Greetings All,

I'd like your opinions on the issue of servicing and extended warranties -
our story is this:
when we bought the car we got an additional 3 year warranty after the first 3 year factory warranty only if we had the car serviced with the selling dealer.
Fair enough - this we have done up till now.

Today we received a rather abrupt letter suggesting they are about to cancel the extended warranty plan because we have not got the services done when they requested us to.

I have had the odd letter saying that a service si now due and when I called the service guy he said to 'bin it' so how important do they think they are then ?

The 10,000 service was carried out on the 12st of May 2004 so they are saying that since over 6 months has now elapsed (10,000 or 6 months) and we have not booked the car in for another service the agreement is soon to be void.

This is even more annoying because at 15,000 kms the car had the sump replaced and the ecu upgraded so that was almost a mini service in my opinion.

It has now done 17,000 kms and I didn't intend getting a service until 20,000kms.

Should I get one done now or wait ? I have always got the services on my other cars at the kms, not the months with no problems with warranty.

I've just about had it with dictatorial car dealers so I really don't think I'll be using my original dealer for much longer.

Gosford are you listening - we need to talk - you might be getting a new customer !

Thanks for listening,
Regards
Jeffneil

 

Jeff, is this a MA extended warranty, or a dealership offering. I'd suggest read the fine print closely, furthermore, it's a bit stingy that they cancel it....do you think they'd offer a refund in return.

 

I get mine serviced every 6 months even though I don't do 10000kms. I like the idea of a bit of new oil every so often (though not all is changed when you do an oil change). Plus its a chance to get any new PCM flashes (if there are any) or recalls done, warranty items fixed etc.

From what I have seen this is often the case (dictatorial service regimes) with extended warranties. As AMG says - check the fine print.

 

The trouble is with these deals is that the fine print is usually rife with quite stringent special conditions. I've had one in the past which required you to send in a copy of the stamped service receipt and, like yours, this had to be done at least every 6 months and by designated dealers.

To be fair, I guess they need to manage their risk by ensuring the car is being regularly serviced, although why they would be so particular in the first three year period is beyond me. Surely the risk at that stage is MA's? Or is this a form of warranty which supercedes MA's?

 

Jeffneil,

As stated before... You should get down to Rockdale Mazda for a VIP service everytime!

We have three cars that get serviced there... My family members and I have been very happy with every service. Plus the 5% discount when your a member of www.rx8club.com.au John the manager there knows his stuff and is very professional. The staff are also very on the ball.

I know Gosford is close to you already though then again did you not buy the car from Sutherland or something?

Kind regards
Phillip

 

I don't believe that MA offers any kind of extended warranty. The individual dealers like to throw that sweetener in provided that you service the car religiously for the entire 6years with them only. That way they get to bleed you dry for 3 + 3 years, and if you miss just one service or service a little bit late....boom your extended warranty is gone. It really isn't worth the paper it is written on anyways as i reckon if you did have any major problems that were expensive to fix, they would find a reason to pike out.
My dealer tried to offer me lifetime warranty on the leather and paint, refundable if i buy another car with them at any time in the future. Yeah right!

 

Mazda Australia offers an genuine warranty extension for an additional 1 year bringing the total to 4 years.

As for your additional 3 year extension, my guess is that it's handled by a third party like Harrier.

These things are rife with fineprint, and they do have the power to void the warranty if you don't uphold your end of the contract.

 

Greetings All,

Thanks to those who have replied - and to those who have read it !

The extra 3 years was tacked on to the original Mazda 3 year warranty and was not actually charged for - unless you count their outrageously expensive service costs that is !

Yes the car came from Sutherland so getting it serviced there was always going to be a pain as it is not a place we visit often.

Looking at the fine print it is indeed Harrier via the dealer that would handle the extra warranty. Full of conditions - not even transferable !

Anyway I am still so peed off with the tone of the letter stating they are about to cancel the extra warranty contract that I will simply cut McGrath Sutherland out of my memory. McGrath Who?

Next time I am in Gosford during business hours I might call in to their service department but if I hear that they charge for 5 litres of oil and only use 3.5 I'm outta there !

Regards
Jeffneil

 

Jeff mate, seems like you are always being shafted by dealerships. Put you foot down with them, they are a commodity and there are others around, that's the way they treat their customers. Don't let yourself become dealer fodder.

 

What AMG said. Although I have some sympathy with you Jeff. There are only 2 dealers in Canberra. Both are commonly owned. But the service and other personnel at one are better than at the other .... and even they need constant reminding about the 5 litres of oil thing .... seems I may have started something there ... all over the country, 8 owners are checking to see they get a bottle with 1.2 litres of oil in after service

 

The way the warranty agreement works between Harrier and the dealer is as such:

The warranty policy is purchased by the dealership for $150 who enjoy having you locked in for servicing for the next 6 years and charging whatever they want to for the purpose of:

a.recooperate the original $150 policy outlay
b.make a tidy profit
c.extra insurance in case of potential warranty claims following the expiration of Mazda's warranty.

In return, Harrier will cover any warranty claims in years 4-6 up to a preset amount and preset number of claims........ all else is covered by the dealer.

The dealer benefits because they get to use it as a sales tool plus they get 6 years worth of customer loyalty for their service dept.

