I owned a rx8 and now I own a wrx and I can compare the daily driver and performance aspects of both. The rx8 outhandles the wrx hands down, the styling is better, the tranny shifts better, the interior looks nice but the materials sucks, my drivers door armrest was almost worn through at 10k miles and my floormats were worn through as well as the drivers side seat bolsters were almost worn through. Daily driving in the rx8 was fun but you had to drive the ***** off the car to get it to go anywhere which sucked down gas. I think I got like 14 mpg most of the time and it went up to like 20 on long highway trips. That car will drift, dont let anybody tell you it wont, wicked donuts with the traction and stability control off, sometimes on a normal turn tcs and dsc would kick in so I know it could be drifted fairly easily. They have fixed all of the little problems with it such as the waiting till it was warm to turn it off and so forth, and you can use synthetic in it, it just isnt recommended since the rotary burns oil as part of its process. If you like to mod your cars dont get an RX8. There is stuff out there for it, but it doesnt really produce any gains since the motor is almost maxed out from the factory.

The WRX is also a fun car to drive, just got an 05 a month ago. Interior is pretty good, the 05 is way better than an 04 IMO, seats are pretty comfy, a bit more than the rx8 cloth seats. Cant comment on the long term of the interior. The tranny sucks, but everybody knows that. These engines are pretty strong from what I hear. AWD will help take the place of the computers in the rx8, but the wrx needs a good suspension setup and some good tires to match it in all out handling. Fuel economy is way better. Even when I push my car almost every day I am still getting about 20 mpg. There are so many mods for this car it is rediculous and almost all of them add power. If subaru can get the damn computer in this thing figured out like mazda did in the rx8 the wrx will be a rocket, but right now it hesitates and bucks and then goes like a rocket. Well I guess a UTEC or AP will fix that.

I guess I dont have a vote after all of those statements. If you want a fun to drive car that handles on rails, rx8. If you want a car that will go anywhere you want very fast and has a ton of potential, wrx. Go take extended test drives in both. Most dealers if you are serious will let you go for a day or two with the car.

 

HAHAH unbreakable??????????????? dude read up on the RX7's and tell me if they're unbreakable. I dont need to repeat what someone posted above about the class action suit. but dont think long term with rotary, you'll be asking for a new engine

There's been tons of threads on these comparisons but this is what you should think about most importantly

1) what is your goal with your car
2) Is snow ever a factor?
3) How important is styling

Answers
1) if you're goal is a fun fast daily driver, both will serve the purpose. But honestly, you can get so much more out of the WRX. Seriously, spending a little amount of money on mods will give you real gains you can definetly feel. its almost a shame not to mod the WRX, the potential is staring at you and the aftermarket support is awesome. And liek everyone else says, the torque is a big factor on the WRX vs RX8 too, you'll feel that power(im talkin stock, dont need to mentio mods). you dont need to spend much money to get gains.

Whats the big deal on rotary anyway, you can get a boxer engine with turbo. Personally I think turbo'd cars are so much funner to drive, and theres nothing like the sound of a WRX, other than porche's =) (plus you get to play with cool intercoolers, spool up sound, blow off sound, and feelin that turbo kick in hahaha)

2) if snow is a factor hands down get a WRX, you'll be driftin your *** off

3) if styling is the most important to you than RX8 might be better

plus subaru always has rebates so you might want to check that out, I think they're at $1250 right now but by the summer they will probably be at $1500. so you might want to check the price on that. i just dont think rx8 is worth it.

WRX tranny is considered crap because if you plan on doing heavy modding, then yes it won't beable to handle it. But it all depends on your goals with your car. For most people it is perfectly fine.

Other then that, reliability and quality of subaru is excellent. My friend is a mazda maniac and he hasn't had much quality or reliability issues with his 3 mazdas either.

good luck in your decision, hope this helped, i know i spent a lot of time picking the right car too. And I love it everyday!

 

I think y'all misunderstood my meaning when I brought up that an RX-8 isn't an ideal drifting car. I didn't mean that you COULDN'T drift an RX-8, more that I WOULDN'T drift one.
As you probably know, basically any RWD car WILL drift, of course, the crappier the tires, the better. More torque of course, helps, as does suspension mods, etc.

My insinuation was that the best use of your $ is not spending $30K on a new car with a warranty based on it's drifting capabilities, since it's unlikely that you'd really enjoy drifting the car because (if you had half a brain) you'd be too freaked about slamming it into a wall, or wrecking something (that would most certainly NOT be warrantied) on your fancy new car.

What I implied was that it would be a better use of $30K to spend $25 (or $23) on a nice WRX, and then go buy a beater 240SX or AE86 Corolla, which you don't care if you hit a wall, or drive through a ditch with, and set it up as a drift car with some light mods. Because if you did this, you'd have a better drifter than an RX-8, and a better daily car (wrx) as well, without the worries, and you'd have enough $ leftover to buy ANOTHER 240SX after you smash the first one into a wall.

 

Wait for the Mazdaspeed Turbo version of the RX8 in 2006. I am ready to trade my Sti in for it.

 

eh. are you sure the mazdaspeed rx8 is turbo'd? I remember reading an article that said they did body work to make it more aggressive and almost widebody, maybe some suspension and better wheels work, but I clearly remember the magazine being disappointed that there was no turbo or speed improvement.

^ nvm, that was for the release of mazdaspeed aftermarket parts. The actual mazdaspeed rx8 might be supercharged???

 

There were also rumors of an electric turbo in development for the for the renesis motor. Supposedly an electric motor spins the turbo at low rpms to create boost, and then at a certain point the motor turns off and the turbo starts working off of the exhaust gases like a conventional turbo. This would completely eliminate any turbo lag, and is supposed to give the motor a very smooth power curve. I have not heard whether or not this is still in the works. Rotary engines are relatively reliable when compared to other high output per displacement motors. Many N/A RX-7s have gone way over 100k w/o issues (I owned one that did). The motors that had problems were turbo and sequential twin turbo.

 

I can slide one around, but it is too locked down to the ground to drift. Any RWD car can be made into a drifter, but that requires extensive suspension mods, brake mods and a set of bald tires. I'm saying that set up as it is FROM THE FACTORY the RX8 is not a fun nor competitive drifter, and lacks the HP or torque to get it to break the rear end loose while going through a turn on the factory tires. Certainly you could "toe out" the rear wheels, cut the springs, add an extension to the e-brake handle and buy some $20 retreads and cut loose with that drift -- but then how much of a RX8 would it be? Remember, auto engineers (and auto manufacturer lawyers!) consider a "drift" to actually be a condition to be avoided at all costs, for the very good reason that 90% of drivers out there could not control their car under "drifting" conditions. They engineer the car specifically to AVOID drift, which is why setting up a car for drifting requires so many changes to it to make it competitive.

 

the reason the corolla drifts so well is because the wheels are really small, the car sits high, and the weight balance sucks. An ideal drifting car doesn't require a ton of work to get the A$$ end to kick out, so you can power through the curve. As mentioned, Mazda spent millions of dollars engineering the car NOT to drift. As also mentioned, you can theoretically spend a couple of hundred, and it will drift fine, but that COMPLETELY DEFEATS THE PURPOSE of buying the car in the first place, which is why nobody drifts them, and rather, people drift crappy corollas, and have nice daily cars

 

Here's Mazda's prototype.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article....rticle_id=1935