I had a 04 rx8 6spd for some simt. Ran the piss out of it and never had one single problem. I guess it's a hit or miss with these cars. I liked it alot and was fun as hell to drive on the back country roads where I live but I get bored with cars easily so I ended up selling it.
Here's a link to my old forsale thread from a couple yrs ago where I got pics and talked about it
http://www.columbusracing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59266&highlight=mazda+rx8