kachud

Cooley Mazda, Albany NY. NEGATIVE. Salesman told me I had a fully loaded car. No option missed. After negotiating price and signing paperwork turns out the car didn't have a lot of options. After heated arguments and they even tried to blackmail me (long story) I still did not get it resolved.

chrism

blackmail you?

chrism

i think they are going for a record here....went on friday to get the tsb handled on my squeeky brakes along with getting new wipers, and my dooe sill plate was coming up....waited over 2 hours to find out that they could only do my wipers and had to order the brakes and door sill.....they couldnt have ordered it when i had my appt made?.....they had to wait 2 hours to tell me.....not to mention they are 30+ miles from my house....so now i gotta wait 5-7 business days to go back....how aggravating!

silver bullet 53

Hey Chrism, I bought my 8 at Sansone as well BIG NEGATIVE, although I got a good deal on the car, it's been downhill from there. The car was damaged by the detailer, he hit the black plastic on the rear bumper and around the rear windows with the buffing wheel and burnt them. They have now after 4 months keep telling me they order the wrong parts to replace them with(3 times). I brought in 2 tsb's that should have been done (m flash and oil stick replacement) and they have no clue what a tsb is nor what the hell I am talking about. Not only that thery claimed to do the m flash had my car for 3 days did not answer the phone or call me at all, I had to go there myself very angry to get the problem resolved with the owner(free oil changes from that incident). not to mention I took my car up route 1 the other day to Open road mazda in edison, much better service, and they told me the mflash was never done??? So now Sansone had my car three days and evidently did absolutly nothing to it! on my invoice it just says did inspection checked dipstick condition which was o.k. but not replaced as per the tsb and computer updated(never done) Its very unfortunate that the sales team gave me a great deal on a left over 04' (after 6 hrs of negotiating) but the incompitent service team has wrecked my experience with my 8. Needless to say I will never go back there again, I'd rather fix a warranty issue myself first.

chrism

wow...im worried about them touching my car but i have some freebies coming to me....i have a $1200 credit in either parts or service and i was gonna use it for my service needs....but now you make me think twice about it....i could go to the one closer to me up on 17n....and i hear they are pretty good there....should i just order some ms parts and run??

m82492

York, PA - Sales NEGATIVE - Found a much better deal on a Mazda 3 and an RX8 at Mechanicsburg. York didn't even inform me of the APV program which would have lowered my payment $60 a month. Wanted to charge me $130 more than Mechanicsburg on an 05 RX8. When I told teh sales guy I was going to buy from somewhere else he said to keep in mind that York has an excellent service department. When I asked if I could have the car I buy from Mechanicsbug serviced at York he told me " we take better care of the people that buy from here ". So I guess that means they'll take less care of me if I were to go to York??? That's comforting!

Mechanicsburg - Sales - POSITIVE - They have an excellent Sales Manager that personally sold me my 8 and got me an excellent price. Took care of me very well!

Mechanicsburg, PA - Service NEGATIVE (30 minutes from my house but I go here because of what I wrote above! ) - Within 600 miles I had a Check Engine Light. They gave me a Saturday morning appointment at 7:30 am. Once I was up there they said they couldn't do anything for me because they didn't have the current flash.

Scheduled the flash for 2 Saturday's later. In the meantime I had my ABS and DSC light come on. I called the service department and they said they'd take care of it during my Saturday appointment. When I got there they reflashed the car but didn't check the ABS or DSC. The service guy said they didn't know it was supposed to be checked and " the Mazda computers are down for Easter so we can't diagnose the problem "!

Scheduled another appointment for the following Tuesday. The car was dropped off Monday evening. It took them all day to find the problem which needed a part that they didn't carry. The car had to sit there until Wednesday. I was told the car would be ready by 4:00 pm. I drove up and they told me that they just got back from trying to get the car to " learn " the part. The tech said the car didn't " learn " the part so they would have to wait until Thursday morning so they can call the "Tech Hotline". I had to drive a Mazda 6 hatchback home.

