J.A. Ackley
J.A. Ackley Senior Editor
7/25/23 4:25 p.m.
feature_image

If you frequent used car ads, the Mazda RX-8 seems to come up frequently. However, how many examples have you seen with less than 12,000 miles? This is one of them.

The car has had two owners. The seller notes that it carries the “unique” 1.3-liter Renesis rotary engine, with a six-speed manual transmission.

This RX-8 comes with many goodies, …

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J.A. Ackley
J.A. Ackley Senior Editor
7/26/23 9:11 a.m.

The question is ... does the engine still have life in it after 12K miles?

triumph7
triumph7 HalfDork
7/26/23 9:19 a.m.

That's why it's unique... it's running... for now.

That could also be why it only has 12,000 miles on it.

j_tso
j_tso Dork
7/26/23 12:12 p.m.

Could be ok since it looks like it was weekend car.

Glad it's not a 2 tone interior, those looked dated almost immediately. Maybe if they had only done the seats and not the steering wheel and door cards.

calteg
calteg SuperDork
7/26/23 12:53 p.m.

In reply to j_tso :

Agreed. Same with the C5 Z06...lot of those had two tone interiors and it made the already dated interior look really, really bad

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter)
Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
7/27/23 3:08 a.m.

I'd trust one that was tracked by an enthusiast for the last 17 years more than I'd trust one that's been parked the entire time by someone trying to collect it...

stylngle2003
stylngle2003 GRM+ Memberand Reader
1/5/24 8:43 p.m.

Numbers matching, original engine! Probably the only car where that's a knock against it 

aircooled
aircooled MegaDork
1/5/24 10:25 p.m.

Even with the early "grenade" engine, it still has a good 65,000 miles left on it.  Plenty of mods available now to extend that.

This will likely be a "roll it into another garage" car, but if it goes cheap it would be a great way to get a "newish" Rx8, mod it a bit, and enjoy it for 150,000 miles or more!

As noted though, super low mileage cars can be a bit scary because of how long they have likely had to sit.

wvumtnbkr
wvumtnbkr GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
1/5/24 10:31 p.m.
aircooled said:

Even with the early "grenade" engine, it still has a good 65,000 miles left on it.  Plenty of mods available now to extend that.

This will likely be a "roll it into another garage" car, but if it goes cheap it would be a great way to get a "newish" Rx8, mod it a bit, and enjoy it for 150,000 miles or more!

As noted though, super low mileage cars can be a bit scary because of how long they have likely had to sit.

150k miles would probably be at least 2 engine rebuilds on the early rx8s.

I am a rotary fan!  I can't stand the early rx8 engine.  It's a pile of crap with the lack of oiling.

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