My RX-8 is officially a lemon
 

I like my 04 a lot which I have had since the first batch of 04 hit the dealers. However, I have had 6 occasions now in the last 4 months where it will not start for a variety of reasons. I had 3 times where the local dealer couldn't find out anything wrong and the within two days it would not start again.

I have called the Service Manaager (an incompetent), the lead mechanic, etc. I am waiting on the tow service now. I skipped the Mazda tow service after being on hold for 30 minutes this morning. I told the local Mazda they will authorize payment.

The car is on a 4 year lease as I didnt want to purchase the new Rotary as I had no idea how the value you would hold up.

I know a lot of you have great cars but mine is a lemon and it has had every maintenance, every flash upgrade, etc.

Dean

Have you contacted Mazda?

I have contacted the following:

1) Mazda Service Rep
2) Mazda Service Manager
3) Mazda of North America
4) My attorney
5) Bob King's Mazda's legal secretary

At this point, I am waiting for a flatbed truck to come tow the car. In the meantime, I am missing out at $125 per hour for my work. My total cosulting time lost now exceds $3500.

I want a new car at this point but Mazda just keeps saying it is different problem every third time I have the car towed in. I had to raise hell just to get a loaner the first two times.

I have now gotten to the point where they dont want to hear me giving them hell so they get me a loaner.

It is nice to know the legal secretary will not return any phone calls to myself or my attorney.

I am not trying to be an a-hole but something has to give. This is my primary business car and I have to have a car that will crank and I need Mazda to figure out what is going on with it

Dean

Just to add a comment about Mazda. Based on all the problems I have had with my RX-8, the fact that my local dealer BOB KING MAZDA is INCOMPETENT, and the fact that I have had to fight to get a loaner, I will NEVER buy another MAZDA.

I realize that all companies sometimes produce lemons. The biggest part of this is how the local dealer handles it. My local dealer has been horrible. They tried to give it back to me two times without figuring out the problem. The only way I got it resolved is that a client of mine used to work with the lead mechanic and called him up and asked as a personal favor to find out what was going on in my car. The last time he said that the trunk light was staying on and draining my battery yet it didnt start a couple of other times and they were clueless.

Today it tries to turnover but wont crank.

If I could get out of the lease, I would drop the car today. It has been the most undependable car I have ever had and it gives me a bad image of Mazda since this is the only Mazda I have ever owned.

The only other bad experience I had with a dealer was with Mitsubishi about 20 years ago and I never have purchased another Mitsu and never will. I have had good luck with Honda, Acura, Infiniti, and BMW support.

Have you checked the leomon laws wherever you live to see if it's legally a lemon?

Your thread title says "officially" but there are legal criteria for that.

Ken

GOOD!

Be an asshole!! and make as much noise as you can and let them know you will not go away.

Goodluck!

dean: what state do you live in? What are the OFFICIAL rules for declaring it a lemon? (thread title is deceiving)

The dealer is the key to service because they represent the company in front of the customer. My bad experience is with a Honda dealer never solving issues with my 1998 Civic. Same outcome: I'll never buy another Honda.
Good luck getting this resolved.

I am dealing with the same thing with Mazda but have not gone further than MNAO as they are resolving my problems. They first sent out a Regional Tech Specialest who knew what he was talking about (really!) and worked on my car twice and was very nice about it. Because they (MNAO) was not able to fix my car I am currently in the process of a new replacement with no out of pocket for me. I think if you work with MNAO and not your dealership you will be supprised how helpful they are.

I just wrote a letter to MNAO and the healing began...

The Lemon Law in NC is that three repairs of the same problem and the car is a lemon. However, they have a lot of wiggle room as my attorney already advised me that dealers are aware of this also and like to make sure they diagnosis a different problem. It doesnt matter if you care wont crank three times and you take it to the dealer. It only matters if they determined the cause and tried to fix the SAME CAUSE three times.

Under the law, mine is officially a lemon but Mazda says it was a different problem the first time as they replaced the starter even though they also replaced the battery and it was a power drain.

This is the 6th time in 4 months I have taken my care to Mazda for a power drain issue.

I got the attention of the owner of place and explained to him how much money I was losing and met with him for a few minutes. He said that if they do not fix it correctly this time, he will work with me on other alternatives.

I feel it is in everyones best interest for me to give him a chance. If they do fix the car and it will not crank again, I am going to call him personally and say "Time for you to get me a new car."

Is this the owner of the dealership? Any alternative relolutions ie: new car will be approved by MNAO not the dealer. MNAO will absorbe the loss by putting you into another car. I would call them and start the healing as I did.

This is probably one of the best things you can do. Hopefully the owner will do something for you. You have every right to be an A-hole and get your problem fixed. I understand that this had made you not want a Mazda again, but hopefully the Owner of the dealership will do something to make you think again.

