Does your service department suck this bad?

[Katner]

Seems like quality service is a tough thing to find in dealer service departments these days. Case and point:

My 5 has been making a horrid noise around the front left corner when I go over significant 'dips' in the road, or those really big speed bumps they put in residential areas. So I bring it in to the dealer I bought it from and they replace all four bushings and send me on my merry way. I'm 5 minutes from the dealer when the noise happens again. So I call them up and am told I'll have to drive with the service manager to get to the bottom of the problem.

Couple days later me and the chief are on our test drive, he's driving of course and can't hear anything. I say "you need to find something that will really work the suspension and the sound will happen strait away." So he sees the entrance to a parking lot strait ahead and flipping goes blasting for it. Before I could get out a word of protest he totally rocks my front bumper on the asphalt and bounces us into the parking lot. I just turned to him and said "don't do that again."

What kind of moron doesn't know his own vehicles? Isn't that why they manipulate us all to going back to the dealer? Because they "know our vehicle best."

The bad news is that of course I had already scratched up the bottom of my front bumper simply from driving into my own driveway the first couple of times, and there was no other visible damage to call him on. The good news is that now the suspension makes that noise on almost EVERY bump in the road. It goes in Tuesday for a replacement strut mount. That better be the end of it, and after this I'm getting my service done elsewhere.

 

[Jetmech]

All I can say is (shocked). I think if I ever ask an advisor to test drive I will be the one driving. I always love when they think they know more about the vehicle that the person asking questions.

I reminded one advisor that I drive the vehicle all the time and I proably know it better than them. I would be looking at all the gaps of were the bumper meets the fenders and hood to make sure he didn't pop or bend anything at the least...


Good luck with the next visit and keep us posted. Any chance of naming the moronship (screwy) that you took it to...

(canada)

 

[Katner]

It was the service manager at North Hill Mazda in Calgary. There is a brand new dealership 5 minutes from my house but I wanted to take it to the dealer I bought if from for the warranty work. Once I get this one issue settled I won't be returning to them for ANYTHING. The deal actually went down really badly in the first place. The only reason I went through with it was that they had the ONLY '08 5 left in the City at the time and my wife wanted it desperately.

The dude is kind of one of those guys who isn't totally socially accountable...if you know what I'm saying. He can obviously sling a wrench but even based on the conversation we had in the car I could tell that I knew more about the current lineup than him. This dealer just gives me a bad vibe every time I'm there.

I've learned my lesson for sure though. I won't be allowing advisers or techs to drive my car anymore.

 

[remarquian]

I don't understand feeling you have to do your warranty service at the dealer you bought your car from.

I bought my car from one dealer based solely on price, and get it serviced at another Mazda dealer (Burt Mazda), who has a reputation for customer service and doing a good job.

The way I look at it, is that sales and service are each profit centers (and the service department is about the only thing making money at many dealerships today). And when I get warranty work done at a dealer, Mazda reimburses the dealer and rents me a replacement car.

The servicing dealer went out of their way to get me, by giving me my first oil change free.

I guess my message is: it's your money, give it to a dealer that makes you happy.

 

[deepfry]

I stopped servicing my cars at the dealers unless it is free of charge or absolutely necessary (e.g. TBS, recall, free oil change). These people claim that they know your car best but on the contrary, the truth is often far from that. The VW dealer near where I live failed to resolve issues on my mk4 GTI on 2 separate occasions even though I left the car there for a whole day. They didn't have a clue and blamed it on something totally unrelated to the component that's having problem. I eventually solved one issue myself with the help of members from the vwvortex forum (turned out it was quite easy to diagnose just by looking at the circuit diagram) while the other issues were resolved quickly by my friend who has his own auto shop. My 08 Mazda 5 was also screwed up completely by a Mazda dealer when they installed the auto dimming mirror with compass & homelink. I mentioned it here before on another thread in this forum and again, with the help of a member from this forum I corrected the problem myself.

See, what scares me is the competency and troubleshooting skills of some of these so-call technicians at the dealership. If you know someone who can trust at an independent auto shop, I think your chances are much better there than bringing your car back to the dealer, not to mention their hourly rate is far more reasonable than the stealerships.

But then again this is based entirely on my personal experience. Some other folks with access to superior dealers will certainly say otherwise

 

[Quickbeam]

I never saw your other post about your problems having a dealer install the auto dimming mirror with compass & homelink. Would you mind repeating yourself and letting me know what happened.

