My VIN is JM1FE173240102102

 

I called my Calgary dealer this morning - they are aware the shipment is in port, and are showing 2 RX-8s in "inventory" (allocated to them?). A Blue GT and a Black GT. They're expecting a bunch more RX-8s, but don't know if they will be from this shipment or later (I'm #5 on their waiting list ). In the two other currently active Canadian threads, forum member silenttype reports being told by a different Calgary dealer that they're each only getting 2 RX-8s this year!!!

Why aren't the rest of you Canadian buyers getting on the phone to your dealers and reporting the news back here???!!!!

Regards,
Gordon

 

I've been hounding my dealer on a weekly basis and he knows NOTHING. In fact, he gets all his information from me. He was surprised to hear that others have been assigned VINs already, and had no idea a boat was loaded with RX-8's and on its way to us.

I need to know when the car will get here so I can put my current car up for sale. I have a sneaking suspicion that I won't know when the car will get here until it actually gets here and then I'll be scrambling to get rid of my current ride... Oy, the pain of waiting!

 

Dunno, just figured you already knew everything...

Anyway, our dealer is getting two off the first boat also, one silver GT no moonroof (ergo no nav) and a winning blue GT moonroof (no nav).

Since ZoomZoom and I (numbers one and two on the list respectively) are waiting for Yellow and Titanium, AND Nav, I guess there is no point in the dealer trying to get the VINs on these two... at least not for us...

 

Ottawa dealers are basicly clueless. I stop going 'cause I was getting tired of the sales people trying to BS their way thru my questions. Very few have practical knowledge of rotaries in general let alone know something about the 8. I think once I have made a decision on the colour and options, I will plunk down the deposit in order to test drive then take back my deposit and shop by phone (from TO to Montreal). IMHO, they simply don't deserve to get my money. I'll call up fleet sales, fax them what I want with how much I want to pay and wait for the first one to reply.

How should it be done? I'm cross shopping with a TSX and Volvo S60. Only the Volvo delearship routinely email me to see how my car shopping is going, called to let me know that he had a manual T5 available to test drive (very rare apparently). He was very knowledgeable about almost all their products, even the upcoming 2004 2.5T AWD and R models. Mazda why can't you get your dealerships better information and FGS impose mandatory training to all sales rep before they are allowed on the sales floor. One poor sap didn't know how leasing works!!!!

 

Rotarian, my VIN is JM1FE173240101998. It's only a few numbers away from yours. Mine is a Yellow GT with moonroof and Nav package. What is yours? What do the last 4 numbers represent?

 

According to one of the threads up in the main section, the last 5 digits are basically a sequence number.
Apparently, it is assigned to the car after the basic components are put in and then they a grouped by options/colours/etc for final processing. So while the number shows the sequence the cars were started, it doesn't show the sequence the were finished.

 

Mine is a Winning Blue GT, 6 speed with moonroof.

The dealer says it is "on water"

Apparently the info we get can be 7-10 days behind, so I'm crossing my fingers for early July!

 

Despite Mac's general Ottawa dealership experiences, I haven't been too disappointed with Bank Street Mazda (although the others can be clueless indeed). They've kept in contact via some nice personal letters (assuming they feel phone calls are too invasive) and I was mailed an RX-8 brochure the day they received one.

According to Bank Street Mazda, as of Friday, they do know they're getting 18 RX-8 this year. How many on the first shipment to be allocated to them they still have no idea. They have something like 8 pre-ordered cars. They're aware that some cars have landed, but are nervous to give dates because shipping across counrty can take 1 week or 4. They recently had a awkward experience with a Ti MazdaSpeed where the car took 2 months to get delivered from port to Ottawa - although I was under the impression all turbocharger equipment is installed by Callaway - hence the possible delay.

Good news is that the first red GT (no nav or moonroof) coming in has my name on it. I'm hoping for delivery sometime in July. Looking forward to it!

