Finally decided to cancel my order and will be doing it this week. I stand ready to be abused by the prozac fraternity but i dont want to deal with Mazda anymore. Havent heard from my dealer in over 2 months, still no date for delivery, and i am 100% certain that the residuals will be shocking due to mpg and the publics lack of enthusiasm for rotary.

Hope im wrong and you guys who have stuck around have a blast. Me? Im holding onto my car until the new SLK hits the street before next summer.

Oh and now im ever so glad i bought a RXB number plate!! :p

Good luck. I'm here to stay but I comprehend your angst.

Come on Lensman. This is your chance to get the red car you know you want!! ;)

And you can almost smell the car now its so close! I've thought about cancelling now for similar reasons but I'm staying put. There's no evidence UK cars are going to get bad particularly bad mpg so I guess I've just got my fingers crossed.
By the way you have been upset by Mazda's customer service, so are turning to Mercedes? Good luck. A bit like cancelling the holiday in Afghanistan and going off to Iraq instead....

Yeh you may be right there Jon H about Mercedes but i will have to wait and see. Two things for sure are that they cant be worse than Mazda, and the SLK will hold its value as well as any car out there.

That said, had Mazda customer service been good i would have bought the 8 regardless of predicted residuals and mpg. I can just see a nightmare scenario of lots of faults (as often happens with new cars-no big deal) and Mazda being extremely slow and unprofessional in dealing with them. Denials, Lies, incompetence. It could make the problems waiting on the car seem like a walk in the park. I guess what i am saying is that i have completely lost confidence in Mazda, and this includes my dealer, and wouldnt trust them with my cash. :(

Hi Smiles,

I respect your decision and sympathise with your views. :)

Im surprised that you have waited this long, and now when the cars are in the country and a couple of weeks away you are cancelling. I may have my rose tinted glasses on but this will be a great car, if any doubts read this months WhatCar or last months Evo article again.

You may have recieved poor customer service so far, but once you have the car what matters is how reliable it is and how good the service people are. Mazda has just come top again in these surveys, so there shouldnt be too much to worry about.

As for fuel, I dont believe it will be that bad, Mazda actually revised the figures upwards slightly in September. Predicted residuals by all parties are in the 55-60% region, which is excellent and the car has a 3 year warranty so people shouldnt be put off by the rotary.

As for Mercedes I can only comment from experience. My wifes C Class coupe has been back to the garage for more times than I can remember, their service department is appalling.

She is so dissappointed with the car she wants to get rid of it. Which brings me on to residuals, For a car that cost £27k last May, we have been offered £17k trade in on it. Who says Mercedes hold their value.

Good luck with whatever you choose to buy.

Cheers
Mark

I agree with Mark, Mercs used to be a prime marque but like BMW has lots its way whilst VAG are catch up. Can't think of one Merc that is really exciting (whilst affordable) and all have bit of a a old man image attached to them. Not for me.

rael

Originally posted by rael
I agree with Mark, Mercs used to be a prime marque but like BMW has lots its way whilst VAG are catch up. Can't think of one Merc that is really exciting (whilst affordable) and all have bit of a a old man image attached to them. Not for me.

rael

and of course Clarkson drives a Merc! :D

Mark,

I hope you're not putting your mortgage on that "...55-60%..." residual...very unrealistic...look how much you lost on yer Merc....and I bet that was rated fairly high when you got it...

From the point of view of finance etc... you should really be factoring in no more than 40-45%.

C.

PS - You may have already read this on the Yanks (Discussion) thread, but the quoted fuel economy figures were based on the reccommended rpm/gear change in the owners manual. All change ups were done at 2000 rpm. So, yes you can achieve the 25mpg figure...if you're prepared to have people out pace you on foot.

Aren't uk fuel econ figures stndardised to avoid this kind of fiddle...

Originally posted by hairyfrog
Aren't uk fuel econ figures stndardised to avoid this kind of fiddle...
Not as far as I can see:

http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/e_consumption.htm

There is no mention of gear change points and engine revs, so I guess it must be up to the manufacturer.

