[gt95ab]

It all depends what you want and how much you want to pay...

The Eclipse GT is a sports coupe, which is more fast cruiser that sports car, due to its heavier weight, and the RX8 is more of a sports car, but look at what you want and what you get for what you pay for.

Base MSRP for the Eclipse GT, 263 HP, Manual, is 23,400 USD
Base MSRP for the Mazda RX8, 238HP, Manual, is 27, 030 USD

However, An Eclipse GT, 263 HP, Manual, with sunroof, premium sound, leather/heated seats, traction control, power everything, "fully loaded" is 27,564 USD.
The Mazda RX8, 238 HP, Manual, with sunroof, premium sound, leather/heated seats, traction control, fully loaded, 31,665 USD.

These numbers are from both the Mitsubishi and Mazda websites under "build and price". Just look at the options and compare what you get for what you pay for.

As you can see from the numbers, you get a fully loaded Eclipse GT for slightly more than the base RX8 without any options, and the fully loaded RX8 is $4000 more than the Eclipse. Also, the Eclipse has a better warranty at 5 year, 60000, and 10 year, 100000 powertrain warranty.

Personnally, I think the Eclipse GT is the best value-for-dollar sports coupe on the market which is under $30,000 with HP greater than 200. However, I may be a littly biased as I just got a fully loaded Eclipse GT with Auto and I love it. I also looked at a Mustang GT, RX8, Accord Coupe, G6 Coupe and I realized that to get the same options on the other cars, I'd have to pay a lot more, plus Mitsubishi has a factory rebate on now for $2000 which stops at the end of January. Plus, I think the Eclipse is one of the prettiest cars I have ever seen... and they are relatively rare.

Just my two cents, but I think the Eclipse is a better car for the amount of money you pay.