This service department has had me drive to and from ( 30 minute trip ) 4 times for 2 issues within 1800 miles of the car being new. They lied to me at least twice and they have absolutely no clue what they are doing. Their staff should be working on 1970 Chevy Nova's instead of RX8's.

juniorbean

Originally looking for a 2005 RX8 Auto... either base or with the sport package.

Negative: Harrelson Mazda in Charlotte, NC - They had an ad in the paper for a lease on a base RX8 for $20,8xx. If you wanted to buy it, the price would be $22,8xx (basically 2k more). Negotiated with the dealer arguing that I shouldn't have to pay more to buy it... and came to a price of $23k with the sport package. Went into the dealership, took the car out, loved it... asked for a blue one. Said they'd find it and call me back. Next day, called me, went in, and the price all of a sudden was $28k, but they could do it for $26k. I said fine, I want to lease it instead... total cost to me... $20,8xx per their ad. All of a sudden the answer was that that deal was only on one car and not available (meanwhile, the ad said nothing about a VIN number or limited quantities). The funniest part... while driving to get my RX8 at another dealer they had a radio ad about being honest and not having false ads. LOL. We'll see what happens after I report them to the BBB and Mazda Corporate. It's not like I asked for this low pricing... they printed it themselves in the paper!!


Negative: Donald Craig Mazda in Mooresville, NC. Called them up and told them about the price we were going to get at Harrelson. Said they'd beat it and do it for $22,800. They asked if we could come by that evening. We made sure they were not BSing us since the dealership was about 55 miles away. Said not a problem, they could do that price. Got there after work (drove about 50 min.), sales guy showed us the service area, etc. Should have known I was in trouble when the guy's nickname was Hoss. Anyway, came down to pricing... price was over $25.5k. Asked him if he was serious since we just talked about this. Came back, price was $24,800 with the sport package which was as far below invoice as he could go. Even showed them the ad from Harrelson to prove I wasn't making this up, didn't care. Said that was the best price they could do. I gave him a good piece of my mind, loud enough that the manager and the customers on the pretty crowded sales floor could hear, but not obnoxious. Basically asked if the invoice pricing for the car changed from the time we spoke to the time we got there. Bitched him out (nicely but firmly) about making us drive all the way up there, then grabbed my stuff off his desk and stormed out. Mazda will be getting a letter about them too.

I must say, if it was not for Stevenson Mazda (see https://www.rx8club.com/good-guy-bad-guy-74/positive-good-mazda-dealerships-25966/#post833287 ), I would have bailed altogther as it seems the Mazda dealers pretty much suck. I'm starting to figure out why their numbers are no where near their competitors. Nice cars, terrible dealers (generally).

slllygrl10

CONGRESSIONAL MAZDA in ROCKVILLE MD be warned their mechanics are horrible. Well first they damaged my wheels and then replaced my headlights and claimed they aligned them. Here are the links to the threads. PLEASE dont have your 8 service there!!! Nightmares after nightmares.......


https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-multimedia-photo-gallery-6/wow-my-headlights-aligned-not-60460/

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/mazda-damaged-my-wheels-help-59509/

MeToo

NEGATIVE for Rich Mazda in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Horrible service department and I have no faith in their ability to fix my problem. View my story at:

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=64695

Zuhalter Vati

Gateway Mazda of Denver VERY Negative (Sales) Nathaniel was the salesman

Vizacar

Here is my story about Darcars Mazda in Silver Spring MD. Copied it from another post. Bad for Mechanical Service, good for Parts and Collision Repair.

Took it in.
When I checked in, the guy who took my info had no clue about RX8s. I think he was a Chrysler guy. I had him put down 'check on recall' on my service check-in sheet.
When they pulled my car in, I stood outside the side door and watched the tech. While draining the oil he read my sheet and called the service manager over to check on any recalls since I had written it down. Kind of surprised me as I thought he would know being a RX8 tech. Yes, they are specialized at Darcars. They even come in at 8:00AM, vs 7:00AM, unlike the others. One of the techs even kidded me about that as I dropped my car off at 6:45...hehe, 'you have to wait till 8:00 when the RX techs get in'. I mentioned about the recall for the heat build-up concerning the cat and gas tank and they went to check. Talking to the tech he mentioned some cars get it and others don't. I told him I thought I was in group 1. I told him about reading up on it and was expecting a letter soon about the recall in August.

