pelucidor

I am verily pissed at this point with Mazda and their delivery methods - much more so than with trivial stuff like HP ratings. My dealership and I have been expecting my car in for over a week now with no end in sight.

I did all my paperwork for the RX-8 last Friday (1st August) to help my salesguy and dealership with month-end bonuses etc (yeah I'm a nice guy sometimes, usually to my detriment). I was told the car would be in on Saturday sometime, as it never appeared on Friday afternoon as hoped for. I drove in and gave my dealership the check for the full amount ($36k) on Saturday morning, expecting the car that afternoon (accountant's needed to book the check before noon for bonuses to be paid - I didn't have it with me the day before). The RX-8 never arrived and the dealer was as frantic as I was (they lost their bonuses too).

On Monday I was too busy at work to even phone the dealership, but expected the car in. Finally on Tuesday, not having heard anything from my salesman I phoned Mazda Customer Service to check on the car status - it left Midlothian (inland) port on Thursday 31st July. Spoke to my salesguy - still no car and they confirmed the truck had left Midlothian near Dallas on 31st July for a 4 hour drive to their dealership in Houston and nobody knew where it was. The sales manager had phoned everyone including the Mazda district sales manager but nobody could get hold of the trucking company. I spoke to Mazda Customer Service again and they again confirmed the truck left the port last Thursday, but could not tell me anything more on it's whereabouts.

Today (Wed 6th August) marks a full week that the car has been on a truck making a 242 mile journey and nobody knows where this $200k+ transporter carrying $60k+ of cars (at least two RX-8s bound for my dealership) has got to. My personal thought is the truck has been hijacked, or it crashed somewhere last week and the driver is lying dead in a ditch, or the driver has absconded with the truck and cars to South America (he could have reached the bottom of Argentina by now). Messages that my dealership left with the trucking company both last night and this morning (they finally got the number after 4 days of asking for it) have not been returned.

Please note I do not blame my dealership for this situation - they even offered to pick up the cars themselves from the port near Dallas (at their trucking expense to Houston) to hit their July month-end deadline and also keep me happy, but port Midlothian would not let them take the vehicles. Every other delivery to my dealership for RX-8s has arrived the day after the truck leaves Midlothian so I should have got the car last Friday 1st August. Also note my $36k check has not been cashed and cannot be cashed until I accept the car if it ever comes in.

Sorry - I just had to vent. I may need to look at some unallocated cars at other dealerships if the truck doesn't make it out of the Bermuda Triangle by this afternoon. As people have remarked - I can track a $5 item mailed via Fedex every step of the way to my house but nobody at Mazda can track their $30k+ cars, or seems to care.

wakeech

way to stay positive.

Wing

Man I TRUELY feel bad for you!

I had 4 days to wait over a long weekend and it was HELL, knowing my car was at teh dealer. But to not know when it is coming is worse.

There was a full truck load of 8's that arrived in town Saturday nigh apparently. The driver said it took him an extra hour and a half than normal because people kept cutting him off to look at the cars!

pelucidor

I am open to other (preferably more pleasant) scenarios that explain the situation and also explain the refusal of the trucking company to say anything to their customer (dealership). An embarrassing or tragic story for the trucking company might do it.

IwantONE2

My car was released from Tacoma on July 22nd. My dealership said it usually takes 3-5 business days. Still not here. Its been over 2 weeks. I could have pushed the car here on foot by now.

Lensman

You are clearly the trucking company's 1 millionth customer and as a reward they are adding every aftermarket option to your RX-8 for free. They are also awaiting the availability of Cameron Diaz to personally drive the car the last few feet to your door. The delay is primarily because the turbo charged Renesis that they have installed in the car (which nevertheless gets 58mpg) is in short supply (like there's one of them) and is being hand installed by the CEO of Mazda North America. Plus your free Mazda popsicle melted and they have another on order from Japan.

eccles

I think Mazda Gulf Region must be using Slow-Coach Trucking Services. Mine took well over a week from the date Mazda said it was released to the truckers until it finally arrived at Mazda South. I feel your pain.

takahashi j

iTrader: (2)

Did u pay sticker for ur car or was a "dealer fee?"

pelucidor

Actually I am not talking about the 'release date' which is when the port is finished with the car and the trucking company can then load it onto their transporter anytime thereafter (perhaps a week or two later).

That happened ages ago - for me it has been a week since the trucking company loaded the car on their transporter and left the port for a 240 mile journey - at least that is what everyone is telling me.

Thanks Lensman - I almost smiled there...

brothervoodoo

Hello,

FYI: My car took took 10 days to reach the dealer after it left Port.

From P. Heuneme to San Francisco.

I felt the same way inquiring with my dealer every couple days (and almost bought another 8 since I didn't have a clue when mine would arrive). Haven't read the detail in your posts but it's coming so just be patient.

zoom44

pelucidor, did mazda say the car was "released" or did they say the truck was loaded with your car and the truck left the port? realeased just means that it has gone thru all of the port stuff and is allowed to leave now but may not have. i'm thinking your car is in south america personally.

pelucidor

They say it left the port 7 days ago.

My latest theory is that Mazda needed some 6MT RX-8s to do some dyno testing last Friday and so diverted my truck to their California headquarters. Obviously it would be embarassing to admit to the world that they needed to double check some HP figures, hence no word to anyone on what happened to the truck and my car...

