2019 CX-5 signature / Mazda Roadside Assistance story (long)

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2019 CX-5 Silver Signature
Took the family into the city on Saturday for a music/arts festival.
Parked on the street - nice residential area.
Returned to the car around 6:30pm - key fob does not work - doors are unlocked ( i double locked the car when we left it)
Go to start the car - nothing. No cranking, zip - just a bunch of warning lights telling me nothing useful.
Great - battery does not seem dead as the interior lights seem to work.
Called Mazda Emergency Roadside and here is where things go downhill.
They verified my car qualified for free emergency service (2019 with only 4500 miles) and said they would send someone to jump the battery.
An hour later they showed up - they put their little jumper unit on it and nothing - just a red light on the unit which the responder says meant it was not
a battery issue but something else in the system , maybe alternator. He says they do not tow and I would have to call Mazda back for a wrecker.
Fine - I call Mazda Roadside back to request a wrecker to have the car towed, oh an by the way bring a dolly and flatbead since the car wont go into neutral.
(gotta love today's electronics)
They said it would be another 90 mins to get someone there - OK we wait and have dinner close by.
90 mins come and go, nobody shows up .
Call Mazda roadside back - they put me on hold for 15 mins - then apologize because they called the wrong service for a wrecker -
the same original service which does not tow!
By this time its 9:30pm and dark - 3 hours after my original call.
They ordered another wrecker service and said it would be another 90 mins.
Starting to get pissed at this point - why does it take so long to get a wrecker in the city, especially after they screwed up the first call?
"Oh, so sorry, yada yada" and oh by the way, we would also have to arrange our own transport home since the wrecker would only have room for one person
and only to the dealership (my dealer in Roswell).
Fine I say, I need to get my family home, can I leave the key with the disabled car and take them home in an Uber?
Sure, no problem.
They call back and say that the wrecker service will not tow unattended cars, so they had to call another service - again 1.5 hours.
I say whatever, just have them call me when they pickup and dropoff the car.
I hear nothing until about 1am, then a bunch of frantic cars from the last wrecker service saying that cannot locate my car.
After repeated attempts at describing where the car is, they give up - about 2:30am. =- the car is not there!
Called Mazda Emer roadside who contacts 911 - they advise me to come in to make a stolen car report.
Oh, and Mazda roadside keeps texting me like every 10 mins to ask me to fill out a customer sat survey! Yeah, sure will do that...
Drove back into the city to look for my car - its not where I parked it.
Next to local Police Dept and did a report. They took down all the information, phone numbers and companies I dealt with.
They suggested to call each again to verify the car did not get picked up, I called everyone again (1st wrecker service, 2nd wrecker service, Mazda roadside) -
nope, no one picked up the car.They also checked to see if the city or homeowners assoc had it towed - nope. Only one tow company has the city contract and they dont
have my car.
Call up Mazda roadside again - last contact they have is the wrecker could not find the car. I finished the stolen car report and left.
By this time i figure I'm done with Mazda - being stranded in the city and the bad experience with Mazda Roadside.
WTF - how does a disabled car get stolen! I guess they would need a wrecker and dolly at least, right? Police says it happens sometimes.....
Right now (Sunday am) I'm so pissed at Mazda (and myself for not staying with the car originally), on the way home i decide to stop at my Mazda dealership to vent at my salesman.
Lots of new cars outside, a couple signatures that just look like mine. Wait a minute - that one IS mine! Backed into a parking place just waiting for me .(checked my tags)
Apparently my car magically made it back to the dealer and parked itself!
Dealer had no idea it was there since it was delivered after hours. I picked up a loaner today since they havent gotten my car yet.
 
Really frustrating story! But at least your broken 4K-mile new 2019 CX-5 Sig is sitting at the right place for now ⋯
 
YOU WASTED 5 MINUTES OF MY TIME READING THE STORY BUT YOU NEVER MENTIONED THE MOST IMPORTANT THING :

WHILE YOU WERE ON CALL WITH MAZDA - DID THEY TELL YOU THE MOST IMPORTANT THING????






THANKS FOR BEING PART OF THE MAZDA FAMILY**.





Although I think Shazam did it.
 
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Feel alive

Seriously, horrendous experience. And definitely curious why a brand new CX-5 broke like that.
 
Absolutely AWEFUL experience. (headshake

Please let us know what was wrong with the car.

Oh, and I'd "tear them a new one" on the survey.
 
It sounds like you got a poorly-trained roadside assistance agent who didn't properly verify that their first-choice service company could do the job as required. 90min is the typical service standard quoted by tow truck companies for special equipment (dollies, flatbed), as opposed to 45-60min for a regular wrecker.

"Mazda" roadside assistance isn't actually Mazda, but rather an outsourced company that likely handles nationwide dispatch for multiple manufacturers. Back in college I worked for one such company, and we handled roadside dispatch for every major manufacturer except GM; including all of the luxury brands. No matter how much you paid for your car, when you called your 800# you would have gotten the same call center(s), staffed by the same people with the same training, and your call might have been sandwiched between a Lexus owner who lost their keys and a Dodge Ram owner whose third fuel pump just burned out on the interstate.

Not that this excuses your poor level of service, it just means that if you'd bought a $60K Mercedes, you could very well have had the exact same experience. Sorry to hear that it was a miserable one!
 
It sounds like you got a poorly-trained roadside assistance agent who didn't properly verify that their first-choice service company could do the job as required. 90min is the typical service standard quoted by tow truck companies for special equipment (dollies, flatbed), as opposed to 45-60min for a regular wrecker.

