(NOT) buying a new vehicle (from Ford/Mazda)

So, wife's 2012 Highlander has had some paint issues. It's got the Blizzard Pearl White paint, and all models between several years were recalled - EXCEPT the Highlander. Unfortunately Toyota corporate essentially told even the dealer "Yeah...no" so instead of futzing around w/this vehicle, wife's looking for a new vehicle. (Or, she WAS until yesterday.)

She had it narrowed down to 2 choices - a brand new 2021 Mazda CX-9 or a slightly used (as in 7K on the odometer) 2020 Highlander XLE. She'd already test driven a Highlander from the local Toyota dealership; and the salesman we've worked with in the past on 2 vehicles was very nice, no pressure, etc. So she went to the local Ford/Mazda/Lincoln dealership.

The test drive with the female salesperson was great; wife liked the CX-9 though it was a bit hard to get in/out of, and she wasn't a huge fan of their aggressive bolstering on the seats. Salesperson took her VIN and ran it to potentially get a # on trade-in.

Then the sales manager came out. He asked what my wife was looking at, what else they'd looked at, etc. Wife did mention to the sales manager that she'd narrowed it down to the two models above.

The salesman, to paraphrase, said "Well, studies show that you end up buying a vehicle from the last dealership you go to, so when you're serious about a deal, come back and see us."



Wife was looking into actually getting a vehicle that day, and *literally* all they had to do was, you know, to do what dealerships do - give her #'s on what they'd do for her on the purchase vehicle, and what they'd give her for trade-in. Instead they essentially tell her "Come back when you're serious." She was so ticked she immediately left, went to the local Toyota dealership, and told our salesman there (we've bought two vehicles from him) she'd be buying a Highlander - and despite it being a seller's market, he STILL came off of MSRP a bit and gave her a grand or so more on trade-in.

Edited to add: Not that they'll give a sh*t, but I've got a letter @ home I've written that I'll send off to them, essentially telling them that while they may have a Highlander beaten by a few grand on MSRP, their sales manager's customer service skills suck a big one.

 

Sounds like your salesman is pretty fair . I think Ford sold their shares in Mazda .

 

All bias aside, the CX suv's are pretty good cars. My mom has a CX5 and my grandpa a CX9. They havent had any problems with it except a couple dead batteries since my mom doesnt drive alot. They are pretty simple and reliable mechanically. With all that said, given the 2, i would still go with the highlander since its a toyota.

 

Yeah, he's a great guy. I mean, he'll tell you like it is - e.g., if it's a seller's market, he's not going to lie and tell you he'll get you $8K off of MSRP; but given the current market, he *still* hustled a bit to earn our business.

 

Right, that's pretty much what I told my wife. The CX's are nice, and she enjoyed the test drive, etc.....right up until she dealt with the sales manager.

Once that happened, she texted me and said "Oh, I've made my choice." I knew she was pissed about something.

 

Yep. They're literally the reason I bought a Tundra, and I told my wife something along those lines - the F150 I owned wasn't terrible but it had lots of little issues.

The DEALERSHIP, on the other hand....well, let me relate to you a story. Had the back glass go out - to specify, the defroster malfunctioned, and unfortunately it's the LRU (lowest replaceable unit), obviously.

The service manager tried to tell me that even though my defroster was under warranty....it was permanently attached to the back glass, which was NOT under warranty.



Went home and about 20 minutes of searching told me that they were using the wrong part #. Gave them the correct one, and suddenly "Oh yeah, I see it's under warranty."

Had to replace it a year later - while the truck was still under warranty - and they told me that "Normally they don't replace these things more than once; but out of dealer goodwill we'll go ahead and replace it under warranty again."

WTF....I wanted to say "Uh, no, you'll replace it under warranty because that is what you're supposed to do, period."

Anyways, yeah...suffice to say that if we were ever fans of the local Ford/Lincoln/Mazda dealerships, we're sure as hell not now.

 

My step father and I went into a Lincoln dealership so he could look at a new Lincoln. The guy always bought new Lincoln Continentals. He was an old Norwegian farmer. He wore old Nike tennis shoes and an "oofda" t-shirt. He didn't look like he had money so they ignored him. He had millions. We walked out and he bought one about a month later from another dealership.
When I was shopping for a Tundra I called three dealerships and talked to four sales people. One sales person even sold us a new 4Runner less than a year before. It was at the same dealership but a different sales person. He was the ONLY ONE that followed up out of all of the four sales people that I talked to. I gave him a deposit less than an hour later and three days later I gave them a check for the truck. All the other sales people just blew me off. Even after the cash sale it took 75 days and a call from a criminal investigator from the state to get me the certificate of origin so I could get the title. Some car sales people aren't as smart as the law allows.

