This is really starting to become a serious issue.

About a month ago I made an appt at one dealership in the area. It took them 2.5 hours to just do an oil change and they asked I reschedule. To make a long story short, I paid for the oil change, emailed the SM explaining how incompetent their service dept is and never looked back.

TODAY I had an appt at another dealer - much better experience BUT.

Here are my complaints.
BTW I have a 2006 6s V6 Grand Sport with 34K miles on it. The car is MINT inside and out and has NEVER been abused.
-when 1/4 tank of gas, car dies like it has no gas
-When it was cold this past week, the brake pedal locked up. This is not safe while traveling 30mph and the pedal becomes a rock and I'm left with NO BRAKES.
-Slight knock from the engine in cold temperatures
-Transmission has shifted very strangely twice. When instead of down shifting, it would up shift causing the car to have basically no power. This happened on the on ramp, also not safe.
-Getting 15-17 MPG. That's ridiculous, my GS400 got 19-20 in the worst winter conditions

They had the car all day today and couldn't duplicate any of the complaints. I got charged $122 diagnostic fee for them looking at it. They wouldn't give the car back otherwise. This is absolutely ridiculous! I am driving a car that is extremely unsafe and is still under warranty. Why should I have to pay if they can't find these problems? I am now coming back on Monday with 1/4 tank gas for them to see how it dies.

What can I do? Has anyone had a similar situation? Is there anyone at Mazda I can contact about this? I don't even want to drive this POS anymore, I never know when it'll get me anywhere. My previous Acura with 235K miles on it was more reliable.

Someone please give some insight. I need to get these issues taken care of and so far after 2 visits and $150, all I got was a lousy car wash.


Sorry for the rant but this is getting out of control. I need to do something about this.

I was a first time customer at the Mazda Service Department at Amato today and I wanted to share how unhappy I am with the quality of service. This is by far the most incompetent service department I have ever visited in my life and wanted to share my experience. Please note that I am not asking for a refund, for an apology or anything of the sort but only for a few minutes of your time to evaluate your service drive.

I called to make an appointment yesterday for service today. I spoke with a nice gentleman over the phone to whom I expressed my concerns with my vehicle. I told him that I need to come in for an oil change and I have a few issues that need to be taken a look at. He said absolutely not a problem and that he will be happy to help me. My concerns were:

* My car acts and feels as if it's running out of fuel when it is in fact showing a quarter tank
* My traction control off light comes on when the vehicle is cold
* The brake pedal makes noise when letting off the pedal

He took down the notes and we confirmed that a 11:30 am appointment worked for both of us.

I came in to Amato this morning at precisely 11:30 am and was greeted by a very nice service adviser. We had some issues putting my information into the system since the vehicle was registered to the previous owner in your system but we got through that in about 15 minutes. She asked me if I was waiting for my vehicle and I said yes, and walked over to the customer waiting area. 30 minutes had passed and I decided to walk over to check the service drive and my car was sitting in the same spot. I am not one to make people's lives difficult and I didn't say anything. My car finally made it into a service stall at around 1pm (1.5 hours later after this "appointment" started). At this point I was rather angry but still did not say anything as I do need to get these issues taken care of and I don't have much time during the week. An hour passed as the oil was being changed and whatever else they may have been doing and I was in pure excitement to see my car pull out of the garage and sit there waiting for me to pick it up. I walk into the service drive to speak with the adviser who informed me that they apologize but all they could get done today was an oil change.

2.5 hours for an oil change?!?!?! is all I could think. They told me that the Mazda technician was not in today and they don't feel confident letting the "amateurs" look at my issues. What in the world was the point of making this appointment? The only reason why I got an oil change (which I did not need yet) was simply because I was there anyway to get these issues looked at/taken care of. At this point the service adviser asked me to make an appointment again sometime during the week to bring it back (which will not be happening). This was the biggest waste of time I have ever seen in a business that has "Our state-of-the-art facility features the most current diagnostic and repair equipment available and our highly skilled factory-trained technicians will deliver efficient, quality vehicle care." written on their website. Last time I spent 2.5 hours in a service department, I got a timing belt/water pump service done. Amato Mazda takes the same amount of time to do an oil change. It should not take the amount an 8 hour job takes to do an oil change.

I am now waiting for it to stop raining so I can check my oil fluid level since there's no way I'm going to trust these "amateurs".

Another point I'd like to bring up is the "full circle service inspection" that comes with the oil change. In this inspection I heard absolutely nothing about the broken wiper on the passenger side or the fact that my rear brake pads are more then ready to be replaced.


I truly hope that you take this email seriously and take a look at the performance of the service department. I understand sometimes times get busy but it is no reason to lack this much in performance, especially in the economic times that we are seeing today.

Thank you,