Originally Posted by Bladecutter

I'm glad you got things straightened out, and that Mazda NA called the dealer, and set them straight, too.

BC.

Originally Posted by Edenney

Easy mistake for someone to make who isn't a service technician or the service manager himself at a major Mazda dealership. It's their job to know the warranty coverage of every vehicle they service, and to have the ability to find the correct information if they're not sure. Really though, there's no excuse when it comes to the Catalytic converter, since every single vehicle made since 1995, from every single manufacturer, is required by law to have the same minimum warranty coverage of 8/80K. It's not like it varies from model year to model year, or model to model, or even manufacturer to manufacturer. It's the same for EVERY vehicle they service. How someone could make it to the level of service manager without knowing something as basic and universal as that, defies logic. Which begs the question of which is more likely... that he was just that ignorant, or was he being dishonest and trying to avoid repairs that were clearly covered under warranty.

When I called the Van Nuys dealership and quickly explained what had happened at the Santa Clarita dealership, he immediately said "oh sure! It's definitely 8/80K on the Cat., bring it right in and we'll get you taken care of! He couldn't have been any friendlier or more helpful, and just said to bring it in tomorrow and ask for him, and that he has the part in stock or can get it within minutes. The Santa Clarita dealership, only 20 miles away, said they had to order it and I would need to make an appt.. Not only was he rude and unhelpful yesterday, as was the other guy I dealt with at that dealership, but he was flat out WRONG about the warranty coverage. You couldn't have had two more polar opposite experiences as I've had with Van Nuys and Santa Clarita.

I haven't even told the whole story about the runaround S.C. gave me. They wouldn't accept just the code for the Cat. (verified at 3 different shops including theirs) coupled with the check engine light. Before they'd do anything they'd have to run a full diagnostic which would be $90, unless they ended up replacing the Cat under warranty, but they denied it was under warranty so I'd have to pay for the diagnostic before going any further. Before we even got to the warranty stuff, they started talking about how Cats just don't fail, and there has to be another problem with the car that's causing it, and he started talking about the O2 sensor and other stuff. He was clearly going down the road of trying to find something else to have me pay to replace, IF they were going to replace the Cat under warranty. Again though, that's before he found an excuse to deny the warranty repair.

He also talked about all these things that I might be doing/have done wrong to cause the Cat to fail, and all of them were things I don't do. I use quality high octane gas, I always let my car warm up before driving, I make sure to get the RPMs up periodically as everybody suggests with these engines, etc. etc.. I found that particularly offensive. The law is quite clear, as is the warranty booklet (which I didn't have at the time), about the very few things that might disqualify warranty repair of the Cat.. They're very extreme circumstances and have to be proven. Saying something like "Cats just don't fail unless there's something else wrong with the car or you're doing something wrong" doesn't cut it as an excuse to deny coverage, and it's not the sort of thing you say to your customers without have some sort of hard proof that the car has been mistreated. Besides, there was even a recall on the Cats for these, and this car itself had the Cat replaced once already in 06 after just several thousand miles. Awfully strange considering Cats just don't fail..

Anyway, just ranting. I don't at all appreciate the way I was treated and the BS information I was given, regardless of the reason. I might've driven it straight to another mechanic and paid for the repair, and I'd be out $1500+ right now. You know full well Mazda wouldn't just cut me a check and say they were sorry for the mistake. That's assuming I'd even discovered proof after the fact that the warranty WAS 8/80K as I'd told him I believed it was to begin with.

Originally Posted by alnielsen

Catalytic Converter is covered under the Emissions Warranty for U.S. cars. 8yrs/80,000 miles.

Originally Posted by BigOLundh

My dealer just told me the emissions warranty is 84 months (7rs) / 70,000 Miles)
I have a 2005 Model