quack_p

Wow, just wow. I read a story similar to this before I bought my RX-8, so when I got to the dealership, I was crawling around on my hands and knees looking at every inch of the car I was planning to buy.

Guess where I bought mine? Magnussen's. I had a good buying experience with them, too, but with all these stories about their service department, I won't be going back for a long time.

Cas, I wonder if you can take it to another dealer to get the problem resolved.

leigh44

Listen, do your self a favor and do not leave that dealership untill tour car is 100% perfect. If you must take pitures of the damage before you leave and have someone sign that the damage is there. Once you leave there is no proof that it did not happen in your posession making your case very hard. The dealer sounds like a piece of crap to begin with so why trust anything they say? Also, write a letter to Mazda corperate prior to your survey being sent....It will do wonders for their attitudes.

willhave8

Allentown Mazda Volvo - Sales/Business Manager were straight forward and no nonsense. Once they knew who I worked for, they suggested the S Plan. POSITIVE

Service while friendly, courteous and efficient is not well informed about the RX8. They do not appear to 'stay up' with the latest news. Witness, the way they reflashed my car in December without asking me before hand and really had no clue on the what or why of the reflash. They were following orders from Mazda.

Further, they were also not aware of the Brake Squeal TSB. Once I tol them about it, they rsponded but the lesson learned on my side that I have to do all the research and they will respond. I just can't rely on them to look out for my car. VERY different from my Mercedes Dealer...

So overall POSITVE as long as you take the time to stay informed (thanks guys!) and actively manage your car (I however would like to have a dealer that saves that time for me)

Elara

Capitol Mazda, Richmond, VA- Leaning towards NEGATIVE. I say leaning because the Service Writers are always pleasant, but misinformed. The sale was fine, and very fast. But the service..first I had to bring my car in three times before they would believe me about my oil pan light coming on- just kept telling me my car was a bit low on oil. I'm sorry, I checked my oil every time before bringing it in, and a notch above halfway is NOT low. I'm female, not moronic.

Next issue happened a week and a half ago when I brought my car in for 30k service. My car is on Schedule 2- and has been the entire time. I've never gone anywhere else other than Capitol since I bought there, so they have all my records. I also have the free maintenance. When I get the list of things that were done, it said Schedule 1 maintenance had been done. I immediately called, and they said they had to check on it. Called me back and I was told "Schedule 2 is only for cars way north or way south." I explained that my care DID qualify, quoted the requirements for Schedule 2 to them, and pointed out it didn't matter since the car had been on it for the entire time I'd owned it and couldn't be switched to Schedule 1 anyway- and it was in their records too. After three more phone calls, the last of which I got a week AFTER the initial issue, they called me back to schedule time to bring the car back so they could finish the rest of the service.

've also had to argue every time about the free maintenance. The cashier never believes me, even WITH the card, and I have to call a manager over.

DaGnome

Had quite the opposite experience here.. (notice the dates however).. Just bought my RX-8 at Gunther, both the salesman (Larry) and the Manager (name eludes me) were very up front, knowledgable and professional.

Only complaint was it took about 5 hours from arrival to drive-off (I came in knowing exactly what i needed, no test drive required)


EDIT: Please see post a few items down... while they sales associate I had was quite nice.. the competency of the service department has forced me to NOT recommend this dealership.

RAGE91169

wait until something goes wrong they are so off it not funny

dankgummy

Rosenthal Mazda/Nissan in Tyson's Corner VA:
Overall NEGATIVE. Manager threatened to impound my car as they did not receive payment. IDIOTS, my credit union wired the payment in full and was sitting in Rosenthal's account but they did not notice. Took 2 weeks to get spare keys as i was only given 1 set at time of car purchase. Averages about 2.5 hrs to get an oil change even though i've always had appointment for any work to be done on my car. I HATE THESE *******

chrism

east coast mazda in new jersey big negative in sales!
east coast also has no idea how to repair cars (took 4 attemts for them to figure out what another found on the first try)
sansone-neutral on sales (had some issues but the owner took care of me)
sansone service takes too long but they know thier stuff

DaGnome

Well Rage, you jinxed me

Gunther Mazda, Ft Lauderdale Florida

Ok here is the full, LONG story of why I'd not recommend this dealership.

