Buyers Beware
 

hi to everyone out there!

i've been reading the forum for the past two months now and it rocks! It is so good to have an information sharing resource for like minded people who care about cars and feel the need for speed. The reason for my posting is to warn potential buyers of my experience with a sydney dealer recently. I won't name who it was unless you ask me in private but here is my story.

I put down a deposit on a car not long ago after some negotiation. You'd think this would be a happy occasion however, directly after the obligatory handshake i was introduced to the customer service person who proceeded to talk about lifetime paint protection, rust protection and fabric protection from the FACTORY. As well as factory tinting. I was quite sceptical at first as i am into car care and was intending to do the full mcguires treatment.(OH YEAH) Anyhow this person told me that they had been to the factory and was an expert in this specific area. The claim was that at the factory whilst the car was on the production line paint hardener was applied approx 12 coats before windows etc were put on. This would make the paint very unlikely to chip and in fact if there was a chip anything bigger than a speck it would be my negligence!!!! So i had to make a decision right there and then as it had to go on my order to the factory!!! I was told that only a few in australia had not been ordered without this and that mazda japan would be pressuring them into an explanation as to why the car was not ordered with it. They would be concerned that i wasn't worried about how the car would be looking in afew years!!! Anyhow to cut a long story short Mazda Australia got back to me and there is NO FACTORY PAINT PROTECTION or RUST PROTECTION or TINT offered on any car whatsoever!

I know i shouldn't have been so gullible but i wanted to believe. So if anyone knows of where i can get a good deal on a leather pack car give me a message. (i am getting my deposit back in two months!!!)

cheers,
fatmarco

Go to consumer affairs !

What a bunch of lies... there is no such thing. I don't even trust the paint protector anymore. I rather do the job myself.

Who's the dealer? One way of stamping out this sort of practice is to name and shame them!

fatmarco,

Sorry to hear your tale of woe.

Whilst it is to be expected that the dealer will endeavour to get you to sign up for all the post sales extras (as they make lots of margin on them) your story is a really bad example.

I'm with the others - name and shame the dealer.

Moreover, surely you shouldn't have to wait 2 months for a refund on your deposit. As AMG suggests go have a chat with consumer affairs. I take it you cancelled within your cooling off period - and given the alleged blatant falsehoods and misrepresentation that took place - I would be expecting a pretty rapid refund.

Put some pressure on at the dealership - ask to speak to the Sales Manager if you haven't already and the Dealer Principal.

If you paid deposit by Credit Card (I always do) put the transaction in dispute with your bank and go from there.

You imply but don't explicitly state that you are still getting an RX-8. Nice to see one bad experience hasn't soured you.

My money is on (pardon the pun) a certain Mazda dealer at Artarmon?!

Interesting thing deposits. I have bought three brand new cars and when asked for a deposit I always refuse to give one. I work of a gentlemans agreement and the dealership (two of them) never had a problem

WELL WELL WELL ....

Whilst emack thinks artarmon, I'm predicting farther west,

My confidence based on the fact that I got the EXACT same spiel. It almost caused a domestic between my wife and I as she thought I was being irresponsible. Even my kids thought I'd done the wrong thing but I kept insisting that there is NO WAY that the factory would in any way suggest there was anything needed to protect the paint or the leather.
Thankfully I stood my ground.

I can't imagine it would take you two months to get your $ back if you talk to Mazda HO. Of course, my recommendation would be that based on their 'misrepresentation' that you should get the car at dealer cost with all the treatments for free.

Misrepresentation is amongst the most serious crimes according to Fair Trading. Another way to describe the situation is 'obtaining benefit by deception = FRAUD.

Another organisiation who would be keen to hear from you would be NRMA.

Dont back down fatmarco - the dealer (as agent for Mazda) has responsibilities and you have rights that extend beyond a refund of deposit.

coz you are on the other side of the border AMG. It does not work here... prob be'coz unhonest people like me ;)

Report them directly to Mazda and Consumer Affairs. That is the biggest load of balony I have ever heard. This sort of deceiptful fraudulent behaviour needs to be dealt with. If you have your facts right, and you believe in yourself, then name them, I say.

The only sort of thing I ever get is to get the dealership to tint the windows.

And I'm with AMG, I never paid a deposit on my last 3 Mazda's, including the RX-8. And they don't even bother trying to up-sell me on the huge margin protection packs. ;)

Cheers,
Hymee.

