Ive owned 2 mazdas and so far no issues, same as my family members.. I wonder what the people are complaining about.

 

Rust for one. 5 year old cars shouldn't have rusted rear quarter panels.

 

^ yeah i get that, working at mazda, i've seen people come back with rust.. you figured living by the ocean they would know that by now, and put on thicker paint on their cars... the mazda 6 is built in the states along side the fusion and that `car never rusts.. ( i have one )

 

my fuel filler area has rust. I'm going to take care of it this or next week (along with major repaint of the whole car)

where is the exact area at the quarter panel? do u have a picture of it ? I sorta know where you're talking about I checked but didn't see any rust (phew), but I wanna be sure I'm looking at the right place.

 

in Australia (ASH8, talking to u LOL) Mazda is rated top of the line.

Why is it bad in USA?

biggest reason (my Opinion) : MNAO and it's dealership network.

For example --- me. New York City area. all 5 dealerships in the Metro Area are GARBAGE. they're looking for every possible way to rip people off. Well It's not just a Mazda NY thing, it happens to almost all NY dealership, and I say Almost because I have yet to visit all auto dealerships in NY (lol), but the ones I've been to, they all suck. Mazda, BMW, Hyundai, Ford, etc. there you go, so many unhappy customer.

in NJ is a totally different story, they are more willing to work with you, I mean they're still dealerships they want money, that's the point of business, I'm not blaming them. but at the same time you can make the money you want as long as you don't treat every customer like a fool. the biggest problem in NY is that they all act like "Hmm, you don't buy? 10 thousand other fools would, suck it bitch"

Even service, NY is totally garbage, I've been to all the NYC dealership to try to get my 8 fix for whatever reason, all of them wants me to pay them cash, if I refuse they would say the car is fine and send me off. one of them actually want to try to void my warranty, I was like ok, go ahead and try, that's the way you treat your customer ? no wonder your sorry *** went out of business (they really did)

in one of the dealership in NJ, they actually do diagnostic and fix my car, even for issues I never noticed(whole engine harness, ECU connectors, throttle body, etc)

thumbs up to them.

After they did my Engine(again, didn't bug me at all, but they probably know I'm an oil change freak so they never bother with the oil change receipt crap)

Mazda sent me a survey in mail, I wrote a whole page of how good this dealership was and how suck *** the other one in the "city" did ...

funny thing is that I thought the dealership would never see what I wrote, I was wrong; the next time I walk into that nj dealership they told me like hey, you're the guy who said we're the best and "Blank" dealership sucks. I was shocked and like yea I did, I was just being honest. that's all.

on the other hand, I hope that dealership in NY saw what I wrote so they know how shitty their service are. but too bad, I would NEVER go back there. their Mazda division in the building is getting smaller and smaller, I wonder why. haha

if MNAO is smart, they should say something about or do something about the crappy dealership network they have in NY. NY is such a big city and it effects the rating by a significant margin (I think)

 

^ thank god one of my good friends owns the mazda dealer near me.

 

I Had a Mazda 323 in college. I ran that car into the ground (beach, partys, accidents). It just came back for more. That was part of my decision to buy an RX8. I've had my 8 for 7 years, still love it.

 

whose ranking is this?

 

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/08/17/c.../#aol-comments

 

79 points?! That's a D-

 

Know how you feel. I've hd my 8 for 7 years, 204,000 kilometers later its all original, still going strong and still bringing a smilel to my face every time I drive.

 

Mazda need to step up a bit in quality too.

both my tail lights were replaced 3 times, EACH side.
Starter, brake pads twice, Engine, Engine Harness, throttle body, and a **** load of other things.

although some of the stuff is NICE to be replaced, like Brake pad and Engine, but if possible I rather not have to spend couple hours everytime it needs to be fix.

notice : even Hyundai is higher rated than Mazda, and how long have Mazda been making cars again ?

 

Pretty sure when a "survey" has a category called "all others" it shows a lack of quantitative data.

 

Do a search within The Truth About Cars (TTAC.com) for "Mazda rust" about the issue. Every Protoge around here is rusting as are about 1/2 the pre-smiley Mazda3's. They do not stand up to road salt and dings on the paint grow to bubbles quickly (unlike my 13 year old, entirely Michigan driven Toyota). My 8 is fine so far, but it's never been driven winters and only seldom in rain.

