Click To Hit

The car has been fully broken in for the last couple of months now and boy have I made sure of it.

Once that odometer hit 2,000 KM's it was only the fear of a speeding ticket and the threat of bending it around a tree to keep my foot off of that gas pedal. When they said this car lives at High RPM's they weren't lying, I've heard that oh-so familiar and subtle beep of the tachometer hitting 9,500 RPM more times than the sound of a pager at a Physician's conference. Absolute heaven…

I haven't yet hit the 8,000 kilometer point for the first servicing. It's only supposed to be a simple oil change, but for all of the complaints about oil consumption it hasn't been any worse than my last car which was a traditional 6 piston. So far it's been about 1 quart of oil for every 5 tank fulls, that's way less than the one every 2 fill ups that I was told by the sales rep, not sure why but she's driving amazingly so it might just be good luck. Now on the fuel economy side I haven't been so lucky, so far an average of about 350 KM per 50 litre tank full which isn't so hot.

Now, let's look at some of the specifics….

Performance: Nothing to complain about here, in fact I have driven many different cars in my life and I have to honestly say this car came through with a significant lead on the fun factor side. For a 4 door car it can go like stink, it's practical and extremely responsive. The feedback and stability alone put this car in the lead of anything I have driven, and when I tried the 350z which is about as close as you can get on the bang for the buck side, it's much more practical and so much easier to drive. The 350z takes some effort, the RX-8 is probably the most forgiving car out there.

Maintenance: Considering it isn't scheduled to go in for the first oiling for another 1,000 km's, not too bad really. The only thing I've spent on this car is more car washes than the two previous cars I owned combined (Pride alone, silver is a very forgiving color for dirt) and I'll have to spend about $80 to get the paint touched up where a cab driver hit me about a month ago. That was a frustrating experience, totally not my fault, but it was minor so I let it go and skipped the insurance claim. They'll ding you for bad luck you know…

Uniqueness: I have seen a few here in Ontario, not too many, maybe about one every week or two so definitely high up on the uniqueness factor. I constantly get the thumbs up from passers by, especially anyone who ever owned an RX7. For the price, this sort of reaction is priceless and usually only reserved for those owners who have spent 6 figures on their choice of usually European modes of transportation. When I took a drive down into the US recently the results were even more shocking. I had a crowd gathered around the car in the parking lot when I left the major outlet mall, but considering almost 90% of all vehicles I saw down there were domestics it wasn't too much of a shocker. I mean in all reality a honda civic would have stuck out, but still a pretty cool experience nonetheless.

Conclusion: I've only driven the car in the summer but all inidcations are she's a keeper! I'll have to put it through a Toronto winter before I make any final decisions, but so far they'll have to pry that miniature steering wheel from my cold hands in order to get it away from me…  Next update after the first snow falls so stay tuned for a winter driving report.