rotary crazy

well guys, I made a few phone calls and now I have the oposite felling that when I saw the video.

The people that I talk to told me that its a special car and had a special treatment from now on, that in fact they are going to put more attention to the car now as recuested from MAZDA JAPAN and more effort in satisfying the customer.

captain mercury

regardless of whether or not we are getting stirred up over a bit of corprorate mumbo-jumbo (ie nothing), Mazda's image has been tarnished over this video. hopefully they'll hear some of the voices here.

rotary crazy

I got the completly different impresion from my conversations, they keep talking about rotary cars, and MAZDA JAPAN wants to adrees the issues for future rotary vehicles.

I hope mazdas answers quickly because I dont think we want to hurt mazda over a miss understanding

RexApex

Before seeign this video I was confident that the engine issues are rare and no real threat to my car. Now I know that the Rx8 has so many problems that the Mazda has admitted it's unreasonable to expect dealers to be able to make Rx8 owners happy.

again:
Mazda has admitted it is unreasonable to expect that Rx8 owners to be happy.

I don't care what they do with the survey. I don't have problems with my dealer, and don't expect that to change. But Mazda has just convinced me that the Rx8 is a lemon, and that's depressing.
--R.

r0tor

iTrader: (1)

never would have guessed that RX8 owners where whinny little -------

zoom44

well talan has been calling for the demise of the 8 since like 2003 soo... grain of salt anyone?

RedSheDevil

I think it's unfair to lump all 8 owners into the group called "whiners." I've owned 2 Hondas, a Toyota, a Pontiac, and a Chrysler. Of all of these cars, I have never had problems that required me to visit a dealership unless it was a recall I was notified of.

That being said, I have only had one bad experience at a Mazda dealership (not my usual one because my flood happened when I was out of state). My local dealership has been very fair, considerate, timely and fixed the problem on the first shot. Am I completely satisfied that everything was always handled perfectly? No. But life isn't perfect. I felt they handled me and my car as well as they could and have given them excellent scores every time.

That being said, the problems with my car stem from the engineering and not the post-production fixing the dealership has had to do. The automotive industry is bizarre to say the least. It's like corporate and dealerships are not working on the same team. Corporate can't trust the dealerships to uphold their end of the bargain, so they create this satisfaction survey to try and hold them accountable. Dealerships can't trust corporate because they feel corporate has left them holding the bag for the design flaws on the 8.

We, the consumer, are just stuck in the middle of a situation that really requires a complete overhaul. This could be a great opportunity for MNAO to recreate themselves ... or they could hang themselves in the process. It will definitely be an interesting scenario either way.

TomAssBender

ive never cared about cars that much before I got my 8, so I am not too sure how dealerships work as a whole, but...

Is it standard practice at all dealerships to have incentives that revolve around satisfaction surveys?

dmc27

1st impression: shady business practice. Welcome to the real world. This is tame compared to most stuff going on in big business today.

My interpretation of the video: Dealership perks (given by Mazda for "good survey results" are being gobbled up by dealerships that

- don't sell many 8's and therefore don't suffer the negative impact of the 8's problems.
- sell 8's in areas that have less instances of engine failure & therefore don't suffer negative impact

The dealerships that are being affected are bitching b/c they don't get that extra bonus based on surveys, and this is Mazda's way of evening the playing field for their DEALERS.

That said, I still find it a bit unsettling.

r0tor

iTrader: (1)

true it is unfair to lump people under one umbrella...

BUT, there is no way anyone buying a sports car should ever be taking their car (with the best braking power in the market) into the dealer and repeatedly complain about squeaky brakes. There is no way a rotary car buyer should be complaining about gas milage, idle quality, flooding, oil consumption, milky dipsticks unless there is a SERIOUS problem because guess what - you choose a rotary engine which has always had these problems!


I place alot of blame on Mazda too - not for making this car the way it is, but advertising it as the sports car that everyone can live with (4 door sportscar!) and ignoring the fact it comes with an engine that requires alot of devotion to live with

Spin9k

Does amyone REALLY know what dealership get from these surveys? What is it that is so lucrative/important that the 'dealer council' held a pow-wow to get these 8 surveys deleted from consideration? I like to know the real deal - otherwise we are all speculating on - nothing we actually know about.

BunnyGirl

Well, according to my stepbrother, when worked at a car dealership the dealers got quarterly "bonus incentives" for providing "excellent service" with respect to maintenance and repairs. He didn't specifically work at the Mazda lot of his dealership but he worked at the Ford lot and several others. They got some sort of percentage based on how many vehicles they serviced and cost volume of the service they did weighted against their satisfaction score. I don't know what this calculated out to monetarily but it must be a pretty big deal to them.

auzoom

This was my point. The video was all about dealerships, whose primary purpose as a business is to make money. They do a lot of money making by servicing cars from manufacturers. The manufacturers asses if and how much to pay the dealers by these surveys in question. Unfortunately, the RX-8 is a new car, with some teathing problems. What the dealers are complaining about is that they are the ones getting punished for the faults with the car. For this reason, mazda have said that they want owners to continue to feedback on the car, but they wont hold the dealers accountable.

