View Full Version : Rejected brand new car !!
What an afternoon we've had, went to pick up our Mazda 6 estate today, brand new '57 plate:)
It's sitting in the showroom of a Watford main dealer and looks all clean an pristine, just about to sort out the paperwork when I said I need to look over it first.
Well, different paint finish on N/S front door, traces of cutting compound being used on edge of bonnet (fine scratches) and the front of the wing was misaligned and touchint the headlight/indicator. Also fine cutting compound lines on top edge of headlight.
All this clearly showed a large area of paintwork has been repaired (to a shit standard I might add) and even the wing has been replaced.
All this on a BRAND NEW car :blink:
Just spent hours argueing with them about how to proceed, formally rejected the car that has been registered in ou name etc.
We have missed the Sept 1st 'new car' bit, they didn't have another estate to lend us (for the dog), they have promised to get another brand new/same spec in three weeks and in the meantime are lending us a crappy hatchback.
No apology, no compo or price reduction, they are even suggesting it would be an idea if I inspect the next car on arrival at the dealers:blink: cause they are crap.
I must have put off loads of customers, I stood in the middle of a large showroom giving them what for, they keot trying to usher me to one side or outside but I told them I felt that potential customers needed to hear this:d
What a bloody disaster, Mazda UK will be getting a call on Monday morning, we've sold our other estate so are in the shit with no help from them.
Anyone else had an experience like this?
Sorry for the rant.
Paul
:d
cant you just tell them to stick it and buy a nice range rover?
PROBABLY BEEN USED BY A HIRE CAR COMPANY FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS ANYWAY
RIch - sorry caps
:d
cant you just tell them to stick it and buy a nice range rover?
PROBABLY BEEN USED BY A HIRE CAR COMPANY FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS ANYWAY
RIch - sorry caps
Telling them to stick it would be the easy way out for them;) We need this or another car so this way they will have to provide one for the short term at least.
Anyone else had an experience like this?
I haven't, but well done on holding your ground Paul. You want to make a real big fuss and see what type of compensation you can get.
dr_blackman
01-09-07, 18:13
I rejected my c2 vts when i had it new the other year for the same reasons mate!
I never had a replacement for 3 months lol... I had loads of different new cars as they didnt want me clocking silly miles on them lol... from c1's to picaso's i had lol...
I threatened to drive the car through a show room window if they didnt sort something out lol... as the brakes had an abs esp failure too lol :)
You did the right thing mate :)
Paul,
why did u buy a brand new car in the 1st place?
All new cars depreciate like a rock,
40% in 1 yr
50% in yr 2
and up to 65% by year 3.
My advice is to buy a 2 year old, with 20k, still under manufacturers warranty for 50% less. Forget the new reg, the novelty will wear off in 6 months!!
New cars are for muppets!!
Any way going back to ur initial post, if ur still set on a brand new one. I'd cancel the deal, write to Mazda UK and I am sure they will point you in the direction of another one and give you 10% off, as a good will gesture.
Markups on a new car are usually 15%-20% :d
Good on you Paul!
Most people would have said nothing and then moaned later. I have been really shocked at the way new cars are handled. I did a few weeks at a Vauxhall dealers a few years ago and all the "new" cars were sat out the back of the garage for months, open to the elements. Many had faults and failed the PDI....:blink:
They got a quick wash and wax, pre delivery inspection and off you go!
I would never buy a brand new car now. It's only the cars that are really bad for depreciation that lose 65% most are about the 50% mark.
H.
MrRalphMan
01-09-07, 18:26
Apparently Daihatsu's policy is that a car can have up to 3 panels painted before it's not classed as new.
If any panel has to be replaced, then it's not new.
Most if not all cars have some 'defect' that need covering.. normally by the prats who race em on and off the boats...
You are well within your rights to reject the car. I would also be looking for some compensation, make a fuss with Mazda UK.
Have you bought the car on finance? If so you have your 14day cool off period so you could cancel and walk away and take your buisness elsewhere.
Be as difficult as you can. Should be no problem for you. ;) :D :p
Cheers for comments, second hand these hold their price fairly well, we also want one in a specific colour too:)
Was gonna buy outright but they do 50% down and the rest on 0% over 3yrs so this was what we went for. They had the cheque for the 50% over a week ago so it could clear:( Today they offered us a full refund, they will still give us a full refund if attempt number two is a pile of shite too.
If we walk away we will be without an estate for the dog, our old Carina has been sold for a good price to a mate of mine so can't back out of that one out of principal.
If we go elswhere then they have no history with us, they don't owe us anything and no help with an interim car.
