Mazda USA officially told me vibrating mirror is made within the specification???????

[Kaikim]

From: MazdaCustomerAssistance@mazdausa.com [MazdaCustomerAssistance@mazdausa.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 4:42 PM
To: Kai Kyujang Kim
Subject: RE: Product Information - Suggestions & Opinions [INTR:418131]

Mr. Kim,

My apologies for the confusion regarding our response. Without complicating the matter further, please accept the following as our official response. Mazda has determined your vehicle to be operating within factory specifications, so a repair to your side mirror would not be performed.

Sincerely,
Katherine K
Customer Assistance Specialist

> > ---- Original Message ----
> > From : kai.kim@huskers.unl.edu
> > To : MazdaCustomerAssistance@mazdausa.com
> > Subject : Product
> Information - Suggestions & Opinions
> > Date : Tue, 21 Sep 2010 07:10:21 GMT

The face of a side mirror on the driver side starts vibrating when my car goes over 50 MPH, making it impossible to identify the objects behind the car in the mirror. I took my car to the dealer 3 times but the problem did not go away. I found from Mazda dealers that there are several CX-9's with the same problem. I filed a complaint case (131420200) with the customer service and the customer service rep name by Tim (x1179) told me that it is just the way the CX-9 is made and it would be too bad if I didnt like it but I would have to live with the problem since there is no "safety" concern with the problem.

 

[sjg]

Please remove

I understand that Mr. Kim has had a number of problems with his car. He's come to the right place if he wants to share his concerns and look for answers. But he's posting his complaint in every area of the forum. This may be cathartic for him but it's annoying and inappropriate. It doesn't belong in Audio & Electronics.

 

[Platinum GT]

Trade it in Kim.

 

[wdkldo]

yeah. i have the same problem and dealer said the same thing. there are no fix for it. u just have to live with it.

 

[nuru]

I dunno, when I was poking around the Mazda Tech site, they had a bulletin on how they recommended to fix it. Did not look like it was a good solution. They have you disassemble the mirror and try to secure it with a special bracket.

 

[table5511]

it really doesn't bother me, I have to say.

 

[Shaft333]

My 2011 does this. Strange that it's only the driver's mirror. Perhaps it's a feature.

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

Nope, not a feature just the realities of a parts supplier. The mirrors were made within a specific tolerance for a particular price. My 2010 does it as well but not horrible. This is why the CX 9 costs 40k and a BMW costs 70k. For Mazda to foot the bill to replace (parts and labor) those mirrors, would cost thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's a numers game.
The reality of it is that if it doesn't present a safety issue then Mazda (as would other manufacturers) will try and save money by not replacing the part unless they can get the parts supplier to acknowledge and cover the issue. This issue is probably triaged with a number of other issues of greater (read safety or reliability) importance. Like all companies you have to balance Fixing issues withe resources (I.e. Money, manpower).
This is also a situation that will demonstrate how good your dealer is at being an advocate for the customer. I plan on brining it up at my next visit.

 

[jbedoya]

My 2011 does this. Strange that it's only the driver's mirror. Perhaps it's a feature.

My 2011GT do the same and only on the driver side... definitively a groovy feature

 

[nguvanh]

This problem happened when Mazda first release CX-9 2007 all the way up to 2011 now.
From 2010, they change the mirror a bit, but the michanism inside the mirror didn't change.
However, from 2010, the vibration is much less than 2009 and ealier models.

 

[Tirade]

I just bought the 2011 CX-9. I test drove 3 different ones, and all 3 did that. The salesman pretended like he didn't notice what I was talking about. I just laughed it off. Doesn't bother me that much, but seems like an obvious bug that Quality Control should have caught and easily corrected.

 

[fxpthl]

WOW, this is a new problem for me! I have had our 09 CX 9 for almost three years and not even a wiggle of the mirrors on either side. My car must have been a Wednesday produced vehicle. I hate to hear this type of complaint pertaining to any Mazda! On the surface they seem to put together a pretty darn good product. My 97 Miata has mirror vibration but only because a previous owner installed 17 inch wheels with one that is out-of-found! Anyway, good luck to those of you with this issue. An issue like that would drive me crazy!

 

[dsc888]

Yup. Got the same issue on my 2011 which was built in Feb 2011. It's annoying at worse. It makes the car feel a little cheap. It's fine at night when you really can't see much with them anyway.

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

Quality control probably did catch it. Like I said above it all about balancing development costs. It does sound like there were improvements to the mirror since 2007 but sometimes the cost of manufacturing an assembly made up of a bunch of small parts is expensive. No doubt there was some cost cutting involved. Remember the number if features in this mirror (bsm led, auto dimming, heating power adjust) used to only be available in cars costing thousands more. As consumers we have to realize that we do get what we pay for. And while IMO Mazda does a great job balancing features quality and price they can't offer Mercedes or even Infiniti-like build quality for these prices. In fact the new infiniti crossover will be about 20k more expensive.

 

[table5511]

speaking of cost cutting.... the fact that my leather seats are actually vinyl in the center is rather annoying. (yes, its a leather/vinyl seat for those who are unaware)

 

[ceric]

helbigtw,
Are you aware of any vehicles using full leather seats? R&R and Maybach, maybe.
Not even my old BMW 540iA (a $55K vehicle).

They call the seat "leather trimmed" for a reason. Focus on "trim", the operative word.
Worse yet, the entire 3rd seat is made of vinyl, not a single piece of leather.
As a rule of thumb, only the pieces that your body touch while seating down is made of genuine leather.

Therefore, I am surprised that you said "vinyl in the center".
Not sure if that is correct. If that is correct, which piece is made of leather?

As for the side mirrors, I think all CX9s exhibit certain degree of vibration at highway speed.
Some are more severe than others (like mine). I can barely notice the vibration on mine. However
I did notice that the driver's side is worse than the passenger's side. I'm wondering why that is...

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

Actually I believe Mazda improved the quality of the "pleather" across all seating surfaces for 2010. The third row has however always been Vinyl. Personally I don't mind it since the third row is relagated to the kids (who are hard on everything!) and is folded most of the time in my CX-9. I doubt many manufacturers in this price range use "real" cow hide. Most of it is either a artificial leather or some bonded leather. Jeez even expensive furniture uses "Bonded" leather now. Bonded leather is basically a ver thin skin of real leather laminated to a substrate of vinyl.

You want real leather you're either going to need to buy the higher end Japanese (read Lexus/Infiniti) or German cars. Even VW's pricey CC uses "Leatherette" in all but the most expensive (~45K) models.