Dealer experience is not bad, but there is something even worse - what Mazda stands for and what its dealer experience has been does not overlap. Add to that the fact it seems Mazda is trying to move upscale towards an older demographic complicates things. Its not 1 dealer, I have tried two - dealers in DFW. Problem is they are Chevy - Mazda / Hyundai - Mazda or such family of brand dealerships and of these they take the identity of other brand. So what works for Chevy / Hyundai works for Mazda. We are going to see both brands as same.
"I have never heard of Moly? Mazda does not make any oil? We have the mexico oil filter, it is the best in market" - this kind of junk I would expect for a Hyundai / Chevy - but it does not overlap with what Mazda sells.
You can only love a brand so much before you realize you need to encounter daily realities. Toyota has not been a problem, i find atleast 2 good ones in a small radius, with Mazda - its 25 mile drive to get the o.k. one. 40 mile if i go where yrwei does. Plus like the OP - if you find a good dealer and for some reason need to boot them out - good luck finding another one.
Mazda can make the best car out there, but if their dealer experience does not align with the brand image - then there wont be repeat buyers in the market. BMW / Lexus are very defined what they stand for and their dealer experience aligns. Exceptions are true but it seems in general very few dealers have stand alone Mazda franchise. Infact even call centers are common for both brands at my dealer.
I guess things are different here in my part of Canada.
All Mazda dealerships around here are standalone Mazda only.
They are not combined dealerships with other brands.
Maybe the combined brand dealerships like you have is an American thing? I don't know.
The local Mazda dealers I dealt with are smaller establishments as well. Face it, Mazda has a smaller lineup, so they don't need to be huge in size.
The big boys (Chevy, Ford, Toyota, etc) dealerships around here are the worst ones. They are physically much bigger, and correspondingly more sleazy.
There's something to be said for smaller is better in this case.
Short story: I accompanied a friend of mine last year to a major Acura dealership here in Ottawa.
Her RDX suffered a major breakdown, and when she tried to get some kind of a break on the repair (blown transmission), they treated her like a scab.
Their only solution was to try and push her into a new RDX, and to screw her over on the trade in value on the old one. She bought a BMW instead.
Anyway, no matter what, you can't really generalize about dealerships in the manner you have done. They're all different.