Haven't posted or really even lurked in a very long time as I've gotten out of the "scene" a bit with modifying cars and meets etc so it's unfortunate I felt compelled to come here due to a negative reason again..
Anyway my 2008 MS3's shifter had been sticking lately when using reverse. I'm very careful with it as I've heard from other earlier owners that if you don't push it all the way down you can wear out the reverse lockout mechanism. Well tell that to valet's and stuff. I live in the NYC metro area and lots of places you don't have a choice. A couple of times in traffic I had to bang on it to get it loose or else someone might have killed me lol.
So I've been meaning to get it looked it and guess what...it gets completely stuck and won't go into reverse and then as I'm fiddling with it..it breaks and falls over.
Mazda doesn't want to cover it 3k miles out of bumper to bumper warranty and says it isn't a powertrain issue even though my car wouldn't move. I had to call them myself, Wayne Mazda was not very helpful with this which is odd because they were a little more helpful with the LSD issue on my Mazdaspeed Protege out of warranty (still a nightmare though but I forgave Mazda).
To add insult to injury Wayne Mazda originally quoted me $550 for a repair then went down to like $400 when I balked (which is funny because the guy knows he can't screw me yet tried to). I went to go pick up my keys and get it towed out and realized the techs had disassembled the whole reverse lockout thing and just stuck the stick in the stub where the whole thing goes into by the ball joint....so it was driveable just had to be careful with first obviously lol.
Anyway guess i'm off to protege garage to get a replacement and do it myself but I was looking to get a car in less than a year's time and it certainly won't be a Mazda. I filed a claim with the BBB also just for good measure though even though they've already lost my confidence as a customer I did it out of principle. I've had lots of issues with this car and have taken it in stride, cd player(they never returned the cd's in the original when they replaced it), rattling on cold start, failing fuel pump which almost got me into an accident more than once but this is the last straw.
Sorry for the long rant but figured this might be useful to read for some and was rather cathartic. Long time Mazda owner and LOVER has a broken heart...probably going to get a Hyundai..at least I can rely on the warranty.
Anyway my 2008 MS3's shifter had been sticking lately when using reverse. I'm very careful with it as I've heard from other earlier owners that if you don't push it all the way down you can wear out the reverse lockout mechanism. Well tell that to valet's and stuff. I live in the NYC metro area and lots of places you don't have a choice. A couple of times in traffic I had to bang on it to get it loose or else someone might have killed me lol.
So I've been meaning to get it looked it and guess what...it gets completely stuck and won't go into reverse and then as I'm fiddling with it..it breaks and falls over.
Mazda doesn't want to cover it 3k miles out of bumper to bumper warranty and says it isn't a powertrain issue even though my car wouldn't move. I had to call them myself, Wayne Mazda was not very helpful with this which is odd because they were a little more helpful with the LSD issue on my Mazdaspeed Protege out of warranty (still a nightmare though but I forgave Mazda).
To add insult to injury Wayne Mazda originally quoted me $550 for a repair then went down to like $400 when I balked (which is funny because the guy knows he can't screw me yet tried to). I went to go pick up my keys and get it towed out and realized the techs had disassembled the whole reverse lockout thing and just stuck the stick in the stub where the whole thing goes into by the ball joint....so it was driveable just had to be careful with first obviously lol.
Anyway guess i'm off to protege garage to get a replacement and do it myself but I was looking to get a car in less than a year's time and it certainly won't be a Mazda. I filed a claim with the BBB also just for good measure though even though they've already lost my confidence as a customer I did it out of principle. I've had lots of issues with this car and have taken it in stride, cd player(they never returned the cd's in the original when they replaced it), rattling on cold start, failing fuel pump which almost got me into an accident more than once but this is the last straw.
Sorry for the long rant but figured this might be useful to read for some and was rather cathartic. Long time Mazda owner and LOVER has a broken heart...probably going to get a Hyundai..at least I can rely on the warranty.
