Hi all I wonder if you can give me some advice.

we bought a mazda 6 from a mazda dealer about 3 weeks ago

When looking at the car originally I pointed out some problems that needed sorting before picking the car up which they agreed to.

went to pick the car up on the correct day and one of the jobs(replacing the tyres) hadnt been done and the car was still up on ramps waiting for the tyres to turn up.

Whilst the car was up on the ramps I had a look round it and noticed a crack on the bottom of the front bumper and also a piece of trim above the crack was broke to.

because of this they wouldnt let me take the car as they needed to repair it.

we arranged to collect the car on the saturday and when we arrived I was greeted by the salesman saying there had been a problem and the piece of trim hadnt been replaced as it was on back order with mazda.

I agreed to take the car and they agreed to replace the trim when the following week after the trim had come into stock and also give me £40 of fuel as compensation.

Partway tthrough the week I had a call saying the part wasnt gpoing to be in as expected, I wasnt very happy with this but I got no apology.

We agreed to get it sorted after our week long holiday which ended monday.

Tuesday I contact the dealer who inform me the salesman I was dealing with has been sacked so I spoke to the salesmanager, he informed me that the sacked salesman had told him it was sorted event though it wasnt.

He then said that he had emailed the parts deptartment to see if the part was in stock and he would get back to me that day(tuesday), not really sure why he couldnt just get off his **** and walk round to the parts section with the phone in his hand.

Anyway he didnt phone back and I am getting even angrier with it all.

What do you suppose I should do ???
keep pestering them or what??

cheers

steve

Sure. Why wouldn’t you?

If I’d been promised a call back on Tuedsay, I’d be back onto them on Wednesday finding out why it hadn’t happened.

Aside; their internal politics isn’t your problem. They’ve sacked a salesman, that’s their business, but it doesn’t mean they can magically waive promises made by a representative of their company just because he doesn’t work there any more.

Which dealership?

Mazda northampton

Tell him you’re going him and the dealership to trading standards, when buying a car from a dealership you automatically get three months warranty.

Obviously worth keeping pursuing but seems a fairly minor issue you’re getting angry about. If there was something mechanically wrong with it I could understand but it sounds just a cosmetic issue?

Mazda have a bad reputation but I suppose all dealers do.
You’re contract is with the dealership, not the bloke they sacked, so just keep badgering them until they do it
Have you considered giving it back and asking for a full refund as what they’ve given you is not what you agreed to buy?

when buying a car from a dealership you automatically get three months warranty.

It’s not a warranty issue, it’s breach of contract if they fail to complete work which was agreed (even verbally) as part of the sale.

I’d be tempted to tell them that if they didn’t get back to you by the end of today with a clear plan including timescales of what they’re going to do to make good, then you’ll be round tomorrow with the car for a full refund under Sale of Goods; it’s not as described.

thanks for the reply.

They keep using the line the part hasn’t come into stock.

Car is a 60 plate so yes its only cosmetic but it was part of the agreement of sale.

I bought an a Merc from a Merc-owned Merc main dealer (Merc family actually own some of the dealerships).

There were a couple of issues. Including a tear in the rear seat. It was agreed that these would be sorted post-sale as they needed to order the fabric in. Fine.

It all turned out to be smokescreen and bollocks.

The Sales Manager then admitted the car ‘should really have gone to auction’ due to the minor things that needed sorting.

I asked to speak to the Dealer Principle in person and asked ‘why am I paying main dealer book prices for an Indie level of service’ and he readily agreed.

The issues were sorted ASAP and I had a nice new Merc to drive round in in the meantime.

The key thing is I was sold mirrors/smokescreens ‘cars dont come in with much margin sir’, Lad has been disciplined for what he promised you’ (I believe that was used to make me feel embarrassed about someones livelihood) but I’d said ‘why a prestige garage is selling scratched and ripped metal at dealer book?

They keep using the line the part hasn’t come into stock.

If they haven’t got the part, they haven’t got the part, not much can be done there short of them taking a replacement off another vehicle. Your next question then is “what’s the lead time on it?” If they can’t fulfil their promises then they need to tell you when they can.

