So, the other day I went up to the garage and cranked my 8 and was getting ready to leave when my car was having trouble starting. It was making awful noises and the display panel's needles were flying everywhere and doing all sorts of crazy stuff. This was not good. It ended up cranking and I forgot about it for the rest of the day. Then, I went to dinner and it was sitting in the cold for about 2 hours or so. It did it again. So, the next day I took it into Mazda. My car is an '04 with about 6,000 miles on it. I drove it in and the guy told me I would have to leave it overnight so that they could duplicate the setting and see what was going on. Then he said pull the car around and I will check the battery. I had a bad battery. How does this happen? Then, he comes out and tells me that since my car is in it's second year, the warranty only covers 50% of the cost. I didn't argue because it had to be done. So, I got the battery changed which took about 20 minutes to do. Then, they came and got me and my bill was around $43! Then, he told me that Mazda will be sending me a survey in about 3 weeks and that it is a pass or fail grade and to fill it out as very satisfied for all 20 or so things. I don't like that at all. He should never have brought that up at all and he should never have said anything to me about giving something other than my honest opinion on that survey. Anyways, just wanted to tell ya'll about the battery and survey. My day at the Mazda dealership.
By the way, while I was getting my car fixed, I saw the Mazdaspeed 6. I really like the leather it there. Black with kind of the bone color is sharp.

 

wait the warranty decreases after every year?

So they only partially replace malfunctioning equipment...thats BS

 

The battery and tires have a different warranty than the rest of the car. By the way, the Lexus guys tell me the same thing about their satisfaction survey (they want all excellents). If you're not good with that, they want the chance to make you happy BEFORE you complain to the manufacturer. In the long run, you're going to have to rely on the dealer to make good on any problems so it's better to work things out with him beforehand. Once you complain on the survey, I don't think you have the same bargaining power since car manufacturers rarely lean on dealers in fixing disputes with customers.

 

The battery is like tires. It's not a part of the car that is covered by the car warranty, it has its own battery warranty like the tires have their own tire warranty. These are always pro-rated. That's life.

edit, wow Ericok, great minds think alike. You beat me.

 

Everyone's going to say this is stupid, but I think it's funny.

RX8 Zoom Zoom, I clicked on the link to your car pics in your signature and saw the pictures you had of your car. Of particular interest was the picture of the navigation system screen that showed the location of your car in what I can only assume is your driveway. After a quick bit of Google Mapping I found your address and now I have a satellite image of your house. Hooray for the Internet.

And no, I don't have anything better to do.

 

ooooook then, that isn't creepy at all...

 

i find this extremely amusing for some reason. maybe it's because i work with computers.

 

hahaha, hurray for google earth

 

When I got my RX-8 it was one week later I was at work time to go home. When I got in my 8 she would not even make a sound. So I called RSA got her towed in to Mazda then they tell me the battery was no good and the one of the tires had a flat. They fixed it for free. The guy never said it was under warranty. I think ever dealer is different.

 

that was a week after you'ld gotten the car though......for the first year, i believe the battery is covered completely....when you get into the second and third year is the gray area where that battery starts to be pro-rated

 

That is definitely not the case with Toyota, they expect the dealer to resolve it and if the customer even dares complain to Toyota Corp the dealer catches hell for it. Toyota tries to pawn vehicle defects on the dealer instead of possibly imagining its their problem... I hate Toyota!!

 

I thought there was a known problem with starters n batteries going bad and that Mazda was ROF'n them?

 

I make it even easyer for you.

 

I have owned many cars over the years, includung Japanese, American and European, and most dealers aren't worth the dirt that they are sitting on. But when my 3 year-old Saab (still under warranty) was left for dead, I had to call a wrecker to jump it so I could drive it home. The next day I drove to my dealership, where they not only replaced the bad battery, they gave me a check to reimburse me for the $60 wrecker service fee! Way to go Saab! It now has over 90K miles on it, and it has been the most reliable car I've ever owned.

My '05 RX8 has barely 1,000 miles on it, and so far it has performed flawlessly. But if I get treated the way zoom zoom did, not only would it be the last time I ever give money to that dealership, I would find a good, independent shop instead! They have obviously failed to earn your business. Vote with your $$$! Let them do the no-charge maintenance, then take it down the street to an indie for any cost-related service. It's time we stop throwing money away to undeserving businesses.

 

I think that's EXACTLY what I was trying to say. Corporate always tries to stick the problem with the dealer so it's in your best interest to try to keep your relationship with the dealer as even keel as possible.

 

^True

 

My bad I took:

"since car manufacturers rarely lean on dealers in fixing disputes with customers."

to mean manufacturers fix the issue directly instead of relying on the dealer to make it right.

 

There's prorated, and then there's prorated. I thought the battery in my Protege5 was about dead (slow start one morning, had to jump it the next), so I called the dealer to check into the warranty. The battery is prorated for four years, which is reasonable, but it drops in even 25% increments with each year, not monthly like most prorated warranties I've encountered. Since I've had my car 25 months, they would have only paid 25%. Something around 48% seems more reasonable.

But since then the car has started just fine. I'm guessing the kids left the dome light on, but I'm really not sure what happened.

 

Still, the battery should have the same warranty on it that the car does. I can't help it that the car I bought had a "bad battery" in it. That's Mazda's fault. Not mine.

 

I suspect that, to cut costs, most new cars do not come with a high-end battery. probably a 2- or 3-year battery. I doubt that any manufacturer would warranty a battery for as long as the car's warranty. It's like tread wear.