avoid morande mazda

[jred321]

so as a few of you know i've been looking around to trade my car in for something in a hatchback, the contenders being a fit, 3 and vibe. my first stop because it was the closest was morande mazda. got an offer there, went for a test drive, liked the car but the offer wasn't anything special so i wanted to do some shopping around and check out other options. i prefer shopping around to haggling so maybe i could have gotten a better offer from them but that's not my thing (and probably not the thing of many internet shoppers, which is how i contacted them). plus the salesmen were more traditional salesmen - pushy without being overtly pushy, trashing every other car on the road, saying this is the best ever, even went so far as to say soon his manager was going to tell him to stop selling the manual 3s below MSRP soon because they were in high demand.

so after that i went and drove the fit and the vibe. the fit offers were predictably not great because there is actually high demand for the car but the salesmen were very nice and pleasant. the vibe i just decided i couldn't see myself in though was pleasantly surprised at it and i had the best salesman ever. checked out liberty mazda in hartford but their inventory wasn't what i was looking for and they offered me a very low figure at their mazda dealer so i went to balise in west springfield. their offer for my car was good, the price for theirs was good, the salesmen (women actually) were nice, so i told them i'd take it. since it's not super close and work is busy this week i've been doing what i can until i can make it up there tomorrow night as far as paperwork and stuff goes

so then the point of this post. today i got a VM from the sales manager saying someone made a higher bid on my car. so i get out of work, check it and give him a call back to let him know that i've already verbally accepted balise's offer and won't go back on it because they've been understanding for me and worked with me and were upfront with a decent offer. so immediately he turned not nice. said he had a better offer for my car than they were giving me (though the price for their car was still higher than it should have been) and he ended the short conversation we had with "It's a pain in the ass to go up there for service. I hope they have rentals. Bye."

so apparently they don't want to service my car, which is perfectly fine by me because liberty mazda is just as close. i've heard stories about their poor sales department but when i got my MSP there they were decent, nothing special but decent. but after that conversation i'll never go there again, for service or sales. i've heard their service department is actually decent but i'm not going. so i pass this along to all of the people here: don't bother with morande. there are other dealers in the area that are better. morande doesn't want people's business

 

[genericuser]

I haven't had a problem with them, and I've been going to them for a while.. Thats surprising to hear, but I don't have a hard time believing it.

 

[CTpro5]

Their sales department team sucks! I remember when i was shopping for my P5 there. I was looking at their P5 selections outside,2-3 saleman was inside looking at me . no one bother to come out to hello, or offer a test drive. So i end up buying my P5 from Town& country Mazda in Middletown.

so as a few of you know i've been looking around to trade my car in for something in a hatchback, the contenders being a fit, 3 and vibe. my first stop because it was the closest was morande mazda. got an offer there, went for a test drive, liked the car but the offer wasn't anything special so i wanted to do some shopping around and check out other options. i prefer shopping around to haggling so maybe i could have gotten a better offer from them but that's not my thing (and probably not the thing of many internet shoppers, which is how i contacted them). plus the salesmen were more traditional salesmen - pushy without being overtly pushy, trashing every other car on the road, saying this is the best ever, even went so far as to say soon his manager was going to tell him to stop selling the manual 3s below MSRP soon because they were in high demand.

so after that i went and drove the fit and the vibe. the fit offers were predictably not great because there is actually high demand for the car but the salesmen were very nice and pleasant. the vibe i just decided i couldn't see myself in though was pleasantly surprised at it and i had the best salesman ever. checked out liberty mazda in hartford but their inventory wasn't what i was looking for and they offered me a very low figure at their mazda dealer so i went to balise in west springfield. their offer for my car was good, the price for theirs was good, the salesmen (women actually) were nice, so i told them i'd take it. since it's not super close and work is busy this week i've been doing what i can until i can make it up there tomorrow night as far as paperwork and stuff goes

so then the point of this post. today i got a VM from the sales manager saying someone made a higher bid on my car. so i get out of work, check it and give him a call back to let him know that i've already verbally accepted balise's offer and won't go back on it because they've been understanding for me and worked with me and were upfront with a decent offer. so immediately he turned not nice. said he had a better offer for my car than they were giving me (though the price for their car was still higher than it should have been) and he ended the short conversation we had with "It's a pain in the ass to go up there for service. I hope they have rentals. Bye."

so apparently they don't want to service my car, which is perfectly fine by me because liberty mazda is just as close. i've heard stories about their poor sales department but when i got my MSP there they were decent, nothing special but decent. but after that conversation i'll never go there again, for service or sales. i've heard their service department is actually decent but i'm not going. so i pass this along to all of the people here: don't bother with morande. there are other dealers in the area that are better. morande doesn't want people's business

 

[jred321]

I haven't had a problem with them, and I've been going to them for a while.. Thats surprising to hear, but I don't have a hard time believing it.

have you gone to them for service or sales? my trips to their service side for the MSP were all fine and everything was covered under warranty no problems and i have no complaints about them though because of this sales experience i won't be visiting them any more

 

[genericuser]

I went to them for service.

