Wondering if I need consider lemon law this thing

ihaveworms said:
Just another update, after the 5th time of repair with the Mazda tech helping, I am still having the problem. Airbag light started flashing just as it used to and again flashed yesterday. I went back to the dealership today where I bought the car and have had all the repairs done. I went in and told them I am tired of dealing with this issue and want to exchange it. I simply stated I want the same car, I'm not asking for an upgrade to compensate me (even though that would be nice). The guy I spoke to who so happened to be the same guy who sold me the car seemed very helpful and was like sure we will get this taken care of. After about 30 minutes later, the guy over him comes over with a blue book value of my car @ 18k and says ok new car price - 18k leaves you with this much you will need to pay.

Woah there man...I said exchange. I am not trading in this car that should be working. It was fairly insulting they would even try pulling that with me. Seriously? You expect me to eat thousands of dollars in loss because you can't fix the problem? I financed the car through the credit union I use and they asked me how much I had left to pay. I told them I have $18,480 left. They go back to their computers and stay over there a while and come back. This was their "best offer" they could give me:

They take my car back and pay off the $18,480. And then give me a new CX-5 2016.5 Touring (no tech package) for $368.50 for 63 months + $300 destination charge. (I already had the 2016 Touring with the navigation card already, this is essentially the same car to me. Not an upgrade)

That is $23,515.50 or $5,000 they want me to just piss away in all the payments I have made since I bought the car. Really? After all this you want me to eat 5 grand and that's the best you can do? I told them they can keep the deal I am calling corporate. The guy told me that corporate would likely give me less for the car and this deal is probably better. I don't think you have the knowledge to speak on corporate's behalf.

I called corporate when I got home and explained all of this. This is the 3rd time I have contacted corporate through this whole saga of the airbag issue. I just want them to make this right and take the car back and give me a new one. Is that so hard? After 5 times trying to fix this even with a Mazda engineer visiting the dealership I am pretty sure this warrants admitting something is wrong with the car and should be replaced.
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Well, you should have enough proof to file a lemon lawsuit by now if you keep all records. I don't know about Tennessee, but in California it is super easy to have your money back. We have very strict lemon law here, I can even find a layer for free(or few hundreds), if my proof is good enough to convince him to trust that he will win the case. (Usually if you win lemon law, the corporate will paid for your lawyer fees too) You don't count on dealership to exchange a car for you, call Mazda ask for supervisor or something, Mazda is really good as its warranty service so far for my car. BTW, go to NHTSA and file a compliant for your problem and then print the report before you go to court.
 
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ihaveworms said:
... I called corporate when I got home and explained all of this. This is the 3rd time I have contacted corporate through this whole saga of the airbag issue. I just want them to make this right and take the car back and give me a new one. Is that so hard? After 5 times trying to fix this even with a Mazda engineer visiting the dealership I am pretty sure this warrants admitting something is wrong with the car and should be replaced.
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hek8560 is correct, you talked to the wrong guy, the Mazda dealer, trying to get your lemon CX-5 replaced. Dealers are just a middlemen selling cars and they have no authority to replace your car. Talk to Mazda North American Operations, and ask for a manager to handle your case. You should start to file complaint to NHTSA website as seatbelt issue is indeed a safety concern. You should also file the same complain to BBB. Heck, I'd ask the email address and send an email to the head of MNAO requesting a replacement. Of course start preparing the lemon law process if it's suitable under your state law and mention this to MNAO too.

I feel you as this definitely has to be an unplansant experience and time consuming. But you have no choice but to resolve the issue as nobody wants a car with airbag warning light flashing. Like Unobtanium said, it's time to stick to your guns!
 
Here is todays update. I called the guy who is over my case and spoke to him. He has been talking with the dealership and going through the notes of the case. He has also escalated my issue to management to see what they are going to say on the matter. Maybe I will hear from them today or tomorrow. Maybe. I have been told 3 times in the past I would be contacted for updates, but they never follow through. I always have to call and go through a wild goose chase to get some information.

During the discussion, he said that it was noted that animal hair was found in the car as well as scratch marks on the dash. He said that they think, I assume by the logic of finding that, that an animal sitting in the seat could be the thing triggering the sensor. First of all, I do have cats and therefore cat hair is transferred from my clothes to the car and informed him of that. However, the cats are only indoor cats. They have never touched any surface of that car. I do not own a dog either. I have stated to the dealership that no animals have been in the car, but maybe corporate wasn’t informed of that.

Nevertheless, it sounded to me they are looking for an excuse saying an animal is in the car so that could be the problem. The correct matter would be to call me and ask for further details and not infer that because animal hair is in the car, an animal has been in the front seat. If horse hair was found in the car, would they infer I managed to shove a horse in the car?