Mazda UK are the next step Monday morning, to my mind is this not a trading standards issue? They knowingly tried to sell it as 'new' with big damage repair being undertaken by them (replacement wing) and 'new' in mine and most other peoples views is mint, with the exception of a few minor marks I agree.
It was funny looking back at it, I'm in the middle of their showroom on a Saturday afternoon, loads of people/customers in and out and I'm blasting this guy telling him they have tried to palm off shite and how disgusted we are with the lot of them, I even tried dragging in other salesmen to ask for their opinions on what we were being offered but they stayed well out of it:d
I spoke to the sales director on the phone (what an arse) and one of the Directors (an even bigger arse). They were all so matter of fact, oh well sort out another one in three or so weeks so what's the problem?
Doug, thanks for the compliment;) I'm expecting at least £500 off the car or in cash for all this. As far as the 15-20% mark up, I took most of that anyway when striking the deal:D
Paul
DannoSupra
01-09-07, 20:24
It was probably dropped off the transporter.
was it an order for you?
was it an order for you?
Yes, ordered about 2 months ago! Even had reverse sensors fitted, chose the registration and colour:(
BTW, bit suspicious that they can get another in 3 weeks so told the guy this and insisted on taking the chassis number of the one we've rejected as I could see them taking it and having another go at the repair and trying to give it back to us :)
DannoSupra
01-09-07, 20:42
We'd never let a car go out if there was any colour change / paint damage to the new cars! Some main dealers are appauling!!!
Who do you work for then and what is considered acceptable?
DannoSupra
01-09-07, 20:55
I work for a Jaguar Dealership in north wales.
in my 5years of working there. we've never had anything like that... BUT it shouldnt be, obviously!
I worked for BMW in blackpool.
I repaired cars myself that had been damaged and sold as brand new.
I was shocked!
Its terrible. happens alot at with new cars. Like mentioned before they normaly get dinged when leaving factory/boat etc. Friend of mine ran the mini engine assembly line at oxford for a few months and told me about all the cars they bashed, scrapped, dinged etc. Even the way the engines were assembled was quite bad. pay peanuts and get monkeys!
The more I think about it the more I am leaning towards the fact they damaged it.
It arrived with them almost a month before, we waited for the '57 prefix.
If it was that badly damaged before it arrived then they'd have rejected it back to Mazda.
I appreciate that motors are damaged on the production line but then they are put right to a reasonable standard, this work was shocking imo.
There was no suprise or any comments like 'we hadn't noticed that' but instead the sales guy admitted he knew 10 days prior to it being damaged (he had been on holiday before) and that they had it repaired. He wouldn't comment on the obvious extent of repair:blink:
I stood there and called them all a bunch of cheating lying bastards and their must have been 15 plus sales staff etc. yet they all kept their heads down and let this guy take it all.
OK, I'm not small but I wouldn't have stood by and let me give out a barrage of abuse for 3 hrs in a showroom in front of customers and staff unless I knew that I was part of the guilty party.
If this don't get sorted out in a decent way than I'm gonna be handing out leaflets to potential customers sharing my experience every Saturday for months:)
Calmed down a bit now but just so gutted, hope a call to Mazda UK in the morning will restore our faith again?
Bit of an update on this.
Spent best part of the week on the phone to Mazda UK, total tossers who are coming down on the side of the cheating dealer:(
We managed to get a hatchback loan car improved to an estate after having a go at Mazda uk. Guess what, it's the car we rejected:D
Funny though as we didn't get it till Weds as it was in the bodyshop having the crap work rectified.....wtf ! I remind you that this is on a brand new car and it needs two days having the N/S tarted up.
Thankfully they were as shite the second time as the first and all the evidence is still fairly clear. To add to that, when we got it I spent half hour going over it again and I've now found a masking/paint line (colour difference too) on the inside rear door shut where it curves over the wheel arch.
This and the paint difference and cutting compound dust all point towards the fact that the entire N/S of this 'new' car have been re-painted, top to bottom with it fading out towards the back of the rear wing:blink:
We've been pushing harder than ever for Mazda uk to check this car themselves as we want to ensure the next one is legit and we are also seeking some form of compo for all the aggro and stress involved. Up to tonight they have ignored this request until we got through to a national Sales Director who was a bit more reasonable.
Within 15 mins some stroppy cow we had spoken to earlier phoned up to confirm that a Technician/Engineer will inspect the car next week:D
Our concerns are that it will be inspected at the dealer and that the guy checking it is also employed by Mazda. Has anyone had experience of this and how independent will it be?
Paul
How far is Mazda UK's head office... me being me, I'd drive it up to them, and wait at security till someone with authority came out and had a look at the car..