"Mazda" roadside assistance isn't actually Mazda, but rather an outsourced company that likely handles nationwide dispatch for multiple manufacturers. Back in college I worked for one such company, and we handled roadside dispatch for every major manufacturer except GM; including all of the luxury brands. No matter how much you paid for your car, when you called your 800# you would have gotten the same call center(s), staffed by the same people with the same training, and your call might have been sandwiched between a Lexus owner who lost their keys and a Dodge Ram owner whose third fuel pump just burned out on the interstate.

Not that this excuses your poor level of service, it just means that if you'd bought a $60K Mercedes, you could very well have had the exact same experience. Sorry to hear that it was a miserable one!

This.
 
That's awful. Do you have AAA? It's well worth it to avoid dealing with stuff like this. If you tell them you don't think you are in a safe area they will usually have a truck there in a half hour or less.
 
Dealer update:
Dealer called me back yesterday and told me all the car needed was for the battery to be charged(!?!)
They tested the electrical system and everything tests fine.
Could not explain what I could have left on to cause the battery to discharge in just 2.5 hrs.
I know I locked the car using the FOB as it beeped after double click which means no doors were ajar (they were thinking maybe the interior lights drained it)
I asked them to do some more testing as I dont want to be stranded again, so they are running some additional tests (repeated starts, etc) but I'm not getting a good feeling about this. I requested everything documented in writing.

I'm definitely ordering AAA for the peace of mind - thanks for the recommendation.
This is my 4th Mazda (91 and 99 Miata, 2016 and 2019 CX-5) and first one that ever stranded me or would not start.

Also having them look at:
Driver seat seam is fraying (where is sewed) on one seam across the bottom of the Nappa leather seats.
Update:They have ordered a seat bottom replacement - ETA 3-5 biz days

False alarms on the Attentive Driving Control (no hands on steering wheel) alert.
Update: Per dealer, sensor that monitors this expects hands to be in 10-2 driving position (i figured )
Well sometimes (longer trips) I drive with hands at 5 and 7 or just 7 - ADC doesnt always like this .
Anyone else run into this?
Dealer is checking if this setting can be disabled. Really annoying, happens a few times/week.
 
That's awful. Do you have AAA? It's well worth it to avoid dealing with stuff like this. If you tell them you don't think you are in a safe area they will usually have a truck there in a half hour or less.
Good idea - ordering today!
 
Bah! See who needs all this tech nanny mumbo jumbo. What a pain in the ass.

Hope they make it right, OP. Sorry to hear of your issues on a brand new car.
 
[/QUOTE]False alarms on the Attentive Driving Control (no hands on steering wheel) alert.
Update: Per dealer, sensor that monitors this expects hands to be in 10-2 driving position (i figured )
Well sometimes (longer trips) I drive with hands at 5 and 7 or just 7 - ADC doesnt always like this .
Anyone else run into this?
Dealer is checking if this setting can be disabled. Really annoying, happens a few times/week.[/QUOTE]

I have never experienced this. I have a 2017 CX-5 GT and i usually drive with my hands on the cross bar or only left on the wheel. Only times i have seen this is with both hands off (this was a onetime mistake). I just came back from driving ~250 miles and most of time never had the hands at 10 and 2. Dealer BullS**t.
 
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Update: Per dealer, sensor that monitors this expects hands to be in 10-2 driving position (i figured )
Well sometimes (longer trips) I drive with hands at 5 and 7 or just 7 - ADC doesnt always like this .
Anyone else run into this?
Dealer is checking if this setting can be disabled. Really annoying, happens a few times/week.

what is this? what warnings do you get?
I've never encountered this type of warning on my cx-5
 
andamanc said:
False alarms on the Attentive Driving Control (no hands on steering wheel) alert.
Update: Per dealer, sensor that monitors this expects hands to be in 10-2 driving position (i figured )
Well sometimes (longer trips) I drive with hands at 5 and 7 or just 7 - ADC doesnt always like this .
Anyone else run into this?
Dealer is checking if this setting can be disabled. Really annoying, happens a few times/week.

I have never experienced this. I have a 2017 CX-5 GT and i usually drive with my hands on the cross bar or only left on the wheel. Only times i have seen this is with both hands off (this was a onetime mistake). I just came back from driving ~250 miles and most of time never had the hands at 10 and 2. Dealer BullS**t.

Seconding this. I almost always have my hands at 5 and 7. The only time it triggers is when I actually take my hands off of the wheel (testing on an empty back road). I don't think it has anything to do with where your hands are, I think its based on a lack of steering wheel feedback as the car drives on the road. When you drive over road imperfections, the steering wheel wants to move just a little. If there is nothing correcting that movement, the warning goes off. I think I remember reading a post where someone claimed that the steering wheel was pressure sensitive and putting a steering wheel cover on would "defeat" the warning - now that was a crock.
 
...
False alarms on the Attentive Driving Control (no hands on steering wheel) alert.
Update: Per dealer, sensor that monitors this expects hands to be in 10-2 driving position (i figured )
Well sometimes (longer trips) I drive with hands at 5 and 7 or just 7 - ADC doesnt always like this .

Seconding what others have said in that this is dealer claptrap.

NTSHA now recommends 9/3 or 8/4:

https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/steeringtechniques.pdf

When using hand-over-had steering, your left hand grasps the steering wheel
between 8 and 9 oclock and your right hand between 3 and 4 oclock.

AAA says so too:

https://www.cars.com/articles/2013/02/aaa-get-the-right-grip-on-your-steering-wheel/
https://www.businessinsider.com/hol...el-at-10-and-2-is-dangerously-outdated-2013-1
 
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