Ian Schwarting

Review of Orem Mazda

Was pushed over the top to leave a review after to...

Was pushed over the top to leave a review after today. Have owned our Mazda CX-5 for almost 3 years. Went in to have the tire repaired for nail damage. I went in assuming it would be free (like every other tire place in the entire world). Nope. $20. So out of principle, I said peace and went to the Big O Tires down the road.

What really grinds my gears about this dealership, though, is their complete lack of ability to figure out our prepaid maintenance. One of the reasons I bought our car there was their ability to sell me on their maintenance plan being able to keep up with the Toyota Care plan. Turns out there is literally no maintenance plan. I found out about 6 months ago that all they did was take money from the purchase price and tuck it away as a credit to any maintenance I do in the future. As if that isn t bad enough, there hasn t been a single time in the 4 services we ve had that the service department can figure out how to properly apply our prepaid credits to a service without me having to call in to sales, then get transferred to accounting, then have accounting call service and explain how to do it. The main service guy named Alex has twice made my wife (who was not there when the car was purchased and doesn t understand the prepaid maintenance deal) feel stupid for thinking that the cost of our service would be taken care of. After getting charged for our 1st service, I had to call in and beat them up to get it fixed.

Next complaint: the car wash. It s actually pretty good now. However, the first 2 years we had the car, there was no car wash. The sales reps sold us on Oh dude, cancel your sonic car wash pass and come get free washes whenever you want . It s not that easy. You have to park, get out for a token, tell them what car you re driving, then get a single token for the wash. Although I m complaining about the wash not working for awhile, I m giving this review an overall 2 stars because the car wash is actually pretty nice now.

Last complaint: I think this is tied to the fact that they can never figure out our service agreement, but I can never send my wife for service. It s her car, but I have to take it in myself. I m too worried about the service people either knowingly or unintentionally taking advantage of her. They charged her for our first service and I had to call to get it sorted out. Now she and I both don t feel comfortable taking it in because she asks less questions than I do and can get steam-rolled more easily. No bueno.

Now that I ve got the complaining out, I m honestly not sure if Mazda dealerships everywhere suck or it s just this dealership. I dread having services come up. I don t think I would ever buy another Mazda, mostly because of the dealership experience, and partly because I haven t been wow d by our car.