I finally convinced my wife to try driving my car for the first time tonight... she has no opposition to learning to drive a manual, but she had developed a pathologic reluctance to touch the 8 due to my [apparent] pathologic obsession with its health.

Anyways, we just got her rolling around in gear around the parking lot, getting a feel for the clutch point, etc... she never stalled it getting moving, but stalled a few times when coming to a stop. It's a start However, we discovered the 8 doesn't seem to be a car for shorter people (she is 5' 2.5"); even with the seat all the way forward her legs are stretched to the max when depressing the clutch.

On a different note, I'm moving to Ottawa in two weeks. A quick search of public opinion tells me to stay away from Bank Mazda, and that Performance Mazda is OK... can anyone advise?

 

Hmmmm...a woman (who is not my wife, incidentally) barely that tall drove my car this weekend with no such problems.

For what its worth, someone posted on the "little things" thread that the clutch pedal is adjustable...

 

My only experience with performance mazda was with their sales teams when I was purchasing my 8. Performance mazda was a real bitch for their sales I think it was a younger guy named Andrew who had no respect for others and basically was an ******* when I was trying to deal on a cash purchase.

One dealership you didn't mention was carling mazda. Now I dealt with them for my first couple service calls because I ended up purchasing my vehicle there. Although now they are under new management. Anyone who ever dealt with the hold manager Ron Ratcliffe would probably agree that they are incompetent idiots working there. The management was horrbile, and the service was the same. My car would have greese monkey finger prints on the interior of the root and the A pillar everytime. They didn't use the paper floor mats. And they always overfilled my oil. When I came in with misfire issues, Ron would try to put the blame on me for "overreving the car" when I told him that the misfire would occur at 6500rpm. Bunch of idiots. Stay away from carling mazda.

After numerous complaints to mazda Canada, I went to Bank street mazda for that the whole emissions test thing. They were quick. No problems. But that's all i've been there fore

I've also heard that performance mazda was the best of the Ottawa mazda dealerships.

 

Yes - I warned Bank that I would be actively warning people against them, so again I iterate - they are no help in after-sales service.