Clackson and the disciples raved about the things at the time, which tells you all you need to know.

I'm sure the mazda devotees will be along to defend the brand shortly. Apparently they are "super" reliable.

Despite Mazda spending 40+ years trying to debug the rotary engine, it is simply is not up to the typical usage pattern of a non-enthusiast owner.

Yamaha spent multi-millions of yen on its RZ201 rotary motorcycle, and unveiled it at a couple of shows, but the firm saw the light and canned the project before mass producting it. The RE5 very nearly bankrupted Suzuki with its development costs, poor sales and warranty claims.

I would love a Norton rotary though, for this reason - the Snetterton race of aces in 1988: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBg86bjr8l0

Two Nortons, literally built in a shed, s t e a m i n g past the cream of the Japanese factory race bikes. No wonder rival teams protested and got the bike banned in short order (wrongly - as like a two-stroke, each rotor face has a combustion 'stroke' once per revolution of the output shaft so the 588cc capacity is correct)

As a physicist, I like the fact that a company actually went ahead with such a weird concept and put it on the mass market. They are to be considered only as an experiment, and probably would run well as a second car (weekend runner?!)

If you want the fun and power but longevity, get a MX5.

I remember the sum being nearer £2800 - which is why I questioned the sanity of the owner given that a 54 reg RX8 is worth less than £1000 - just throw it away and buy another one if you like them so much.

Well, I think they said the price had increased from what they were originally quoted. So maybe I only remembered the original quote. Either way, You'd expect the rebuilt engine to run without fault.

"I really don't understand why people buy them myself." Because they are as much fun as an M3 and can be bought with the loose change found down the back of the sofa.

Maybe so but, People seem to buy them not fully understanding that with these cars performance is good but, reliability is not. That is fine if your buying it as a weekend toy.

The problem is alot of people buy them expecting them to be as reliable as other mazda's.