I'm a little ticked at this point. I have had a car ordered for 5 months now and it still isn't here in Northeast Ohio. I'm getting the first car at my local dealership. Today I am driving up the road and spot an RX-8 sitting by the road at another dealership nearby. I skid to a stop to go check it out. It turns out they have 2 RX-8s that are unsold sitting at Mazda of Wooster. One is yellow, 6speed, but no grand touring package. The other is silver, automatic, and grand touring package.

I'm a little dissapointed that they are shipping unsold cars and my car is still sitting at port. Mazda is probably doing this on purpose. Get the unsold cars to the dealerships as fast as possible to sell them. My car can sit around at port because it's already sold. Now anyone can walk into the dealership today and have thier RX-8 before the 100's or 1000's of us that have been waiting months!

 

Did you order any port options?

---jps

 

RX8racer as a fellow NorthEastern Ohioan who also has his car on reserve I empathize. As soon as I got off work today I made the obligatory call to Cascade Mazda in Stow and they still have not received any either. Hey we waited this long for the Indians, Cavs and Browns so we have patience in our blood for better or worse. Let me know when you are taking those rides through the rolling countryside though. (cause I can't wait either)

 

thats the whole point. port options aren't supposed to delay the delivery of a vehicle. they are to be installed while all the red tape on the shipment is dealt with. It really has gotten to the point of absurdity. I sat around and listened to people bash mazda and their preorder program for 6 months realizing the difficulties they encountered and trying to be sympathetic, but their execution post port has been rather poor. There is no excuse for first batch vehicles sitting at port waiting for predetermined options to be installed

 

I emailed rx8orders today for an update and mine (VIN 4226) reached port Tacoma on 7/12 and estimated delivery to my dealer in NE Ohio is second week of August!?! I hope that's an overestimate...

 

I did not order any port options specifically because I did not want to slow down the car. I see in the general forum that someone else had a non-presold show up at thier dealer before his car. He thinks Mazda is shipping the non-presolds first. This is crap!!!!

 

Why are our cars coming from Tacoma and not New Jersey anyway I know they get railed from Michigan but come on. That has to rank as the longest trip cross country for the RX8s.

 

The whole pre-order program is BS. Let's get fanatic chumps to sign up for a car and deliver it whenever we feel like while we stock the dealerships with cars to sell with addendum stickers. Screw the enthusiast who waited anywhere from 4months to 2.5 years and sell to the walk-in customer. Mazda has a long way before it reaches the integrity level of Benz, BMW, Lotus, etc. They are proving they are just Japanese for FORD.

I am obviously pissed off. Read my other posts about what they are doing in Atlanta with SOLD PRE-ORDERED CARS.

Another week of this bullshit, and I cancel my order.

 

Please tell me how these activities, which are occuring at independently owned and operated dealers, are in any way the fault of Mazda, Mazda USA, etc.?

Mazda builds the car, sells it to the dealer and delivers it, that's it. If your dealer decides it's OK for their sales guys to take ordered RX-8s on test drives, rev them to 9K, take them through the drive-thru at McDonalds, whatever, that's the fault of the morons managing your local dealer, not Mazda.

For better or worse, that's one reason why I haven't ordered an RX-8 yet; it's been a long time since I had to deal with a "conventional" car dealer as my last few vehicles have been Audis. Just as I couldn't imagine having to deal with the same service department that was servicing tons of Proteges, I wonder how folks who buy Corvettes can handle taking their car in somewhere the lot guys are used to tooling around in Cavaliers. Likewise I don't know how people can trust people used to pushing Accords to know how to properly treat a pre-breakin S2000. (Hint: you can't; my friend was shopping for an S2000 last weekend and watched the sales guy send a new car with 13 miles on it above 6K RPM and into VTEC, sigh...)

But none of these things are inherently the fault of Mazda, GM or Honda, respectively; rather it's the dealership network that doesn't know what they have and that has no respect for the consumer. The manufacturers can do little about it except perhaps yank their dealership affiliation, but that would almost certainly result in a lengthy and expensive lawsuit, and given most auto dealers' political clout in their areas, would likely be unwise as well.

BTW, high end dealerships are also not immune from poor customer service; just look at the number of E46 BMW M3 owners whose engine failures were blamed on overrev before the engine failures became more widespread.

