This is my first post, sadly I’m having to ask for help. I bought a 56 plate Mk. 3 2.0i (Option Pack) in mid January; since purchase it has suffered cold start/cutout problems along with a general lack of all-round performance. The dealer has told me that the problems were fixed, but an independent vehicle check carried out by the RAC on Monday showed the problems to still exist. I returned the vehicle yesterday and in a heated discussion with the General Manager, he suggested that the model had very little performance and that what I was experiencing was “normal”. He also criticised me for not having driven alternative examples, but hasn’t offered me a similar model to try in the 6 weeks I’ve owned this vehicle.
So, please can I ask, is there anyone out there who would be prepared to show me how a 56 plate 2.0i goes when it’s feeling well? I must stress that I would not need to drive the vehicle, I am sure I could easily gauge its performance from the passenger seat.
Thanks for reading - I am based in Coventry and am usually available during the day, as well at weekends and would happily pay any attendant expenses incurred in return for this massive favour.
Glad to help if you can get to me, I’m in South Derbyshire. If you could have put this up last week I was in the Hinckley area so could have called in on you.
I’m no expert BTW but reckon I could give you a comparison with my 2ltr sport performance wise.
I’m in South Birmingham. Would be more than happy to show you what you can do with a stock engined 2.0 5-speed
I’d also recommend that you give Paul Roddison a call (http://www.mx5-racing.co.uk/). He’s based in Sheffield, but knows more about MX-5 than your local Mazda dealer. Give him a call, and explain the problem.
As Cerbs said, come along to the meet - it next week, even if you’ve already got it fixed.
Thanks for reading and for the replies - much appreciated.
This afternoon the dealer emailed me to say he’d take the ailing car back and refund my money. So I’m back in the market now - I’ll log back in here when I’m actually an owner again.
Postscript: I see that the dealer has now put up the previously ailing car ( Grey 2.0 Option Pack DY56ZHE ) for sale once again. If anyone on here is tempted, I would gladly email a copy of my RAC Vehicle Inspection Report to them, just to ensure that all the rectification work the report recommended, has in fact been carried out.
Further to this whole sorry mess, I spent a lovely few days last week test driving a variety of MX-5s (all Mk3s) and now understand just how underpowered & gutless the previous one was. It simply didn’t have the smooth, powerful pickup that the car was clearly designed to enjoy. Quite why the dealership spent so much time and energy trying to convince me otherwise, I’ll never know.
Stuart, the dealership was Coventry Mazda. I wasn’t sure if I should mention their name, at one point their MD did make a veiled hint about legal action regarding my Facebook posts on the matter. Then again, they did ‘do the decent thing’ and refund my money. Eventually.
Mick, yes, the car in the signature is the replacement. Bought privately in London, picked it up at the weekend. I’ve posted some pics in Readers Rides. I guess an automatic won’t be universally popular on here but it fits our needs (wife already has an auto Avensis due to major knee problem) and it’s actually rather splendid.
Like I posted above, all the MX-5s I tested, before buying the Powershift, drove beautifully. It really does seem that a bad one is a rarity. So if I’d not allowed myself to be rushed into buying DY56ZHE without driving comparable cars, it would have been quite obvious that it was wrong, even to me. Additionally, I’m quite sure your offers of test drives, which I mentioned to the dealer MD, helped him make the right decision, so thanks once again.