My local Mazda dealer also does Buick, GMC, Volvo too. Most of their business is with the Buick/GMC brand. I suspect there are very few stand-alone Mazda only operations in North America. Most dealer fortunes are not tied to the success of Mazda and it shows.

 

I've got rust starting on one rear quarter panel in front of the tire. I've had the car since new, 7 yrs. now.

 

did u fix it ?

 

Same here. Just noticed it this past spring when doing the big cleaning after winter.

 

Fixed

NYC is not NY and is a very small area of the entire state coming from what you would call an original "upstate" person or rather central NY'ker to the rest. There are way more dealers around the rest of the state although I can't vouch for them since I live in CT currently, just clarifying to avoid confusion for the readers

 

No, I've been under-employed for quite awhile. It is too optional to fix atm. To many other priorities.
It still looks OK at 10 ft. Up close you can see bubbling and the fenderwell lip is wavey. It will be fixed someday, I hope.

 

When I look at other people's Mazda rust spots closely, it seems to me that the Japan-built Mazdas are using a layered steel sheet. Salt water gets between layers and wicks. It's the kind of rusting I've not seen in other cars for at least a decade. (My 1977/78 RX-4 rusted like this, my 1999 Solara does not). Once it gets going, the only way to completely stop it is to cut out the affected area, which will be much larger than it first appears, and patch. Sanding off the rust will just expose the edges of more layers and the wicking then continues at a faster pace. Another place 8s seem to rust is around the through holes in the trunk lid for the spoiler bolts.

 

I have no opinion on the study, but I can say that my 2005 Mazda3 had ridiculous rust issues. None of my Fords have ever rusted like that bitch did. I loved the car (until the engine self-destructed on my way home work, and I literally shed tears when I sold it to a salvage yard for $2,000), but the amount of rust on that thing was completely unacceptable, and I know others with Mazda3s who had similar rust issues in similar places. Both rear doors had big holes rusted through the B-pillar sections (the passenger side went much sooner). The rear wheel wells started rusting shockingly quickly. It was disheartening, especially since I took such fantastic care of the car and waxed it like crazy, etc. That was my favorite daily driver I had ever owned. With the mods I had made to it, it was crazy fun to drive, sounded fantastic, had greatly reduced understeer, and got good gas mileage. People complimented me on it constantly, and many people, even old school V8 hot-rodders, complimented me on the sound, some saying they couldn't believe it was a 4-cylinder engine in the car. I still miss that car, even though I am loving my new 2012 Focus Titanium hatchback.

 

I've owned a few Mazdas and aside from the occasional carburetor issue on my old '86 Mazda B2000, that was the most reliable mazda I've ever owned.

Mazda 626 had all kinds of transmission issues

RX8 - transmission failed in under 30,000, sunroof was replaced within 10,000 miles for loud clanking, brake pads squealed like crazy when I first bought it, also replaced (twice), and ignition coils are prone to early failure.

Now, do I still love my RX-8? Absolutely! But I can see how if your 'average' owner had the issues I listed above, they'd probably hate the vehicle and give it tons of low scores on a customer satisfaction survey.

 

quality of cars? satisfied.
service/dealer? deserve to be in the bottom.

 

Yes..well where do we start...

You are correct IMO.

Sorry, I don't particularly like how MNAO goes about their business and I blame them for Mazda's lot in NA.

THERE IS no one else to blame.
1. Sole stand alone Dealerships ONLY..NO other brands, you avoid brand confusion at a retail level and you achieve a more loyal workforce (staff) including techs as they ONLY work on one brand...not 3 or 4.
2. It is far easier to "work" with customers than against them..much easier.

And WHY does Mazda perform so badly in Satisfaction Surveys in the US..see my 1 and 2 and Squeaky Brakes are not a fault...now how? does the Dealer "Service Department" handle this is another matter.

RUST....look Mazda's and every other brand had this as an issue 30 years ago.
When the consumer demands lighter cars the metal is thinner and lighter.
Mazda's process of corrosion resistance is the same as any other maker, Steel is sourced from the same companies, etc, etc.

 

No, every other brand does not have this issue.
In the past 14 years I've owned Mazdas, Pontiacs, BMW, Mercedes, Fords, Mitsubishis, and Toyotas.

Guess which one of those has more rust then any other....

Oh, and I live in Sunny SOCAL where it hardly EVER rains so if My 626 and B2000 had rust.

jussayin'