I plan on buying a new Mazda 5 in a couple of months, and had planned on getting this option. I would like to know what to watch out for. Thanks.

 

[deepfry]

I never saw your other post about your problems having a dealer install the auto dimming mirror with compass & homelink. Would you mind repeating yourself and letting me know what happened.

I plan on buying a new Mazda 5 in a couple of months, and had planned on getting this option. I would like to know what to watch out for. Thanks.

Here is the link to the other thread

Basically, the dealer routed the wiring to the wrong side of the kick panel, spliced it to 2 different wires incorrectly (did not taped it up afterwards) and broke a plastic clip inside the A-pillar trim. When I received the car (brand new), the compass would work but not the homelink. I eventually fixed it myself after I got the instructions from another member, it was a no-brainer if you know what you're doing.

 

[Katner]

AN UPDATE: So the day after I started this thread I got a phone call from someone at North Hill Mazda. They were not from Sales, but I've never seen them at service either. I don't know if it's ethical for me to mention names or not but he was inquiring about my problem. Interesting.

Well after taking it back in to replace the strut mount, the suspension noise still persists. Nothing has changed. They wanted me to call them if it wasn't better, but I just can't go back to them. I was even going to buy a bunch of Mazda accessories from them, namely all-weather floor mats, window visors, hood deflector, and front window tint. Not anymore.

Listen to how the original sale went down...

I agreed on a price with the business manager over the phone on condition that I buy the car TODAY it was about $500 lower than what they had listed. I go down there and the invoice is $200 higher than what we agreed on. So I'm about to walk out and he explains that the dealer would lose money on the agreed price and he wasn't allowed to sell it any lower. So I'm like "fine". But then I look at the financing rate and it's .5% higher than what was told to me by the sales person. So I double-check with another dealer and sure enough he has raised the financing rate. I had access to a prime-rate loan so no big deal. And lastly, he tried to increase the business office fee by $100 from $295 to $395. I called him on that and told him that every other dealer in the city was lower by $100. He caved quickly on that one. You see they were trying to make their money back with hidden increases across the board! My wife wouldn't let me walk away from the sale so we bought it, but after the papers were signed I was like "OK, I'm happy." And he says "ha, you better be for what we've done for you."

That almost set me off, but I just said "that's what you do! Try to make me happy so I'll buy cars from you man!"

Well, my associations with North Hill Mazda and their associated dealerships are over.

SUNRIDGE MAZDA, here I come with all my sales, service, and parts business!

I don't understand feeling you have to do your warranty service at the dealer you bought your car from.

I bought my car from one dealer based solely on price, and get it serviced at another Mazda dealer (Burt Mazda), who has a reputation for customer service and doing a good job.

The way I look at it, is that sales and service are each profit centers (and the service department is about the only thing making money at many dealerships today). And when I get warranty work done at a dealer, Mazda reimburses the dealer and rents me a replacement car.

The servicing dealer went out of their way to get me, by giving me my first oil change free.

I guess my message is: it's your money, give it to a dealer that makes you happy.

More precisely, I wanted to give them a chance because of the kind salesperson that we worked with. I recognize ANY Mazda dealer can do warranty and service work for me. Thank goodness.

I stopped servicing my cars at the dealers unless it is free of charge or absolutely necessary (e.g. TBS, recall, free oil change). These people claim that they know your car best but on the contrary, the truth is often far from that. The VW dealer near where I live failed to resolve issues on my mk4 GTI on 2 separate occasions even though I left the car there for a whole day. They didn't have a clue and blamed it on something totally unrelated to the component that's having problem. I eventually solved one issue myself with the help of members from the vwvortex forum (turned out it was quite easy to diagnose just by looking at the circuit diagram) while the other issues were resolved quickly by my friend who has his own auto shop. My 08 Mazda 5 was also screwed up completely by a Mazda dealer when they installed the auto dimming mirror with compass & homelink. I mentioned it here before on another thread in this forum and again, with the help of a member from this forum I corrected the problem myself.

See, what scares me is the competency and troubleshooting skills of some of these so-call technicians at the dealership. If you know someone who can trust at an independent auto shop, I think your chances are much better there than bringing your car back to the dealer, not to mention their hourly rate is far more reasonable than the stealerships.

But then again this is based entirely on my personal experience. Some other folks with access to superior dealers will certainly say otherwise

Agreed, agreed, and agreed.