I'm sure every manufacturer specifies a low rev gear change points to maximise their fuel economy. However, that would mean that cars which need high revs in real life driving (like the RX-8) will not get as close to the published figures as cars with big, torquey engines that tend to actually be driven at low revs.

Originally posted by ChrisW
Not as far as I can see:

http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/e_consumption.htm

There is no mention of gear change points and engine revs, so I guess it must be up to the manufacturer.

I'm sure every manufacturer specifies a low rev gear change points to maximise their fuel economy. However, that would mean that cars which need high revs in real life driving (like the RX-8) will not get as close to the published figures as cars with big, torquey engines that tend to actually be driven at low revs.

The accelarations used in the tests are very low and constant, so it wont make much difference what sort of engine it is.

Remember high torque isn't free, it still burns more gas to go faster.

Cheers
---Dave

i have cancelled as well.

Like I said, worst case scenario, you take another dealer later on, you negotiate rebates and riiiide.

The car is fine, shame it's served by such non professional guys.

Stephan

Your mpg does come down a bit if you make standing start get aways up to around 3-4krpm. I'm not saying gp like starts, but if you crawl away you'll burn more fuel. Got to build the momentum quickly.

Driving style is a BIG factor. You might have some1 getting the best mpg in car A but put him in car B and driving the same he probably wouldnt achieve best mpg.

Coasting is bad tho :-)

I'm well hacked off with my dealer, they *never* contact me. If I phone with a question it's always "we'll find out". The first they knew about the slip from October to November was when I told them.

Even placing the order was a struggle.

They make something like 20% on this sale. I want a big slice of that or else I'll cancel.

Simon

Originally posted by simonr
I'm well hacked off with my dealer, they *never* contact me. If I phone with a question it's always "we'll find out". The first they knew about the slip from October to November was when I told them.

Even placing the order was a struggle.

They make something like 20% on this sale. I want a big slice of that or else I'll cancel.


You wont get it. But if you want to show your displeasure at the dealer, pay by credit card. Especially Amex, which will take 5% off their magin. Get a BA Amex, as you'd then earn enough air miles for a holiday in the summer, when you can finally tear yourself away from the RX8.

Cheers
---Dave

Originally posted by druck
You wont get it. But if you want to show your displeasure at the dealer, pay by credit card. Especially Amex, which will take 5% off their magin. Get a BA Amex, as you'd then earn enough air miles for a holiday in the summer, when you can finally tear yourself away from the RX8.

Cheers
---Dave

As I commute between London and Chicago (going home from the US in an hour, and back here week after next). I don't exactly value air miles very highly.

To be honest the chance that I'll move here is one of the reasons for cancelling in the UK.

Do you honestly think a car dealer will let you pay £22k by credit card with a 5% surcharge on him? lol, not a hope in hell.

They'll either refuce or charge you the excess.

Remember that the price includes vat.
The Dealers commission is around 5% on the net so less than 1k you'll not get away with it I'm sure.

Worth a try though!

Cheers
Oilman

Just thought I'd throw this in.... I canvassed all the dealers in my city to find the best one before buying.

One dealership couldn't be bothered responding which, coincidentally, happened to be the same dealer whose lot I visited twice. they just watched me look at the 8s without even offering a test-drive.

The dealer I bought from actually DROVE THE 8 TO MY WORK for a test-drive and asked me how they could get my business!

I guess the morale of the story is: some dealers suck and some don't. Just find one that actually cares about you as a customer.

Originally posted by RobDickinson
Do you honestly think a car dealer will let you pay £22k by credit card with a 5% surcharge on him? lol, not a hope in hell.

They'll either refuse or charge you the excess.

Retailers are now legally allowed to charge the customer the full cost of any credit card commission that we have to pay in order to satisfy the clients payment wishes. It is called dual pricing but is not exercised very much in print.

Naturally I do not do this as most of my clients pay by credit card anyway and the physical amount that it costs me ie 1.65% for Visa, MC etc is not worth fighting over.
I DONT TAKE AMEX! Why? Well the commission is roughly1.35% more just so they can give a 1.00% kickback to the cardholder for their blue card. It sucks and oh it is years since anyone has asked if I take American Express.

This commission rate will vary from trade to trade.

Just some data FYI