After they checked, he didn't do anything except get in the car with the big computer reprogrammer and hook up. He didn't check the bushings, harness, gas tank etc.

I also noticed he didn't check my control arms.

I was left with the impression the shop wasn't on top of it as far as the RX8s are concerned.

Some things I did notice though. While sitting in the lounge and watching a couple of techs work on a Lexus, they replaced the master cylinder. One tech walked over with the new one filled and dripped brake fluid all over the side of the front quarter panel. The other tech wiped it up. Even though their hands were dripping in brake fluid they had no concern about touching anything inside the engine compartment or anywhere else for that matter. They did try to wipe it off but I would hate to see the paint in a few weeks. While bleeding the brakes, they didn't hook up a drain hose to the bleed valves. He just opened the valves and let it spray everywhere under the car and run in rivets off the inside of the rims and tires. Totally unprofessional as far as I am concerned. I never saw ANY tech, of the couple dozen or so, use a protection blanket.

When I got my repair statement they never mentioned about bringing it in for the next service. Funny thing is, it was posted in the waiting lounge to expect to get told about the next service and about 30 other things concerning my car. I wan't told anything except where to sign. Unfortunetly I was handled by a cashier who was interested in money vs my car.

On my service invoice the only thing it says, concerning the recall, is 'Performed Recall 33056' Anyone know what that entails? I suspect it is only a reflash as that is all they did. What level...I haven't a clue. The cashier made me feel like I would be asking too much if I pressed the issue.

I will say this though. The parts department was very professional and on the ball. He knew immediately who I was as soon as I started rattling off the dealer installed options they had promised me. He said...'oh you're the Shinka guy who has all those parts on order? I said yea and he surprised me by saying... well Mr. Graham we have all your parts. We got them in just last week.' Come to find out they were even using a few of my options as displays in the parts showroom. They even had my name on them. He then helped me drag all my boxes out to my car.

I next went to their body shop to see about getting the spoiler installed. The service guy there, told me it would take most of the rest of the day...about 5 hours, and I told him I would wait. He seemed surprised but I assured him I had nothing else to do. After taking my car to the back, he came up and told me he would put a person on it right away and it would take 2 hours at the most. 40 minutes later they delivered it to the front after washing my car. Outstanding service there. He never even checked to ensure it was suppose to be dealer installed. He took my word for it. I could have just bought it and lied to him to get them to install it for free.

All in all, I will DEFINITELY go to another dealer for mechanical service. I hear Frank at Anderson's (I believe this is the right dealer), in Virginia is great.

Overall, I like a service department that interacts and can tell you more about your car than you know. They should treat you like your vehicle means as much to them as their does. Make sure you are treating it right, just like they treat theirs. I am use to that type of service on my ZX-6. I expect nothing less. I hate to feel like just another customer, even though that is what I am. I want the tech to come to me and tell me about my vehicle, what shape it is in and what he would do etc..., not just get a page to come to the cashier to pay my bill.

The service department at Darcars was too generic for my RX8 tastes. All of their dealers, go to the same service department. Everything from Toyota, Lexus, Chrysler, Ford, Mazda, Kia, and a dozen others. Not specialized enough.


I will go elsewhere in the future.

kellybrf

iTrader: (2)

posted on the columbus thread in the mw forum too, but also belongs here...

AVOID BYERS MAZDA/SUBARU SERVICE

ive had it with byers b/c of paul liska. long story short, ive been having problems with a false low oil light and its been in 3 or 4 times and they could not reproduce it, so it finally came on today when i was near them on my lunch break and so was going to drop it off (which is what paul wanted me to do,) but obviously needed a loner to get back to work. he talked to tech support he denied me a rental stating that it was 'costing the dealership too much money,' which is bs b/c mazda pays for loners, but i even arranged other transportation and he would not take my car for service. theres a long list of lies hes told me, and ive had enough. frank and ed are awesome, but ed apparenlty quit b/c of how the place is run.

