Morgan and Oilmans Quest.
 

Right - new thread title (but continues from the 'overtook Canada' thread)

Mission - To find out from Mazda what is going on with our pre-orders. In particular we want to know if deposits already placed at Mazda dealers are secure and in the queue , or whether first allocation will be decided when the 'pre-order website' launches.

Rmour has it that the pre-order site could launch on Saturday...

Oilman and myself have already placed orders/deposits but are finding the dealers seem to lack information.
The prospect of having put down our £1000 and still getting gazzumped by the website orders is not a pleasant one... !

So - News to be posted here after we have chased again.

Interestingly , I did find this on my now-daily trip to the mazda site...
"Register your interest in placing an order here, in time for the pre-order site when it launches next month!

And if you’ve already been to your local Mazda dealer and placed a deposit for the new Mazda RX-8, don’t forget to register here and we’ll keep you up to date with exclusive developments about your car as and when they happen."

This implies that those who have paid £1000 have been taken account of (doesn't it ?) But hardly constitutes an official order confirmation !

Anyway - more to follow......

Morgan.

The pre-order process on the U.S. website still required you to go to the dealer to complete the transaction. I believe that you would simply configure your car on the website and forward a request to your local dealer, but you would not be given an order/Confirmation # at that time.

I would take the following steps to ensure you are among the first to get the car:
1) Be sure to confirm with your dealer that your deposit is in good order.
2) Go ahead and preorder thru the website and send that request to the dealer you left your deposit with.
3) Return to the dealer with any confimation you got from the website pre-order process.

Odds are that the website preorder simply captures your personal contact info and the configuration you desire and forwards this to the dealer you choose. It's up to the dealer at that point to contact you, unless you go in yourself. Only at that point would any order placement would occur.

Good Luck.

Thankyou -

The only problem there is that we are led to believe that the website order process will require £1000 to be deposited via credit card.

We have already given £1000 to our dealers - so I need to check where we stand with that.

Thanks for the input -
One more question , Did you have to place deposit via credit card online ?

Morgan.

Just had a call from my dealer with an update, sorry if Im repeating stuff that you know but this is what i was told:

I was told that all dealers are getting 10 cars initially. If I place a deposit with him, I will be guaranteed one of those 10.

If I place a deposit on the website, it will be passed through to my local dealer anyway.

Therefore it seems that those who order via a dealer are already in the queue.

He told me that production starts in April with delivery in July.

Also, the next batch will not be until late 2003/early 2004 (or is this just to encourage me to place a deposit now!).

If they dont take pre-orders for all 10 by a certain date, they may be allocated to other dealers with more demand.

The £1k deposit is refundable until yo see/drive the car and decide.

How many Mazda UK dealers are there, as from what Ive been told there will only be this number * 10 in the country this year.

This is good news indeed.

Mainly because if I am understanding correctly - your dealer called you. This implies that there is a bit more information coming out of Mazda.

This also should mean that other pre-orders (such as myself and oilman) should get the same phone call in the next day or so.

Plus of course - if your dealer is right we are certainly in the queue !

Well done - thanks for the post

Morgan.

PS - It is not clear from this if you crumbled and placd your order. Did you ?

Hi Morgan,

You are correct that the dealer called me. He seems like a sincere guy, but over the years I have learned to treat anything dealers tell me with caution.

If you are an 'enthusiast' for a certain car, you often know more than they do.

It wasnt an unitiated call, as he did promise me a call back last week once he had more info from the dealer conference he went to earlier this week.

In fact he told me he has called back all interested customers today. (Nice to see dealers being pro-active).

I havent crumbled and put down a deposit for 3 reasons:

1) trade in price for my car. Recon my Sti will only be worth £17-£18k by July, thats a £10k loss in 15 months. - Dealer is looking into this for me.

2) Not sure how good RX8 residuals will be - though this is looking positive at the moment.

3) Cant find out what business mileage rate my company will pay. I do reasonable business miles and get 45p/mile for the scoob. As the rotary is stated as 1.3, this may screw up my mileage rate which could cost me a lot.

Mark

Sorry, been off line working as usual!!

Spoke to my Dealer this afternoon at length and apparantly all the "top brass" of Mazda UK have been in Barcelona all week at the official RX8 launch.

He's been trying to contact but voicemail only. He's actually a very frustrated man at this point. What, a Customer who knows more.

He said and I quote " If the Website is up on Saturday, I would have known about it by now ".

His last correspondence (which he offered a copy of) was the 24th of Jan in which all Dealers were asked to list their "prospects" names and addresses not orders like us. They're obviously doing a numbers count.

He said that he would keep trying but that I have his assurances that the 1st one in Cornwall is mine.