Skyline Maniac

If your theory is unfortunately correct, that would mean your brand new RX-8 is somewhere in Orange County, CA revving at 9000rpm with a bunch of wires attached to it. So much for the break in period.

Interesting side note: The Renesis engine is known to produce less waste gas than past rotaries. However, base on Japan and US standards, the Renesis engine stands to be one of the more polluting brand new engines on the market. Given low emission vehicles gets away with less manufacturer tax ans tariff, my guess is Mazda tried to restrict the exhaust on the RX-8 at the cost of performance last minute. (Just so they get the tax break)

pelucidor

I just double-checked with my dealer again - when they said 'on a truck' they meant 'released and therefore we assume it is on a truck as has been the case for every other RX-8 so far'. When two people at Mazda Customer Service said the car had left port en route to the dealer I assume they meant 'released' as well.

So I got worried for nothing - it will probably be another week or so before the truck even picks it up. No more thoughts of the truck driver zipping around Buenos Aires in my red RX-8.

BTW today the release date for my car suddenly changed from 31st July to 4th August - nobody knows why.

Also I found out that apparently all the Houston area dealers (perhaps all of Texas) were in a conference call yesterday afternoon and told that all cars not yet released will be delayed a further 2 weeks. The excessive time at port is being caused by an unexpected demand for port options and accessories and there are not enough people to install them. I asked why unallocated cars were having options put on and shipped before pre-ordered cars - there was no explanation given.

zoom44

a-ha!! i have also seen several other people reporting a change in there delivery week lately. if memory serves me they were all port midlothian cars. some were delayed as much as 2 weeks. budaman could probably give us the straight scoop next time he pops in. or give him a call he, works at mazda south right?

Tyler Durden

Sounds like my situation : Left port 7/26 (Midlothian) arrived at dealer (Fayetteville , Ar) today

Avg speed > 2mph

Forget about the rx-8 being down on power that truck is REALLY down on power !

Show of hands , Who thinks MNAO has got a lot of explaining to do ?!

pelucidor

My dealer just received my car! Off to pick it up now. Happy weekend ahead...

zoom44

get us some pics before the weekend! congrats pelucidor!!:D

mazdabob

My car was released from Port Hueneme last Friday (8/1). I was told it would be here Tuesday or Wednesday (8/5 or 6). Today (8/7) I was told it would be loaded on the truck tomorrow and would be here around next Tuesday. Apparently, the cars are on the truck for several days before leaving the port.

mikeb

congrats. I'm happy you got your rx8. I was checking this thread often because I felt bad you hadn't got yours yet. You probably wont read this for a day or two you will be so busy having fun in the 8

Digisan

Dude, where's my car?

pelucidor

At the dealership the fates were smiling - the first time I ever saw my own car there was just dazzling sunshine and the gold sprinkles in the red paint GLEAMED from almost 10' away - I have never seen the Velocity Red look so good (and I have tested a red RX-8 3 times, seen one at the Rev-It-Up and also at the Motor Show). It is ahead of silver as my favourite again...

The dealership was great - the GM cheered when he saw me finally get my car (he knows me), the sales manager popped in on his day off and bumped into me to say congrats (he has my number on speed dial on his cell-phone) and my sales guy (Richard aka RX8Seller here) did a superb job on going over the car, NAV system and manuals etc - he is a long time rotary driver and one of the best (meaning honest and helpful) salesmen I have experienced. I have to say the dealership has always been honest and gave great service - a big thank you to Jeff Haas Mazda in Houston, I look forward to doing all my servicing there.

However not everything was perfect - the passenger seat plastic side (near airbag symbol) had a dent, as did the rear door interior trim. It seems someone at the port had slammed the rear door shut whilst the seatbelt strike (metal plate) was twisted and turned 90% so it left these two dents. Of course the dealership will replace the effected items once the parts come in, and the dents are not too noticable (I didn't see it during my inspection and neither did Richard - thank my wife's supervision). In fact my wife and I spent over 30mins going over the inside and outside of the car very carefully and that was the only flaw we found.

But this barely registers on my enjoyment of this car. A full write up will follow next week if anyone is interested (how many more reviews can you take?). Personally I am taking a sabbatical from the forum until Monday to focus on the car instead of reading and writing about it.

But I have to share one last thing: on the way home (I took some quiet back roads to avoid people and concentrate on the vehicle) I noticed some big black dude in an old Civic next to me waving frantically to wind my window down. I did so and he shouted 'beautiful car - is it a V8'.
I shout back 'No, it's a rotary'.
'But does it have a V8?'.
'It doesn't have ANY cylinders, it's a rotary engine'
'Wow - that's cool man - I like it.'

Yep, this car is special...

mazdabob

I'm still waiting for mine! My car was released from Port Hueneme last Friday (8/1). I was told it would be here Tuesday or Wednesday (8/5 or 6). Thursday (8/7) I was told it would be loaded on the truck on Friday and would be here next Monday or Tuesday. Apparently, the cars are on the truck for several days before leaving the port. It's only a 5 hour drive! Now, for a bit of good news. The sales manager got a demo on Thursday which, coincidentally, is configured exactly the same as mine, just a different color (gray). I took it for a test drive, and then told him I would take it. Unfortunately, it's registered as a demo and can't be sold for 6 months. As I was dejectedly leaving, he said that I could have his demo until my car arrives. So, even tho it's not mine, I finally have an RX-8.

rxeightr

Please do, as I do not get tired of hearing people's first impressions of their own RX-8.

Congrats btw, on finally getting your baby home.