Michigan Dealership Service

[eting_pro5]

Hey, I was thinking it'd be really cool if we had a thread as a reference for the Mazda Dealership service throughout Michigan. We could use this thread for both Warranty or Non-Warranty Service along with Sales Service. We could review and rate our sales associates and mechanics so that we know where to go to get friendly, competititve service and deals. It'd also be cool if people could share the dealerships they know that are Mod Friendly.

Here's my contribution:

Purchased a new 2003 Mazda Protege5 from Livonia Autoplex in January of 2003. I'd spent some time looking at Cook Mazda, but came to realize my father knows the owner of Livonia Autoplex. Got the "Manager's House Special" and knocked off about a grand and a half from the $19,000 sticker. The dealing from this point was pretty much sign and drive, no haggling. The car I was looking for was an automatic with the ABS and Side Airbag package in silver or white. The only car to meet these requirements was....at Cook Mazda. This slowed the process down a lot. There were at least two dates in which Livonia Autoplex told me they'd have my car, but didn't. It was probably about one to two weeks between their first promised date of delivery, and the actual. When they did deliver, they drove it out to me (about 30 minutes away) but were about 3 hours late. All in all, I really didn't have much interaction with any salesmen. It was disappointing to have so many undelivered (PUN!) promises, but hey, I got a decent deal.

I haven't done any dealer service yet, but plan on taking it in soon to Livonia Autoplex for the Free Wheel Rotation they just offered me and the Free 27 point inspection. The only thing they might notice is a clipped wire to the Fog Relay. We'll see what happens.

 

[HASE]

Good Idea on the thread!
I just picked up a MSP from Suburban in Troy. Kris Collins is an excellent salesman to deal with. Makes the whole process more enjoyable.

As for service, I will be able to tell you in the next couple of weeks. They had to go out to Chicago to get my car and when I got it I found a couple of scratches, a non functioning alarm, and a broken trim piece. (no fault of Suburban or Kris). They wrote it all up and I will be taking it in when they get parts...

Hey, I was thinking it'd be really cool if we had a thread as a reference for the Mazda Dealership service throughout Michigan. We could use this thread for both Warranty or Non-Warranty Service along with Sales Service. We could review and rate our sales associates and mechanics so that we know where to go to get friendly, competititve service and deals. It'd also be cool if people could share the dealerships they know that are Mod Friendly.

Here's my contribution:

Purchased a new 2003 Mazda Protege5 from Livonia Autoplex in January of 2003. I'd spent some time looking at Cook Mazda, but came to realize my father knows the owner of Livonia Autoplex. Got the "Manager's House Special" and knocked off about a grand and a half from the $19,000 sticker. The dealing from this point was pretty much sign and drive, no haggling. The car I was looking for was an automatic with the ABS and Side Airbag package in silver or white. The only car to meet these requirements was....at Cook Mazda. This slowed the process down a lot. There were at least two dates in which Livonia Autoplex told me they'd have my car, but didn't. It was probably about one to two weeks between their first promised date of delivery, and the actual. When they did deliver, they drove it out to me (about 30 minutes away) but were about 3 hours late. All in all, I really didn't have much interaction with any salesmen. It was disappointing to have so many undelivered (PUN!) promises, but hey, I got a decent deal.

I haven't done any dealer service yet, but plan on taking it in soon to Livonia Autoplex for the Free Wheel Rotation they just offered me and the Free 27 point inspection. The only thing they might notice is a clipped wire to the Fog Relay. We'll see what happens.

 

[Dreeza]

Well, i dont know about pricing...ill skip that part

but anyways, my dealer is Metro Mazda on Woodward and 8mile...and they are pretty cool. I got that free oil change and stuff

i went there to order a mpv pocket, and i also asked the guy if i could buy a cruise bracket for my strut bar...and he started asking me what else i have done to my car...i was all like..s***, hes gonna be like "BUSTED" but, instead, we ended up talkin for like 1/2 an hour about mods...he also has a sedan (actually the one that i almost got...it was a black manual, but my dad decided he liked blue better...thats how i got stuck w/an auto) and he was tellin me that mods dont matter to the warranty as long as they arent the cause (obviously...) but we were talkin about headers and all that good stuff, and he was all encouraging me to get springs (which i am gonna) and encouraging me to upgrade my brakes and telling me about all these mods i should get...so, i was pretty pleased with that!

