My 06 Speed 6 dilemma...

[prichmon]

Hi all,

I bought a Speed 6 a little less than a month ago used from a non-Mazda Dealer with 18k MILES ON THE CLOCK. I went through the Mazda dealer inspection and Carfax reports in detail. I've been very happy with the purchase up until this week. I have found out several things which have bothered me...

My closest dealer is not a Speed Dealer so they refused to work on my car for Warranty service. I contacted Mazda about the issue. Mazda said since they were independantly owned and felt they could not give proper service then they did the right thing and apologized for wasting 4 hours of my time in driving.

I dropped the car off for a warranty repair to the closest Speed dealer ~50 minutes 1 way. The Speed Dealer calls to let me know its ready. The writer also lets me know that the rear axle seal may not be covered again since it has obviously been hit in the rear hard enough to shift the rear axle assembly and it was not repaired properly. The underside sheetmetal is crumpled, the car is harder to roll than apparently other speed6s, the rear axle is shifted causing a binding, an the trunk seems are mildly mis-aligned. The writer recommends I contact the selling dealer for information or repair.(omg)

I contacted the Selling Dealer. They claimed to have no knowledge and suggested I get quotes. My wife made the rounds to a couple local shops today of which 0 were willing to touch the repair since it is a botched repair and they were afraid of what they might get into once they started. My wife attempted to get the Speed Dealer but did not have time today.

So far the Selling Dealer seems reasonable but I don't know what legal ground I have to stand on since it was just under 30 days when we discovered the damage for an Ohio car?

Since they are a non-Mazda dealer I don't see them just getting me another comparable Speed6. I wonder what other options are available since I don't seem to see my trade-in on their web site?

Do any of you have any suggestions?

 

[VRMS6]

Go after Carfax for not finding the accident damage...Dont they have some sort of guarantee??.....

 

[mazpro]

If you personally didn't buy the carfax report, i am pretty sure they can't do anything for you.

call a lawyer, most have the free first consults, and see what they say. you may want to do it fast before the 30 days go by...

 

[wannabe]

that sucks man...probably one of these guys on here that thinks a speed6 should be driven 150 on the public roads....

good luck on getting this resolved. hopefully the selling dealer will at least cover the bill for repairs.

 

[exNeon]

return the car to the dealer you bought it from.
period. or go after the lemon law if need be.

 

[wannabe]

return the car to the dealer you bought it from.
period. or go after the lemon law if need be.

this doesnt fall under the lemon law. thats only if the car has been in for the same defect from the factory multiple times with no resolution. this is a botched repair job from an accident. lemon law does not apply at all.

 

[Killer]

this doesnt fall under the lemon law. thats only if the car has been in for the same defect from the factory multiple times with no resolution. this is a botched repair job from an accident. lemon law does not apply at all.

Correctomundo.

 

[3+5]

Yup, it's "Caveat Emptor", let the buyer beware. You should call a lawyer. If the selling dealer is telling you to get a few estimates, it's actually a good sign. That's the first indication they may be willing to take at least some responsibility for it. Could be it's been jumped or dropped from a truck/fell off a lift (maybe their lift).

I'd try to go one better than an estimate. Call your insurance company and ask if they'd send their adjuster around to meet you at the Mazdaspeed dealer. Insurance doesn't cover this, of course, but they are assuming you bought an undamaged car too. They're insuring it, so they'll be interested, I think. You may have to pay the adjuster his usual fee, but it's an easy way to get the unbiased estimate.

Another thing to consider is that the bank that financed the purchase will be interested in this development as well. A car that is bent is of much less collateral value.

If the Mazda dealer has a body shop you could get their assessment at the same time while it's on their lift. You might even be able to have the work done there and work out a split of some kind, - or perhaps even the full cost - with the selling dealer to cover proper repair.

It could be the seller didn't have a clue it was bent up, but maybe they did, and it can be traced to the auction they got it from or something. Start asking questions about where they obtained it, ...and did I mention you should call a lawyer?

 

[prichmon]

I appreciate all the advice. I had emailed the manager about the problem on the first day to create a paper trail.

Today we got a quote from a dealer for ~$900 " but may have to replace quarter, trunk lid and hardware depending on what is underneath paint." The selling dealer asked us to fax them the quote. So far they are working with me so I will see where it goes before getting nasty. The dealer who refused my warranty work was the only one locally willing to quote my repair of a repair. Nice !

 

[Afroman]

I have had my speed6 for only a year, but I have been around cars a while.

The damage you described:

"The writer also lets me know that the rear axle seal may not be covered again since it has obviously been hit in the rear hard enough to shift the rear axle assembly and it was not repaired properly. The underside sheetmetal is crumpled, the car is harder to roll than apparently other speed6s, the rear axle is shifted causing a binding, an the trunk seems are mildly mis-aligned."

We are talking about axles being messed up and big time body components being mis aligned and incorrect.

To me that should cost WAY more than $900 bucks to fix.

If its true that your car got into some heavy duty accident and they did a crappy job of repairing I would be very leary to accept the first offer on the repair job. Especially from the dealer who is in the position to lose money.

Take your car to an independant shop, show them the damage and have them quote it out for you. It may cost you 50 to 100 bucks for an hour or two of thier time. But you will have peace of mind knowing you covered your bases.

Who knows maybe its mostly just some easy stuff, but it could be serious.

In my opinion the dealer has a conflict of interest in this case. The lower the amount of money they spend to repair your car means the more money they keep from the sale. The last thing they want to to do is piss away all their profits on repairing a car they just sold.


Go get some estimates to see if the dealer is being square with you or not.


As far as carfax.... carfax only works if the accident is reported. I could Run my car into a phone poll and have it towed away before the cops come. Then I could have some buddies fix it for me. No carfax report would ever be generated. The car would appear clean.

 

[prichmon]

I had gone to 4 different body shops. 3 of the 4 were independants and would not quote at all saying " take it to the selling dealer". The only one that woulkd quote was a local Mazda dealer.

The Selling dealer came and picked up my 6 today and dropped off a Loaner. They drove 3.5 hours each way to do this for me. They are going to assess the damage themselves. Since I have seen the damage and now know what I am looking for and what to expect I am better prepared for their reply. We are looking at 2 options: repair or buy back. The dealer is working with me very well. I explained I expected the car returned to new condition if repaired.

I have been assured a call in a couple of days.

We'll see what they have to say...

 

[2.0t03speed]

sounds like you got lucky with the dealer and there going to assume the responsibility