Cooder

I'm going to do my own front brake pads and so I called a bunch of dealerships as well as Mazdatrix and also checked out the Rosenthal Mazda (RX8club forum vendor) website.

I was confused because Rosenthal lists the front brake pads for ~$70 and Mazdatrix is close at ~$71, yet many local dealerships I called quoted me between $97 and $115. Turns out they were quoting me for brake pads with hardware (shims, clips, etc). If you don't specify that you want the set without hardware, they will automatically quote the more expensive set with hardware that you may not even need. After I called back the dealerships and specifically asked for the set without hardware and gave them the part number, most quoted me between $72 and $76. Don't forget to specify the pad set WITHOUT hardware!

The Mazdatrix website clearly shows this along with the separate parts numbers:


front with hardware: 33-23Z0-F1Y2
front without hardware: 33-28ZA-F1Y1
rear with hardware: 26-43Z0-F1Y1
rear without hardware: 26-48Z0-F1Y1


Also be sure to check out internet coupons. Some dealerships have coupons for 10% or 15% off parts. These can be gotten off the http://www.mazdausa.com website using the dealership locator (for anyone who doesn't know it yet, the Mazda site is centralized and is totally standardized for searching dealerships and their car inventories as well as coupons!). Most dealerships will honor coupons from another Mazda dealership. So I was able to get my front pads for ~$61 before tax (15% off regular quoted price of ~$72)! Don't forget to print out the internet coupon!

Edit: Just checked out the Rosenthal site again and their price of ~$70 actually includes the hardware. Regardless, if you go with your local dealership and they won't negotiate, then you can still save money by specifying the pads without hardware.