I almost traded my 6 in with them, but they didn't have anything I liked.

 

[SlowPro98]

I wish we sold Mazdas here, cause I'd make a killing!

 

[Skywlkr]

I dealt with Morande, bot in purchasing my MS6 and all of my service. The mazda manager is an a**hole, but the mercury manager and the owner are great guys. I would speak to one of them about they way you were treated. Make sure you have the names of those you dealt with. Their service department has been very good about fixing warranty items without any questions.

 

[chuyler1]

So wait, you told him the Balise offer and he didn't try to beat it but instead tried to convince you to pay more from him so you could have your car serviced there? umm, ok.

 

[slug420]

I said it when I bought my MSP and ill say it again....sales at morande is DREADFUL....

But after being very pissed off with morande from a bad sales experience I reluctantly took my car there for service and they really impressed me. My MSP has been there for all of its service and my truck has been in there for a few things and their service department really does stand on its own. I made a point of telling the service manager after my first visit how disgusted I was with their sales department and how I had a big chip on my shoulder going into the service dept but they not only overcame that but also really impressed me.

I understand your not wanting to go there for service after how they dicked you around but just know that you can if you need to for some reason.



but the real story here is...you traded in your evo for a regular mazda 3? not even an ms3?

 

[SlowPro98]

I concour. I brought both of our Proteges in for service and the service department was upfront and took great care of my cars. I wanted to go for a test drive in a CX-7 and I had about $700 in cash in my pocket. My wife would have killed me if I had traded in her car, but in the end, the lack of motivation on the part of their service team helped save my marrage. (smoke)

 

[slug420]

the lack of motivation on the part of their service team helped save my marrage. (smoke)

you mean sales?

 

[jred321]

So wait, you told him the Balise offer and he didn't try to beat it but instead tried to convince you to pay more from him so you could have your car serviced there? umm, ok.

i told him i had already accepted the offer of balise, didn't really give him any chance to counter offer or convince me to take their offer.

but the real story here is...you traded in your evo for a regular mazda 3? not even an ms3?

yep. if i could believe the MS3 would be cheap to maintain and reliable i'd have looked into it but i don't believe that to be true so it was out. plus i've never liked the idea of a high torque FWD car for a year round driver in the northeast. i was looking for something that i can keep for 150k+ without a lot of work into it and that is cheap so i can start saving for a condo and buy one in about a year, followed by a project car after a year of living in the condo.

 

[slug420]

are evos not reliable for high miles?

 

[chuyler1]

If you don't go mod crazy, I don't see how the MS3 wouldn't be a 150K+ worry free vehicle. Sure if you drive like you stole it you're gonna have problems, but that's the case with most vehicles. Take care of it and drive conservatively and it will last you a long time.

 

[jred321]

are evos not reliable for high miles?

maybe not unreliable but not cheap to drive that long. lots of expensive high wear parts

 

[jred321]

If you don't go mod crazy, I don't see how the MS3 wouldn't be a 150K+ worry free vehicle. Sure if you drive like you stole it you're gonna have problems, but that's the case with most vehicles. Take care of it and drive conservatively and it will last you a long time.

my MSP wasnt a 25k worry free vehicle. it left a bad impression

 

[chuyler1]

I knew that was going to come up. The MSP was Mazda's first attempt at this and although its a nice car, I would have never bought one. The MSM seemed to be more put together except for the fact it could barely compete with the next gen model a year later. Aside from the clutch (which I had replaced), the MS6 is a pretty complete car. Sure there are people destroying differentials but most of them are modding their cars like crazy and taking them to the track...stay off the track and the car is great around town.

I see the MS3 in the same light. Treat the car like a complete package (aka, don't mod it like crazy) and it will treat you well. I think you'd be more inclined to keep it for 150K if it makes you smile every time you hit the gas pedal.

 

[NEBoosted]

maybe not unreliable but not cheap to drive that long. lots of expensive high wear parts

ive heard crank walk in a few evos as well. Not sure how common it is but i dont know if i would take the chance. Plus after seeing what my buddy did to his evo before he traded it in i would never buy a used evo unless it had 20k miles or less on it.

 

[jred321]

i haven't heard of crankwalk on evos. not that i've done extensive research though

 

[jred321]

I knew that was going to come up. The MSP was Mazda's first attempt at this and although its a nice car, I would have never bought one. The MSM seemed to be more put together except for the fact it could barely compete with the next gen model a year later. Aside from the clutch (which I had replaced), the MS6 is a pretty complete car. Sure there are people destroying differentials but most of them are modding their cars like crazy and taking them to the track...stay off the track and the car is great around town.

I see the MS3 in the same light. Treat the car like a complete package (aka, don't mod it like crazy) and it will treat you well. I think you'd be more inclined to keep it for 150K if it makes you smile every time you hit the gas pedal.

there's also the turbo seals, engines jumping out and the fact that it's mazda's first foray into direct injection that makes me think that even though it's in its second year it's still an immature car. plus it, like the evo, has more performance oriented parts which means quick wearing and expensive to replace