Word from MazdaUSA
 

I spoke with Mazda customer relations yesterday at around 5 eastern time. The representitive looked up my VIN and told me he was aware of the Port delay. I asked him about what my dealer in Mass. said in a phone conversation at 4pm. My dealer told me "we just got a call, and their (Port Jersey) holding them for TEN days". He gave no other explanation.

I refused to believe what my dealer told me (Iraqi information minister is more reliable) and call Mazda directly. The rep, after running my VIN, said he was aware that the RX8's are seeing extended port times and was a result of a 100% inspection rather than at random. As is the case with current models like the 6 or Tribute etc.

He also said the 10 day Port hold as stated by my dealer was incorrect. He had an "Estimated dealer delivery date" of the 14th -18th in the computer at Mazda. This Monday is the 14th.....he said the car could even be released today.

I also asked him about VIN status lag time. He said unless the vehicle is released on Friday afternoon, it will reflect in the computer system. In other words, if it is shipped today, it wont show Released until monday.

My car currently at Port in Jersey and According to Mazda will be here next week. Hope this helps

Thanks a lot, I'm looking forward to Monday :)

Re: Word from MazdaUSA
 

What's starting to make me nervous is why are they doing a 100% inspection this late in the process. There are things they are not telling us.

Any sort of delay costs Mazda money. Big money. On one hand it is to their credit they are trying to fix any and all problems as they arise, but on the other it makes me wonder what new problems will crop up in the field.

Any time you introduce a completely new model there are going to be glitches and unforseeen bugs. The E39 M5 is a great example of this where the first year engines required special motor oil (3x $) and burned a quart every 5k miles. BMW fixed the problem the following year but first year buyers have to live with it for the life of their car.

The RX-8 is a brand new car with two glitches so far: a production delay that threatened to delay delivery by two months, and a port inspection that is taking twice the normal amount of time. I'm starting to wonder about long-term reliability. That Lancer EVO is looking better and better. :)
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Children Wellbutrin

Re: Re: Word from MazdaUSA
 

What does a production delay and port inspection have to do with glitches with the car. I thought these two things were intended to DECREASE the possibility of glitches.

I agree that for overall performance the Evo is better than the RX-8.

The Evo, however, produces something like 18psi to get its power. I, personally, have no faith in the reliability of any factory car that puts that much stress on an engine. Longterm reliability of the NA Renesis should be hands down better than the Evo.

It is runing something like 19psi. That is just nasty

Re: Re: Word from MazdaUSA
 

i'm just as nervous as you are...the longer they wait and hold the cars, the more costs they incur...i, for one, am very suspicious and can't believe the fact that they just want to do a 100% inspection instead of doing it random...i'm beginning to believe that they may have found a problem(s) that they're trying to cover up or fix before releasing the car in order to prevent a nationwide recall later on

damn, i should have never gotten into the X-Files

Re: Re: Re: Word from MazdaUSA
 

Here we get down the difference between prevention and cure. You can say "let's take more time during production to reduce the chance of defects." Management will think you're nuts 'cause time costs money. Therefore, unforseen production delay == a glitch. Something happened that caused production to take longer than anticipated. A cure was found and the delay was not as long as initially feared.
Regarding the port inspection, can you think of any valid reason why you'd want to inspect every car? You don't do that unless you have a good reason to suspect a problem exists in most if not all the cars.
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CRF100

Production wasn't delayed, they just started our cars later. They originally planned on receiving 1000 preorders for Japan but instead got 5000. Thats an extra 4000 cars to produce before they could start our NA preorders. Maybe they did find a small intermittent problem in production so they decided to inspect every car to make sure it was ok, look at the bright side at least they found it. Right? It could of been something as small as a clip on a wiring harness so they had to check every car and add if necessary, so they had to hold the cars til they had the parts.

because thes are the first production destined for a customer rx-8s transported to another country by mazda. and they want to make sure that everything went right in shipping and to make sure that anything that didn't go right is found and included in the "what to look for " checklist for the next ones that arrive. remember this is a brand new car, not just a redesign.