 

The cx's are very nice vehicles.......in my family / friend circle I probably have a half dozen that have cx-5's or cx-9's. They LOVE them and rave about their reliability and comfort.......everyone else owns toyotas (one of my best friends is GSM at a large volume dealer and gives all references hassle free good deals). If I was in the market for a smaller SUV, Mazda would be on my short list

 

Agree, with one exception.

Lexus just tried to bend me in all positions on the price to replace my rack and pinion about a month ago. $5375.00. Went to Toyota, $3100 and some change.

 

My wife has a CX9 and I love that thing. Mazda makes its own vehicles and has for quite some time so I wouldn’t lump them in with ford like how it used to be.

 

They couldn't explain that one.

 

Oh, for sure - where the vehicles themselves are concerned, I don't. My issue is not at all with the quality of Mazdas....but where I live, there's not exactly a dearth of options for dealerships, so for me at least, bad customer service/treatment will kill any deal.

 

Ford lost me in 2004 with the nightmare spark plugs on top of dropping ignition coils constantly. Not a fan of GTDI/Ecoboost either. Too many major issues.
The Japanese made Mazdas seem to be pretty decent cars though.

 

Yep, ya just never know. Sometimes that Rolex is a fake.

 

I lucked out; bought a 2002 Ram and had NOTHING but issues with it, so I traded it in on a 2004 F150 that's been rock-solid. It's got something like 270K on it, and while it's not pretty, it's still going strong...thus the reason I traded that one in on a 2013 F150.

I didn't have huge issues with it, but I did have issues...and almost all of them required me doing part of the service manager's/tech's jobs for them just to get them to fix the vehicle under warranty.

 

My dad was looking at a CX-3 but ended up in a Hyundai Kona because it was a little cheaper. He couldn't find a base model Mazda when he was shopping.

A friend of mine took his dad to the GM dealership in their small town one winter a few years back to look at buying an Equinox for him. My friend had called ahead and talked to the salesman about what his dad was interested in, what time they'd be in and essentially asked that they have the car he'd found on their website warmed up and ready to go so his dad didn't have to be out in the cold for a long time. Well, they got there and the salesman had to go find the vehicle in some back corner of the lot. Then he had to go wash it when my friend pointed out that the windows were filthy. After the test drive, my friend went to the sales manager and explained to him that he essentially lost a guaranteed sale that day due to not being able to meet a couple simple requests from a repeat customer.

 

Uh, no shit. Why would anyone go to another dealer after they bought their car...

 

One of my friends went to a dealership here in Fort Collins and all they did was screw her around for three freakin days for one AC switch. She nailed the service manager's ass when they finally got done. They blew the last whole day waiting all day to do a 5 minute job while she waited for them outside at the dealership.

 

Have you ever tried to import a vehicle before? It can be a nightmare.

 

My wife and I love it when we shop and sales reps ignore us because we essentially go out in our PJs. Whats even better is when someone finally helps us, starts a credit card application (hey, its nice to get perks and/or bonuses when possible) and then their eyes light up surprised when they realize we dont "dress for success". Always a good time.

 

I love Mazda vehicles, they make good cars. Everything is is in the right place, it’s a driver’s car.

 

Studies show that you will typically end up buying a vehicle from the last dealer you visit..

No shit - who commissioned this study - the coalition for obviousness?!? Why would I go visit a dealer to look at new vehicles AFTER I bought one - just to see if I made a mistake or not ?

I get clearly what the OP is saying here - just think it speaks more to the stupidity of dealership GMs than anything saying something so stupidly clear. Then again your taking about people who as a whole think the number of balloons is directly related to the number of cars you sell, that think employees are motivated by the fact their boss wears a low end Rolex and who thought you know what will look good on a Japanese based car company franchise lot - a giant 60’ lizard towering over the building - because what screams Japanese and cultured more than Godzilla.

Hope your wife enjoys the new ride - glad your regular dealer kept it an easy process.

 

That would be really cool, even if it needed some work.