I own one...have for nearly 2 years. Ace car. Best drive ever. Never put a foot wrong.
Yes it drinks a bit of oil. Yes it can be thirsty if you drive it properly - you'll get 14mpg - 17mpg ish. If you drive eco style, in low revs, you can easily get 25mpg. This doesn't bother me though. I don't do a huge amount of mileage and its a beautiful machine. The engine sounds and feels lovely.
Very progressive acceleration from the 231bhp engine (don't bother with the 192bhp version - not much different in economy for 1 less gear and less grunt). You get a nice kick at 4500 rpm and 7500 rpm as the injector valves open. Accelerates right up to 9000rpm and it bleeps at 8000rpm to tell you to change gear. Sometimes it feels like it will never stop going! Lovely!!
Limited at just below 10000rpm. Limiting is aggressive though as the engine will technically shake itself to bits beyond this point.
RWD like a proper car and so can be "interesting" to drive. Has a very satisfying tuck in from the front-end and push-out from the rear in the bends. Beautiful. Traction control can be turned off too!
It's no match for M5's or Impreza's off the line, but then its not meant to be. This car is quick in the bends and the near perfect 50/50 weight distribution is to thank for that. It's torquey enough not to spoil enjoyment though.
Usual Mazda build quality - nothing to moan about there. Cars hold their value reasonably well too (as well as cars can in this climate).
The only issue that used to be a hinderance is that you had to let it warm up before turning off and this caused problems when just moving the car from cold, e.g. swapping cars on a single lane driveway. Now there is a shut-down procedure for cold engines that you can follow which solves the problem.
The final issue is road tax. Mine is £400 this year and will be £440 next year. If you can get over this then go for it. The way I look at it is this is one of the last chances average people will have at owning a sporty car, before the government and green police make it impossibly unaffordable to do so. This is why I bought the RX8 - so I can live the dream while its still possible to do so.
The new RX8 has slightly improved fuel economy and a face lift - looks even sweeter but is obviosuly expensive (25k ish from new??).
Rumour has it that there will be an RX9 by 2012 or so...maybe I'll have to get one of them. Looks amasing.
http://www.nextautos.com/body-styles...012-mazda-rx-9
This is supposed to be based partly on the fricking sweet Mazda Furai!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=oEOHn7rspsk
Oh finally, check out the Top Gear review of the RX-8. This is what swung it for me. I thought, Clarkson rarely approves of an affordable car, so I went for it on his recommendation.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QRiPSlx8PxA
Don't listen to him concerning the "fussy" styling though. He's wrong there.