MEGAREDS
02-03-2004, 11:41 PM
Because I've posted two prior threads on my flooding experience, I wanted to wrap up my story, just in case anyone had followed the prior threads but later elected to tune it out.
The Short Story: My car flooded; the Emergency Start Procedure didn't work (http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17608); it was towed after the battery died; it took six days to fix over New Years Holiday; the dealer said it wasn't covered under the car's warranty (http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18010) and would be around $150 to repair; I complained to Mazda NA and was told I was covered -- but when I checked my dealer invoice it said I had been given a "one time goodwill fix per Mazda" and that future floods would not be covered; I wrote a letter to Mazda asking what the official policy was on multiple repairs of flooded vehicles.
It took three weeks, but I received a letter in the mail yesterday. The interesting part of the response is with regard to my question, "Am I covered for future flooding repairs or not?" The Customer Assistance Specialist responded as follows:
"In regards to your question, any incidence of RX-8 flooding, whether it be dealer service or towing, will be covered uner Mazda New Vehicle Warranty (48months/50,000 miles). I apologize for any miscommunication between you and the dealer as dealers have been educated that the repair will always be covered by Mazda."
My greatest fear was that Mazda was going to cut off repairing the 8 after a year and treat the repairs that have been done to date as "service adjustments" under the warranty ("service adjustments" are only covered for 1 year). My other concern was that we were going to lose our road-side assistance coverage after a year or so, or that Mazda would adopt a one-time-only policy as suggested by my invoice.
I know many people are sick of reading about flooding, and I apologize for sucking up so much bandwidth. I felt it was important to get Mazda's attention on this and I really believe this forum was a factor in Mazda adopting the above policy -- which I take to be very generous for those who, like me, understood the car was prone to flooding before making the purchase.
At one point I posted a message that I could not recommend the car to a prospective buyer until Mazda clarified its policy. Several of you wrote me that your cars had been repaired under warranty, but I also received a few messages that raised my concern that Mazda wasn't really viewing the repairs that way. As far as I'm concerned, they've now confirmed their intention to continue working on the issue and I can be enthusiastic in recommending the RX-8 again. I have a few dealership issues (which I hope to eventually iron out), and I'm not happy about the way Mazda's covered the flooding topic in their literature, but this is Model Year 1... as with the HP issue, it looks like Mazda's going to try to keep us happy over the long haul, and I take that as very good news.
Thanks again to everyone who offered support and advice. As I said after my initial post, rx8club.com is the best.
The Short Story: My car flooded; the Emergency Start Procedure didn't work (http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17608); it was towed after the battery died; it took six days to fix over New Years Holiday; the dealer said it wasn't covered under the car's warranty (http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18010) and would be around $150 to repair; I complained to Mazda NA and was told I was covered -- but when I checked my dealer invoice it said I had been given a "one time goodwill fix per Mazda" and that future floods would not be covered; I wrote a letter to Mazda asking what the official policy was on multiple repairs of flooded vehicles.
It took three weeks, but I received a letter in the mail yesterday. The interesting part of the response is with regard to my question, "Am I covered for future flooding repairs or not?" The Customer Assistance Specialist responded as follows:
"In regards to your question, any incidence of RX-8 flooding, whether it be dealer service or towing, will be covered uner Mazda New Vehicle Warranty (48months/50,000 miles). I apologize for any miscommunication between you and the dealer as dealers have been educated that the repair will always be covered by Mazda."
My greatest fear was that Mazda was going to cut off repairing the 8 after a year and treat the repairs that have been done to date as "service adjustments" under the warranty ("service adjustments" are only covered for 1 year). My other concern was that we were going to lose our road-side assistance coverage after a year or so, or that Mazda would adopt a one-time-only policy as suggested by my invoice.
I know many people are sick of reading about flooding, and I apologize for sucking up so much bandwidth. I felt it was important to get Mazda's attention on this and I really believe this forum was a factor in Mazda adopting the above policy -- which I take to be very generous for those who, like me, understood the car was prone to flooding before making the purchase.
At one point I posted a message that I could not recommend the car to a prospective buyer until Mazda clarified its policy. Several of you wrote me that your cars had been repaired under warranty, but I also received a few messages that raised my concern that Mazda wasn't really viewing the repairs that way. As far as I'm concerned, they've now confirmed their intention to continue working on the issue and I can be enthusiastic in recommending the RX-8 again. I have a few dealership issues (which I hope to eventually iron out), and I'm not happy about the way Mazda's covered the flooding topic in their literature, but this is Model Year 1... as with the HP issue, it looks like Mazda's going to try to keep us happy over the long haul, and I take that as very good news.
Thanks again to everyone who offered support and advice. As I said after my initial post, rx8club.com is the best.