rotary engines. looks like it's the beginning of all the problems stated in this forum.

PLEASE I need advices what should I do with this car, dealer game a 2 months warranty, so I'm not covered any longer, but is it possible to get coverage from the mazda dealer knowing that it has less than 100,000 miles. please any advice will be greatly appreciated. I'm fairly new dealing with cars & dealerships and don't know much! and don't wanna get stock with all the rx8 problems and not having any warranty.

any comment good or bad I'm willing to read it.

thanks  

hi, do you think that the "special service program" will apply to my 2005 rx8, it has 86000. here are some details.

I bought it at a second hand dealership, not the mazda dealership 6 months ago. (JULY 2008)

the car has no warranty.

it's starting to show some of the problems discuss in this forum. It went off & will not turn on. I took it to an specialist, I'm still waiting for his response.

I'm fairly new dealings with cars & dealerships and don't know what to do. but don't wanna get stock with this car having no warranty. & it's already showing some problems.

any advice?