Interesting thing happened when I took my '04 8 into the dealer for it's 30,000 miles service. According to the reciept, which was billed to Mazda under the warranty service program given to compensate me for my lost horse power, the mechanic spent 1.5 hours working on the car. He rotated the tires, changed the oil, checked the brakes, and that was all I was told although I am sure that there were other things poked and prodded.

Within a week of driving the car, I discovered that he overfilled my oil by a quart, removed 6 pounds per square inch of tire pressure from each tire taking my tires down to 25 PSI each and setting my TPMS light, and due to his ministrations, my car had the worste gas mileage of its life. My car almost always gets between 20 and 21 MPG this time fo year. I got 15.5 MPG on the car with the low tire pressure and over filled oil. I was amazed at the difference low tire pressure can make, assuming that the over filled oil had nothing to do with it. I've never done that either. I was just impressed by the quality of service Mazda is able to deliver.

 

That sucks. I hope you find out what caused your drop in mileage.....I don't think it could be caused by the tire pressure. Not five mile per gallon at least. Congrats on being able to get 20 MPG in the first place though. I'm lingering around 13-15, depending on my driving style. He didn't by chance update you flash did he?

 

why don't you just do the maintenance yourself?? if you know how to do all this stuff, and you want it a certain way, don't waste your time in going to the dealership. just do it yourself.

 

I've been maintaining my own cars for years, and I do half of the oil changes myself, but damn it, it's free! I hate giving up free stuff, and at 37,500, I get spark plugs. Those things are somewhere around $32 a piece. So after 37,500, I goin' it without the dealer, but my real point here is, what kind of a monkey does this? Servicing a car is pretty easy especially in the modern world, and I can't believe that he can't get the oil level right or the tire pressure.

As for my mileage . . . I filled the tires and achieved 22 MPG over 275 miles in the past two days.

No. He refused to update the flash since the recall is so close in coming, and that's fine with me. Actually that made alot of sense. Why bill Mazda twice for something that will be done again so soon, and I'm already on M, although it's the original M. I hope that my car will run as well on the new flash as it does right now. I like my mileage.

 

free isn't always a good thing. i understand your point tho. for me, it really isn't worth my time. maybe for the spark plugs. sad to say, you won't find many mechanics you can rely on.