psionic1

Does anyone know of an experienced 8 or rotary mechanic/service shop in the Bay Area? Preferably in Marin county.

My story is, that I went to buy mine at the mazda dealer here in Marin, and the guys were such f*#cking idiots, that I turned around and walked out.

Now I know that the sales staff does not represent the service department, but about the only reason I feel like going back to that place is to show them the car that I bought an hour north up the freeway.

It would be great if I could find a shop near by that I could develop a relationship with for scheduled maintainence, future mods etc...

PUR NRG

Sorry but I can only recommend Oaktree Mazda in San Jose. Menlo Mazda does not get my custom for the same reasons you don't want to use that marin dealer.
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Avandia Lawsuit Info

psionic1

Thanks for that.

I just read in another thread that someone said Wood Mazda in Santa Rosa was good to them. That's where I bought mine. It's an hour away though. But I will go there if I can not find any place closer.

Rx8Past

I've done some service at Putnam Mazda in Burlingame. They were pretty quick with the work, and seemed to know what they were doing.

CryoMax

I'd bought my Aztek from Putnam Pontiac, and their service department wasn't the fastest, but was usually very nice and thorough...

Putnam Mazda's probably my easiest-to-get-to Mazda dealer (though I bought from Menlo because the sales person at Putnam was a complete dinkus), I'll have to try them when my service time comes up...

I actually had a good experience with the sales guy at Menlo, "Claude", but that's probably because he actually admitted he didn't know that much about the car from the start, rather than trying to blow smoke up my skirt...

Has anyone actually used Menlo's service department? It's quite possible the techs are much better than the sales people. Menlo's supposed to be one of the largest Mazda dealers in northern California...

...Paul

Lex

OakTree put a long scratch in my car when I took it in for service.

PUR NRG

It's true that sales and service are two totally different departments and one doesn't necessarily reflect upon the other. However both are controlled and owned by the same people. Menlo's owner allows and/or encourages sales to jack up prices. They tried to sell RX-8 for $5000 over sticker when they first came out and I've heard they're still trying to charge above sticker even now. For that cause I see no reason to give that same owner my business when it comes to servicing the car.
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Iolite vaporizer review

CryoMax

That's odd, I got mine just a week ago from Menlo Mazda (well, I made the deal the weekend before last), and I got a pretty decent deal. Definitely not OVER sticker by any stretch.

Still, I'd love to know any personal experiences with their service department. Maybe I just got the one good sales guy, or happened to walk in at the right time...

...Paul

psionic1

They all try to jack the price, no mater where you go. It's more a matter of their willingness to bargain and be up front about that. Marin Mazda was very "cloak and dagger" about their prices and did everything in their power NOT to show me their hand, so to speak.

On the other hand, I went to Wood Mazda in Santa Rosa after Marin Mazda and said I want a monthly payment of $x, with a x% interest rate, and an x year term. They made that deal happen. Took a few days, but they did it. When I went in to sign the deal, I asked to see their invoice and saw that they were shaging me 1200 over invoice. I negotiated for about 30 minutes and got that down to 500 over invoice.

I got an 8 with no options, and ended up paying less than 26k for it.

I felt like I got a great deal, and like the sales staff were out to sell cars, not gouge me.

Ask to see the factory invoice, they HAVE to show it to you. You should be able to buy any car for 500 over invoice, and no more than that.

Loaded8

Frankly I just didn't like menlo... they were gonna try to sell it to me at MSRP.... I have special pricing through work and can get many cars at or below invoice price, this was one of them so no bickering necessary... I must've gotten the one most annoying sales guy at menlo... he called so many times it drove me nuts and right onto putnam in burlingame. Since I'm more than capable of selling myself a car or any other item I appreciated the nice approach at putnam... they let me drive it and then tell them what I wanted and they got it for me, all with smiles from both sides. very easy to deal with.... I've delt with the service dept there too, the service (I think he's the manager) guy Mike is great. Very nice, professional and I'm sure I wont have any problems with them. The other thing I like about putnam is they have rental cars available right there at the dealership, no hassel, no waiting, no problems.... that is one thing I wished the acura dealer had when I had an acura.....

CryoMax

I must've gotten a bad guy at Putnam then. He didn't seem to pressure me much, which was kinda nice, but they didn't have any automatics (not even a demo car) when I went, and the guy that I got (two days in a row -- I went on a Thursday 'just to look', and a Saturday hoping for a test drive), didn't know *JACK*. I asked him about the AT transmission, and whether it was a "clutchless manual" or "just a fancy automatic" and he just mumbled, "No, it's a clutchless manual" and that was that. Really disappointed.

I'll have to check out their service department though.

...Paul

Loaded8

That might've been the guy I bought from. By the time I got to putnam I knew a lot about the car from this forum and researching online. I didn't need a 'salesman' so the nice guy approach worked great for me.

I had to laugh though... the guy at putnam gave me a little book that is for the sales guys. I laughed so hard when I saw it... in the back it compared the 8 to several other cars... Audi TT, 350Z, S2000, G35 and maybe Z3 can't quite remember.... I was laughing because the guy at menlo told me I couldn't compare the 8 to subaru WRXSTI... I think it was because he didn't have the comparison data in his little book so he didn't know what to say..... that sorta turned me off to menlo... my opinion is I can compare the 8 to a mcdonald's hamburger if I so choose... I don't care if "they aren't comparable".. they were to me and those were the cars I was trying to decide between.... I ALMOST got it from menlo anyways, the last straw was trying to tell me I should get aftermarket seats with my name embroidered on them... sorry... not me.... NEVER....

So how is sharp park road? I used to love that road when I was a kid, I really liked going up for some reason. It doesn't seem like it's as much fun as it used to be, it seems like the re-did it or something.

PUR NRG

Not true. Marina Mazda in Capitola (among a few others) was very up front about charging MSRP for pre-sales of the car. No extra dealer markup even when demand was strong from the few faithful.

Pedro from Menlo gloated about selling one guy the car at $10k over sticker.
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Medical marijuana patient

CryoMax

Still fun going up -- not so much going down. Of course, I tend to go down during rush hour, and it gets really busy in that direction, and you can't "let loose" nearly as much.

Going up in the morning, if you hit it when it happens to be relatively vacant, is still a blast.

I've only lived in the area for about 5 years, and only been using Sharp Park for the last year, so I wouldn't know if it's been changed or not...

...Paul