 

[kevducridr]

Well this thread was a good idea. I have bought both of my Mazdas from Cook Imports in Farmington Hills. My 2002 Protege5 before I worked there and my 2003.5 MSP after I worked there. (evil) I also bought a 94 Jetta from Cook, all three transactions were as about as painless as a car buy gets and I have always received excellent service. All three of these cars have been the only New cars I have owned in my lifetime, but I have owned 7 used cars, some of which were purchased at dealers. Despite working there, I have always been treated fairly and had no problems with them. And to be honest, I catch more hell from them FOR having worked there. (laugh)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
My comments about Livonia Autoplex. (strike) This is just my $ .02.
Those guys are a bunch of crooks and jerks, dating back from my 94 Volkswagon purchase.

1st run in: This was my first new car purchase and it was an abortion from the start. I went in with very basic requests:

I wanted a RED 1994 Jetta GL, Manual Trans, with a sunroof. Thats it. They tried railroading me into an Automatic, Teal Green with NO sunroof. They told me that I would have to take or leave the Green car as there weren't any other cars on the lot and they couldn't get any from other dealers. Also their next delivery wouldn't be in for a week or more.

My mom (22 years) and I (10-12years) at that time, both have worked in and around dealerships my entire life. The above was complete and utter BS. They continued to try to pressure me by allowing me to take the car I didn't want home for the night. Keep in mind, I am in the "My first new car" haze, was 22, but wasn't taking their BS. Yet, wasn't fending them off either. Not until my Mom came and told the Sales Manager and GM they were both full of s*** did we walk out and never look back. They also tried "raping" me on the deal, there were a ton of back door charges that would have "buried" me in the car.

The next day, I went over to Cook and they said they didn't have what I wanted on the lot, but would do their best to find it. A day later I was driving my new car, the one I wanted in RED, Manual Trans, a sunroof and got a fair deal to boot. (nana)

2nd Run in:

Well having worked in and around dealers, I thought I'd give Livonia another chance. Hell they still couldn't be assholes almost 10 years after my first experience with them? WRONG. I was entertaining getting a Protege5 back in late April 2002. I had also put a deposit down and ordered an SVT Focus. So I walk into Livonia and start talking to the sales staff. They are all interested in my business until they find out that I have S plan through Ford. The storyline changes from, "Yeah, we can get you a P5 at a good price" to "Sorry we can't give S Plan on these cars, they are too hot!" which is complete BS. Well again these scmucks were willing to let me walk away to save a $ 1000.00 on a sale. Well I ended up at Cook again 7 months later and drove away with my new RED, Protege 5 3 hours after walking in "cold turkey" with no previous contact. I ended up buying the car instead of the SVT cause of 9 months of waiting for it and in hindsight all the quality problems they had with them, I'm not sorry.

As far as the other dealers go, I can't really comment other than to say they all seemed relatively professional when dealing with them as a Cook employee. And in closing, I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt but when I get bad service two or three times over from somewhere, I stop trying. I will NEVER buy a vehicle from Livonia, but would recommend Cook Imports highly and any of the other Detroit area dealers.

 

[scotthidley]

My axle decided it'd take a crap on me today down in Dearborn. I was fortunate enough to have it towed to Satan, err Livonia Motorplex. The service guy was nice enough to require me to pay $80 just to have the car inspected, and offered no loaner vehicle, leaving me to pay $60 per day at enterprise, as I had no where else to go. To top it off, he couldn't even promise when the car would be looked at. Now my car is 1 year old, and has 23k miles on it, this should have been a no brainer. So this is my second time there, and second time getting screwed.

The first time is when I was going to buy a car from them, and they had to play their bs games with me. I'm not going to go into detail, other than agreeing with the other comments that they are indeed assholes.

I called Mazda's corporate Customer Service to discuss what is going on now. They got the service manager to commit to inspecting my car by tomorrow morning. But knowing these guys, they'll still claim it isn't warranty, and wait until the end of the day to order the part. Making it so the part doesn't get delivered until Monday, and causing me to pay up the butt on a rental car over the entire weekend.

By the way my axle broke after it started making a crunching/popping noise as I was turning from a stop. The break occured while I was shifting to 2nd. I was driving normal, not doing anything. In fact I think Ford has surveilance cameras around their engineering buildings, which could prove this, if it came to that.

