So I took my car in to the dealership. Went for an oil change (and tire rotation but I declined it because i have winters on and they are being swaped soon). I get my car back after spending $50 for basic oil and they were so happy to provide me with a scratch in my hood bout 1 1/2" long sideways and deep enough that i cant buff it out. I mentioned it right away and the service rep claimed " oh i saw that when u brought your car in" ... Ive had the car for just under 4 months now and can tell every scratch on it seeing how i wash it every 3 days regardless of how dirty it is (spray the salt off every day if its bad out) on top of this, the complimentary car wash provided with every service was overlooked, probably to hide the scratch they added to my car. I just gave up trying to fight it seeing how we all know that would go nowhere unless i had a detailed pic of the car before and after droping it off. so to end my rant, maybe next time i should just go to jiffy lube and spend the $3 to wash it myself. Anyone else have this experience with Mazda service?

At Mazda Markham, I always ask them to walk the car with me, and one day they were like, don`t you trust us. F off Markham. That one day you skip it thats the day they`ll scratch it. This is the same dealership that quoted me 400 dollars to put on my license bracket cause I need custom work cause its a US spec car.

Oh great so they are all like this... need i mention i purchased the car and the alignment was off by a noticeable amount and was supposed to repair all scratches as written in the contract yet didnt even buff them to try and get them out. I can understand how car companies are going into financial crisis, they dont know how to keep customers. From now on, NO trust is allowed im starting to be a jerk bout them touching my car.

no.. not all dealerships are like that... which one did you go to?

Try scarborough Mazda

1) Never have the dealership wash your car. They're not going use a sheepskin mitt or double bucket.

2) Do your oil changes yourself. Then you don't need to worry about #1.

If he has some kind of warranty, he'll need a qualified tech to do his oil changes, or he'll lose the warranty. If that's the case, simply ask your friends where they get there work done. If you're just getting a simple oil change, no need going to Mazda to do it.

sv650, that really sux man. either go to scarborough mazda or come down to guelph city mazda (where i work). Ive never heard a bad word about scarb mazda, and im always very cautious with customer cars. If neither of those places are an option for you, then the walk around idea is the solution if trust is an issue.

1) Never have the dealership wash your car. They're not going use a sheepskin mitt or double bucket.

2) Do your oil changes yourself. Then you don't need to worry about #1.

Yeah man never ever get the courtesy wash!

That sucks man!

Ya, I get the exact same thing. I drive my car in and it's got a little bit of dirt on it, from the drive in, so I ask for a courtesy wash.

They dropped off my car afterward, and the water beads dry while I'm talking to the service department. I get out and about to jump in my car and I notice there are dirty water spots ALL OVER my car!

They washed my car dirty!!!

No more courtesy wash for me! no thanks!

If he has some kind of warranty, he'll need a qualified tech to do his oil changes, or he'll lose the warranty. If that's the case, simply ask your friends where they get there work done. If you're just getting a simple oil change, no need going to Mazda to do it.

Doing your own oil changes will not void your warranty.

So I took my car in to the dealership. Went for an oil change (and tire rotation but I declined it because i have winters on and they are being swaped soon). I get my car back after spending $50 for basic oil and they were so happy to provide me with a scratch in my hood bout 1 1/2" long sideways and deep enough that i cant buff it out. I mentioned it right away and the service rep claimed " oh i saw that when u brought your car in" ... Ive had the car for just under 4 months now and can tell every scratch on it seeing how i wash it every 3 days regardless of how dirty it is (spray the salt off every day if its bad out) on top of this, the complimentary car wash provided with every service was overlooked, probably to hide the scratch they added to my car. I just gave up trying to fight it seeing how we all know that would go nowhere unless i had a detailed pic of the car before and after droping it off. so to end my rant, maybe next time i should just go to jiffy lube and spend the $3 to wash it myself. Anyone else have this experience with Mazda service?

I had a similar experience happen to me also. Brought the car in for service after a few months old and came back with scratching where they lean on the side of the car to look under the hood... Nothing was ever done about it!

