I emailed my contact at Mazda today, regarding which car will be at the dealer roadshows.

It must be the fact that Morgan is back that the mood has turned a little more positive :D

The reply is below with some interesting information....


The car at the Roadshows will be the Japanese one you saw at Canary Wharf. We have one other pre-prod now for the Press launch in N. Wales next week with the the other 19 coming in this week for the same purpose. These cars are booked out solid for the next 2-3 months with press.

The new pre-prod is going over to Top Gear this week (Velocity red high power with red leather interior) for some static use in the Studio but will not be driven. The only TV show that has driven it is Driven on C4 - we aren't sure when this is going to air at the moment - we'll let you know if we find out.

On another note we have had a lot of letters into the office from people on the forum who are unhappy with the delays, we are writing back to all of these customers at present and they should get a response this week. We are also finalising delivery dates and are aiming to get these out to customers by the end of the month. Production is on track to start on the 28th July. Which hopefully is some comfort, further to this no-one in Mazda UK will be getting an RX-8 till next year, not even the Managing Director - all cars are scheduled to go to dealer for their demos and then the balance to customers as quickly as we can get them off the boats. We have never envisaged these delays which some customers don't seem to appreciate or we wouldn't have launched the pre-order process as early as we did.


Cheers
Mark

 

A strange feeling of deja-vu...

A good response though.

 

Thanks MarkW.

I look forward to their reply/apology!

One sentence I don't like is the fact that Dealers get their demos before Customers cars. I seem to remember them promising Customers cars as priority then demos.

Was I dreaming?

Basically guys, we're looking at Mid November I reckon.

Cheers
Oilman (Looking forward to a nice Christmas present)

PS. Sorry to be negative but I'm becoming a cynic.

 

oilman - i was definately told by my dealer that i would get to drive my car before they had any demos.

but - with the spec changes etc we've been having i'm actually happy to get an opportunity to test the car before i need to hand over the balance.

 

Some of you have been to TopGear I seem to remember, so how far in advance do they film?. If the car is going to the studio this week, does that mean it will be on this Sunday's show. Be good to see a Vel Red on TopGear.

Also, anyone know when Driven is on TV as Im not aware it is actually showing at the moment.

 

Mark,

They film on Wednesday for transmission on the Sunday.

Chris

 

Good response I thought.
The overtone is that they feel pretty annyed my Mazda Japan for putting them in the position of having all these delays (which I think it is fair to say , the UK did not anticipate).

Puts it all back into context really as to why we have had so much trouble getting information from them - they didn't want to make false promises and Japan were not letting them know.
I would imaging the whole 231PS thing was pretty dreadful for them to find out , when they had already been stalling us for info on other stuff !

Maybe they will reduce the accessories prices as a gesture of goodwill ... (or not...!)

 

Morgan, I've been told my the dealer principal that I "may" get accessory vouchers, due to the delay.

AnilS

 

Ooh !

Is that from your actual dealer or a central Mazda thing ?
'Cause if you get 'em - I want 'em too !

M.

 

Me too!

A complete dress up kit might shut me up.

Cheers
Oilman