Not having seen one of the surveys and without being able to ask questions I am assuming that any survey filled out for an RX-8 is not attributed to the dealer in its entirity. I think this is the worst part of what they are doing. The survey should be split into sections for the car and the dealer. The dealer should always be punished for things that are in their control of, such as rudeness, laziness, bad workmanship etc, but should not be held responsible for those that are out of their control, such as faults with the car, non availablity of parts, etc.

Cheers

Andrew

Cam

iTrader: (1)

Just watched the video (havent read the whole thread).

I sent an email to my dealer requesting the new flash for my 8 and never even got a response (first time in 2+ years). Hmm, wonder if this had anything to do with it?

Razz1

Relax... have a
Your taking the video out of context.



Did you know a Super Charger will be the results of the new special care we are getting?

Stop being babies.

musclecarconvrt

Razz1, I love my car, haven't had many problems, and I had a beer with dinner. Tonights extra sudds didn't help much. When I first picked up my RX8 I swear I knew more about my car than anyone at any of the three dealerships in my area. I would call them about a flash or a rotary quirk and get met with the deer-in-the-headlights look. The first recall (trans heat shield) was done by a kid reading a book about it on the shop floor for crying out loud! Since them my service has been much improved with my local dealer highering a very knowledgeable, RX7 experienced, and currnent RX8 owning service tech tech. I was greatly releived when my new tech came to town and am happy with his service. I even called his boss to brag on him and filled out the happy little survey was all top scores. A new supercharger would be a cool factory option, but that has nothing to do with some (not all) service techs not knowing diddly squat about our car. And now thanks to MNAO, they don't have to.

I ran out of warranty about 3 months ago. The new flash to help with the intakes sticking due to carbon buildup on cruise at highway speeds might have fixed my wagon. Now, I may have to either wait for it to be a recall or run a premix, or just not use my cruise control on my hour long drive to work every morning.

Video content and context: "We are well aware of the furstrations with the RX8...I'm sure you will all be happy to hear... the scores for the RX8 will not be counted... it's like a whole bunch of mulligans..." I didn't catch "fix cars" in there anywhere let alone "supersharger".

saturn

Yeah, what kind of whiny loser complains about getting accused of abuse every time they request warranty work. Back in my day we didn't need warranties. If our car broke down we'd pick the car up and carry it home.

On a side note, after further reflection, if Mazda can put out a 280-300hp FI RX-8 before something better comes along (e.g. - Evo X, Supra) I'd still buy it. As much as I really feel that this is a jackass move every car purchase comes with a bit of risk. If Mazda Japan is behind the rotary enough to continue to push the performance envelope then it's good enough for me.

EyeBall Fixer...(o)(x)

We're whinny with good reason...

Mulligan
N
Abandoment
O

Someone help me with the rest...

saturn

All I got is My Nards Are Oval. I mean, it's true, but probably doesn't have the effect you were going for.

captain mercury

**** the dealers and their bonuses. their jobs are to sell cars and provide service - under warranty or otherwise - to those who drive their cars. its not like drivers are getting bonuses for taking care of their cars well enough on their own that no warranty work is needed.

that said, it seems mazda is admitting that the rx-8 will have too many problems for the dealers to handle to customer satisfaction. so i guess MNAO is just taking the blame. problem is, i dont imagine those fat cats taking any cuts from their bonuses either.

why am i still typing? srry

rotary crazy

what I was told was that because the car was rare the tech at the dealer took longer to fix any inconvinience and sometimes din't know what was bad with the car and make mistakes this causes the client to get mad and give the dealer a bad review.

againg this is what I was told by somepeople that work for mazda I might be getting fed a lot of BS, but I really dont think MNAO want to be flooded by lemon law suit's

rodrigo67

Has it occured to anyone that we have yet to hear a thing from MNAO. The dealers are putting thier best face on it but we have yet to hear from Mazda. Zoom has been waiting a week and others here have contacted MNAO and haven't heard a thing.

Isn't this confirmation that the complaints of RX8 owners are no longer important and can be ignored. They are not telling us this is a misunderstanding or that there is a new way to handle RX8 issues. Thier silence validates our concerns. They are ignoring our complaints...about being ignored.

This is just a taste of whats coming when we go in for service. Now, am I saying that those who are getting good service will now get bad service...no, but it does show that if we have issues that the dealer cannot or will not fix, we may have a very hard time getting things resolved...

rotary crazy

Big corporations work that way, they may answer tomorrow or in 2 month

terretsboy

I say if you have any problems go to the better business bureau. If enough people complain, I'm sure they will listen.
I 've had nothing but great experiences with my dealership. When I went in for a couple of problems, the guy who sold me the car came out and said hi and remembered me from over a year ago. the dealership called up and asked me how everything was and asked if I had any suggestions.

dmc27

Bunny's post is exactly what I was thinking. This is an internal issue that Mazda has with dealership's bitching that they missed out on XXX dollars/bonuses b/c of the high volume of 8 issues they deal with.
Andrew - you are absolutely right. However, if my engine crapped out at 70k miles, I would have a hard time separating my disappointment w/Mazda and my disappointment with the dealership.

It's all just corporate BS. If you have a good dealership - it's b/c that dealership takes pride in what they do, and will continue to do so. Those that can't find a good one locally (sorry!) may see the sh8tty service get worse, and I really feel for ya.