Category: Affordable Sports 
Price Range: No data available
Unusual concept, smooth engine, good comfort, lots of fun to drive, room for four and their luggage, great value
Fuel costs, carbon dioxide emissions, not much else
Mazda takes the bold step of bringing a four-door rotary engined coupe to the market and gets it spot-on - the RX-8's superb.
Rotary engines tend to be a bit on the thirsty side, but the RX-8 doesn't drink quite as much as you might imagine. The lesser-powered model returns 26mpg over the official combined cycle, the higher-powered car 25mpg, though driven enthusiastically both will return less. Carbon-dioxide emissions, however, may prove a stumbling block for some company car drivers. Emissions are 267g/km on the 192bhp version, 284g/km on the 231bhp model, which puts both cars in the highest company car tax bracket. Mazda has tried to compensate for this - quite successfully - by offering the car at low prices, whihc reducing the compnay car driver;s tax exposure. Insurance groups are 15 and 16 respectively - competitive, given the RX-8's performance. Residual values are likely to remain strong for a considerable time as demand outstrips supply. Sales levels are fairly low, at up to 8,000 units a year, so used RX-8s will remain rare for quite some time. Its usability, for a high-performance coupe, meanwhile, means that demand will be strong and so residual values are likely to remain high. It's too early to warn of any quality or durability problems but if history is anything to go by, the RX-8 should prove as reliable as other Mazda models. Even if it were a normal saloon, we'd be quite impressed with the specification, refinement and performance levels of this car for this price. But given that it's a radical four-seat coupe with a rotary engine of exceptional performance, we're impressed that Mazda can offer so much standard equipment at the price. The 192bhp model comes with almost everything you could reasonably want: six airbags, a CD autochanger, 18-inch alloy wheels and automatic climate control. The 231bhp version adds Xenon headlights, a six-speed gearbox and alloy pedal set. The price difference is about two grand and, given the extra performance on tap, it's no surprise that eighty percent of buyers will go for the more powerful version. The only options are metallic paint (silver looks good), sunroof (unnecessary), leather upholstery (choose black, not the tackier red/black combination) and satellite navigation (fairly pricey and only available with leather).