As others have said the dealer is the main reason you wouldn't buy a certain make again, I actually have the opposite with Pontiacs. I bought a used Grand Prix from a Pontiac dealership and then traded it in for a brand new car a year and a half later. They treated me incredibly well even though I was young when I got the first car there. Anytime I went in for service they didn't try to bs me (well no more than most dealers...none of them are perfect;))

Good luck with your battle and hopefully you get some regained faith in Mazda...well at least in their cars.

I have also had major problems with my car however unlike you I found a dealer that has been very good to me. Not the original dealer I purchased from. It makes all the difference in the world. I also have a 4 year lease. Sometimes you just get a lemon.

wow you make $125 an hour? I want your job! Mmmmhmmm over 250K a year......Just go buy another 8 and let me have yours as a parts car ;)

have you tried taking it to another dealer who may not be incompetant when it comes to diagnosing problems

You have to understand that I dont get 40 billable hours per week and there is a lot of work I do that I dont bill for. But yes $125 per hour is my billable rate.

I agree 100% that how the service center treats a person is the basis for people deciding whether they will buy another car from that company.

I told the Tow Truck driver that at this point I wish I would have bought the Infiniti. He laughed and said "I Never tow an Infiniti."

You can have your personal opinions of likes and dislikes about the G35 but the Infiniti dealer in town gives you top notch service and makes you want to buy another Infiniti.

I also understand that it is Mazda that makes the decision on whether to give you a new car or not. However, I do think it is fair to give the owner of a chain of car dealers the opportunity to make sure the car is fixed right. If it is not fixed correctly this time, I at least can go back to the actual owner and say "Work with me on getting a new car."

To be honest, it would be a ton of hassle to get a new car and I would prefer that Mazda fix my car right. I dont want to have to go through the hassle of getting the satellite radio re-installed, GPS hardwired (Not the cheap Mazda GPS).

All I want is for the car to start and run during the week. I only put 12k on the car a year and it is in mint condition. There is not a single dink in the paint job and the leather interior is in perfect condition.

This is getting rediculous. The local Mazda just called and said it was my battery. This is the 2nd replacement battery in 3 months. The problem is that there is a power drain which I have been telling them over and over. He said that because it is not a Mazda Brand battery that it is a problem. I bought the current battery at Autozone after I waited 8 hours for Tow service. I then asked the manager if this battery was suitable or if I needed to get the Mazda one. The service manager told me this battery was fine.

I just got off the phone with Mazda of America. I am going to call them right back and explain that they are treating the symptoms and not the cause.

Like I said before, If you call MNAO and tell them your story as I did they will send you out a Regional Tech Specialest. I was uneasy about having just another tech working on my car but this guy was the best. He is the one that comes out to fix your car when:

1. you call MNAO
2. when the dealer cannot fix and needs assistance. (dealerships use this as a
last resort).

I just tried calling MNAO and it said they are not available at this time. I am assuming it is too close to 5pm EST.

I called the owner and managed to get through to him and he said he would pay for the battery after I gave him hell about it.

Just to go back some, the first time the car wouldn't start, I had Mazda replace the battery. It failed two to three weeks later. This was when it took 8 hours for a flat bed. I had some good sumaritan nice enough to drive me down to a autozone and got a replacement battery. It still wouldnt start. I went to the service manager and said "I bought this battery from Autozone that is for the RX-8. Is this ok? " She said yes. I asked if Mazda should be paying for a Mazda replacement and she said no.

The car HAS A POWER DRAIN somewhere and they cant seem to fix it.

MNA did say they had escalated the call to a regional manager. I will call back when I can tomorrow. I have a big project I put off today.

Unfortunately I put too much credit in the owner of the BOB KING MAZDA IN WINSTON-SALEM (STAY AWAY EVERYONE!!!).

I will have to call them tomorrow. I told the local dealer I only wanted Mazda NA to handle it from this point on. I cant believe they tried to charge me for another battery.

Wouldn't that violate the Magnus-something (do a search) act? The one that says you can't pin a problem on me not using Mazda parts in a Mazda.

I am finding there is not a lot of honesty nor honor at my local dealer. I dont want them to touch the car again. I told them I want everything handled through Mazda of NA.

I'm curious about something.

You said your car is an '04, one of the first. So you've had it for about three years, and I think you said this problem has arisen in the past few months.

How was it for the first 2 1/2 years?

I also wonder about how old a car has to be before the lemon laws stop applying. Is it for the duration of the warranty?

Ken

It varies state to state. In California it is 4 or more times for repair for the same nonconformity. 30 days or more in a repair facility for the same nonconformity within the first 18 months of service or 18000 miles. 3 times for a saftey related item. These items need to affect the saftey, driveability, or value of your car.

This is pretty standard for most states..

Did you have any work done, add anything, or otherwise alter the car in any way about 4 months ago? Like maybe that 3rd party GPS system that you talked about in one of your posts?