Vamp

We all enjoy going around and look for our next beloved cars. While u r enjoying urself, the most important thing to remember is "DO NOT GIVE THE SE UR ICs OR DRIVER'S LICENSES".

What do I mean by that? If u hand over ur particulars to the SEs, they will make a photocopy and "lock" you in to their account. After that happened, u will not be able to get the car from another SE from main dealer or authorised dealers. A lot of SEs will convienently and innocently ask u for your particulars.... U have been WARNED!!!

This was initially set to safeguard SEs from undercutting each other but it is extremely customer unfriendly. If u met a lousy SE, u will be STUCK with him/her if u r locked (ie. no change of SE). If u r locked, then the SEs will have a lot of bargaining power (ie. not give discounts/freebies) as u cannot get the car from anyone else in main dealer or authorised dealers.

So, how do u proceed with the discussions and test drive? U can bring a friend along and use his/her particulars. Normally, SEs just require 1 person's particulars to proceed with test-drive. U can then both test-drive the car and not be commited to a SE until u r satisfied with his/her service and offerings.

Now, I am not suggesting that we play one SE against another for pricing and freebies. However, we need to be aware of the pitfalls and ensure we have sufficient leverage for bargaining and the SE earn their keeps via good service.

I was caught in this "lock-in" thingy once and could not change my lousy SE at Mazda Singapore even though I like RX-8 a lot. Appeal to their management also did not help at all and I dropped the car totally. Since then, I had learnt my lesson and be more careful in this.

Hope this is useful to all new car buyers.

8)

Manwe

who's your SE? if he is so bad, can warn others about it. And in what ways is he bad?

Mockngbrd

i wld like to know too

icerain

If you're a genuine buyer, just walk into Weltac or Village.

Although they're authorised dealers, MM(S) does not have jurisdiction over them regarding this SE assignment.

Worst case, you can simply tell your SE at WC or VC you want to give them your business, not to that SE at MM(S), they'll be more than happy to settle it for you.

It's all a matter whether you want to buy or not. Sales people do not bow to whinning, they bow to your cheque book.

Vamp

Did that... no go with ADs as they had to check with MM when placing orders.

My SE is Vince Goh. His sale tactics was really questionable and we could not find the confidence to purchase the car through him. We find the dealings to be at times high-pressure selling and others a bit arrogant (ie. Face-to-face meetings, telephone conversations, SMS etc). We had given him many chances to change our perception and despite a reasonable discount from him, we could not convince ourselves to purchase the car through him.

In our last dealing with him, which was after our second test drive, we were ready to close the deal. As a last minute surprise, he did a “song-and-dance” with someone he claimed to be the second hand car dealer and surprised us with a 4% deduction on the residue value of our trade-in car (for scrapping). Despite previous discussion of the trade-in/scrapping car (including a check with LTA website), there was never any mention of this deduction. In addition, he tried to pressurize us to commit within 2 days which made us even more uncomfortable. All these turned us off completely and we did not commit on the purchase there and then.

We then reconfirmed with other brands and confirmed that this is not a standard practice within the established car dealerships. Market rate for scrap car dealers is only max 3%. When we confronted him, he then offered to absorb half and eventually all of it. This was the last straw and we have totally lost confidence in this sale representative.

When we approached the Managing Director and explained to him, he delegated the matter to his Marketing Manager. The Marketing Manager then insisted that the deal must be fulfilled thru this SE as this is their company policy. I suppose by doing so, MM also indirectly endorses this type of sales tactics from their SEs.

If MM cannot get another SE or the Sales Manager/Marketing Manager to handle this last bit of the transaction (prob half an hour of work), what does it say about how they treat customers? All these happening when we are still holding on to our money. Imagine how MM will treat us if we had committed to the car. To us, prices and discounts are not everything. If we buy something at close to $130+K (which MM marks up over $25K as profit), we expect some minimal service.

Being extremely disappointed with MM, we drop this car from our list totally. In fact, we will also advise all our friends not to get cars from MM as this really reflects their rigidity, poor integrity and unprofessional services. With this, we also understand why MM could never be among the top car dealership in Singapore when they have fairly good products..... it's the management that stinks!!!

Neon

Sorry to hear dat Vamp.

MM realli sux by not entertaining PIs in the first place. Ur comments just confirmed they SUXK even more!!!!

A bad sheep in a company is as good as a bad company!

Go get urself a PI JDM and join us!! D:D

SONE

Hi, Vamp, guess you've to go with PI if you really love this car...im driving it for 2 days now...impressive feeling, trust me :D Proud to own it.

4give & 4get the sad things...hope to hear gd news of yr decisions with the PIs...keep us inform.

S-one

icerain

Vamp, if you're really serious about getting it and you'll prefer getting the MM(S) imported version for peace of mind. Let me know. I'll start making some serious enquires about your situation. I do not believe that MM(S) will jeopradize their own sales for the sake of protecting a wayward SE.

Although I am not exactly clear what your SE did, but if you feel that he's trying to pull a fast one on you, you being a genuine customer should have all the right to demand for a reasonable answer from MM(S). I have had encounters of wayward SEs in the past, though I am not sure if I've ever been "locked-in" as you have described. When you start waving your cheque book seriously and raising your voice, the buck will stop somewhere high enough, all problems will be resolved.

jack826

I agreed with the rest get the 8 frm the PI so u dun have to suffer so much unhappiness and feel uncomfortable! Cheers! :D

Vamp

Guys, thanks for being supportive and understanding.