i finally called mazda na to file a formal complaint and would urge anyone here who has had the displeasure of dealing with paul to do the same. 800.222.5500. the guy i spoke with was lee at x1147 and he was awesome, he told me to call if i had any other problems so im sure he wouldnt mind helping you guys too. mazda direct, here i come!

roonsrx

must say my experiences at Wayne Mazda were very good. The sales end needs some work, but the Service dept has it together.

avg8

Weber Motors, Edmonton, Canada. Obnoxious, condescending salesperson who tried to convince me that their 2004 demo model with 7000km on it was a great deal for 45K even after telling him their competitor had a new 2005 GT for 42K :p

Got my new 05 GT with Extreme Body Packeage (free) from their competitor :D :D :D :D :D

Yellow888

Legend Mazda in San Antonio Texas

Bad Bad Bad They Still owned me $ 130 back charge since March 2005. I did call the gen manager Jxff every day for 2 weeks and No return call.

Jer

NEGATIVE...

Just my opinion:


LOUSY NEW CAR PREP: Empty gas tank, stuff MISSING (door edge guards are on the sticker, but nowhere to be found), chassis plugs sitting in a bag on the passenger seat, never installed. It had been in their showroom for 7+ months, and no TSBs or recalls were done. I picked it up, and immediately began fixing it. Sigh. Plus, I got the "non-SAT" radio, but with a huge Sirius mirror hanger in the car. Dealer told me he'd install the satellite radio anytime. That would be a neat trick, huh?

BAD ATTENTION TO DETAIL: The first time I called MNAO, they couldn't find me, because the dealer had sent in someone else's name on that VIN #. Ya think my car was a Special Order gone bad? Hmmm...

BAD SERVICE: Twice forgot to have loaner car for me, resulting in an early-morning drive there for nothing twice (even after I gave them a REMINDER call the night before).

BAD REPAIRS : After someone hit my car, they did the worst paint job EVER, and left lots of areas unsanded, crooked hood alignment, the works. When I asked the service manager what he wanted to do with the problems, he told me that everyone else thought the car looked great, and I was being too picky.
I asked him, "you see that big scrape in the middle of the new paint?" He said "yeah". I asked, "Does that seem right to you?" He said, "No".

The worst part is when they blow you off, and make it OBVIOUS they don't care.

FYI: Before some wiseguy asks "Duh....why did you still go there?....duh...", they were the ONLY Mazda dealer near me, and quite honestly, I was expecting some level of incompetence from a car dealer anyway. It was only after I moved, and found a new dealer that I realized "not every dealer sucks...".

NVMYGT

Please see this thread

Scraper

NEGATIVE sales: Schaefer and Strohminger in Baltimore. Both locations. After making an offer to a salesman at closing time (no sales managers we there), I got a call back to set up an appointment, thinking they had accepted the offer. When I got there, they were selling it for thousands more than I had offered. What happened to the offer. An hour or so of haggling went by, they didn't meet my price, but I was really lowballing it. I bought it.

After I handed them my trade, I took delivery of an '04. Pretty much every gadget and gizmo they put on these things. It was late in the evening by the time I drove off the lot, and the dealer was in a hurry to get out of there, so no walk around of the car. I take my buddies to lunch the next day, one of them closes the right rear suicide door, and i see something wrong. There is an 8" crease in the metal just below the window. The paint is still there, but that could have been patched and buffed. The car was black, and highly polished, so it was very difficult to see, you had to be at the right angle. I do a very thorough inspection and find over 20 individual body defects, including under the hood!. Dents, dings, paint scrapes, and broken clips. The hardware was even corrding unevenly. It looked like the bolts holding the rear spoiler on were different all together from the right side to the left. All indications was that this "new" '04 was in an accident. Can't be sure, but a good deal of the signs were there. I called to take the car back and get my trade (I didn't hand over the registration to it yet). The manager took one look at the RX-8 and walked away. The salesman, annoyingly so, tried over and over to save the sale, even offering me a Shinka. I asked him if they sell that to me for the same price, and he said no. So I told him "why would I want it then? If I wanted it in the first place, I would have bought it!" When I got my trade back, the clips for the embroidered floor mats were missing, as were the owners manuals, and most importantly, the second set of keys. How can a car dealer lose keys? I took me WEEKS to get all the stuff back, after they were supposed to mail them to me.