Update:

They inspected the car as corporate made them promise inspecting it by this morning. Doug at Livonia called and said it woudln't be covered under warranty (I still can't believe this). I told him I've reported issues with the suspension in the past, he claimed he had no history on the car. So I told him to call Sterling Mazda who has been the only company to work on the car (even oil changes), he said he would, and then call me back. I waited an hour and a half and still got no response. I called Sterling Mazda, and not a single person called to talk to them. So I called corporate again, and sat on hold while he called them and had them call Sterling. Sterling reported that they weren't able to reproduce the noise from the car. Which is proof right there, that this could have been an on going issue. They're still refusing to cover it under warranty. So they made the decision for me that this is the first and last Mazda I ever own. Being only 25 and having a lifetime ahead of me to buy new cars, I think that was quite stupid, but that's their decision.

 

[scotthidley]

Update 2:

Friday night I had my car towed the hell out of Livonia Autoplex. I had it towed to my freinds work, where I looked at it myself. Livonia Autoplex didn't even pull the axle off the car, so they did no valid inspection. I had to seperate the cv joint from the axle to see what failed. What failed is a retaining hoop that goes around the bearings. That broke allowing all of the bearings to fall out of place, causing the axle to dissengage from the cv joint. I talked to my salesman at Sterling Mazda of the crap I went through, and requested that they inspect it and make their assessment on this. This is what Livonia Autoplex should have done to begin with. On a side note, replacement axles don't come with circlips, which when retailing over 5-600 that's quite pathetic. Even if I get some money back from this raping, I will put Mazda on the very bottom of my list to buy cars from again. Now if they pulled the Dealer rights from Livonia Autoplex, it might restore some faith, but I highly doubt that'll ever happen.

 

[kevducridr]

Don't blame the maker in general Scott, blame those who didn't do the right thing when you gave them the opportunity. If there isn't any visible signs of damage (ie. impact) to your wheel, axle or anything in the vacinity they should cover it under warranty, otherwise if there were visible damage from impact it would be an insurance gig. I wish you better luck with whoever does the repairs. (nana)

 

[scotthidley]

When I've spoken to corporate customer service over this, they should make sure the dealer is doing a thorough inspection. So they are a part of this problem. I have to schedule another dealer to look at my car now.

 

[kevducridr]

Yes, they should always do a proper teardown of the affected area to make sure what happened. I wish you luck brother. You will be missed at the drive this saturday. You could always ride with me as my co-pilot. (yes) If you want I could call my old co-workers over at Cook and set something up for you? Just PM me to let me know.

 

[scotthidley]

This just gets better and better. I took the car in to Sterling Mazda for my oil change and to have them inspect the axle. The service manager said there was no way a pot hole caused it to break. He told me to call customer service, and file a claim to get my money back. So I called them, the lady told me that she couldn't do anything. She said I have to call Livonia Autoplex for a claim. I told her there was no way I was calling them as they initially did in incompetent inspection. I've left a message with the service manager at Sterling to get his help on this. Aparently the district service manager will be in there tomorrow, and they'll talk to him about this.

It's not bad enough that Livonia Autoplex likes scamming people, it's worse that Corporate Customer Service isn't willing to do anything about it.

 

[kevducridr]

I would talk to the District Service Manager personally at Sterling. They will help you. Also just FYI, I found out through the dealer grapevine that Livonia is now under different management, but it sounds as though some habits die hard. (stooges) (upyours)

 

[scotthidley]

Is this management change since I initially went there?

 

[goldwing2000]

My Experience

I bought my 2004 3s 5-door from Sesi Lincoln-Mercury-Mazda-Volvo in Ypsilanti.

Since this was to be my first new car purchase (I've had dozens of used cars), I thoroughly researched the hell out of this decision through tons of web sites from epinions.com to KBB to different corporate sites.

I had driven the RX-8 the week before but decided it was more money than I wanted to spend. I was about *this* close to getting a Toyota Matrix when I saw a pop-up ad for the Mazda3. I checked out Mazdausa, liked what I saw and decided to go for a test drive. I had taken a buddy of mine to go drive the RX-8 and scared the piss out of him, so he refused to go on any more test drives with me. (upyours) I took the girlfriend with me to drive the 3. (thumb)

I knew I wanted a 5-door with ABS, leather and a moonroof but NOT HID/TPMS (pain in the ass systems). I thought I wanted Strato Blue or Lava Orange. I did an inventory search on Mazdausa and found a Strato Blue one at Sesi and a Lava Orange one at Cook. Problem being, they both had HID/TPMS.

