Anonymous

Standards are not up to scratch

I bought a Mazda 3 from this dealership with just 8,000 miles done over 8 years with all services done at the same garage. On paper it should be a seamless purchase especially as I was purchasing the car from what I believed was a reputable Mazda dealership. Sadly this wasn’t the case… I bought a used car from this dealership hoping for high standards and a pleasant experience. Instead my car was poorly prepped and I had to deal with an aggressive owner. Please read this review before buying a used car from this dealership: After the test drive I noticed two of the rear tyres were nine years old and had small cracks in the sidewall. In addition to this the car had only done 8,000 miles over eight years and only 1,000 miles over the last three years. I was therefore worried about the tyres having flat spots too. I asked the owner of the garage (Danny) if he would change the tyres due to the condition of them and he said ‘no’ and explained he ‘would put his daughter in that car’ (it later transpires that one of the tyres had cuts and had to be replaced). I said that’s fine and thanks for confirming this with me. After leaving a deposit I went away and asked for the tyres to be rotated front to back so that I can wear the old perished Dunlop tyres out quicker on the front axle. I also said to the salesman that if they need to change the tyres for any reason during the MOT to let me know as I want to put premium tyres on the car and would happily contribute towards the cost of replacing both. A week passes by and the car is now ready for collection. This is where things go downhill. Firstly the car was poorly cleaned with lots of wax residue all over the car, it had a dirty interior and frustratingly I spotted that just one of the rear tyres had been replaced with a different branded tyre on the same axle. I approached the salesman explaining my frustration and asked for £130 off (the cost to replace the other perished Dunlop with the same tyre they put on the rear) so that the car has the same tyres across the same axle (this is bad practice as different brands of tyres perform/handle differently in different situations). My request was denied which shocked me as I couldn’t believe a main dealer would let a car go out with different tyres on the same axle with one of the tyres almost at its end of life in terms of age as well. I spoke to the owner of the garage (Danny) about my concerns and he straight up refused to change the tyre and told me it isn’t illegal to sell it as it is. I explained how it’s unsafe and bad practice but he was adamant that he was correct and told me I was wrong. I asked him to put this in an email but he refused when I told him I will be speaking to Mazda head office about this. This conversation consequently got quite heated with Danny raising his voice and being quite confrontational. My Dad who was with me had to ask him to keep his voice down twice and suggested we all took a five minute break as the tension was very high at this point. Despite being treated awfully by the garage I was confident that it was a good car once I get the other tyre replaced and decided to purchase the vehicle hoping I wouldn’t have to deal with the dealership again. Sadly just 20 minutes into my drive home the tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) went off. I did several more trips this day and reset the TPMS multiple times but it continued to come on each time. I checked the tyres the next day when they had cooled down and all four tyres were 3-4psi lower than what they should be (I used a device which is accurate within 0.5psi). Since pumping the tyres up, the light hasn’t come back on since. In addition to this I noticed the coolant level was on the ‘L’ marker which was also really frustrating as I asked them to look at this during their PDI. I checked this when the engine was cold and it should be on the ‘F’ full marker not the ‘L’ marker. Thirdly, I noticed both xenon headlights have moisture in them. Fourthly there is rust all around the boot aperture which was only visible once I had cleaned this area as it was left dirty when leaving the dealership. In addition to this the car vibrates at 70 suggesting the wheels need to be balanced or the old tyre has flat spots. Finally, the door sill has a cut in it and to top it off the roof rails which were included as part of the deal had been incorrectly fitted and slid side to side. If I didn’t spot this it could have been very dangerous when carrying bikes and other luggage on the roof. I put my concerns in an email and was met with attitude and aggression by the owner when he initially called me up to challenge my email. On the phone he defensively claimed that he can’t get to 70mph in his area, which firstly isn’t true as there is a motorway just 10 minutes away from the dealership. regardless, I just wanted it fixed rather than to point fingers. Secondly, when i told him about the TPMS going off on the way home, instead of apologising for letting it go out with the incorrect pressures and thanking me for diagnosing and fixing the issue, he instead challenged me on how accurate my tyre pump was, asking if it was calibrated and told me he didn’t believe the tyres were incorrectly pumped up. However, as soon as I pumped up the tyres up myself, the sensor went off and the sensors have not come back on since. Coincidence? I’m currently in the process of trying to get all of the above issues fixed but this has been a really stressful process for me. I will now be going through the Motor Ombudsman and was encouraged to do so by Mazda UK. Despite the awful service, Danny has at least offered to take the car from me but I’ve rejected this offer currently as I’m hoping at the end of this stressful experience I’ll have a nice working low mileage Mazda 3. He also apologised for installing the roof rails incorrectly and offered to fit the torn door sill and balance the wheels. I am however reluctant to leave my car with them due to further unpleasant confrontations with Danny and I worry about the poor workmanship and lack of attention to detail which I have already experienced first hand.