I wrote a letter to Mazda corporate, and they were indifferent about the whole situation, saying they have no control over their dealers. Duh! They can pull the franchise!

Easy_E1

iTrader: (2)

NEGATIVE!!!!! Earnhardt Mazda 7300 W. Orchid Ln. Chandler AZ. 85226
These people are crooks. I bought an '05 RX-8 AT sport pearl white. They beat all the other dealers prices. Part of the deal was to have a Mazda spoiler put on it. They had the car for 2 weeks diring a recall and never put the spoiler on. i took delivery of the car and they said they would call when the spoiler came in. They called a few day's later. Made an appointment on a saturday to have it done. Well they installed the spoiler and drove the car back to the front of the dealership and parked it about 12" on top of a curb in the front.
I walked out with the accesssories guy and saw the car on the curb and was furious. He said that they would do whatever it took to make it new again. HA HA. Well I did not look to close at the spoiler, I was distracted by my mashed in front end, But I got home and looked a little closer at the spoiler and found it was not a Mazda spoiler , but some aftermarket piece of crap. The color was Nowhere near the white on the car and it was sitting off to the left almost a quarter of an inch. Looking at the under side of the trunk,it
looked like they made the bolt holes with a punch. Metal was sticking out around the bolts.
Well after talking to the dealer they agreed to replace the spoiler and the trunck lid.
Wonderful, on a car with 300 miles on it. They also agreed to replace the damaged parts in the nose. Time came for them to fix it. Well they replaced half of the damaged parts under the front end. They used plastic zipties to hold the other damaged parts together.
They did put a Mazda spoiler on the new trunk ( which they said was coming from Mazda)
found out that they tok one off another car in the lot. So now I have three different colors
of white under the trunk lid,they painted the nuts a different color white than thrunk and the hinge color does not match the trunk underneath. And during the fix they "changed my oil for free" Well I went and got an estimate from a body shop and it came to nearly 2000.00 dollars to fix what they did and repaired. They offered me 210.00 dollars in parts
to fix the car. I told them LATER. I went to another dealership and had the 5000 mile service done and they asked me if i had had the oil changed before and I said yes.
Well they service tech came to me and showed me the filter off the car and said it was a
factory filter and the oil had never been changed. Well after all I had a reciet and a sticker in the window that said it had.I called three other dealerships withthe part # off the oil filter and they said you CAN NOT get that filter.
Well to make along story short
DO NOT GO TO THIS DEALERSHIP FOR ANY REASON WHAT SO EVER!
My car is still not fixed and we will be going to ______ (fill in the blank) soon.

Beer Monster

Darcars Mazda in Silver Spring, MD.
Sales : Fairly good. representative kind of looked like he needed the sale really bad so did
whatever in his power to keep me there to purchase.
Service: absolutely horrible. took them 4 months to fix my car one time. collision center and
the dealership kept bouncing me back and forth putting blame on each other.
also, according to word of mouth from the area they occasionally lie and scam to
customers involving accidents in order to wiggle out of some payments of parts

NordicRx8

Faulkner Mazda - NEGATIVE
Aside from the positive attitude (cough) from the service staff

Getting this dealer to fix anything is a hastle and a headache.
Some of the highlights below:

6mo process to fix the tail light fogging

Told me not to worry about the motor mounts

couldn't fix the squeeky breaks

Took car in on Thurs and called the tow service on Sunday.

