Topic: Kudos to Mazda for doing the right thing

[slybry]

Just an update. Got car back yesterday after a week in the shop. They handed me the keys and did not charge me a cent.

Wheel wells look great and paint match is perfect.

They did say they were going to be changing metal around lip of wells. But I suspect they did not. I felt inside the wheel well and do not feel any deformities or seam where old metal meets new.

I am now suspecting they just sanded it, put some bondo on and painted  . Not sure......... I just hope it holds up.

Now I will get it sprayed and apply grease to lip periodically.

Also thinking about trying to find a rubber strips that I can glue to to inside of wheel well lip to protect against stone chips. Not sure if such a thing exists.

[articsteve]

I am now suspecting they just sanded it, put some bondo on and painted 

Take a small magnet and place on the areas that you suspect are bondo.  Try on  known metal part first to get a feel for it's strength.

[barrie1]

WE used to take old inner tubes from some of the heavy truck tires,cut them out and glue them in as they were more then large enough to do a full and nice job. The vehicile is always quieter with this done as well which is also a bonus. Forget which glue we used then but it does help keep the rust away. 

[Pootle]

Hey Slybry

Forgive me if you covered this earlier in the thread, but did you buy your Mazda from the dealership that repaired it? It wasn't clear in your first post. The Lemon Aid guy has many stories about secret 'goodwill' warranties, although most of what I've read about this particular issue suggests that if there is one, it is so secret that not even the dealers know about it.

[maritime_storm]

I suspect though your good treatment has more to do with that particular dealer. My Father-in-Law has dealt with them since the early 90's and has always had good things to say about them, now Gendron Ford on the other hand.....

[slybry]

Hey Slybry

Forgive me if you covered this earlier in the thread, but did you buy your Mazda from the dealership that repaired it? It wasn't clear in your first post. The Lemon Aid guy has many stories about secret 'goodwill' warranties, although most of what I've read about this particular issue suggests that if there is one, it is so secret that not even the dealers know about it.

Surprisingly they looked after me even though I was 2nd owner. I had just bought the car a few weeks prior to seeing them. Car was not even purchased at that dealership. It did have only 19,000 kms on it so that might have been a factor in them repairing it.

PS: If you look in Moan and Whine forum you will see that my Mazda was just hit by another car parked on street last week. Kind of ironic that I was happy to get a little surface rust fixed only to have half the car's side torn off.

[Noobee]

mazda knows about the rust issues and and many of the other problems that plagued Mazda owners, such as the defective door lock. The only did something because they were pressured by the insurance companies, police, and press.  The pending class action lawsuit likely also had something to do with it.

Like always, repairing a problem always comes to statistics and dollars.  Mazda looks at the cost of fixing the issue at the source (i.e. changing the manufacturing process of the car) vs paying out to have it fixed later and they decided it would cost less to pay out later. I'm sure they have formula's that take into account all sorts of stuff (including customer satisfaction or rather, dissatisfaction and "goodwill" costs, etc) but they must have still thought that the cost of fixing the problem later would be less than addressing it at the source.

The same rust problem will likely present itself with the 2007s+. The rust issue is just starting to show up in the 2005s and 2006s in 2008 and 2009.

Even the APA is aware of the rust problem. And when a prospective buyer of your Mazda looks at it and sees that it's been painted, all sorts of bells and whistles will go off. Your resale value will take a huge hit.

If any one says mazda always does the right thing must have some affiliation with mazda