I appreciate all the props guys. However, like I have said on many other posts we at the dealership level are all human beings, that means we make mistakes. I am sorry about your experience with your dealer, and I believe if you speak to manager they will make things right. One of the reasons I dont get involved with some other clubs (those who know me personally know exactly what im talking about) is because of the posts about dealerships. If I know one of my customers will go off online and post about us I would rather not take the chance and service their car. I understand the frustration that goes along with having your baby damaged but please dont post it for all to see.

At Mazda Markham, I always ask them to walk the car with me, and one day they were like, don`t you trust us. F off Markham. That one day you skip it thats the day they`ll scratch it. This is the same dealership that quoted me 400 dollars to put on my license bracket cause I need custom work cause its a US spec car.

:Eyecrazy: HAHA 400! I'm curious to know if anyone actually pays that price. I paid like $35 for mine, also US spec at Forbes Mazda, Waterloo. I think the labour was free.

Even Oakville Mazda is awesome, if they find something minor that needs attention ive had numerous occasions where they fixed it without question at no charge.

Not all stealerships are the same.
I take my 8 to Scarboro Mazda. Always get great service there.

i hate nonsense bs like this.

Steve in parts is awesome, he can get any part for the Rx8!!! Down to the bolts/washers, and screws...

I had a similar experience happen to me also. Brought the car in for service after a few months old and came back with scratching where they lean on the side of the car to look under the hood... Nothing was ever done about it!



Thats exactly what it looks like too, whoever did it was leaning over the passenger fender i noticed a few smaller scratches after writing this post. the big one wont buff out !!!

I appreciate all the props guys. However, like I have said on many other posts we at the dealership level are all human beings, that means we make mistakes. I am sorry about your experience with your dealer, and I believe if you speak to manager they will make things right. One of the reasons I dont get involved with some other clubs (those who know me personally know exactly what im talking about) is because of the posts about dealerships. If I know one of my customers will go off online and post about us I would rather not take the chance and service their car. I understand the frustration that goes along with having your baby damaged but please dont post it for all to see.




Now i can see where your aiming with this but come on... they make a mistake im calling them on it. If u notice this was one of my first post (i read alot of forums never really stir up too much chatting tho) I am posting this to see other points of view and to get recomendations about how to handle this in the future. just becuase it might hurt there business or credibility doesnt bother me.... if u do things right u will get praised for them, wrong and u will most likely be bad mouthed. bought the car with 55000KM on it. all scratches were to be repaired, snow tires put on and new plugs/ oil change. thats how it should have been when i got it. the scratches wernt even touches.... i could get more out without buffing them than whatever mazda did to fix them. I got the car with 1 key.... no valet key no spare and no mentioning of that untill i signed the contract! the alignment was off, so i droped the car back off to have the scratches actually fixed and alignment straightened... well the scratches are still there (they are sending it out to a body shop now and they act like it didnt need to go the past 2 times i let them have the car to repair it) Organization and finess is a key aspect of running a dealership and if you fail there than its only fair to let others know about it.

Which dealership?

Same question for you Leesha.

ill never know how it got there but it happened at the oakville mazda (not to hate on them they still gave me my favourite car for a great price). Did a walk around when i droped it off and when i walked back to see my car the first thing my eyes focused on was what looks like 2 evenly spaced lines about 1 1/2" long bout 1/8 of an inch apart. it did sit in the lot before and after the oil change briefly so i will say im not blaming the mechanic specifically but somewhere along the way it happened.

Doing your own oil changes will not void your warranty.


someone want to carify this statement. if i can keep my warranty and do it myself i gladly will. already have all the supplies to do it.

Steve in parts is awesome, he can get any part for the Rx8!!! Down to the bolts/washers, and screws...

You mean the same 10mm bolt that holds everything together? :lol:

Ya, just have recipts for the filters you do buy. And you should be safe. Seeing how I buy all my filters from the dealership I just keep their invoices.

Or you could do your 4000K changes at home and do the 8000K ones at the dealership to save some change.

Which dealership?

Same question for you Leesha.

