NBC--and you thought the Boxster was..

[MikenOH]

problematic...

The Boxster has caught it's share of arrows on this and other boards for some reliability/engineering issues which have affected a considerable number of owners.

I just thought I'd share this news item on the RX8--my wife has one--and some recent reliability issues with it that have reached a boiling point and how Mazda, apparently, decided to deal with the poor customer satisfaction scores on the car.

Link attached below but the gist of it is that Mazda is recalling most or all 04-05 production to determine how many cars have had a loss of compression affecting performance. The fix--you guessed it--is replacing the engine. The problem is that many replacement engines also go south--per the RX8 forum--requiring multiple engine replacements.

To add insult to injury, a webcast meeting between dealers and the Mazda national dealer advisory council was pirated and shown on the internet where the Mazda and the council agreed to continue getting customer survey scores on the RX8 but not include them in their customer satisfaction scores--for the dealers benefit I think.

I guess my point in bring this up is not to diminish the reliability issues that have come up on the Boxster but to show that there are other car manufacturers having major reliability issues with their products. The fact that, unlike the Boxster, a replacement engine is not a permeant fix, is scarey; some of these engines have reportedly failed within weeks of installation with the owners on their 4th or 5th engine.

I'm glad my wife and I are on the same page on this--her car will be long gone before the warranty is up; sooner I suspect if it leaves her stranded.

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=97039

[threpwood]

This is bad for Mazda, but at least they tried fixing it by replacing the engines...though with little success.

Link to the Japanese page for recalls on RX-8 can be found below (just google it to translate it into english):

Year 2004: http://www.mazda.co.jp/recall/20040226.html
Year 2005: http://www.mazda.co.jp/recall/20050721B.html

[MikenOH]

the 2004 recall seems to be about the heat shield and control arm recalls a few years back; I couldn't get the 05 recall to translate..

[Brucelee]

I knew there was no such thing as a 4 door sports car!

[threpwood]

The 2005 recall was about ECU problem causing the engine to overrev before going to sudden halt. Increased temp, breaks and cracks to the engine internals and brake lines were also associated with the problem.

The 2005 recall was also 'recalling' the 2004 fix on control arm (ball stud broken off from the ball joint socket)

[MNBoxster]

Hi,

No one ever said that other Manufacturers didn't have problems. I'm not sure this is much comfort to Boxster owners though. Mazda, to their credit, seems to be both more agressive in trying to solve the problem and more amenable to satisfying their customers than Porsche is. Also, I think people expect more from a Company like Porsche, and perhaps, given the Sticker Price differences, even have a right to...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99