Generally you get better support by being nice rather than going in all guns blazing, so don’t be shouty, just be firm and clear, and don’t be fobbed off if you’re not happy.

If you haven’t already, start documenting all this, with dates. Who you spoke to, when, what was promised, etc.

I did ask them why they couldnt fir one off the showroom car and he said the car in the showroom was a facelift model…… the same shape as mine then ???

he couldnt answer me back!!

just phoned and the sales manager is off today !!

oooh my mum had a similar problem with VW EOS (Southampton). She found that a strongly worded email to the MD, copying the garage sorted out all her problems.

Skoda main dealer broke a piece of internal trim on tailgate. They were useless at their attempts to fix it.

Wrote a letter of complaint to Skoda and it got sorted very quickly after that.

Once they fixed the trim properly, it was a great feeling that I would never have to go back! Now use a different dealer for servicing even though the useless one is only a mile from my house.

Talk to them but in a civil manor, usually works better in the long run than ranting now. If something more serious than a piece of missing trim happens down the line a good relationship may be beneficial.

Trim pieces are probably a special order part compared to mechanical bits so may have to come from Japan, I know not good but get them to check. I had to wait a couple of weeks for Ford to get a suspension bolt from Germany. They change these things often and there are many variants depending on trim level , ie fogs or not, colour coding etc. so even if they look the same there may be subtle differences between yours (presumably a couple of years old being SH) and the current showroom model.

Mazda Northants were part of Autohous who were always OK with me on the VW side, although I noticed the day they their refurbished showroom now says VW Northampton, don’t know if it’s a change of hands or rebranding (as with Audi up at Sixfields)

I did ask them why they couldnt fir one off the showroom car and he said the car in the showroom was a facelift model…… the same shape as mine then ???

he couldnt answer me back!!

just phoned and the sales manager is off today !!

So the Facelift model has different bumper trim, that won’t fit the older, pre facelift model.

Seems logical to me.

Just keep pestering them until they sort it out.

Also fairly logical.

If they don’t play ball in a decent timeframe, a call to customer services at Mazda Head office should move things along nicely.

(you could enquire about the part direct (no mention of your name) from the parts dept over the phone to find out if they are pulling your leg with the “not in stock” line ?)

If the dealer is close to you, go in. People hate face to face arguments, and you’ll tend to get far better resolution.

Well i really do feel as though I being fobbed off………..

Just out of curiosity I phoned the parts dept at my local mazda dealer and asked them about the part.

The helpful chap found it on the exploded parts diagram and gave me a price and said if i ordered it before 10:30 tomorrow morning it would be here by saturday morning.

So how come the dealer i bought the car from cant get hold of one or its on “backorder”

nealglover………… mine is the facelift model, same as the one on the showroom, hence why i suggested it to them !!

dealer is an hour and half away

If you feel there’s a chance of them not doing the agreed work then return the car – otherwise the more time that passes with you using the car the weaker your argument becomes.

Mazda and mazda uk are awful! I will never go there again!

thanks for the replies….

update..

just spoke to the parts dept at the garage i bought the car from and spoke to a helpful chap called phill.

he told me that a part with my car details on arrived this morning however he rememered my car and was pretty certain it was the incorrct part compared to the one i actually needed.

I gave him the part number that the chap at my local dealer gave me and he said it was the same as the one on the part he had in his hand……

he then put me on hold whilst he went out to the car in the showroom with the part and when he came back he said it was a completley different part.

after speaking with his tecnician and looking further at the car in the showroom they realised the part i need is actually part of the fog light surround so now the have ordered the right part and he is going to phone me next monday when it arrives.

fingers crossed its the right one!!

Good luck, all said and done I’ve never come across this kind of problem with my local Audi dealer, top drawer customer service. 😉

The helpful chap found it on the exploded parts diagram and gave me a price and said if i ordered it before 10:30 tomorrow morning it would be here by saturday morning.

As the dealer you bought the car from is an hour and a half away.Unless thw bit of trim was realy silly money ( mazda maybe ) why not buy the part yourself and fit it.Thats what I’d do right or wrong.

Don’t hand cash or sign anything until the car is fixed?

Hand your cash over on a car wihich needs repair and no agreement in writing for agreed
repairs = trouble.

Bad form by the dealers.