Hey all… nearly time for my mk2.5 to be serviced. I’m in the Didcot area, so Newbury and Oxford dealerships are both convenient, but which is best???
Biscester! Brian is great and comes highly recommended…PM me if you want his number!
Brian is that Mazda man?
Which is best?
Yes, thats right…great bloke and very helpful too!
Yeah my cars with him at the moment! decided to use him again after he done a wheel bearing for me last year!
Totally agree he is indeed a great guy with a huge knowledge of mx-5s and very very reasonably priced!
I have the exact same query!! Notice you didn’t get aan answer other than Bicester. Can someone give me the details of the Bicester chap please??
We have used Mazda on the Botley road for the past 6 years and never had a problem. They have been taken over by Johnsons now.
Bookd in car last week to be told that they now charge £11 admin fee if you want a courtesy car, and that they “engine flush” all cars now at a cost of £36.50. The wife booked the car in, when she told me I rang Johnsons buy went through to a call center so they did not recognise the name of the person who took the booking at Oxford, they put me through but as it was engaged they suggessted I keep ringing. I suggested they get the service dept to ring me, they said they didnt do that I would just have to keep trying. By this time their lack of attentiveness and customer service skills were really starting to grate!
I told the customer service rep to get them to ring me back, or if they preferred, to give me the contact details of their CEO, that did the trick. Was contacted later by the Oxford service dept, who said I didn’t need to have the engine flush as this was optional ( this is not what the wife was told!!)
Then given a line about the £11 admin fee for the courtesy car being to cover additional insurance costs. I told them that having used this dealership for over 6 years (before Johnsons bought it off the Co-op that these new practises did not endear me to them and that I did not like the way Johnsons did business. Thats my 1st hand experience of this dealer. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions… P.S what is the Newbury dealership (motor-lux) like??? anyone used them
regards
JohnO
A lot of main dealers do an engine flush now because of the ludicrously extended oil change intervals on modern cars (can be 2 years on variable servicing for a VW). I’d rather change the oil more frequently and not have the flush. It is a rip-off, and yes, almost every garage I’ve ever known will try and do unnecessary work on a feamle owner’s car, in the hope that they won’t challenge it.
The former owner of Newbury Mazda (motorworld mazda etc) is well known to me, and I used to have a close association with the dealership when he owned it a few years back. Since he sold up however the place is in decline and all the good technicians have left for pastures new . I have been told that the place is not really as helpful or as useful as it used to be.
Make your own minds up from that…
After the warranty expired on my 5, I decided to try a local garage rather than a main dealership (which involved driving to Newbury / Oxford)… I tried Scotlands Ash between Didcot and Harwell (luckily on my way to work), and recommend them. They’ll give you a free courtesy car, happy to talk you through what they do. I’ve had a couple of services there, had an aftermarket exhaust fitted, and they even did a freebie job for me when I had a mysterious rattle appear.
Hi Have just used the Newbury garage for service for my 3 year old Mk3. Was given a courtesy car - no admin charge but had to put petrol in - nearly ran out on A34 coming home after dropping car off. No mention of flushing engine but they did try to sell me service for the AC; new rear tyres when they are still way within legal limit but with minimal uneven wear and also something about resealing the underneath of the car. Also only 5% reduction in cost instead of previous 10%. Showroom also looked a bit rundown.
You know why we engineer longer service intervals in to the engines of modern cars?
To benefit the customer. The service intervals aren’t set for a laugh, they are set as a target and proven by durability testing on fleets of cars and dozens of dyno engines so that the end user can do 100,000 miles of reliable motoering on their engine with the minimum of trips to the dealer. Hell, some cars are engineered to do 100,000 miles without an oil change. It’s a good thing that oil is available in such enormous quantities to support rediculously frequent oil changes that customers think they need, imagine if it were running out.
So sticking to the service guidelines in the car’s manual is your best bet.
Hi,
Warning: I certainly wouldn’t recommend Johnsons Mazda in Oxford!
Bought an '03 Mk2 in May last year (2015) with only one key (pre-remote version) - and had the worst possible experience of Johnsons Mazda on Botley Road, Oxford being completely incompetent and unable to provide two, additional, coded, spare keys within a reasonable time.
…Having charged over £150 for two keys and coding, up front (wouldn’t do it without payment first) - First they said keys had to be cut by specialist company somewhere up north… so it would take at lest a week to get them back - so they would call me when the keys were received, so I could book another slot to have them coded (they need the car for this).
I didn’t get a call for 10 days, so called them and the keys hadn’t arrived so they said they’d chase them up (which they clearly hadn’t already).
Finally got the call to say they’d arrived a week later (made me wonder if they’d actually ordered them in the first place) - and arranged to take the car in to get them coded, which they said would take an hour, max.
Arrived at garage - they said i could come back in an hour - or they’d call me if they got it done earlier - so I went off on foot to do a couple of chores. BUT when I arrived back there, they said the keys didn’t fit and would have to be returned, re-cut and sent back down to Oxford again. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt at this stage even though I was annoyed that they hadn’t let me know immediately as I had, by then, wasted an hour on a particularly busy day… no real apology given - just seemed to want to blame the key cutters.
Left it that they’d try again and give me a call when the new keys came in.
In the meantime I went to specialist locksmiths on Cowley Road, Oxford (BMA) who looked up the number on the key and cut a spare on the spot (even though they couldn’t code it) for a few quid - which at least meant I had a spare and could get into the car / boot in case of emergency (even if it wouldn’t turn off the immobiliser).
Needless to say; second set of keys from Johnsons didn’t fit either - had to be sent back …by which time i was fuming as the receptionist was patronising and obstructive.
Third set did fit - got them coded - and only after a LOT of argument, and demanding to talk to the manager, managed to get a reduction of £75 - by which time it was lateJuly.
As a result of this experience I’ll NEVER use the Johnsons Mazda dealership in Oxford again!
Mo
Will agree with above comments re using Brian Holden “MazdaMan” in Bicester also in the same workshop is Nick Etchells a Longlife stainless steel exhaust distributor, so come & see Brian for a service and get Nick to make you up a standard or custom stainless exhaust system, - been using Brian for my MX5 (and other) servicings since 2007, top bloke. Paul H, Bicester