I tried to make it clear that an animal isn’t part of the problem and shouldn’t been taken into account in part of the decision making. I don’t have much hope that will be the case.
 
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Have you tried to find email address of the head of Mazda North American Operations? Once you got it, shoot an email to him.

Honestly, even if you let a cat gets into the CX-5, cat is too light to interfere any seatbelt sensors.
 
yrwei52 said:
Have you tried to find email address of the head of Mazda North American Operations? Once you got it, shoot an email to him.

Honestly, even if you let a cat gets into the CX-5, cat is too light to interfere any seatbelt sensors.
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I have not looked for the email address, no. I was going to wait until I hear back with their initial offer and not try to jump over the chain of command just yet. I did talk to an attorney yesterday and explained the whole timeline and brought the service records. She said that I have been doing things correctly so far and for now wait for their response. She recommended that if I don't hear back from them in a couple of days, send a written notice and if they don't comply/reason, then I could sue them. Obviously I would like to avoid all of that and the cost associated with it.
 
yrwei52 said:
I'd call Mazda Customer Experience Center at (800) 222-5500 to file a complaint and set up a case. You'd express this is a safety issue as airbags are indeed dangerous. You should ask Mazda North American Operations sending a field engineer to help the dealer diagnosing the problem as apparently your dealer is incapable of fixing it. Of course you can check into the lemon law in your state as each state is different. Watch for the time limitation and don't let the deadline pass on lemon law if MNAO couldn't give you a satisfactory resolution. MNAO even-exchanged a brand new CX-5 when a forum member's transmission failed very early on his new CX-3! Sometimes MNAO may really do a good thing when their customers are having problems.

I'd ask for extended warranty on airbags of your CX-5 even if Mazda claims they have fixed your problem just in case.
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Usually the magic number is 30 days of dealer time in the shop for the same issue. You need to take notes and keep records. Is the dealer giving you a work order every time you take it in? Add up the days in the shop. Good luck. Also you only have a year for this process.
 
Tom 6-6 said:
Usually the magic number is 30 days of dealer time in the shop for the same issue. You need to take notes and keep records. Is the dealer giving you a work order every time you take it in? Add up the days in the shop. Good luck. Also you only have a year for this process.
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I do have all service records for this issue
 
Morning update. Just spoke to a person in Mazda's Mediation Dept. They offered me $3000 in compensation to settle the issue and was told this should help offset the cost to trade in the vehicle at the dealership. I told him that wasn't nearly enough. It should at a minimum be the entire cost of the trade in. I countered him with $8000 since after tax the trade in process should be about $6000 if not more. He asked if they could do a test drive with me and I said ok to that. It is very unlikely the airbag issue will happen during the drive as it rarely happens when we are driving around normally. I predict we are going to drive around, see no flashing lights, come back to the dealership and watch them shrug their shoulders.
 
Most state lemon laws give that an auto maker should either discount a consumer's cash and claim back the defective vehicle or put back the vehicle. If you suspect that you may suffer a viable new lemon vehicle, then you should get hold of an lawyer as soon as possible.
 
Hank3 said:
Any update on this?
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Sorry, I don't visit the forums quite as often as I used to. Here is a summary of what happened since then.

As you saw in my previous update I had contacted Mazda corporate about the issue. We went back and forth and I ended up settling to an amount a bit less than I originally wanted. Part of the agreement I signed was that I couldn't disclose the amount, but lets just say I got them higher than the starting point, but lower than what I wanted. I think it would have cost me more in lawyer fees if I went that far.

I took the settlement money and traded in the 2016 CX-5 Touring for a new 2016.5 CX-5 Touring back in June. It was nice to finally be rid of that previous car. Then...wouldn't you know it....the same 1-6 airbag light code came on about 2.5 weeks ago. We were driving down to Florida for vacation. Me driving, my wife just sitting in the seat. I saw it come on. Jeez...frustrating. I just pulled over to the side of the road and restarted it so I didn't have to watch the light blink for hours. So at least this car went about 3 months without having the light come on instead of the 2 weeks for the previous car.

At this point I am not doing to do anything. I still have the warranty and actually bought an extended warranty this time around. I can't see why the light should have come on. Wife is not extremely light nor extremely heavy. She wasn't leaning off the seat either. Sounds like a design flaw or recall issue to me.
 
Any chance you have a two-way radio or anything in the car? I've seen radio emissions from two way radios cause all kinds of problems. I worked at an event one time where every time we'd key up the handheld two-way radio near the cash registers, it would trip the breaker on the UPS battery backup. Does your wife keep her phone in her back pocket? My laptop used to reboot if my old iPhone 3G was too close when I got a call. Just some ideas since you're having the same issue with the replacement car...
 
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