This review is for the entire Mazda customer servi...

This review is for the entire Mazda customer service experience, not just my experience at Jim Ellis Mazda. I had never had any issues with my 2013 Mazda3 until the day the transmission went out. I had all standard maintenance done on the car and by all measures treated it extremely well. I was stopped at a red light a couple of weeks ago and when the light turned green the car refused to move. Instead it behaved like it was in neutral. Simultaneously both the check engine and AT lights illuminated on the dash. Great. After a few moments I was able to get it into drive and immediately parked in the closest lot and had it towed to Jim Ellis Mazda for inspection.

At this point I called Mazda corporate customer service and advised them of the issue. They immediately ask you your car's mileage before they say anything else to determine if it's still under warranty. The powertrain warranty expires at 60k miles. I was at 62k. Mazda completely refused to help in any way. They have funds available to assist customers at their discretion (e.g. if a critical part fails close to warranty expiration), but they would not make any effort to do so. Instead they shouldered be with the $3200+ burden of replacing their faulty transmission. It is virtually unheard of for a transmission to fail at 62k mi when all standard maintenance has been done, yet this did not matter to Mazda as evidenced by their atrocious customer service.

The mechanic at Jim Ellis Mazda at least tried to work with me to reduce the labor cost and I do appreciate that.

What soured the whole situation even more is the fact that they gave me the car back with absolutely no gas in the tank. When I had it towed to the dealership I told them it was low on gas and would likely need a bit for them to do their testing and diagnostics. They acknowledged this, but then proceeded to do the diagnostic, repairs, and test drive without adding any fuel to the vehicle. When I started up the car to drive it home the gauge read completely empty. I went back in and asked them how they expected me to drive a car home with no gas in the tank. They told me there must be gas in the tank, otherwise how could they have test driven the vehicle. They said they have no emergency gas at the dealership, but there's a gas station nearby...

Absolutely awful customer service. I got the car to the nearest gas station on an empty tank, but not without sweating it out at three stoplights.

Awful experience all around. If you must buy a Mazda, best to get the extended warranty. Or better yet, do yourself a favor and buy a car from a company that cares about its customers.