Mine was at Select Mazda...in Stoney Creek. I called left a msg and never got a response back. I'm not even going to get into how they were sooooooooooooooo not helpful when I was ready to buy my car. Not only did they lose a sale but now I have all these wonderful things to say about them.

Oakville Mazda did bend backwards to help find my car. My car had to be shipped from Quebec to here. So that little task couldn't be taken care of or even bothered with at Select Mazda. I choose to end there or I can keeping going on and on...

Btw my scratches were like a bush brushed against my car. Boy was I mad. The only other scratch was my baby at the time taking a rock to my door thinking it was a chalk board!! However I knew that was done by my error and not the dealership.

Oakville Mazda actually helped buff both scratches out for me... :) Which reminds me they have my key to remove my wheels... Lets not even go there....

ill never know how it got there but it happened at the oakville mazda (not to hate on them they still gave me my favourite car for a great price). Did a walk around when i droped it off and when i walked back to see my car the first thing my eyes focused on was what looks like 2 evenly spaced lines about 1 1/2" long bout 1/8 of an inch apart. it did sit in the lot before and after the oil change briefly so i will say im not blaming the mechanic specifically but somewhere along the way it happened.

Shit that sucks because I bought my car there and have had nothing but positive experiences. A few screw ups on their part but they fixed it without any problems asked.

I have had a couple problems myself with a dealership damaging my car.

The first one was part of an agreement when I purchased the vehicle to replace the cracked shield that's between the ground and the bottom of the engine (whatever it's correct name is). So they replaced it but in doing so they ended up damaging my front bumper in the process then claiming that it was fine... Driving away the shield started to sag more and more because there was no support from the braces on the bumper to hold it's weight up since the braces were all snapped now. The thing just started to fall apart basically. Went in to them and brought it up to them, the service manager wouldn't do anything for me. So I went to the Owner of the dealership and complained to him. He made me happy by giving me a credit for the price of the stock bumper to be replaced no questions asked. So i got the MS CAI instead and got my bumper elsewhere.

Then on the second issue I went in for a oil change. I have the service manager come out to me and claim that my car is too low to get onto the hoist due to the side skirts on the vehicle...She then declares: "O and the damage on the side of the car was there before we tried to hoist the car up". I was like uhhhh wtf? Go look at the car and my side skirt has a HUGE chunk out of it. Which would be caused by the careless tech who must of smashed the hoist arm into the side skirt. And all the service manager did was become a huge bitch towards me and deny that they caused this damage on the vehicle. I then started to argue with her and the parts manager ended up coming over and taking care of the issue and told me which body shop they send there cars to to get fixed up and everything was taken care of. Then I find out after that they fired this new Service Manager at that dealership. She apparently came from Ontario Mazda I believe.

They damaged my car twice and denied it both times and I had to fight to get the stuff fixed. So of course I will never step foot in that dealership to get my car serviced ever again.

Xenno u make my problems with them not seem too bad :D that sucks the way u were treated. Its so frustrating to hear stories about the mechanics damaging the cars... its not hard to take your time on a nice car. like sure whip the protege in and out of the garage but when it comes to an rx-8 some extra tlc should be given. Looks like they just gave me an excuse to look into carbon fiber hoods

sv650, your point about whipping the protege in and out and taking care on the nice cars...thats alright i guess, but im just as cautious with everyones car when i do the work. I have only ever damaged a customers car once. we were in full swing of tire season, i had the cold to end all colds and i was tired as hell. anyways, it was first car in the morning, ran out, brought it in, did the tires or whatever it was, put the car down, reversed out of my bay and the tech whos bay is across from mine had put a stack of tires down, i backed right into them. got out and my heart just dropped. i almost cried. the entire bumper was completely wrecked. At first i was like "im gonna get fired! oh shit oh shit." then i was like, wtf....i was going like 2km/h tops and the tires just fell over...not like i hit anything solid. there was no one else in the shop either to set me at ease. i run and got the service manager and he freaks (hes always on edge, too many coffees or soemthing. lol). he says the same thing, wtf? how fast were you going? anyways, i go get the customer, the car still basically parked touching one of the tires that didnt move. he comes out and looks at the car and laughs. Appearantly he'd been rear ended a few days before. He said thanks for checking that the bumpers on there good and solid still and went on his way. thats the only time and since then, i do a walk around of the car before i get in, then before i back out of my bay and often after i park it in the customer parking. I get alot of cardio in winter tire season. lol. the only extra precaution i take on rx8s over any other car is that when im filling up the oil with our oil bulk oil pump, i put a fender cover over them becase the hose will rest on the huge fender flare and might mark it. with other cars it doesnt contact the fender so no worries.

