yogitrek

Hi All,

I bought my second childhood car 31 days ago, have already put 1241 miles on the car (and i was out of town for 9 days). I am really loving my RX8 and I want to make sure I do everything I can to make the fun last...

My question is this: Should I have all my service ( oil changes through major items) done at a Mazda dealership OR can I take my car to any dealership with a quality service department? My question boils down to this... does the RX8 have "needs" that can only be met by a Mazda service department because a normal quality auto service department will not be able to meet said needs?

As always any information or opinion will be helpful...

Zoom Zoom,
Yogi

EDZRIDE

iTrader: (1)

The biggest advantage of going through a Mazda dealer for all your services is the readily available "Service History"; pretty handy when requesting warranty or selling the vehicle.

DeViLbOi

iTrader: (1)

Yes...I agree with edzride. It really is not a question as to whether or not someone else can change the oil in an RX8 or read the manual as to what needs done. The RX8 has a high number of engine failures and Mazda is very strict on what information is required to replace an engine. When Mazda documents the work for themselves it is really hard for them to say it isn't enough. But if you miss an oil change or loose the receipt...no soup for you. I highly recommend finding your local RX8 or Mazda community and trying to work out a service relationship with a local trusted dealer. In the long run it is well worth it.

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

yogitrek: I haven't been to the dealership in YEARS mainly because I found a very good rotary shop near me that does all of the maintenance on my car. Other then the engine naturally burning oil to lubricate itself, the car doesn't really have any 'special needs' that a qualified mechanic can't figure out.

If you choose not to go to the dealership, just make sure you always get invoices from the shop in case you should ever need them down the road. The rotary engine is warrantied to 100,000 miles but Mazda requires proof of maintenance so as long as you have that you'll be set.

For those saying go to mazda for record management purposes: I disagree. I've seen local members here go to dealerships over the years and now that they needs records, guess what... dealerships have closed down at a record pace and MNAO is not linked up to all dealerships so guess what happens with those records. Yup, you guessed it...
An invoice is an invoice and at the end of the day, a hard copy of it is king.

yogitrek

Thanks for all the input...I might stick with the dealership because they seemed to be very customer service oriented (I saw them take parts off a new car to get a lady out the door today rather than wait until the parts came in).

I get the feeling I need to keep my own records of all maintenance in a folder to make sure I cover myself in case of a warranty issue. I have had my oil changes at 600 and 1200+ miles so far so I am covered (I think).

Any other thoughts?

Yogi

bse50

Since the other guys replied very well i think that the "other thoughts" could only comprehend the never ending debate of oil change interval, oil viscosity and the known downsides of driving an rx8. Words like ignition coils and plugs \catalyzers\premix should help you in a search!
Keep driving it like it should after the break-in and you'll be set

ken-x8

I bought my second childhood four years ago. I go to the dealer for virtually all service. I started because they gave me free oil changes for the first two years, and I got really used to spending 45 minutes doing something productive inthe waiting room, rather than getting dirty. I continued because I've been very happy with them. Over the decades my personal experience is that dealers tend to screw up less than non-dealers - ymmv. Also, these days they seem to design odd stuff into every car that needs some special tool or information.

Just keep all your receipts in a folder. If you ever get a receipt on thermal paper scan it or make a Xerox copy. Those things fade.

Sign up in the owner's section at mazdausa.com. There's a place where you can log service...and where your dealer is likely to enter service that they do. Your dealer is also likely to have discount coupons on that site. Mine does, and they're usually better than ones they mail me or are on their own web site. I've gotten way more oil changes for $10 or $15 than for the list of $30.

Ken