Stealership will always be stealerships

[TonyC]

Got a coupon in the mail for a free first service after buying the Mz5. The coupon "expires" at 120 days or 6000 miles after service. Service manual clearly shows 7500 service intervals. I call dealership to confirm; svc mgr says the coupon is good indefinitely, and then goes on to recommend 5000 mile service intervals. I mean, SERIOUSLY? Cuz you know better than the service manual. (poke)

I've already drained perfectly good (golden, even) oil after 600 miles break in (full synthetic), but at 15K/year, this dearlership tool is asking me to change oil 1 extra time for no good reason.

And then, the other local dealership wanted to charge full MSRP for a broken mirror. I mean, REALLY. Why do you keep doing your customers like that?

 

[thaxman]

I don't know where you are at, but I do tend to do 5-6000 mile oil changes - full synth even. But then, its dusty and hot here and the Mazda5 VERY RARELY makes it more than 4 miles between stops, so I consider that to be a "tougher duty" cycle and change out the oil sooner to compensate. Of course if I lived in San Luis Obisbo and made 25 mi 1-way trips exclusively, I would push 7500+ without worry, so YMMV.

 

[Silentnoise713]

Because they can and to be fair they didn't come up with the MSRP price. For every 1 who knows they are being screwed with, the dealer will come across 9 others who fall for it. Can't blame them for trying and if not your business, they'll get the next person in line. Life is not fair :/

 

[monotone]

That actually wasn't as bad as my local VW dealer, who wanted $1000 to replace my thermostat which wasn't broken. I replaced the coolant sensor myself - took 15 minutes and the part is something like $50. The car runs great ever since.

 

[MR6]

ahhh the ol VW green top. memories... but my 09 van saw the dealershit once for an fsb end link and never again. I have never found a competent or fair dealer.

 

[chitownpete]

My dealer has an old brush style car wash and put swirl marks all over my Black Mazda 5. I mentioned it to them and they said they would fix the problem when I like but I don't trust their judgement at this point. This summer I'm getting swirl remover and fixing it myself. Not the end of the world but I couldn't believe they didn't know how bad those washes are for black paint. When I worked at a crappy Porsche/VW, Saab dealer the rules were, no Porsches or any black/blue cars through the car wash. Ever.

 

[phunky.buddha]

Maybe you're supposed to use the first free service on another car you buy from them in the very near future?