I don't generally write reviews one way or the other. Too lazy. But I read them a lot so I thought maybe just this once I'd contribute. You might should skip the story and go directly to the kudos in the last paragraph. I do have a tendency to ramble.
My '09 R3 had bent rim. Bad. But it was insured. Yeah! So I took it in and they gave me a rental. I told them about the MiaC problem and some grinding in the upper gears as well.
They confirmed all the problems. Then they called the next day and told me the grinding was normal if I shifted to neutral, let off the clutch, re-engaged the clutch and then tried to shift into gear. Wasn't real happy about that but figured I'd give it a try. They also told me it took them hours to figure out the MiaC problem. Which was funny because I told them when I dropped it off what the problem and fix was. Oh well.
Hold on: the kudos are coming.
So took the car home with grinding gears but no more MiaC and a much smoother ride after the rim was fixed. Except the ride still wasn't entirely smooth. Took it to Sears, who told me it was an out of round tire (and, oddly enough, suggested I go on line to buy a new tire) and then took it to Discount tire, who told me the rim was still bent. Both tried to show me the problem and I couldn't see it either time.
Funny thing was, Mazda had just sent a survey and I basically filled it out saying nice guys but problem wasn't fixed. A couple of days later I get a call from Jeff Haas service department asking me to bring the car in again. Wow, someone actually reads and acts on their surveys? I'm impressed.
They sent the wheel in again and called me to tell me the gears were grinding and they wanted to fix that. They gave me a rental so I'm good with that. A few days later the call to say the transmission is fixed but it's still rough because there's a second bent rim. That would make sense. They fix it in 2 more days and I'm all set.
Basically they did what they were supposed to do; although the rental during the warranty work wasn't necessarily a given. But not every dealership's service department does what they are supposed to do and these guys were pretty darn friendly about it in the process. And they could have left me to recover the money for the insured wheel and rental while it was fixed, but they took care of that hassle as well. Thanks Jeff Haas and thank you Carlos in the service department.
And if you actually read all of that... Thank you too!