Xenno u make my problems with them not seem too bad :D that sucks the way u were treated. Its so frustrating to hear stories about the mechanics damaging the cars... its not hard to take your time on a nice car. like sure whip the protege in and out of the garage but when it comes to an rx-8 some extra tlc should be given. Looks like they just gave me an excuse to look into carbon fiber hoods

Just because we have an Rx-8 doesn't mean that we should get superb extra cautious care taken when our car is taken in to get serviced over other cars that are being brought in to get service. All the cars should be treated equally with a suitable standard to prevent any damage to the customers vehicle by the service department...

I don't expect any over the top service just because I own an Rx-8...I just expect that my car would be taken care of when I take it in for service...

If only all techs were like rotarygreg here and goes that extra mile to take care of the vehicle when suitable! :)

Just because we have an Rx-8 doesn't mean that we should get superb extra cautious care taken when our car is taken in to get serviced over other cars that are being brought in to get service. All the cars should be treated equally with a suitable standard to prevent any damage to the customers vehicle by the service department...

I don't expect any over the top service just because I own an Rx-8...I just expect that my car would be taken care of when I take it in for service...

If only all techs were like rotarygreg here and goes that extra mile to take care of the vehicle when suitable! :)

like al said, no body is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. all you can do is try and come clean when you screw up. It really helps when you are an enthusiast though as opposed to just doing your job you know. i could really see not caring or not thinking its a big deal if theres a little mark or scratch if to you they are just cars, but when cars are your hobby as well, you know what they can mean to people and thats when the extra care is put in.

I'm very sorry to hear about this...

But I actually had a good experience! I brought my car into Signature Mazda in Richmond, BC. They needed to take my engine out to replace the secondary intake valve(?)... forgot what it was... When I went to pick up my car, I noticed a little dent on my hood and a small paint chip (it was maybe about 0.5cm diameter). I walked back in and told the service guys. They said, "Oh no. Sorry about that. We'll get that fixed."

I didn't even have to argue. Very good guys there. Responsible guys. Way to go Signature Mazda!

The place that actually did the painting, however... that's another story.

the car i was driving before my rx-8 was a 1998 Ford "cuntour" ;) (winter vehicle) had nothing but problems yet never left me totally stranded. if a little nick or scratch happened on that i would have laughed and smiled bout it then kicked the car and gone on with my life. but for me to drop thousands upon thousands (bout 17 with all the add ons) on something that I own (not leased), I expect it to be taken care of when i pay someone to do the scheduled maintenance. rotarygreg there should be more mechanics like you cause ive seen work on my car without that fender cover and wish that someone who cared a little more about my car was working on it.

I've had a lot of problems with Oakville Mazda. Since I bought the car its been a struggle to get them to take care of anything properly. Oh and like most of you here they never give me courtesy wash either.

Basically my word of advice is to really keep on top of whoever is working on your car, dealer or not, and if you can do things yourself you should ie oil changes and the like.

Although as everyone else has said there are great dealers / techs out there

I just bought my car on Saturday, from Burlington, and had it taken to Oakville mazda for them to just check it over, make sure nothing is terrible wrong with it before I buy. Also to take it for a test drive, and test the clutch, to see how much life is in it. They called me when it was done, saying it was in great shape for the age/mileage (05, 73xxxkm) that there's nothing wrong with it mechanically, they didn't drive it because "they didn't feel the need to" and they cant test the clutch, because they'd have to pull the transmission off to look at it. However "since there's nothing wrong with the car, the inspection was free of charge" The next day, the coils went. I won't be going to them for any work.