So in short, go ahead and cancel your order. It won't hurt Mazda, they've already made their money in selling the car to the dealer. It will only hurt the dealership, and perhaps you can find a different, worthy dealership to shop at instead. In fact, I'd recommend telling a salesman about the test drives offered at the ATL dealers. If they don't respond with shock and horror themselves, find another. There are literally thousands of Mazda dealers in the U.S. - you'll find a honorable one eventually...

 

You know what, QUIT YOUR F'N BITCHING!!!

I remember going to the Detroit Auto Show this year and having the people there tell me to expect Late July/Early August delivery. And if it wasn't for this website, you'd be happy knowing that your car was coming a bit before that estimate.

If it wasn't for this website, the dealers could tell you anything and you wouldn't know any better. They could take delivery of your car later this week, and hide it in their garage for a couple weeks, then give it to you and STILL be right on target for the timeframe given before the pre-order started.

So SHUTUP! Your car is coming, as promised and right on schedule. Until you're in charge of managing a whole assembly line, production, and delivery of a product on this scale, who are you to act like you're being so mistreated by Mazda?

Obviously, I love my website ... but why do people feel the need to bitch so much on the internet? Just be happy that Mazda had the ***** to product another rotary powered car targeted straight at enthusiasts with a family.

 

Why do we feel mistreated? Cause we're shelling out 30k+ to these people. And they've been less than forth comming about our cars.

BTW I was never told from the beginning late july/early august. Went to detriot as well. I was told late may both by mazda reps at the show and my dealer. They mislead us by offering this pre order program that would 'supposedly' keep us up to date on our cars and get cars to us in advance of others. Mazda has the resources people and material wise to have made the pre order program a positive experience but they chose not to devote the necessary resources to inform their loyal customers. I won't order another mazda, that I can promise.

If it wasn't for YOUR website someone else would have done it. Been tempted to start my own anyway because of the poor QOS of this site. This should be an OPEN forum. Let people should have the freedom to bitch if they want. Take a pill for cryin out loud.

 

The Mazda name is on the car and the signage outside etc. Everything reflects on the corporation as a whole good and bad. They (Mazda) coiuld make rules and regulations and standard operating procedures that store owners have to obide by. If they don't follow the rules Mazda could levy fines or whatever. The dealership would be more careful in how it operates. How is it any different than the corporation "McDonald's" being held accountable for something at one of their franchises that are independenlty owned?

I'm not a business major by any means so I'm sure somebody here will chime in and school me.

BTW: I am a very early (Jan 12th) pre-order. I know the car has been at the port for about one month. Now cars are showing up at dealers that are available for sale. And some second and third allocation cars will be ariving before or at the same time as some first batch cars. Kind of takes the wind out of your sale when you could have just walked in and drove away without any headaches and all the stress of waiting. Anyway this IS a MAZDA issue, not my local dealer. He didn't send the cars to himself.

 

Actually in many states these types of things could probably be considered illegal restraint of trade.

Basically there are certain things that Mazda can or can't demand of their dealers, and further they cannot retroactively demand anything of their dealers. A dealer agreement can't be magically changed at the whim of Mazda.

You're right in that what the dealers do does reflect on Mazda, but there's only so much they can actually do to take action against their dealers. As I mentioned, the most politically powerful business in just about any city are auto dealers, and they flex considerable political muscle to assure they have the upper hand in many areas (the big reason why you still have to buy autos through a dealer in the first place rather than directly from the manufacturer.)

As I said, if your dealership acts like a jerk, find another dealership. Mazda can't do anything about it from their end.

(Delivery of cars to dealerships likely works the same way; it's kind of like shipping a package UPS, you can't control when they will actually deliver a package except that it will arrive on a certain day.)

 

Poor QoS??? Whatever dude ... go start your own site and see if you can pay for it, maintain it, etc. You have no clue.

This is an OPEN forum last I checked. Did I edit or remove anything? Website Moderators, Administrators, Owners, are OPEN to post their opinion just like Members.

Anyway, I was speaking of pre-internet times. When there was no internet, they would have told you anything and you wouldn't know any different. Now you chill.

 

Dude YOU have no idea. I'm a unix and oracle consultant. Got a T1 how about you? Got a stack of Sun servers, a quad xeon and a stack of linux boxes at my house. Setup, architected and maintained an ISP for 250,000 users. Several internet companies too that are still in business no less. I could definitly build and maintain a faster more reliable site than this.

hmmm... couldn't post this for a while cause the site was inaccessable.

