Mazda's Cars Are Good But Its Dealers Are Still Kind of Awful

My dealer has been doing this for over a year now, but it's hit or miss. It looks like it's up to the tech, sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't, depends on what they're doing.

and I am cool with that. If a tech doesn't want to be filmed, but has been shown to do good work, I don't want them rolling film if they don't want to. Maybe they like to curse a lot. Maybe they make tons of jokes about off-color stuff. I do NOT care. i want the work done well and right, and if not filming them helps them find their zen...rock on.
 
Yeah, my GM dealer and my Mazda dealer. My Chrysler dealer was "meh", and my Nissan dealer was absolute s***. It's an amazing story of yelling, screaming, people getting fired, managers lying to Nissan North America and me, car-swaps at 9pm in wal-mart parkinglots with the assistant service manager, and a nearly wrecked 370Z. I wouldn't own a Nissan if you gave it to me, solely because of that dealership, whether that's rational (it's not), or not.

I'd love to hear this story. Maybe an idea for a separate thread? "Post your worst dealer experience"?
 
This is all so true! Buying a new car is one of the few transactions where negotiations are so adversarial, from start to finish! Part of the culture developed over decades, I suppose. There's a Honda dealer near me who does the no-negotiation pricing and lists their bottom line on every vehicle. However is all falls back on the old ways when it comes to the financial guys upselling and negotiating trade-in values.

I was going to make that observation regarding the shift in the hard sell. It was a brilliant move. They let the guy who is making the sale be the good guy. All that anxiety is now gone. Your emotions go into bonding with the vehicle. The hard sell comes after the sale has been made and you are working out the financing. Emotionally, the car is already yours when you get in front of the finance guy.

And their advertising removes this hurdle that the dealers themselves created: "No Haggle Buying."
It's funny that they openly admit they will stop treating us that way in order to lure us in.

It's funny, the party escaping accountability in this mess are the manufacturers who created this product channel and who licenses these guys in the first place.
 
and I am cool with that. If a tech doesn't want to be filmed, but has been shown to do good work, I don't want them rolling film if they don't want to. Maybe they like to curse a lot. Maybe they make tons of jokes about off-color stuff. I do NOT care. i want the work done well and right, and if not filming them helps them find their zen...rock on.

I think that part of filming ANYBODY at their job is that nothing is flawless. There will always be non-fatal "whoops" moments. Experience tells you how to avoid certain mistakes, and how to professionally remediate those that do occur.

Standing over someone as they work may actually make the outcome worse. Fear of being caught at making a mistake (or the disruption in having to explain every little thing) might cause some to ignore errors and move on, leaving some things unremediated.

I'm with you. I'm paying someone to do the job. You verify as best you are able, but you also can't be the one to inject mistrust into the relationship.
 
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Yeah, my GM dealer and my Mazda dealer. My Chrysler dealer was "meh", and my Nissan dealer was absolute s***. It's an amazing story of yelling, screaming, people getting fired, managers lying to Nissan North America and me, car-swaps at 9pm in wal-mart parkinglots with the assistant service manager, and a nearly wrecked 370Z. I wouldn't own a Nissan if you gave it to me, solely because of that dealership, whether that's rational (it's not), or not.

That is kinda my point. First of all, that Jalponik article is the classic case of the powder-puff generation. Crying because they did not get you a quote via e-mail? Really?

I have had experience with bad Toyota dealers that tried to charge me $1500 for a brake job a month after buying the certified 35K car from them. So I stopped going there. They offer a service and I, as a consumer, decided to go elsewhere.

I still have similar experience with Honda and this was the main reason we traded in our Odyssey. The local dealer keeps pushing $500 alignments and $600 throttle body jobs on my wife, while ignoring the bad clunks and judders from the transmission and when accelerating on the highway. Again, they offer a service and I, as a consumer, decided to go elsewhere.

The two Mazda dealers I have dealt with have had good service (with very reasonable costs). IF anything, I find their sales to be weak. They don't ask you to see a car or try to sell you anything, you have to ask them, which is a bit crazy. But they are nice and willing to go out of their way to make you comfortable with the car - like giving you a Miata for the weekend.


I would also add that if you think car dealers are bad but have you tried buying plane tickets recently? It is like a roulette wheel on what you will pay, depending upon the day you search and your cache history.
 
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