I have had Mazda people threaten that if I don't get the standard service done they won't cover warranty issues, but I don't see how that can be legal. But I plan on going to dealers for the duration of my warranty. Besides, their oil-changes are cheaper than minute-lube, or any shop for that matter at $39.99 and include a tire rotation. Fortunately I have been going to a shop for all my other auto-mechanic needs for years and I really trust the guy. MONZA Auto in Calgary. Vince is the owner. He's honest, efficient, and very ethical. And it shows, his shop has probably tripled in size in the last four years. Don't worry Vince, once my warranty is out I'll be back!

 

[meackerman]

The dealer we bought our 5 from had a good service department and a great SA. He'd listen to what you said, provided coupons for the work being done, made sure the work was done etc etc. They closed that service department and merged it with their Chevy dealership next door. the good SA is gone and the new one is a total idiot.

 

[Katner]

The dealer we bought our 5 from had a good service department and a great SA. He'd listen to what you said, provided coupons for the work being done, made sure the work was done etc etc. They closed that service department and merged it with their Chevy dealership next door. the good SA is gone and the new one is a total idiot.

Brutal. From asking around I'm learning that a truly good service department is difficult to find from manufacturers that build vehicles accessible to the masses. I also hear that the service manager can make all the difference between excellence and crap when it comes to the overall quality of service.

On the other hand, my father's Cayman S wouldn't start this past spring and so he called the local Porsche dealer and they said "don't worry, and don't try to do anything yourself. We'll have a flat-bed tow truck out to your garage tomorrow and we'll pick it up, replace the battery, get fresh fluids in it, and have it ready for driving season."

And they did it all free of charge.

 

[Junr]

Hey, did you ever find what was causing the noise? my 08 have exactly the same noise

 

[skyhawk]

Just a heads up everytime you have oil-change done at the dealership.

Always check the fasteners holding up the black splash shield under the engine. They remove this splash shield to do the oil / filter change.

-- common problem is they will forget to put back some of fasteners.

7 bolts
2 plastic fasteners.

Not a serious issue. But a mazda5 is not complete if it is missing a single
part.

 

[Falango]

The jacking up of fees and all happens at every dealer. They will do it to make money off the car. They will do whatever it takes to do so, watch out for fees that just don't make sense at all, like this Business Office Fee. I would have asked for a good explanation behind that. After working in the industry for not even a year, it's terrible knowing what happens inside. I got out because I realized I'm too honest of a guy to work in a dealership. I worked in service too, couldn't imagine knowing the rest of what happened on the sales side. I turned away from working in there because of how shady it was.

 

[Katner]

Hey, did you ever find what was causing the noise? my 08 have exactly the same noise

No. I ended up getting in a crash (not my fault at the beginning of March and they had to reassemble the entire suspension anyway. That ended up fixing the issue.

They replaced all four bushings first (make sure you've got the current generation of bushings). Then they did the strut tower, and something else. Then CRASH. Then all fixed. I don't forsee this being the last of my suspension issues given the weight of the car on these shocks, and the way I drive it. I'm very tough on suspension parts. As soon as I can't replace them with warranty I'll get Koni's with MS springs or H&R's like Anthony (Antlind).

 

[mrbwa1]

Thankfully I have a good service department... NOW.

The dealer we purchased from performed the check-off and signed off without showing us and it took me a month to get them to repair a minor dent that was a result of damage on the lot before we picked up the car.

After that run around, I went to a dealer closer to my work that has been excellent for service and sends coupons for all my oil changes (Still like $26 before fees). Also, as a real kick, they sold me a new rear wiper for $20, but the invoice listed that MSRP is some like $196. (What a deal)

btw.. the original dealer mysteriously left town in a hurry. I learned why a few months back. They sold GAP protection to people and took our checks, then never sent the money to the GAP insurer. The $!$#!holes then filed and won bankruptcy protection before the state could seize assets personally. They did win a judgment against the corporation before bankruptcy was declared.... but I now have a shiny 5, $175 more in the bank and no GAP coverage... (seems you can only purchase GAP coverage up to 90 days after purchasing a car)

 

[Katner]

btw.. the original dealer mysteriously left town in a hurry. I learned why a few months back. They sold GAP protection to people and took our checks, then never sent the money to the GAP insurer. The $!$#!holes then filed and won bankruptcy protection before the state could seize assets personally. They did win a judgment against the corporation before bankruptcy was declared.... but I now have a shiny 5, $175 more in the bank and no GAP coverage... (seems you can only purchase GAP coverage up to 90 days after purchasing a car)

Doode that dealer is really, really bad. Where do these guys come from? Lock 'em up!