Rexy, Mazda cars are very reliable and good. The experience we all share with regards to the 8 is nothing to do with the car its the administration that warrants looking into. Yes Mazda UK could have handled the PR side of things better we all and Mazda do as well acknowledge that they cocked up on that front. I felt the same way but i was informed that when the SLK came out for Mercedes some years ago the experience was 10 times worse than us. My wife drives a 323 Mazda which she bought when i put deposit down on the 8. Can see the whole experience was easy simple and very efficent. The problem here is that the car and the marketing was outside the control of the Mazda UK. They could have informed us better but it wouldnt ultimately made any difference.

I would describe the analogy of the "ostreich with its head in the sand" would describe Mazda UK PR department, hoping it would go away. All i can say is that is not been a pleasant experience and hope they learn from it in the future.

 

I only hope the experience my girlfriend has just had selling her 323 doesn thappen to the 8.. One year old 323 gxi which she paid about 11.5k for, after 10,000 miles and 12 months, has only gone for 6.1k in trade in.pathetic

 

PS. Compare that with my 2 year old TT which I just sold for 81% of it's original price (30k on the clock).

 

Not making excuses for Mazda, but wasn't there another 24 hour postal strike of some sort in London yesterday ? I thought that was why Anil's reply from Jeremy Thompson wasn't expected till the weekend...

 

Mike thats correct. Lets see what tomorrow brings. Technically I should receive 2 letters, but whats the chances that they'll contridict each other.

On another note. If Mazda knew in, say, June that the 8s would not be ready until November, I'd have cancelled.

I only hope Mazda are man enough and learn from this (self-inflicted) PR nightmare.

AnilS.

 

Honesly I would have loved the car for the summer, I'm realy hating driving my focus round now (I test drove a few cars and would have bought an MX-5 for the summer had I known of the delays).

Only real condition me and my wife mentaly placed on the deal is we have to have the car before christmas. Looks like early/mid nov. Were kinda busy then but will fit it in

Mazda are lucky there isnt anything directly comparable for the money otherwise they would have lost at least one sale.

 

Rob, thats exactly waht I told Mazda Uk and my dealer.

 

Over a Barrel?

First things first. A "barrel" is (as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it) "A cylindrical wooden vessel, generally bulging in the middle and of greater length than breadth, formed of curved staves bound together by hoops, and having flat ends or heads; a cask." Our English word "barrel" is rooted in the 12th century Old French word "baril," but since no one knows where "baril" came from, we'll have to consider this another case of our old pal "origin unknown."

To "have someone over a barrel" means to have someone in your complete control, to hold them in a helpless position (as in "The draconian policies of the HMO had my family over a barrel"). Oddly enough, "over a barrel" comes from a far more benevolent context than its current use would suggest. Before better methods for resuscitation were developed, drowning victims were laid over a barrel, which was then rolled back and forth to dislodge the water in their lungs. "Over a barrel" had appeared in the U.S. by the 1930s, and the first recorded usage of the phrase was actually a pun. In "The Big Sleep" (1939), Raymond Chandler wrote, "We keep a file on unidentified bullets nowadays. Some day you might use that gun again. Then you'd be over a barrel." (The use of "barrel" to mean the cylindrical part of a gun through which the bullet travels dates back to 1648.)

 

Thanks for the English lesson RX8Late.

Cheers
Oilman

 

Just seemed so apt.

 

And I thought having someone over a barrel meant one of the participants was "being screwed"!?!?! Quite apt, but obviously not historically correct.