Advice would be appreciated!

General Discussion Forums MX-5 Chat
2

Hi all

I’ve had a nightmare with the dealership I bought my second mx-5 from in June this year. I am not technical in any way and I feel that as a young female I am being taken for a ride… any advice would be most welcome. I apologise for the long post.

Eden Mazda Basingstoke arranged for a used 2011 2.0 SE roadster 53,000 mileage to be driven from Eden Taunton to Basingstoke for me to test drive. I paid a £500 holding deposit and waited to hear when the car would be at Basingstoke for me to look at. Sales guy didn’t call me back and I had to chase. 3 days later I heard from from him and we agreed a test drive date/time. During this time I had been showing friends and family the listing on the website. The day before my test drive the website listing price dropped by over £2k. I panicked, thinking they’d transferred the wrong car up but was told that was a website error and the original price still applied.

Test drive happens 9th June and I fall in love with the car. In hindsight I should have taken a knowledgeable person with me to the dealership. The sales guy is itching to get home as he has the next few days off and asks me if he can call me the following week to complete sale of the car. I agree but ask him to see if he can do any better on the price (I was borrowing a lot of money from family in order to not finance the car). He says he will ask his boss on the Monday and call me regardless but that the car was mine and held at the back of the dealership for me due to my holding deposit. No time limit mentioned.

To sum up the next few days, no phone call, I chased the dealership numerous times, wasn’t called back and finally agree a price with another member of staff who then tells me I can’t collect the car Saturday which was my only free day! I wasn’t told this at any stage so I rang and spoke to the manager to complain about the lack of service so far. 12 days after the test drive (21st June) I collect the car to be told there is a chip on the windscreen (this wasn’t there when I test drove it) but they would repair it and that the spare key would be sent up from Taunton and posted to me. I was rushed into a sale and shoved paperwork to sign. If I had known better I wouldn’t have signed until both the windscreen and key issue had been fixed.

I took the car to their windscreen repair dealer a few days later and the repair was not great, it was still quite noticeable from the driver seat. Obviously as I had paid all my savings plus lots of money borrowed from family for this car I was not happy. Eden then told me that it wasn’t an MOT failure and there was nothing more they could do. 7th July, after numerous calls to Eden with none of them being returned only a few emails, I call Mazda UK for help. I at least wanted my spare key which I had not had. Mazda UK tell me that there isn’t much they can do and they can only chase Eden for me. I keep chasing until 2nd of August when I got fed up of not being called back and sent a letter to Eden Group Head office. Two days later the director called me, and basically said my £500 holding deposit didn’t mean the car was mine. I wasn’t really given an apology. In the proceeding 2 weeks Eden Mazda finally replaced my windscreen (17th Aug) and programmed a new key for me. I thought that was the end of the saga!

Unfortunately on 26th August I fractured my foot and was unable to drive the car until 7th November.

I booked the car into Guildford Mazda for the 50,000 mile service to maintain the warranty. The car has actually done 56,300 miles but the last owner presented it late therefore I was due to take it before 57,900. I was quoted £260 for the service. At the service, I was in the garage for 4 hours and ended up paying £350 plus money afterwards for a new front tyre. Apparently the battery is not clamped down (there is no clamp or bolts), the fuse box under the bonnet is damaged, the roof drains were blocked, the tyre valves perished with one completely split and hanging off, the front offside tyre had damage to the sidewall and the wipers needed replacing. I was led to believe that Eden Basingstoke should have dealt with most of this before they sold the car. Since having the roof drains cleared, I have been back to Guildford to complain about a rattling noise and they have told me the roof drains have been blocked so the rubber valve is bent and the noise below is now being carried into the car. So I need new roof drains.

I have again spoken to Mazda UK who have sent me a voucher to get the battery clamp/bolts sorted. I am going to be sending a letter. Mazda UK basically said it ‘wasn’t worth’ pursuing this with Basingstoke as they ‘weren’t very forthcoming’!

I am not technical but if anyone could advise if any of the additional things picked up at the service could have all occurred since I bought the car (bearing in mind I have only driven it for 3 and a bit months!) or if I am right in thinking I am due compensation for some/part of it! I’ve done approx 3,000 miles since purchase.

Thank you if you made it to the end of this message!

3

Firstly I am sorry to hear about the problems that you have had with your car. However welcome to the MX5 club and I am sure that you will enjoy the car once the problems are all sorted.

Whilst it may not be what you want to hear I don’t believe that you will get anywhere pursuing Eden for any of the things found at the service. They do not appear to be the most customer focussed dealer.

Firstly I think that you did well in getting the spare key and new windscreen.

About the rest they will say something along the following lines:
Tyre was damaged by you. Impossible to prove otherwise.
Wipers naturally wear.

Once you clean the roof drains it does become noisier in the cabin with the roof up. The rubber flap can and possibly is stuck down. You can try getting a trombone cleaner and pushing it through the drain from the top to see if it frees the flap. Just search this forum for cleaning roof drains to how to do this. I would not renew the roof drains as this will not be cheap at a main dealer. Unless its raining I suggest driving with the roof down, you don’t hear the noise coming from the roof drain then. Just buy a wooly hat for the cold days and turn the heater up.

4

Sorry to hear you’ve had all these problems with your purchase. I’ve been done over on more than one occasion with cars, no more, I don’t give them chance now, live and learn.

You don’t mention whether the car was issued with a fresh MOT but I take it they didn’t service the car before handing it over to you? It certainly sounds like they didn’t even do a PDI (pre delivery inspection) on the car. Most would do this as a matter of course which would pick up such things as tyres, windscreen problems and on a soft top you would exspect the drain holes to be checked.  For all that stuff to be missed before you got it sounds like they certainly are taking you for a ride sorry to say.

It’s a bit late in the day really to get them to compensate you, you could try though but sometimes (I know) it’s like, we’ve had your money, hard luck, they don’t care.

5

Hi MissLibra.

Sorry to hear of your problems. I would certainly take issue with the fuse box and the hood drains. The car I hope is still under some sort of warranty even so the fuse box should have been sorted before you took delivery of the car. It is highly unlikely that you would have spotted it when you viewed the car and it is also hardly likely that you were responsible for any damage. This is not a “wear and tear” item.

A Mazda dealer should be capable of cleaning the roof drains without damaging the rubber valves. If they have, they are liable for the damage and should repair/replace them as necessary. I think that you have been pretty shoddily treated. I bought my 2009 MX5 from a family run independent and the service I received was excellent. There were a few minor faults I spotted on the car when I first viewed the car including a small dent in the rear wing. These were all sorted out before I bought the car along with some other minor faults found at the PDI.

I think that you need to send a strongly worded letter to the Mazda dealer and E-mail a scanned copy to Mazda UK with a covering note. I would also point out in your correspondence that you are keeping the MX5 Owners Club forum up to date with your issues and the responses of the dealer and Mazda UK. I hope this helps and good luck!

6

Thank you for responses so far. 

The car is due its next MOT in March and yes apparently a pre sale check by Eden was done. My Mazda says ‘renewal of oil and oil filter’. The vehicle inspection sheet they filled out was not a Mazda approved used car sheet (which I was shown by Guildford).

Also to point out my car is an electric hard top version, sorry if I didn’t make that clear. Not sure if that makes a difference on the roof drain issue. I had the service done this Monday and have returned this morning which is when they said roof drains need to be replaced! The way they described it was as it’s been blocked for a while the rubber part has bent out of shape and won’t sit properly as it should. 

7

Go and buy yourself a copy of auto express and look for the watchdog section and write to them I’m sure they will be able to help you out and good luck