Since Sesi was closer (2 miles from work), I trucked up there after work. I drove around the lot but didn't see any Strato Blue. Went inside and talked to the sales person who I had talked to about the RX-8 and she said that they had dealer traded it because the owner thought it was butt ugly. (silly) She said it was a weird cartoony blue and that I probably wouldn't have liked it, anyway. Subsequently, we also looked at a Lava Orange sedan and the girlfriend decided it was "too girly" of a color. I tended to agree. SO... I asked the sales bimbo what else they had in a 5-door manual. She checked the inventory and they had one in Titanium Gray with everything the Strato Blue one had... except the HID/TPMS. Yay!

I drove it. I liked it. I bought it 4 days later. They even offered me a good deal on my trade-in but I ended up selling it instead. I can't comment on the deal I got because it was S-plan, so the price was fixed at $18,415. I might have been able to haggle it lower but I dinna feel like it.

The day I picked it up, my sales person introduced me to Joe Sesi (the owner) and then escorted me back to the parts department where I bought a bunch of accessories. The parts department gave me the salesperson's discount (wholesale) and provided me with prices on a whole list of other stuff I was interested in without so much as an indignant stare.

I haven't had any service done yet but the day I picked up my first batch of accessories, I asked the service department write-up guy a few tech questions. He didn't know the answers, so he called over their "Mazda Guy" (Roger) who bs'ed with me for a good 15-20 mins with tips about installing my accessories, things about the 3, things Mazda was doing and about cars in general.

I used to work at a Dodge dealer and I've dealt with a couple Ford dealers (the gf has a 2000 Taurus) and I shopped around at a few other dealers during my research. I have to say that this is the single most positive experience I have ever had with a car dealership. I highly recommend them to anyone.

Oh... and sorry about the novel. (wiggle) (blah)

 

[kevducridr]

Not sure, it is just since my last experience with them. I think over a year ago.

 

[eting_pro5]

Alright here's my second Livonia Mazda update. And yes they're under new management, I believe since around October-Decemberish. They even changed their name, but I don't know it since the lady on the phone answered "Livo--- Mgahgataoijs Mazda, oops I almost said it wrong."

So Livonia Mazda... sent me a coupon for a free Tire Rotation or Oil Change or some other service for $50. I decided I'd use for a tire rotation, since I figured they'd do a better job tightening the wheels to the right torque levels and I can do an oil change. I called and made my appointment, then remembered I wanted to wait til I was 18 so I could test drive a 3 while I was waiting. I called back and made it two days later. Things went well, the guy on the phone was friendly.

Time comes to take it in. I know where the dealership is, but not where the service department is. I pull into the dealership to walk in and ask. On the way in I pass two salespeople in a heated debate, smoking, standing right in front of the door. Inside are three people on the phone and one person sitting in a Tribute with a guy talking to her. I figured the woman in the Tribute was a buyer, so just kind of stood there looking dumb and confused. Finally she says, "can we help you honey?" Don't call me honey b****. Where's your service department? So they direct me to 3 driveways over. I pull my car up to the door that says "Pull Forward. Door Will Open Automatically." It opens and I pull in and sit there in my car waiting for someone to say something to me. After three minutes some guy asks what I need. I tell him. I leave my car with the coupon.

I go back to the dealership for a test drive. After standing/looking for a minute or two, I'm greeted by one of the smoker/debaters. I tell her I'm interested in buying, blah blah blah, make up a story that I'm genuinely interested. I even bust out my impressive knowledge, talking about financing that she knows jack s*** about. So we get in a 3s sedan 5 spd and go for a ride.

I have to say I loved the soft and light clutch in the 3. Makes it a very easy and smooth ride for someone who hasn't quite perfected the manual.

We get back, more shooting the s*** about the money I don't have. I go to get my car. It's done, all looks good. But they don't give me any proof of the free 27 point inspection that was supposed to come with the car. In fact I'm quite certain it never happened. That pissed me off.

SO TODAY I GET A CALL FROM LISA, the salesperson I took the test drive with. She doesn't remember me, asks me why she called me. I say something about being in there a few weeks ago and she says..."Oh yeah, about the RX-8" I correct her, then proceed to tell her that I was able to get supplier pricing on a Vibe. She proceeds to say "Eww, but they're ugly!".....Awful move on any salespersons part. Seeing as how I didn't really just buy a car, and I may want one in 2 years, you're now certain to never have my business again unless it's free.

So pretty much my experience of the new Mghiwaav Mazda sucked. It's no different than Livonia Mazda ever was. The people don't treat you like they want your business. Don't go to Livonia/Maghaiehav Mazda unless it's free service.

 

[changedman]

pays to be loyal. i know my service people by name. lets see- my salesman is bernie, my head service guy is paul, and the assis head service is lisa. my mechanic is mark usually.



they all know me too