 

actually, mazda is responsible. they can establish training requirements, quality of service requirements, standards, etc. and enforce them. if they don't like what the dealer is doing, they can stop selling them cars. kind of like a franchise, if a McD's isn't clean enough, how long do you think it stays a McD's?

the customer service provided by the average Mazda dealer combined with the pre-order program just goes to show that Mazda isn't focused on this aspect of the program. and that will be their eventual downfall and why they happen to be partly owned by Ford. if they don't fix their customer interaction the company will die.

 

AMEN!!!

NOW that's what I call "administering" to the forum members. :D

 

I would challenge you to find me a McDonald's that has had its franchise yanked; I've been in some pretty nasty ones and I haven't seen it happen yet. Food and trash on the floor and who knows what spread around the counters by the tots coming out of the PlayPlace.

Meanwhile what you say is wonderful, but if it wasn't agreed to when Mazda first signed that dealership up, they can't add requirements now, and given many Mazda dealers have been dealers for a long time, it likely won't happen.

Finally, remember you are an enthusiast as are the rest of us here. Dealers likely don't really care if they lose a sale to one of "us" as they're really gunning for sales to the great unwashed public who come in looking at a 6 and wonder about "that sporty thing there" and, to reference the movie Fargo, who will pay for the TruCoat. :D

 

actually i can't say why it happened, but we've had a post in the last week about a guy whose dealer lost the Mazda line. so losing the franchise does happen. i'll be those McD's you've seen are spotless when the corporate inspector comes through.

 

That wasn't so much about losing a line as it was another dealer in town picking it up.

I suspect it would be very hard for a manufacturer to yank a line from a dealership for poor service or whatever, but giving a line to a different dealership because the're building a new Mazda-only building is the type of thing that happens all the time...

 

So what we're saying here is Mazda can and does change who has the franchise in a locality based on QUALITY of facilities.

 

My dad can kick both your dads' butts! :D

 

So I am the guy that started the whole argument. I don't even know where to start. I thank those who stood up for me a bit. And those who added to the debate both in the affirmative and negative (I indeed learn the most from those who see things opposite from me) For these comments I thank you. As for as the childish comments of our "moderator." -- I am at a rare loss of words. He asks me to stop my f'ing bitching -- that I am just an internet complainer, etc, etc, etc. I urge anyone to read all 80 of my posts to this site and see if I have not been a honest, succinct, knowledgable, helpful, excited, committed, rx-8-loving, enthusiast. My problem is with the CORPORATION of mazda for allowing dealers to screw things up so bad, for allowing them to be so rude, for leaving them so uneducated about a product that can turn the tide of the Mazda auto line. I blame the Mazda Corp for starting this pre-order program under the false pretense that we would actually get the car before the walk-in customer. While else buy a car in January that comes in August?

Mr. Moderator with the sandbox arguements:
Your point to me is, "Shut up, you'll get your car!"

Very astute indeed. Your knowledge of the issues are only surpassed by your uncanny ability to communicate them to your FELLOW forum members. I am very impressed.

Bottom Line: The pre-order program was a failure not because we got our cars really late, but their communication with us was **** poor and there are customers walking in buying this car upon first sight while mine is in the Panama Canal.

BTW: Many senior members and moderators etc agree with me and are trying to compose a respectful letter of complaint to Mazda Corp. Those who disagree are even better -- they, as family tend to do at times, make me feel better by giving me a fresh outlook on the issue.

You on the other hand, storm in like the drunk father of the family with your harsh, abusive comments. Hopefully your sleeping your bender off. Just don't hit me daddy

 

Haven't enjoyed parts of this thread too much; however, I have to agree with the quote above. This is what I sent to Mazda back in February. Dealer never would put through the paperwork correctly to show the car as mine; however both the dealer and Mazda assured me that that would not make a difference in the delivery date (big bells going off on that one). Of course, all this worked out Ok as I didn't feel at all guilty when I cancelled my order.

Good news is that the purchase of a second vehicle that can fit the whole family has caused my wife to allow the consideration of obtaining a RX-7 again! On the lookout for a good condition 2nd Gen TII! :D

 

But if you go to the dealer and just walk in and buy those cars, you'll be paying 4K over MSRP and you don't know who drove it. I'd rather wait a couple weeks rather than to pay extra