My husband has a 2005 RX-8 (he is the original owner). Although he says the car is fun to drive and looks sharp, he would NOT buy it if he had it to do over again.
1. Very tempermental about starting and turning off if the car has not been running for 5 minutes (or more). For example, if you crank it and pull out of the garage and turn it off - say to wash it - you will not hardly be able to restart it to save your soul!! Twice he has had to have it towed to the dealer just to get it started again. It does not do this if the engine is "warmed up" by having been driven around for a while. This is a pain in the drain and has caused us to totally avoid valet parking because we are afraid we'll get stranded somewhere.
2. It burns oil. What is that all about? After he bought the car and was taking delivery of it the salesman revealed this little idiosyncrasy. Thanks, Dude. This should have been a heads up...
The car is not a total dud, but why choose something that has known problems? Take my advice, buy another cute car and leave this headache behind.