Before I bought the RX7, I was looking at getting a Porsche. Saw the car, liked it, had no time for a drive, asked them to take it to my mechanic (500m away) for a going over. They said Ok, but give us a $10,000 deposit......I walked and bought the 7!

their loss not mine, when I get a Porsche, it'll be from interstate!

PLEASE name the dealer. Also, you should have the paperwork for the specification of the car (including magic protection) if you've paid a deposit. Scan it and publish it in here ... hang the pr!cks - any dealer that uses these methods should have their licence suspended.

Hard sell is one thing - outright lies is just too much!

i've also had customer service personnel from my dealer giving me a call regarding those treatment which would have cost about $700 each. she was saying they were willing to include all 6-7 treatment for $2000 thereabouts but I just told them I would think about it and just left it at that. I don't think i will be doing any treatment as I've been mostly told that it doesn't really make huge difference in terms of protection as described by the dealers.. now if they are willing to do it for some reasonable price of about $500 or less than I might consider.. I don't see them to be worths $700+ for a single treatment etc.

This sort of thing is what gives the motor industry a bad name.
You should take this further, we sell aftercare products in all of our dealerships. Yes they are profitable and no not all of them are worth what they ask for them, but there are some that are very good, the product we use has a lifetime warranty. But the simple facts are that there is no manufacturer that sells this type of protection from the factory, and certainly to say that most cars have it done, and that if you didnt have it done they would have to explain themselves is the biggest load of s*%t ever. This dealer is being very deceitful and someone should do something about them. You can contact MTA in your state they would be better to deal with it than NRMA.

Dale.

dale, sorry if this sounds rude, but why then offer these services?

My point was that there are some products that some dealers try to sell that are not that good. Thats up to the dealer. But for example we were using a product for a long time that we suspected was not what it should have been, so we did a load of research and found a product that was worth the money. So it can be worthwhile to buy aftercare products if they are the right ones. Like anything there is always good and bad. So if the product is good, then it is a benefit to offer these products.


Dale

Thnx Dale

i think its from the western suburbs and if so im pretty sure i know which dealer.

thanks for the advice guys,

I'll let you know how it goes, but as someone on the thread has guessed which one it is anyway through a similar experience.

I know it was stupid but somehow when someone keeps insisting on something that you sort of want to believe you tend to give in eventually. I was thinking that it was a better/harder clear coat rather than a zaino professional range type product. And i specifically said that i didn't want that as i can do it myself. There is an interesting thread on paint types in the show/shine section, american paints are apparently harder than the european ones. And the softer european paints are less likely to crack when hit by stones at high speed. The difference is in the paint base/thinner, the european ones have nastier chemicals in them.

Anyhow guys there is nothing on my invoice that specifies Factory. I guess she was carefull not to putit there. But i did ask for something in writing and information, of which they had none. She promised it to me when the car arrrives as it comes with it from the factory. DUH!! Alarm bells failed to go off. (Can you believe i have a degree in Industrial Design?)

thanks dudes/dudettes,

Fatmarco

Different paints out of the Mazda factory for European/Nth America?? Sounds very odd! I'll check out those threads

sovnd like the US models are from a different factory!

Sorry,

misunderstanding here. The thread was about paint in german cars versus paint on american cars. Not the rx8!!!!

here's the link from the thread

http://www.properautocare.com/aregepadi.html

was this the sales personputting on the pressure? first thing to do (besides getting your deposit back TOMORROW!) is go to the sales manager and then to his/her boss. this kind of thing is just evil and needs to be stopped. definetly go to consumer affairs but give the higher ups at the dealership a chance to do the right thing. as someone else said, to keep your business they should give you an astounding deal on the car. either way make them pay! everyone who knows this dealer should drive over and ask why they pulled this shit with marco. make sure you are loud enough so that other customers can overhear what you are saying.

Well ... until this "she" gets a name, I assume we are to consider all female (or feminine looking in male clothes) car salespeople to be totally dishonest to be safe.

Further west than Artarmon ... West Ryde, Parramatta, Penrith???

On the inverse to this thread, I found Mazda Brookvale to be excellent and everyone I've dealt with there in sales, service and spares to be of high integrity, 25 cars elapsed and it's probably the first time I can say that.

If anyone wants a contact there pm me.