MarWar80

OCEAN MAZDA HUGE NEGATIVE. I took my car in for a scheduled tire rotation, oil change and also for them to "check" on a strange sound my car made when turning on the A/C after its been sitting under the sun. I turned it in at around 8 a.m. and watched them park my car in the back of the service department. The service guy said that the car should be done shortly. But, just in case it wasn't done shortly as I expected, I decided to walk to the nearest mall which was about 5 miles away under the scorching sun of Miami to kill some time. I returned at around 3pm, to pick my car up thinking that 7hours would be plenty of time to change my oil, rotate tires, and to "check" on the noise. When I returned, the lady at the front desk told me that my car should be finishing up shortly. I waited and additional half our, and walked to rear of the service department to find that my car was still parked in the same spot, and had not even been looked at. I charged into the service advisor's office for some answers and to give them a piece of my mind, and his only excuse was " We were waiting for the noise guy to look at your car" I said what? He said "yeah he is the one who takes care of engine noises" What kinda of an idiot do you think I am! Any ways, I demanded to get my car back, No oil change no nothing was taken care of. F- F- F- F- F- F- GRADE. BUT THAT IS JUST ONE STORY, THE OTHER ONE IS EVEN BETTER.

DaGnome

Lol "The noise Guy" ha that's a classic..

Well I'm still going to Gunther but only because I think they are afraid of me after the several calls i made to them and Mazda service. (After my posts above they screwed up on thier own "Full Circle Service", they chcked off things they didn't do... and I proved it to them!... then on the recall when i went to check the stickers showing it was done it had no sticker.. they even toldd me there was no such sticker... well MNAO was a bit upset to hear that... hehe.

Now they double and tripple check everything when my car comes in.

Im_crafty

Al Sanchez Mazda -- Gilroy, CA

Experience -- NEGATIVE
The only reason I went here is because a co-worker's wife ran the finance dept. and I got a somewhat good deal on the car. The sales rep that actually helped me didn't know much about the car so good thing I had done all my research first.

Service Dept. is the worst. I'm was having to leave my car all day for just an oil change. I made an appt for the 'cold start' recall. Dropped the car off in the AM and when I called late afternoon they told me they couldn't complete the job because they didn't have the necessary equip. Thanks for telling me when I made the appt. I was without my car all day plus had to ask for rides to and from the dealership. Most recently my Tire Pressue light was going on. I took it in, left it there all day. When I called to check on it they told me that all 4 tires were at different pressure levels and they adjusted them. the very next day the light went on again. When I called they said I had a nail in my tire...again thanks for letting me drive off with a nail in my tire the night before and not telling me. They claimed it was on the paperwork but when I checked it stated "...something in RR tire..." I even spoke the the GM of the dealership and he was no help. Never received a call back when he said he would find out more info on why they are so lame.

Never going back...I drive to Salinas now for any service. They have been pretty, so far...

austinash

FORT MYERS, FL - HUGE NEGATIVE!

The local Fort Myers, FL Mazda dealership is a 110% joke!

I try to avoid my local dealer as much as possible... they freaked out on me with my SR Motorsports Intake...

Example 1: I had a rough idle.. They said I would have to remove the SR Intake before they could fully troubleshoot my problem... Charged me $100. I went home and got my screwdriver out and found a loose clamp on the intake manifold.... problem fixed! and I'm no mechanic!

Example 2: The other day, I took my dead battery, that will not hold a charge or re-charge for that matter, in to get replaced under warranty! They told me I had to bring in the Car, which wont start. They wanted me to call Road Side Assistance and have the car towed from my gerage to them so they could replace the fricken battery! What a joke! I dropped the batter in front of the fat as& Service Managers window and told him what a shi%# policy that was and what a crappy unfriendly operation he's running. I told him to keep the shi%# Mazda Battery... I went and bought another one for $50 at Auto Zone. done!

This is a good example of Red Tape Bureaucracy that wastes peoples time and money. Even worse, they don't even have any new Mazda's on display in front of their dealership. Just a bunch of "used cars", most not even Mazda brand.... how pathetic is that! When I asked why there were no new cars in front? They told me they make more money on used cars! How's that for representing a brand. Mazda should pull their dealership and give it to someone who will be proud to represent them here in growing Fort Myers, FL. They told me they were the #1 dealer in the country... If that is True, then Mazda has a real problem!

It seems that after reading other posts in this thread.... the moral of the storey is, "If your a die hard Mazda fan and you love your car, avoid your bureaucratic red tape dealerships like the Avian Bird flu!"

They all just want your money and don't really care if your a happy customer, no matter how obsessed you are with your car!

Jim