Honestly, I can't help you there. Tustin Mazda is pretty far from you and the service there seemed pretty good. The sales team there really botched it up with me, but the service seemed fine. I was skeptical though when they tried charging me 210 bucks for the 15K service (otherside, who works at a mazda dealer in vegas, says they charge 120 for it).

they do seem to be courteous though. i haven't tried glendale. i bought my mazdaspeed 6 from galpin in van nuys (pretty far away too) and they kept on talking about how they care a lot about customer satisfaction, so i dunno they may be good. never been there for service.

Sorry, I'm kinda useless on it. But the horrible mazda service was one reason I was really thinking of getting a BMW, Infiniti, or Lexus (who all apparently have AWESOME service).

 

To Spork: I bet the "guy who took your car in" was Oscar. Condescending jerk.

FWIW -- Alhambra Mazda does not even have a body shop. They send out all body work.

Their one good service writer was Spencer Gilliland. He recently left and went to Puente Hills Mazda. For that reason I will go there for my "emission recall" test.

Anyone have experience with Puente Hills?

Thanks !

 

Holy mother of god. And I thought I just had a random bad experience. You hit the nail on the head. It was Oscar. I couldn't stand that guy. I actually wanted to smack the guy when he accused ME of the brake squeal issue. "You didn't clean your brakes. You're supposed to clean them every 10,000 miles." I should've mentioned his name to Mazda North America when I sent in my complaint but I didn't.

 

Yeah he annoys me too. I'm running out of potential places to take the car in though.
Glendale managed to somehow leave gum in my ignition and Alhambra seems to think you are retarted when you mention a TSB about anything. I heard West Covina was good but it seems like a long way to go.
Galpin isn't too bad either, and they were pretty proactive about checking for flashes..
I'll probably take it there for the recall work.

 

First. like many here have already advised. I'd say not to get pissy with the dealer. They are trying to do the right thing. If you would have said that they denied ever touching your car, I'd be pissed too. But they admitted thier mistake and made a magnanimous offer; they are willing to fix things properly.

Me? I'd thank them for their being honest (which is rare). Then I'd ask them if they would mind if I took the car to my own detail/paint/bodywork guy. It is my experience that dealerships can fix mechanical problems but are not very well equipped to deal with body damage (and if they are, I wouldn't trust them anyway).

Then I'd hike my car down to my god-like, bodywork, paint genious (my own experience) and have them bill the dealer for the work done. And again taken from my own experience, when they finished, you could take a microscope to the car and never find a difference in paint over-spray or blending or anything..........my 2 cents.............

 

Doesn't repainting the whole door hurt the resale/trade in value of the car? Even though my last car was in great condition, the dealership I traded it in at told me the reason they wouldn't even match the KBB "fair" price was because more than one panel had been repainted.

 

Surf City Mazda in Huntington Beach off Beach Blvd.

 

I know that you are upset but IMO your dealership is doing you right, afterall chit happens. Get your car repainted its as simple as that, touch up paint won't cut it.

Someone mentioned that the OEM paint was the best, well that isn't the problem, don't blame Mazda for this. Truth is over the last few years paint isn't what it used to be, you can thank the tree hugger's/ environmentalist for that. Don't believe me compare any late 90's OEM paint job to something nowadays and you'll see exactly what I mean. _____ fill in the blank, OEM paint get more chips.


I had a friend accidentally swipe my BBcar and to make a longer story longer, I had to have it repainted. He ended up paying for it and I haven't seen him since. Of course on black every lil imperfection is magnified.

 

Didn't it used to be called Heritage Mazda? I drove by there recently and saw the new sign...

 

Thanks J... My sister lives in Lake Forest, so I will keep Tustin in mind as an option.
In the meantime, I touched up the scratches w/ some paint b4 Sat's meet. And, even though it's still noticeable, I think I'm going to wait a while longer and see how I feel. (Re-painting the entire door just seems like overkill to me...) I'm actually more concerned about removing the cloud marks left by the body shop the polished out my rock chips. I sent you a PM about it, but I also got some great info from Jun. So, hopefully I'll be able to find out if those are just rotary marks that can be buffed out or otherwise...

 

The Tustin bodyshop fixed my 8 up after I got in that accident with the drunk driver. They actually quoted me a really low price which I was surprised by. I mean it didn't matter to me in the end because the drunk guy was going to pay for all the damage in cash for not turning him in. (I didn't turn him in because he seemed geniunely sorry AND because he actually had the courtesy to stop when I was completely shell shocked. Like seriously if he had taken off, I wouldn't never even thought of going after him or looking at his plates.)

They wound up reevaluating their price though to something more to what I expected. But anyways the job they did looked pretty good (though I don't think it fit quite as perfectly as it originally did, but even if it didn't it was pretty darn close) and they told me there was a lifetime guarantee on their work. They took a while though (I was driving a Neon for almost 2 weeks. That wasn't pleasant.)

 

Is it the Browning Mazda in Alhambra??
cause if it is...

 

Not sure what you're asking there shak...

Alhambra Mazda is the dealer that damaged my car.
Tustin Mazda is where they're recommending body work.

Hope this helps.

 

Browning Mazda is in Cerritos. Alhambra Mazda is on Main in Alhambra (duh). I've been avoiding that entire Main St. strip as it seems that road has a nice collection of some of the shadiest dealers I've ever seen (Goudy Honda is pretty bad and Wondries Toyota isn't that great either). However, just the fact that they're offering to repaint the entire door is enough for me. That is a great deal and I'd take that in a heartbeat. Spec out the bodyshop if you want, there certainly isn't a shortage of bodyshops in that area.

I might be living in the Bay Area, but my heart is in LA...

 

Stopped by Alhambra Mazda this morning to pickup my touch-up paint... Turns out that they fired the service rep that was helping me... (?!!) Honestly, I don't even know for a fact if he was the person responsible for the damage to my car- since it could've been anyone on their lot that day that might've brushed up against it or what not. Their actions seem a bit extreme, unless they were having other issues with his performance. Regardless, now, I feel even worse about the whole thing... I didn't want someone to lose their job over this...

 

Detrich, don't for one second feel bad about what happened. I've fired plenty of people in my career and I can tell you it has never been for a single incident they have done (unless they stole from me)

Odds are at he was fired for a chain of events and I seriously doubt that the scratch was one of those events. The service writers hardly touch the cars when they go to the dealerships. If anyone is at fault, it is most likely the technician or the porters that are moving / washing the cars.

Cheer up man, this isn't your fault.

 

I've never fired anyone, but I completely agree with Jedi. Good employees don't get fired for 1 mistake. All here have said to you "chit happens" - or something like it. The same applies for people at work. It's when the same chit happens over and over and over that people get the ax.

They should NOT have told you the guy was fired, that's pretty lame on their part. But you shouldn't feel bad about it - in fact it means yours was probably not the first car he dinged up.