Oh great, my dealership is being deleted.

Bought my CX-5 from Mazda of Oakland about a month ago. This morning I get an email explaining that they're throwing in the towel in a week. WTF?

Note that this place is about 5 minutes from my house and has some pretty friendly guys. I wasn't planning to spend a lot of money there, or anything, but still. For what it's worth it's an "urban" operation, not one of those sprawling auto mall type places, and collocated with a Audi place under the same ownership.

Anyway, I go down there and talk to the GM, he explains that they got "a list of demands" from Mazda corporate that penciled out to like 3 mil in improvements, and they just couldn't swing the numbers. The owners decided to go with all Audi and jettison the Mazda side, since they would have had to find a 3-4 acre site properly zoned and they couldn't figure anything out (that or move the Audi side somewhere else and redo the existing site as all Mazda, but you got to figure they make more money selling Audis, so...).

My thought is that Mazda is doing a push to get the dealerships all nice and big and full featured as part of their current offensive on the American market. Skyactiv models are selling well and garnering some much needed mindshare, and I guess people want shiny buildings in their car buying experience.

Good news (maybe) is that they reckon there will be a new dealership going up in Oakland in the next 3-4 months-- someone who isn't already encumbered with an existing site, who can do a clean slate build to Mazda's specs.

I know I can get along fine without a dealership unless I need warranty repairs, but having the place that I bought the car from disappear weeks later is a bit disconcerting. I had intended to cultivate a relationship with the shop and parts department there in case I needed to plead a case with a warranty repair or just any random s*** that might have come along. Next closest Mazda dealership is 30 miles away (although there is one around 30 miles in any direction, for some reason).

Anyone else notice anything going on with older/smaller dealerships in your area? Is this a country wide Mazda thing or did they just have it in for Oakland?

Steven's creek Mazda and Capitol Mazda are both owned by DGDG. I bought my car from Capitol Mazda. I know both dealerships have gone through a remodel in the past few years, something I guess DGDG could afford. Both are pretty good sized dealers. I've been getting oil changes at Capitol and can speak VERY highly of them.

I haven't been to the one in Oakland though.

The next closest to you would be Fremont Mazda. Tread carefully over there though. They were taken over by new owners about a year ago and seem to not have quality sales people and didn't have their things together. I can't speak for their service department though.

Mazda branch of one dealership nearby closed last year. The dealership (Giuffre Mazda) jumped from one small location to another, and later dumped Mazda from their chain. I suspect that was due to their poor ownership and management. Having a 1 star out of 5 on every online review site and multiple complaints of dealership scam didn't help keeping doors open. Not sure if Mazda had anything to do with the push for the closing.

I wouldn't be surprised if Mazda is pushing for larger facilities to move bigger numbers. Perhaps with the heavy increase in sales and profitability, they're preparing for the years ahead. Also take notice that the new assembly plant in Mexico is now open. Soon we will see the new Mazda2 and some of the North American Mazda3's arriving from assembly from Mexico to meet demands. That also means more profit for Mazda (exchange rate difference) and budget for expansion.

Thanks for the heads up on Capitol, that's a pretty long way to go for me. I'm hoping the ones in Concord, SF or San Rafael aren't horrible. Or even better they build a new one in Oakland (maybe down by the Coliseum?) that doesn't suck.

"I know I can get along fine without a dealership unless I need warranty repairs, but having the place that I bought the car from disappear weeks later is a bit disconcerting. I had intended to cultivate a relationship with the shop and parts department there in case I needed to plead a case with a warranty repair or just any random s*** that might have come along. Next closest Mazda dealership is 30 miles away (although there is one around 30 miles in any direction, for some reason)."

Relationship? Nonexistent, don't worry about it. I bought
My cx5 out of state, nearest dealer was 30 miles away.
I wouldn't worry about it. You can easily get screwed out of warranty
Work from dealer you buy from.
Se