Since I moved to Oakville I need to find a closer Mazda dealer to use for service. Any recomendations? There are two that I know of one in Burlington and the other Oakville. Is one better than the other? If so, why?
Thanks

 

Nobody lives in Oakville/Burlington with an 8 or are you all just shy?

 

I didn't expect that this would be a conversation with myself thread but...
I gleaned some info from another forum on Burlington vs Oakville Mazda. A friend tries an RX-8 out for a test drive. He's thinking of trading in his 04 A4. Read on.

"Start to finish, the whole experience just smacked of apathy. This astonishes me in this day and age that a car dealership can be staffed with "salespeople" with absolutely no sense of how a decent customer service is supposed to go.

After walking in and wandering around a bit inside the dealership, I decided to simply go stand in front of the reception desk where two salespeople and the receptionist were chatting. A few seconds of staring at them made the woman finally ask if she could help me. I told her clearly that I would like some information on the RX8 and to take one for a test drive if one was available (I had already checked to see that 4 of them were around back and had already been PDI'd).

She checked with three salespeople who kept dismissing her as being busy (I saw only one other customer there) and finally the middle-aged, ***** Loman-esque "Bruce" almost begrudgingly greeted me.

I followed him into his office where I explained quite honestly my situation about most likely getting out of my Audi lease, etc. etc. He immediately went into "talking numbers" and seemed rather dismissive of me since I hadn't actually got rid of the Audi officially yet. So he ran some basic lease numbers based on the MSRP which ended up coming out at like $200/month more than my Audi (a more expensive car to begin with). I politely challenged him a bit and asked a few questions about the car (ie. does the GS have traction control, or is it just the GT?-- he didn't even know). This was the icing on the cake. If your only job is to know your product (all, what, 7 of them?) and communicate this while keeping customers happy and you can't even do that, why are you in this position? I'm not going to negotiate a deal with you if I don't even know if I like the car yet or not! A test drive was not offered to me.

To be honest, it wasn't the worst dealership / salesperson experience I've had -- but after dealing with BMW and Audi (especially Audi) and the lofty levels of professionalism, my expectations are extremely high. Nissan would have to do something extraordinary to even get me back into one of their dealerships after the number of times I've been ignored there. Burlington Mazda now, the same thing.

Conversely, the young-ish woman that helped me at Oakville Mazda seemed reasonably knowledgeable and simply seemed to legitimately want to help me without high-pressure sales tactics -- she did everything I asked, provided me with information and very much seemed to understand and appreciate my situation. I told her the number I was looking for if there was any hope of it working, and without checking her computer or anything, she wrote down the details of what I was after -- not even flinching -- explained how the "offer process" works there (not doing any via email or phone -- seems they've been burned before), thanked me and walked me out to my car.

Five minutes after arriving at the little dealership on Speers Road, I was in a Titanium Grey RX8 GT headed toward the onramps -- flying solo.

While there's no doubt about it, that car could use some more torque, I did find the sound of revving that lil' Rotary and the wonderfully contagious nature of flying up through the gears a ****-eating-grin-inducing experience. My god that car is alive! Every slight input to the steering, throttle or even clutch caused a wonderful and very deliberate reaction. There's damned good reason people burn through ridiculous amounts of fuel in that thing -- keeping it revving at 5, 6 or 7000 rpms is truly an addiction -- it's like riding a friggin' motorcycle. Still, James is right, it certainly doesn't have the switch to 'kick-in-da-pants-mode' the way a VTEC or Turbo-equipped car does. It's just simply this continuous build of speed and wind noise. Cool. I was reminded though of what I loved so much about the RSX-S... revving the thing to the moon and hearing the wonderful sounds before snicking off another gear. Such fun compared the lazy-revving 1.8T and long-throw 6 speed.

I remember commenting to Railton as a passenger in his 8 that the ride was surprisingly compliant for a sports car. While the big 18" wheels do 'thwack' hard over pavement irregularities, the overall comfort of the ride is really quite good. This is definitely an every-day driver.

In comparison to my old 328i, the handling of this thing is far more neutral and less hairy. Even though I was really inexperienced with it (and certainly don't consider myself a master of car control to the likes of James or Snowman), I was able to comfortably bring the tail around a bit in the tight corners. That's some fun I haven't had in over a year with the Audi.

While I still prefer the raspy exhaust note (and smooth, linear torque) of Nissan's 3.5 in the Z-car, the RX8 feels far more forgiving -- like it's so well balanced you'd have to be a pretty big boob to get yourself into trouble with it (a plus to having "almost enough" power?).

I must admit that I often questioned Crazy Uncle Ted's sanity for choosing the RX8 over the Z or at least the G35 Coupe, but having driven the Z, and now the 8, I take it back. I also take back any comparisons and challenges I drew between the RSX and RX8 on the forum... though in fairness, you can pick up an RSX-S for probably $150/month less than the RX8 -- a substantial margian. Still, anyone who could afford it, would be foolish not to pick the 8 over the Acura, in my humble opinion. After driving "sports sedans" for so long, I've forgotten what a proper, road-clawing sports Car is all about. I think an S2k or Elise would send me into glorious sensory overload!

Anyway, even though probably half of the folks reading this mini-review have already experienced the RX8 in its glory for themselves, I thought I'd gush a little bit about my excitement tonight. That Mazda is one of three cars to really get my heart racing at wonderfully fun excitement level (a rather difficult task too considering it was early evening on a weeknight in Oakville fer chrissake!) -- the other two being RutRo (WRX/STI) and a 6 speed 540i (the SL 500 really didn't do anything for me... it's a "lookatme" cruiser).

If things go my way with the Audi lease and the LeaseBusters cars don't work out, I"d seriously go back to see what she can do for me.

 

Railton, make your thread name more detailed.
A lot of people ignore threads with non specific description.

 

Just saw this thread in a search I was doing.

I work in Burlington and go to Burlington Mazda. So far may impression is that you have to get past the "service advisors" and talk to the lead tech, Ian, if you want to have a serious discussion. Too early for me to rate their service.

The worst sales experience I had was at Erin Mills Mazda where I was practically standing on an RX8 for 30 minutes and no one came near me.
Burlington Mazda I was on a test drive minutes after arriving at the dealer. I guess it depends on when you go.

 

Hey Railton, great review. I also had a 1.8T (Passat) and although it was a good engine, it is quite the contrast to the 8 isn't it?

Forget audi/bmw level sales and service, it won't happen at mazda. I get my bike serviced at Budds bmw and there is nothing like it. But, I'll never buy a car or bike because of dealer sales/service, the product is it!

I'd be driving a Lotus Elise (finally on sale in Canada!) if I could get away with two seats, the 8 is my 4 seat Elise. Do you believe the 350Z is almost 500 pounds heavier than an 8?

Buy the 8, there's nothing like it!

 

Oakville Mazda are a bit more knowledgeable and friendly, and always happy to help me out. I've not had any experience with their service/parts department.

On a side note, I find that a well-informed person looking for a particular vehicle, let alone someone who might be a bit of an enthusiast, will almost always know more about the product than most of the salespeople. Chalk it up to more available information lately (e.g. Internet, print) and the lack of effort some dealerships make to keep dedicated sales staff, or whatever, it's there.

 

I dealt with Oakville Mazda for 2 consecutive days, altough I wasnt able to score the same deal I was able to with Prima Mazda, David (my potential saleguy) was probably the most knowledgeable I've met to date. I highly recommend dealing with him, I would have much preferred to give him my business. After my test drive, he took me for a ride in his own RX8 and showed me how the caris meant to be driven. Now thats service!!