To be honest he's very genuine and wants my business. There are also not too many people here with 22k to throw around unlike the home counties, I lived in Weybridge (Surrey) most my life so I know that's a fact.

He will also find it hard to sell a 22k car without a demo so, I'm a rareity and he knows it.

He has my deposit but there is no one to pass it to at this stage.

He thinks 10th Feb is a more realistic date for online ordering but has promised to sort it all out for me.

Oh, he did confirm that Interiors are few.

Black cloth and black leather in all. The red/black leather will only be available in the Velocity Red Mica. DAMN! DAMN!

He also confirmed 6 cd autochanger will be standard. I see some threads across the pond about it being an option.
What the hell, we're paying more anyway for the car!

Hope this is of interest.

Cheers

Oilman

Right newsfans...

Just spoke to my dealer (I called him , not the other way round).

He spoke to someone on the RX8 order team at Mazda central yesterday to confirm the RX8 process. (I am still his only firm £1000)
The on-line order site will be on line 'mid-to-late Feb'. (not the 1st as has been rumoured)

There will be 2 sections. One will be for customers to order online. They will have to specify their details , their finance arrangements , the vehicle spec and the preferred dealer.
The second section will be a 'dealer only' section where they submit their customers who have already paid their £1000 deposit (like myself and oilman).

Apparently (and this is the important bit) the dealers already-got-£1000 orders will be satisfied first. The internet order customers will then get allocated on a first come first served basis.

So the dealer still has work to do , but those of us who are commited already should get the car we want FIRST.

Anymore news - post it here......

Morgan.

Morgan.

If you're right, thats great news!

Look at thread in main forum UK Test, it's a blue one on UK plates as well with two tone blue interior!

I rather like it, it's just a shame that we're not getting a choice!

Cheers
Oilman

Yep - I noticed it.

Looks nice in Blue alright. Although I am still in love with Titanium....

Wonder why they have a blue one as the UK test model when we are not getting it ? Also notice the steering wheel swaps sides.... some it is RHD others LHD. Guess their photo department laid some on backwards or something....

Yes - good news though if dealer is correct.
I think we are in their hands really. Guess by March we should have 'official paperwork' (I mean RX8 specific stuff) confirming our trim options etc.

I dont mind the wait - but I really REALLY want more confirmation.

Morgan.

As mentioned in a few other threads, the photos are not flipped, the blue interior is not from the same blue car. The blue interior is a photoshop trick. You can tell because they forgot to photoshop the stitching. The Tan and Red interiors have matching stitching. No one has any idea why they did this. My guess is that the Formula Woman cars have a blue interior?????

1st of Feb passed
 

Oh well, 1st of Feb passed and still no "on line" ordering!

My Dealer was probably right for once, it's going to be mid Feb.

I'll keep my eyes open.

Cheers
Oilman

Car Quantities
 

I have read 3500 in the first allocation to the UK, followed by 6000 next year.

Although these may not be Mazda figures.:confused:

Put my order on last Saturday at Mazda in Crayford, Kent but without spec or colour. Because of lack of info from Mazda UK my dealer only took £200 but said he may require more. He suggested that orders with the dealers would be satisfied first.

rael.

Hi rael

ln a previous thread you asked lf there was equivilent in the U/K to this forum , yes www.mazdarotaryclub.com and it's based just a few miles from where you live in Gravesend! also we
now very lucky to receive support from Mazda Europe i.e. we are on their press mailing list and they will now be sending all our full blown members RX-8 mail and the Mazda quarterly mag from now on .

BTW there is a pub meet in Dartford next tuesday if you would like to come along, details will be on our site and you will more than wellcome and that applys to anyone else local as well .

Blue Adept ( one of the moderators in here ) is a full member and
not just a forum member and strangely he has £200 on his RX-8 in Crayford the same as you ,

Also l am real pleased you asked this question as l did't realise there was a Euro section on this brilliant forum.

All The Best clive@mazdarotaryclub.

Spoke to my dealer today, absolutely no news at all.

Seems the quest is faltering, maybe we need to pester Mazda HQ every day!

Read the CAR write up today (march issue) vs the 350z.

Some good new pics in silver.

Cheers
Oilman

Spoke to my dealer (Swindon) and he was adamant that all those who order through the web site will have their order sent to their nearest Mazda dealership, or wherever they choose. Basically according to him Mazda UK do not sell cars, only their dealers do that - so stands to reason that if you have paid a deposit at the dealer you will be ahead of anyone that Mazda patches through to them.
Mind you thats the only bit of info he seemed to have. Be nice if Mazda UK could get some info out to the customers. Save us making up rumours!!

Smiles