First, the Buying Experience:
I won't go into long details here because overall I considered it a positive... the salesmen were informed, nice and polite, and I got 'just about' what I thought I would. The only complaint is that they lured me in based on the assumption that they could beat another dealer (who happend to be shady, messy and overall unprofessional , Marlin Mazda). When I arrived at Gunther, the assumption of beating the other dealer was still intact... that quickly fell away when the finance guy took a look at the numbers. They didn't beat Marlin , and in fact were about $5 per month higher on the lease I chose, but the overall professionalism and dealership caused me to take this deal anyway.

The Car (and my problems)
Now heres where the problems began... I took a test drive in the car I wanted, everything was great.. the next day after I worked out the finances and was about to obtain the keys, I noticed a somewhat large dent (about 2 inches long, 1 in wide) in the outer edge of the passenger door. It appeared as if someone smacked the door somewhere in cleanup. The dealer said "we can fix that and you'll never know it was ever there". I was hesitant but up until that point everything seemed like it'd work out.

Upon driving home, I noticed that the passenger window would not go up either..

Both of these were 'easy' fixes according to the dealer..

Service Call #1
I droped the car off on a Tuesday, and was originally told the car would be repaired in a day... the sales manager (Gordon) informed me that it would actually take 1-2 days since the door would have to go to the body shop and get repainted (something the salesman assured me it wouldn't need to do). I didn't have a choice and agreed.

4 days later , my car was returned.. and everything 'looked' ok.

I got home, and realized that the door panel on the passenger door was not properly put back on, and was causing an irrating squeeking sound when I drived, the door would not shut properly and one on occasion the bose speaker fell off!!

I also washed the car, since the bodyshop left some sort of dirt on it as well, only to find that the 'dirt' was actually some kind of overspray, clearcoat I'm assuming. They didn't even bother to tape up or cover the car.. the doors they worked on (they had to blend both doors I'm told) were perfect, but the rest of the car felt like sandpaper to the touch. It was even on the back rear window, exactly halfway across and with an almost perfect line down the center (which is how I determined it was a 'tape off' issue)

Lastly, in place of the dent, I now had a 2" drip/ round bubble on the CENTER of the door, which seemed to have been painted over. It was not there originally.

2nd Service Call
I droped it off early today to get the overspray and the door panel fixed, both I was assured would be fixed either today, or tommorrow at the latest.

I received a call late today saying it was finished, the service manager was looking at it as I spoke to him on the phone and said it appeared that the body shop fixed both the overspray and the bubble. I would be able to pick it up from the sales dept that night.

I went to pick it up...
Checked the door- Panel STILL not on properly, still rubbing against dash, and obvious by sight that it was not installed correctly.
Checked the Bubble/Drip - It was dark out but it appeared to be fixed, the door was nice and smooth and clean.
Checked the overspray - Still there, both on the car body, bumpers, quarter panels, trunk, and the back rear window.. nothing was done.

I talked to the sales manager and after a long conversation the result was:
1) They would attempt to fix it again (3rd attempt on my NEW car)
2) I would get reimbursed for NOTHING
3) If I didn't like it, I could take the car elsewhere!
4) I asked for a customer service number for Mazda, and he refused to give me one! He even said that they had the best customer service, and this is a fluke.

I do not believe this is fair, since I bought a new car from them, not a new car 'with dent', or 'with bad paint job'. I've paid so far for 2 weeks of my lease, and they've had the car exactly half of that time, with at least another day or two to go (if they are to be believed this time).

I warn anyone to think twice, about this dealership. While they may seem nice , so far thier ability to 'fix' issues and do what is right by the customer is far from what I'd consider 'good service'

NOTE: Even if they fix everything, which I doubt, I'm probably not going back to this dealership again if I can help it.

Update
I picked up the car today.. door is finally fixed correctly (They replaced the plastic clips), and 90% of the clearcoat overspray was removed. They ended up claybar'ing the car to remove it, however they forgot the back bumper.

I'm going to do that myself, rather than subject the car to thier hands again....
Now to find a 'competent' dealer before my first service call...

chrism

and now sansone's finance depart sucks big ***** too!....took delivery of my 8 on 2/11....signed paperwork on 2/15 and they send the check to pay off my trade in on 3/7?!?.....3 weeks later?....now i got a 30 days past due on my credit report because of some incompetant fool in thier accounting department!.....i am in the process of getting in touch with the owner yet again regarding his employees and their follow through procedures!

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??