Icerain, as my case was escalated to their MD and I still get this treatment, I have lost faith in the company totally. If my company's sales staff performs like this and I could confirmed the complaint, I would have fired the staff on the spot! This is definitely not how a reputable company do business. Mazda Singapore kinda remind me of conmen who resort to these unethical sales practices.

Anyway I have been looking around for other cars. Currently the Subaru Legacy GT and the Volvo S60 T5 is high on my list, among other cars.

Afterall, I am glad that I learn how Mazda Singapore treat customers before I put my money down. Otherwise, I will have to put up with them for a long time.

May not own a RX-8 but I will always enjoy looking at one.

melo

Vamp, sorry to hear of your unhappy incident with MM. If you're really keen on the RX-8, why not take a look at the PIs? They might be able to provide you with better service.

Maybe its time for some of the guys here to make their recommendations of good PIs that offer good service, before and after sales, so that Vamp won't miss out on a great car?

Fab 8

Vamp, don't give up on the 8 just because of MM. A lot of us here are pretty happy with our PIs - I will say Garage R has given me excellent service, both sales and after sales. Go and talk to them. Others can chime in with their experience of other PIs.

Neon

Yup, GR is not too bad at all.

Don't know how the 8 attracts u but if its based on looks n daily performance then its a good car to buy.

If u wanna track it, theres a lotta ROOM for improvement. Many mods have to done...Personally, i am quite disappointed with it on track. Main thing is the freakin high oil temp......SIGH....

slinky

I may not have any dealings with MM itself before but I've had friends who have bought cars from their authorised dealers, eg, VC. They were very satisfied with the service of their SEs. Like Icerain said, if you're really that interested in getting a 8, goto VC. At least we know the service there is good. If you need names of good SE from VC, I'd gladly give you the name. Don't forget that the 8 runs on a rotary engine and there're not many out there who have the appropriate expertise in Singapore who can service the engine properly, especially in years to come. Do consider that carefully.

Just my two cents worth.

sgrenesis

going to check if i can get a good price from one of the PI tomorrow. hee hee...

melo

Slinky makes a good point. It got me wondering... where exactly are the garages that are experienced in rotary engine servicing?

And more interestingly, has Mazda Singapore sold RX-7s in the past? I'm unclear on their experience servicing rotary engines. I know they are the authorized dealer and provide the service centre, but did they actually sell that many rotary engine cars before the RX-8? or did owners of the RX-7 go to other garages?

Vamp

Actually, the servicing and maintenance of the Rotary Engine is one key factor why I dropped PIs from my considerations.

I may be wrong on this but I have not heard any ECU upgrades for PI cars. Can PI car owners or PIs clarify on this?

Neon

Hmmm.....Let me c....

Vamp, when u talk about ECU upgrade, do u mean Flashes or purely power upgrades like fuel mapping, PCMs etc...?

There r already after market ECUs out there mainly from Japan. If u read the Tech forum u can find many threads on that. Locally, we can order the ECUs depending on whether its piggyback or full replacement i.e they simply load a new software into ur existing ECU. I don't think any of us PI guys have done that yet...

I am not very sure if MM actually has good technicians dat specifically deals with Rotary but my bet is they will have a very detailed manual and they simply follow them thus will not go too far off in terms of repair n maintenance.

We have many local shops dat deals with ROtary. TO name some - GR, GTR etc.. In fact, if u asked me i would say the local tuners are definitely better in knowledge and experience when it comes to Rotary babies....

Dats my take....NEON

SONE

Yup ....GTR is juz below my work place, 50 bt batok, midview building..nr to bt.batok Vicom...alot of rex, Evos, Skyline visit them.
They've their own orange color RX7 efini...number plate 7788!

melo

Have any of the MM cars been offered ECU upgrades? When you say upgrades, you are referring to the flashes the N. American cars have been getting?

Actually, after the first production year, do you think Mazda will continue issuing upgrades? Or after all these bugs have been ironed out, the new cars will all have the updated ECUs and maybe they won't concentrate on that anymore.

icerain

Btw Vamp, checked up your case.

1. If you did not sign and documents with the SE, whether you test-drove or not,
2. If you did not pay any form or deposit, or any official invoice has been issued to you,
3. You are still interested in purchasing from MM(S) / ADs,

Let me know, your case is pretty open and shut. You do not have to give an F about the SE you do not like. I reccomend my SE to you. (The guy that convinced me to buy on a day I was actually walking around shopping for a TV antenna)

sqflyer

LOL.... If an SE can convince you to buy an 8 when you were walking around shopping for a TV antenna, then shouldn't Vamp be even more wary? :D :D :D
Just kidding....

Anyway, my SE was quite nice and professional. Entertained all my silly questions. Vamp, sorry that you just had to run into that dodgy SE.

smarian

I got mine from PI Car Times, black auto basic model...........hassle free since 17th June 04...............

jack826

:D :D hope to see u join up in club meeting soon!