pelucidor
08-24-2003, 12:27 AM
So it seems everything boils down to this (general consensus):
1. The car is what it is, and still what it was a few weeks ago. Some will love it and some will hate it: 10-20hp on paper should not make any difference. My car did not become magically slower between Friday morning and Friday afternoon when Mazda made the HP anouncement. Of course some people may have been hoping for a HP improvement for the car, which probably will not materialize from Mazda.
2. The company Mazda is either inept or dishonest.
EITHER
Inept: what car company will have two test vehicles driving 15,000 miles around the USA over 3 weeks whilst all the pre-order cars sit at port for over a month - and forget to dyno them either before or after the long drive. If changes were made at port for emmissions compliance (and they had been burnt on exactly the same issue for the Miata) should they not have dynoed the cars immediately? Are they the only auto company in the USA without access to a dyno?
OR
Dishonest: Perhaps Mazda knew the HP numbers since July or earlier but were hoping nobody would find out, even though they had a similar experience with the Miata a few years back, and even though they knew tuner shops were going to dyno the car immediately. If they really thought this then they are incredibly stupid as well as dishonest.
I am leaning to thinking Mazda is inept. If that is the case then I have some concerns about them supporting this product over the next few years - perhaps there is a fix for the HP issue and they can't find it. But I think other people will - what about the high AF ratio that Paul Yaw and others mentioned (could it also impact the relatively poor fuel economy)? I will keep the car and (nervously) hope for the best.
Their offer of $500 and free servicing is not bad - they could have just said 'too bad we messed up, if you are not happy then here is a full refund' and nobody could have argued. The offer to try to keep existing customers happy (mostly profitable customers willing to pay MSRP for the car) is a good decision. Of course I would prefer them to say 'here is $10,000 for you to keep a car you are happy with' but I can see why they couldn't do that.
Overall I can easily understand if someone returns the car to Mazda for reason 2 above (either Mazda is an inept or dishonest company). However returning the car for reason 1 (car looks worse on paper than before) is less easy for me to swallow.
Anyone agree/disagree?
1. The car is what it is, and still what it was a few weeks ago. Some will love it and some will hate it: 10-20hp on paper should not make any difference. My car did not become magically slower between Friday morning and Friday afternoon when Mazda made the HP anouncement. Of course some people may have been hoping for a HP improvement for the car, which probably will not materialize from Mazda.
2. The company Mazda is either inept or dishonest.
EITHER
Inept: what car company will have two test vehicles driving 15,000 miles around the USA over 3 weeks whilst all the pre-order cars sit at port for over a month - and forget to dyno them either before or after the long drive. If changes were made at port for emmissions compliance (and they had been burnt on exactly the same issue for the Miata) should they not have dynoed the cars immediately? Are they the only auto company in the USA without access to a dyno?
OR
Dishonest: Perhaps Mazda knew the HP numbers since July or earlier but were hoping nobody would find out, even though they had a similar experience with the Miata a few years back, and even though they knew tuner shops were going to dyno the car immediately. If they really thought this then they are incredibly stupid as well as dishonest.
I am leaning to thinking Mazda is inept. If that is the case then I have some concerns about them supporting this product over the next few years - perhaps there is a fix for the HP issue and they can't find it. But I think other people will - what about the high AF ratio that Paul Yaw and others mentioned (could it also impact the relatively poor fuel economy)? I will keep the car and (nervously) hope for the best.
Their offer of $500 and free servicing is not bad - they could have just said 'too bad we messed up, if you are not happy then here is a full refund' and nobody could have argued. The offer to try to keep existing customers happy (mostly profitable customers willing to pay MSRP for the car) is a good decision. Of course I would prefer them to say 'here is $10,000 for you to keep a car you are happy with' but I can see why they couldn't do that.
Overall I can easily understand if someone returns the car to Mazda for reason 2 above (either Mazda is an inept or dishonest company). However returning the car for reason 1 (car looks worse on paper than before) is less easy for me to swallow.
Anyone agree/disagree?