Dealerships pushing synthetic oil now?
 

I just called up my dealership to schedule an oil change and the guy says, in a real "I'm trying to offer you something that I have rehearsed" telemarketer-style voice that they now offer synthetic oil for the RX-8's.

This happen to anyone else? Is this some money gabbing thing (+$10 more than regular) or has Mazda legitimately begun to recommend synthetic oil for the 8?

The guy that answered the phone must be new, since most the guys there know me now and have been good to me and my 8, so it is possible the guy I talked to is "just following orders" and is somewhat car-tarded.

I'll still be sticking with the standard Castrol 5W20 myself, but I thought this was interesting.

Hmmmmmmmmm! Interesting. I am planning to do an oil change in about 2-3 weeks. Lets see what the dealership in Atlanta has to say.

thats wierd because there another guy in this forum who was denied his engine warranty because he used synthetic oil.

how would they even know your running synthetic unless you were a dumbass and told them

wouldn't you have to show records if you wanted the engine covered under warrenty?

and records would show synthetic i say not

unfortuantly I have one from the previous owner that does.... Not sure what I'm going to do about it...

i dont think you would have to show them all just a few of em, i do my own maintinance so when ever my engine dies ill find out what to do

+1!

Yup, just read it. It's the one about the BBB. Maybe print it out and bring it to the dealer and ask them what's up.

Castrol 5W20 every 3K and sitting at 103K and I'm certain there are 8's out there over 100K using synthetic. Good rule of thumb though, whatever a stealership is selling don't buy it.

I always thought about that, for those of us who change our own oil what the heck do we do if they want records? Make them up?

I sometimes remember to save receipts when I buy oil and filters, that should do it. I also keep a record of when I do maintenance. You can even enter it on a Mazda customer site somewhere. If that doesn't do it, I just happen to have a bunch of old, used filters sitting around in my garage. I decided not to throw them out. Just in case, Mazda doesn't accept my records, and I ever need a new engine, I'm really going to enjoy dumping the old, used filters on some regional service rep's desk to prove that I changed my oil.

MazdaUSA.com, owner's section. It is directly linked with the same database that dealers use to pull up history.

I enter all my maintenance there, and I keep every oil filter from every oil change with the date and mileage written on the filter box in sharpie.

I decided not to rely on keeping oil purchase receipts, since that doesn't prove anything (only that you bought oil, not that you changed it, hell, it doesn't even mean the oil was for your 8), and thermal receipt paper fades out with temperature variation fairly quickly, rendering them useless blank pieces of paper. Not to mention I'm not sure I want to be showing them exactly what oil I used so they can't use that against me.

If the record kept on MazdaUSA.com isn't sufficient (and legally, it is), then I have my growing stack of oil filters to bring in :) (have 12 at the moment)

Save receipts, filters and record mileage. That's good enough for any dealer or court in the country.

The thing I have against synthetic oil is even though you don't need to change as often as conventional oil those small metal particles from engine wear are still in there regardless. My wife's BMW uses synthetic, something like every 15K they change it. I would like to see an analysis of my oil at 3K compared to her's
at 15K. Does anyone know where I can find an unbiased study like this?

RIWWP: the mazdausa owners section is great for record keeping and dealership maintenance also gets uploaded into that database but unfortunately dealerships are still requiring invoices.
A buddy of mine has his car in at the dealership now for engine replacement, this guy is a data freak, keeps EVERY record, does everything by the book kinnda guy and even though every single service was on the mazda site, they still asked him to provide invoices. (which he had available but was still somewhat redundant)

^...............agree. If I ever need an engine and the info I keep updated on the Mazda provided site isn't proof enough, I'll go ballistic!
Trust me, they won't like what I put them through. Trust me, I have the resources, time, and money. Might take awhile to do it, but once I get a bug up my @ss.......watchout! :evil_laug

Don't want another oil thread, but it is interesting given all the crap about use of synthetic vs. non-synthetic debates.
Jeez, you'd think Mazda would be consistent! Guess not!

thats stupid....

They should be able to reproduce the invoices if they are the ones that issued them.

Legally, the burden of proof is on the dealership to prove a lack of maintenance. When in doubt, the law sides with the owner. I 100% agree with a dealer's request for you to provide some sort of records of service, however requiring 'invoices' is somewhat absurd. I can see them trying that with each owner first, to see how much low hanging fruit they can avoid paying out on, but it doesn't take much legal pushing to get past that. People have been doing their own maintenance on cars since cars were publicly available, and it isn't going to stop, and there will never be invoices for this self maintenance. (Maybe CA or NJ might lead the pack by issuing laws against self maintenance?)

Legally, the dealer has a right to request records for some assurance that service was in-fact done on the vehicle, however almost every manual you pick up out there has a space in the back for you to write in the date, mileage, and service you performed yourself. There is an implicit agreement by including that section that this simple information will be accepted. I take it another step by saving the oil filters.

If ever need an engine replaced under warranty, I expect them to give me some trouble about it, but paying the time, money, irritation, and damage risk of having a shop or dealer do my service is not worth it from my perspective. I'd prefer a brief legal fight at the end.

Either that or voluntarily taking the costs on myself and getting the engine an upgraded rebuild :)

No, we're talking about those of us who change our oil ourselves so there are no dealer invoices to reproduce.

I agree with you completely RIWWP as you know I'm a DIY kinnda guy myself but I assume Mazda looks at it from the perspective that what is to stop someone from just making up service records as they go along. :dunno:
The Mazda Dealership services are uploaded automatically but I can always log on and tell the computer that I did oil changes every 1,500 miles using only Mazda approved 5w-20 and OEM oil filters. ;)

Yup, the potential for fraud exists, but even if someone didn't do service and faked the records, the law sides with them unless the dealer can prove mechanically that they didn't do any service, or that the records are faked (like looking at the date/time stamp of the entries in the database for when they were entered, I'm positive it is recorded, and seeing everything entered in on the same day, etc...). Of course, there is also the possibility of getting a shady shop or dealer to print out fake invoices, which the dealer would still have to accept unless they could prove fraud.

I went through this fight with Toyota, and my lawyer and I sat down and dug through the laws surrounding warranty claims.

speaking of inputting all of them at once, I really need to get off my lazy ass and input all my invoices onto there instead of just having everything in a 3 ring binder.
hmm, that is going to make me look like a Shifty Bastard. Eh, oh well.
I send my local dealership a TON of business and know the owner on a first name basis so I think if I ever need a new engine, I should be okay. :cool:

how much "fun" was that fight with Toyota?

yea i see now, I misread that as he had all the maintenace done by the dealer and they put it in the system and they were still denying the claim.

Not very.

They ended up agreeing that it wasn't my fault, but spent months fighting over whether it was the dealer's service problem or a warranty claim, all while I was still paying on the completely unusable corolla, until my lawyer came down seriously sick and it timed out in court because he couldn't keep up with the paperwork.

I took a pretty big bath on it.