[GTAHVIT]

Here is a copy of a letter I am sending to Clark Howard asking for advice.

This is a perfect example as to why the domestics will make a comeback in the comming years. Based on my own research, this is common right now.

To whom it may concern at Clark Howard’s Team Clark,

I’d like to inform you about a recent and costly ($5,500.0) warranty claim denied by Mazda. I recently took my car in to a Mazda dealer for an oil change and to investigate some internal engine noise. In the spirit of full disclosure, my car was recently on the receiving end of a minor rear end collision that is unrelated. The car was less than 500 miles from voiding the warranty of 50K miles. After changing the oil the technician asked me to produce the receipts for all previous oil changes. He said Mazda would want to see that the car had been properly maintained prior to doing any repair work on the car. I explained that I didn’t have those records as I had changed the oil at many different places over the last 3 years, and wouldn’t be able to produce those records. The advice given me by the dealer was to go to Mazda headquarters and see if they would do any work without the service history. We did and Mazda agreed to pay for an inspection. Upon the inspection pictures were taken and sent to Mazda. The dealer’s assessment was the car had not been neglected. Two days later Mazda said they would not repair the car without receipts. I called Mazda headquarters and made an attempt to plead my case. The first person I spoke to continued to reiterate their position. I asked to speak with his supervisor which he passed me to. The supervisor then read to me, out of the manual, where it states that I expected to maintain service records in order to validate a warranty claim. I questioned him as to why they would pay to inspect the car and ignore the mechanics recommendation to repair the car. He said, “I don’t have an answer for that, Sir.” At this point I asked, “What would happen if I changed the oil myself?” His reply was I’d need to keep the sales receipts for the oil and filters. I then asked, “How would you know if I did it correctly?” He wasn’t able to answer that question either. I then asked to speak with his supervisor to get an explanation as to why they would inspect the car, and ignore the technician, if they were going to deny the claim for lack of documentation. He refused to route the call any higher. I also offered to share the cost with Mazda as I could not produce the required documents. They refused this suggestion also.

Ultimately I explained to him that I had never purchased a foreign car before, I had always driven domestics. I had been convinced that the foreign cars were a better investment. Mazda’s handling of this situation has proved me wrong. As a reference, I had Chevrolet transmission fail out of warranty a couple years ago. The dealer agreed to split the cost of that repair with me as it was very close to the warranty mileage. They did not ask me for service records.

Since, my conversation with Mazda, I have taken my car to another private mechanic, and he quoted the repair to be $5,500.00. They also confirmed that the engine had not been neglected. He did some research for me and found out that there is an ongoing problem with my particular motor. Mazda will normally not repair this motor but replace it when it comes to them under warranty. He was unable to find a used motor and I had to buy a new one from Mazda. He suggests that this is a large contributor to them not standing by the warranty.

My opinion of this situation is that Mazda, along with all other car companies, are struggling. As such they decided to cut costs by finding a way out of honoring expensive warranty repairs. Furthermore I spoke to the dealer asking them for some concession. They explained to me that in this economy, the only consistent income stream is from the service department. They would be unable to do the costly repair and was also unwilling to share the cost with me.

My car is currently being repaired by the private shop as I can no longer afford to be without a vehicle. It is less than a year from being paid off, and I’d like to keep it. But I am highly motivated to trade it in for a comparable domestic used car as I don’t want to advertise for Mazda any longer.

Any advice you may be able to offer will be greatly appreciated.

Extremely frustrated,

Chris