 

Hi Fritzman,

Who are you dealing with at Bank St. I went there twice for the RX8. The first sales rep (mid 20's ) was getting all the specs wrong, yet the car was announced more then 4 weeks previous. The second time around I tried one of the senior reps, he knew his rotories (apparently he owns a 2nd gen RX7) but I felt like I needed a shower after talking with him (he thought he was so slick). It could have been because he was having a bad night but eewwww.

The worst by far was Performance. One kid (couldn't have been more then early 20's) knew next to nothing about the 8, tried to tell me it was front wheel drive, then it had 5 speed etc . Then when I asked about the lease rates, he said he wasn't sure what a lease was . I mean the heII is he doing on the sales floor. I was really surprized to see he was still there a couple of weeks ago when I dropped by to pick up the accessories list (which of course they didn't have), they still couldn't tell me the lease numbers either. Another rep stepped in and tried to infer that he knew a lot about the 8. But all he did was open his binder (the same one as the kid's) and tried to read the info (this was the original spec pack that was released in April). I was asking about the newly released accessories list. Arrrrrgh!!!!! I don't know how I managed to keep my cool with these guys. I stayed very civil since I'll have to service my 8 at one of these dealers and I'd rather be on good terms with them. But if I was the general manager, I would probably fire the vast majority of them.

I've left my business card with all of them and requested that they email me with any info regarding the accesssories. Guess what, not one of them sent me an email with the list (even though it has been on the Canadian web site for a while now).

 

I was curious as to the accessories list. I have the site up and it says that the accessories list isn't due out until the first week in July. If you have a better site address or and advanced copy can you make it available? I still don't know what they are offering and time seems to be running out if there are cars in port already and EVERY dealer I've talked to seems to be completely clueless.

Thanks

 

Mazda Canada's website still shows Accessories will be listed in the first week of July. Am I missing something?

 

So the good news is - this dealer is no more clueless than the rest of them!
DOH!
S

 

Fritzman.... I'm glad you are having a good experience at Bank St. but my experience was similar to Macs. They don't seem to know ANYTHING and they feel slimy... really!

I dealt with bank st. hyundai (horrible).

A Bank St. Mazda sales rep told me you can't take ANY sports cars for a testdrive. And that I was "lucky" he was "letting" me try out the Miata!!!

I was just pissed by his BS, yeah like I'm going to buy a F'ing Miata ($25,000) and not test drive it? It's no FERRARI!

 

Hmm, time to eat crow? Looks like I fcuked up too I could have sworn that I went to the Canadian web site and got the initial listing of accessories but I just tried it again and I get the same message as everyone else (July). I wonder if the page got posted by error for a short time and I got a glance at it before they caught their mistake and yanked it. It was around June 2nd. That was why I went to the dealer to get their prices and rates. All I can remember was man they were asking a lot of money for those accessories.

Edit: Hey Wing, they tried that with me too, but if you put a down, they will let you test drive it.

 

Wow. OK, you want to deal with Bill (William) Smith @ Bank Street. He's an older guy who's delivered for me in the past. He won't BS you with RX-8 knowledge, because frankly, he admitedly doesn't know much about the car. But he does know how to source the MSRP, his profit window within prices (ie: how much he can move), and how to allocate one to you - and with that he's been great! Although I do have yet to see an RX-8 in my driveway...

Being Canada's largest volume dealership (that's their claim BTW), Bank Street certainly is small and cheesy inside. Maybe lower overhead relates to better prices? I'll tell you one thing, the general manager (Mike Potts) at Carling Mazda is a good acquaintance of the family, and even he was unable to get me a Protege ES for the price I got Bill down to. In fact, Mike though Bank Street was BS'ing me. They weren't, and that's the reason why I'm dealing with Bill once again (price and delivered as promised). Bill is the same guy who gave me a Mazda6 V6 to test drive earlier this spring, on my own for 1/2 hr of flogging. :D

I was told not to worry about test drive, deposit, and the price negotiated for the RX-8 has already been completed and IMO, quite fair. He is the only reason why I'm dealing with Bank Street.

BTW, regarding the topic of this thread, did you guys notice in the main Discussion forum that a couple of RX-8s are now on the lot in Richmond BC? Just a little more patience...