Harrier benefits from selling these policies at $150 a pop.
Doesn't sound like much, but multiply that by the number of cars the dealership sells per annum multiplied by the number of dealers and you get the picture.

 

and don't forget that most cars will be sold at 3 or 4 years and the policy is non transferable..............sounds like a scam to me!

 

Ironic isn't it, that after years of buying new Toyotas we take the plunge and swap to the Mazda camp - starting right at the top with their most expensive model and seem to get in more bother in one year than 15 with the competition.

Perhaps we can be seen coming - some of the time - but we don't forgive and we definitely don't forget. You take less and less crap as you get older I have found.

Oh well, good thing the car is so incredible - makes you forget all the smart ***** in the dealerships (front wheel drive RX-8s indeed!) you have to deal with along the way :-)

At Toyota when we had the Corolla in for the 10,000km service and the RX-8 was still quite new the salespeople there were all asking 'what is it?' and I said what it was and 'if Toyota made it, I would have bought it here' and saved a bit of grief from some dealers along the way...

Happy motoring everyone,
Regards
Jeffneil

 

Good to hear you have had pleasant experiences in the past with 'A' Toyota dealership, however irrespective of marque, you will get good and bad experiences with particular dealerships.

You're story does not compare to some of the 'war-stories' I experience on a daily basis.

A particular un-named previous employer of mine gave away similar (same?) warranties with all new vehicles sold and would not give you 'reminder' letters as such.

Needless to say, along came a client who had just run out of factory warranty and had some transmission problems.

Well, he thought he was covered by this extended warranty, but guess what, he hadn't adhered to the guidelines of the servicing intervals.

The entire situation went pretty 'pear-shaped' following that when he was notified the warranty was now void and he was up for $2000 to rectify the fault.

 

.... and they wonder why people have such a low opinion of them....

 

Greetings nojooc annd everyone else,

Actually I have bought Toyotas from 3 dealerships between the Central Coast and Nowra and would buy from all of them again - and one Suzuki from a Newcastle Suzuki dealer - also a not too unpleasant experience. I have yet to repeat buy from a Mazda dealer but my in-laws buy from the south coast dealers regularly and say they are OK to deal with so who knows...since our oldest car (Suzuki) is now 4 years old and has only done 52,000kms we won't be replacing it just yet but I will be looking at Mazda models when the time comes.

Regards
Jeffneil

 

I know.......

 

one upside of living here is 3 years free servicing and roadside assist.. wohoo!

 

You forgot to mention the submissive sheep.......LOL

Cheers
michael

 

what the hell else did you think i meant by "roadside assist" and "free servicing"..........damn city slickers...and you can tell thats not a real "roadside assist"....no gumboots!...lol

 

Hi Jeffneil
My Mazda 6 Wagon has its scheduled sevices every 10,000 klms,if I don't run the kays up to the next sevice by 6 months then it goes in for an oil and filter change,its as simple as that !its not expensive (oil filter $8.00) plus oil and a bit of labour.My Cosmo gets its oil changed every 3000 or every six months ! If Mazda says to do it then I do it after all they built it
If something drastic goes wrong I am covered.
As for paying for 5 ltrs of oil and only getting 3.5 may I suggest you buy your own Mazda Rotary oil which comes in 1 ltr or 5 ltr bottles from the parts dept and ask them to use that!

Regards Daz

 

Greetings Daz and All,
Thanks again for the advice. I will probably cal McGrath tomorrow and see what they say - if they really intend cancelling the policy then that's fine - but since the car had the sump replaced 3,000kms ago I would have thought that would have counted towards a service of some kind.....

And as for buying the oil in bottles - I realy don't think that should be necessary if the dealer only charged me for the amount they actually used - why is that so hard to do ? This kind of rip off has probably been going on for years - with all makes of car and all kinds of servicing. Brings to mind the under cover hidden camera type of stuff that a current affair did a few years ago that showed that some cars got a service without leaving the car park and not even having their bonnets opened - and people wonder why the customer is such a suspicious pain ! NOBODY likes to be ripped off - it is that simple.

Anyway - I hope you all had a good weekend - we spent it in Nelson Bay, NSW - very nice up there and warm - but no RX-8s at all...

Regards
Jeffneil

 

Jeffneil, with regards to the discrepancy of what is charged for as compared to what is used with regards to the oil come service time,as has been stated on the forum here many times just ask for the rest of theoil which you can use for topping up.

 

Greetings AMG and All,

I have tried asking for the excess oil in the past thanks to the advice of the Forum members - here is what happened - at the 10,000 service (in early 2004) I said I wanted the excess oil to use for top ups and they said 'what excess oil - the system holds 4.9 litres', with completely straight faces.

I then said - 'No, it doesn't - according to the manual YOU supplied with the car it is only 3.5 litres' I offered to get the manual out of the car and prove my point but they hastily said they would give me the extra 1 litre bottle they had charged me for and gave me back the $11 I had paid for it on the spot.

So before the 20,000 km service I will have to get myself in to Gosford's service area and see how they measure up !

I have seen the Strato Blue at Sutherland when I called in there for my free 2005 Mazda calendar - nice but I still prefer Winning Blue. Calendar is not as good as last year's either - only one Red RX-8 - yawn... and too many people in the pics looking like an ad for Myer.

Regards
Jeffneil