Just wanted to say goodbye

Just be sure to stop by if you have any Maxima-related info to pass along to the rest of us. Good luck w/ your new ride. CYA Chris H.

90 & 94 GXE's

I have ordered a Mazda RX 8, but I have not yet taken delivery. I have an old mercedes which I restored as a kid, and I'm driving that at the moment. I'm looking forward to getting into the RX 8 though.

Thanks for the thought and take care.

-H

Been a rotary owner before?

Dave (94 RX-7 owner)

No, I haven't. In '93 when I bought my max, I really wanted an RX 7. I see that you have one. I thought that they were the prettiest sports car sold in the US since Alfas of the 1960's, and I really wanted it, but I couldn't flip the bill. I was able to negotiate the Max down to a level that I could get into it, and I can say that I didn't regret that one little bit. My Max was the most reliable car that I have ever owned. It was large enough to move me back and forth from various cities and comfortable enough that I once drove it non-stop from Wyoming to Philadelphia alone. All that said, at 180K, whenever I would do a three thousand mile run, I would need some major component or another repaired. Nothing really out of line, but it was adding up, and it was getting a little annoying. Therefore, I sold it to a friend who will probably put around seven thousand miles a year on it instead of twenty thousand and all should be good for him.

As for the rotary, I have been reading anything that I can find and participating in a rotary forum, and it sounds really great. Any advice?

-H

The Man with Iron Bladder.

You picked the right car. Keeping a 3rd-gen RX-7 happy is pretty labor intensive.

The rotary has had some very good and very bad press. I've only had mine for half a year and I've been very happy with it. I also agree the

93-95 RX-7 is one of the best looking cars on US roads in a long time. The reliability of the RX-8 looks promising. I believe nearly all of the problems the 93-95 RX-7 has are due to adding twin turbos - stress on the engine, heat in the engine bay, failure points due to the complexity of its control system. It borders on being a race car is many ways. The RX-8 resembles the N/A 2nd gen RX-7 more because of this, a simpler car with good reliability. Based on the problems some owners had with the 93-95 RX-7, Mazda has carefully waited for that fuss to fade and has probably spent significant time / money testing this one for reliability. I haven't inspected/driven one in person, so this is based on specs and data. If I were buying a mid-size sedan I'd be test driving it for sure. You may have a hard time getting good service for it, but the rx8forum.com should be a wonderful resource the way I've found the rx7club.com forum has.

Dave

Thanks for the words. The RX 8 looks to be more reliable than the third gen and only slightly less powerful, but that's OK with me. I must admit some nerves about buying a car that is just begging for serious trouble, but I wanted something fun and very unusual and it is certainly that.

All the best and thanks -

H

I'd like to be deferential in all respects to this Rotary Lovefest, but I just can't restrain myself:

Rotaries are just a gimmick Answer looking for a non-existent Problem.

There, I said it. Flame at will.

JM

That's ok. Your post just an Opinion looking for a non-existent Argument.

:oP

Dave

(who didn't buy his 7 for its rotors)

LOL !! Pretty good.

JM

Oh hell that's probably true. The Otto cycle has been running competently in automobiles since the 19th century, but I have a number of them. I've taken them completely apart, and they bore me now. I want to try something new and different and since I can't get a radial, a rotary is the thing. Besides, there is an annoyance to the Otto cycle with all that wasted mechanical energy as it creates a clean ready to roll combustion chamber. The conservation of energy in the rotary is appealing. The advantage is of course completely eliminated by the inefficiency in the mechanics of the combustion in the rotary chamber, and it will probably always be a weird alternative to the recip. engine. However, there are two things that I like about the rotary over a recip. 1) It has the smoothest power of any engine design making the car very smooth to drive, and 2) it gets better mileage the faster it goes due to conservation of momentum. In all other respects a recip. engine is probably better.

Anyway, you are quite right that this is not the forum for this, which is why I am moving on to a Mazda rotary newsgroup. All the best -

Howard

I'm probably just miffed that you've abandoned us, but at least you didn't buy a hybrid.

Best of luck to you.

JM

Well, thanks for the thought, but it's time to move on. I just got a phone call from the friend who bought my max raving about what a great car it is. That's always nice too. (I also might buy it back some day as a restoreable core, but that's long in the future.)

Hybrid: Never did understand the idea of buying a car with two engines. Seems like a waste of money and space to me.

All the best -

Howard