Hello, glad I found your forum! I posted the following as a reply to another post here but thought I might get some feedback/input/thoughts/HELP from others if I posted it in its own thread.
First, I am not Mazda bashing here. I am even trieing to convince myself that my car is a one of kind lemon and would like to find a way to get into a 2004 if possible. As you will read below the HUGE loss I am asking to eat may prevent me from doing that. Any input on how to get Mazda Inc. to get up from their nap on this would be greatly appreciated.
Heres the story:
2003 6, loaded as they come.....$23,000+. I agreed to my daughters wishes for this first year car due to a great experience with a 91 626 which was her starter car at 16 and the great reviews on the 6. The 626 held up to my kid so Mazda must us some Loctite to put them together.
Now for our 6 nightmare. All is well for 5800 miles and then one day starting the car yielded (1)white smoke from the exhaust (its early summer 2003), (2)AT light blinking, car lurching and almost wanting to die, undrivable. Dealer towed, no probs found. OK, this is good, maybe a one time "vapor lock". Weeks later the car stalled on the road with almost every dash dummy light on, towed, no probs found..ugh!
Incident #3 was a combo of the first two rounds of symptoms but the car started after a few minutes so we drove it to the dealer with no probs found other than a bad knock sensor reading so they replaced that. At this time the headliner was falling down so our dealer ordered one and installed it. The fourth incident a few months later was much the same as before with the car starting after a few minutes although a radical pulling to the left was happening. No probs found as far as the engine but the rack and pinion had to be replaced. Sounding more like a patched up used car every day I'm thinking. Incident #5 was a repeat of of all that has happened engine wise so we drive it to the dealer, drop the keys on the service counter and tell them they can have their car back. This car is driven by my kid in her first year of college out of town. So much for going with a new one to avoid worry. Our local dealer has been great BUT they have NO help from Mazda Inc. Mazda even wanted to end the loaner and us drive the car until a cure could be found for the anomolies. Yeah, right. I supposed to let my kid take it to a college town or let my pregnant wife drive it. I'm out as far as a daily driver on this because my work requires a truck.
You may ask how we managed to get 31,000 miles on the car. Well, it goes weeks or a month or two without trouble. Our dealer says that the miles must be taken into consideration as far as trade in. My point is, any miles over 5800 we have not had use of a car that we can let our kid go off in. She has to ride with friends out of town due to the fact that this heap will quit when it gets ready. Some have said "whats the big deal, they will tow it in". Put your 19 year old or your expecting wife in it and send them off. I think not.
We are easy going and just want some decent service out of a car we paid new money for. Heres the kicker, to put all this aside and get into a left over 03 or 04 will be around $10,000 difference. To force the issue using our states lemon law will cost $6,600 if Mazda goes along and $6,600 PLUS lawyers fees if they don't. So lets put this in perspective.....We will have a minimum of 6,600 in a colateral buyback or 10,000 in an outright trade in. That looks like around 30,000 to 34,000 invested and thats assuming we could stomach doing business with Mazda again. Looks like we should have gone with a BMW or Volvo to start with. Edmonds and a couple of calls shows that the average trade in on the 14 month old car is around 15,000. Since when does a car lose 40% of its value in a little over a year?
Thanks for any input,
Mike (Fordman)
First, I am not Mazda bashing here. I am even trieing to convince myself that my car is a one of kind lemon and would like to find a way to get into a 2004 if possible. As you will read below the HUGE loss I am asking to eat may prevent me from doing that. Any input on how to get Mazda Inc. to get up from their nap on this would be greatly appreciated.
Heres the story:
2003 6, loaded as they come.....$23,000+. I agreed to my daughters wishes for this first year car due to a great experience with a 91 626 which was her starter car at 16 and the great reviews on the 6. The 626 held up to my kid so Mazda must us some Loctite to put them together.
Now for our 6 nightmare. All is well for 5800 miles and then one day starting the car yielded (1)white smoke from the exhaust (its early summer 2003), (2)AT light blinking, car lurching and almost wanting to die, undrivable. Dealer towed, no probs found. OK, this is good, maybe a one time "vapor lock". Weeks later the car stalled on the road with almost every dash dummy light on, towed, no probs found..ugh!
Incident #3 was a combo of the first two rounds of symptoms but the car started after a few minutes so we drove it to the dealer with no probs found other than a bad knock sensor reading so they replaced that. At this time the headliner was falling down so our dealer ordered one and installed it. The fourth incident a few months later was much the same as before with the car starting after a few minutes although a radical pulling to the left was happening. No probs found as far as the engine but the rack and pinion had to be replaced. Sounding more like a patched up used car every day I'm thinking. Incident #5 was a repeat of of all that has happened engine wise so we drive it to the dealer, drop the keys on the service counter and tell them they can have their car back. This car is driven by my kid in her first year of college out of town. So much for going with a new one to avoid worry. Our local dealer has been great BUT they have NO help from Mazda Inc. Mazda even wanted to end the loaner and us drive the car until a cure could be found for the anomolies. Yeah, right. I supposed to let my kid take it to a college town or let my pregnant wife drive it. I'm out as far as a daily driver on this because my work requires a truck.
You may ask how we managed to get 31,000 miles on the car. Well, it goes weeks or a month or two without trouble. Our dealer says that the miles must be taken into consideration as far as trade in. My point is, any miles over 5800 we have not had use of a car that we can let our kid go off in. She has to ride with friends out of town due to the fact that this heap will quit when it gets ready. Some have said "whats the big deal, they will tow it in". Put your 19 year old or your expecting wife in it and send them off. I think not.
We are easy going and just want some decent service out of a car we paid new money for. Heres the kicker, to put all this aside and get into a left over 03 or 04 will be around $10,000 difference. To force the issue using our states lemon law will cost $6,600 if Mazda goes along and $6,600 PLUS lawyers fees if they don't. So lets put this in perspective.....We will have a minimum of 6,600 in a colateral buyback or 10,000 in an outright trade in. That looks like around 30,000 to 34,000 invested and thats assuming we could stomach doing business with Mazda again. Looks like we should have gone with a BMW or Volvo to start with. Edmonds and a couple of calls shows that the average trade in on the 14 month old car is around 15,000. Since when does a car lose 40% of its value in a little over a year?
Thanks for any input,
Mike (Fordman)
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it has problems but at least it still runs