I did this with Sky a few years back after waiting 12 weeks to get my new installation fixed.... needless to say after my conversation with some head blokey, I arrived home to find an engineer waiting...
How far is Mazda UK's head office... me being me, I'd drive it up to them, and wait at security till someone with authority came out and had a look at the car..
I did this with Sky a few years back after waiting 12 weeks to get my new installation fixed.... needless to say after my conversation with some head blokey, I arrived home to find an engineer waiting...
I offered this two days ago :D The head office is in Dartford and I said I'd drive it there!
They said it needed to be inspected on the dealers premises and they won't entertain it being done anywhere else:(
I'm thinking of running it along to a local top end paint shop and see if they can inspect and report on it to me so I've got something in writing that is truely independent?
The fear is that the car in question will disappear once this 'inspection' has been done, gets rid of the evidence;)
Paul
I offered this two days ago :D The head office is in Dartford and I said I'd drive it there!
They said it needed to be inspected on the dealers premises and they won't entertain it being done anywhere else:(
I'm thinking of running it along to a local top end paint shop and see if they can inspect and report on it to me so I've got something in writing that is truely independent?
The fear is that the car in question will disappear once this 'inspection' has been done, gets rid of the evidence;)
Paul
Involve the media as well, get all the evidence together as well as independant report.
If it was me, I would have told them to poke the sale and gone elsewhere, I know Mazda wouldn't bat an eyelid, but I'd feel better knowing they wouldn't get my money.
Involve the media as well, get all the evidence together as well as independant report.
If it was me, I would have told them to poke the sale and gone elsewhere, I know Mazda wouldn't bat an eyelid, but I'd feel better knowing they wouldn't get my money.
The problem with going elswhere other than Mazda is that it's a bloody good car IMO :( The issues here have been caused by a shoddy main dealer not Mazda and we still want the car we searched over 6mths for and finally settled on.
It's a bloody nightmare, we've sold the old estate now so if we tell them to shove it we're in the shit through no fault of our own and they get away with the minimum of grief :(
I'm not going to let this go so easily and will keep the pressure on.
Wrote an e-mail to that 'Honest John', he's got a website and I think writes a column in the Telegraph (bit posh for me:))
Don't know if he'll print it though?
Also been in touch with Herts Trading Standards, been allocated a case number and they are sitting on the sidelines at the moment watching what goes on:)
Took it to a respected local bodyshop yesterday abd they said 'it looks like they've painted it with Hammerite'.
They would be appalled with that work on a ten/fifteen year old car..........I'll remind you that this is a repair on a brand new car and the dealer wasn't going to tell us that the whole N/S has been repaired:blink:
A few pics: One shows the finish, one shows the obvious mask/paint line on the inside of the rear door shut (they now say they repaired 'slight damage' to front door only!)
The one of the underside of the bonnet shows just some of the cutting compound dust left on the car. It's in seams and around lights and joins all along the N/S, gives away the areas worked on.
was it an order for you?
:( Yes, ordered about 2 months ago! Even had reverse sensors fitted, chose the registration and colour
You chose the registration? I didn't know you could do that.
How does that work?
:(
You chose the registration? I didn't know you could do that.
How does that work?
The dealers usually have a list of registrations that they have been given to use.
They sometimes let you choose a registration from that list if you ask.
Paul, that paint work is awful, dont know how they expected to get away with that. :(
:(
You chose the registration? I didn't know you could do that.
How does that work?
Just chose it from a list of about 30 that they have allocated to them. Nothing special but it looked good, better than something like **57 UXZ .
You chose the registration? I didn't know you could do that.
How does that work?
The dealer has a list of reg numbers
when i choose mine it was all EA52 then you had the choice of the last 3 letters but some maybe different and let you choose the first 2 digits but im not sure.
Paul, that paint work is awful, dont know how they expected to get away with that. :(
At the moment Mazda UK are listening to them more than us and they are saying minor paint repair to the front door only?
We've aske for a Mazda technician to come and look at it but they will only look at it at the dealership so the chance of an honest opinion is gonna be a suprise.
I'm wondering if we shoud get an independent report done before they look at it? I can see this car going missing once they have it back for the inspection.
At the moment Mazda UK are listening to them more than us and they are saying minor paint repair to the front door only?
We've aske for a Mazda technician to come and look at it but they will only look at it at the dealership so the chance of an honest opinion is gonna be a suprise.
I'm wondering if we shoud get an independent report done before they look at it? I can see this car going missing once they have it back for the inspection.
Thats a good idea mate, get it inspected before they have a look.
Paul sorry to see this. It is an absolute piss take and bordering on the criminal in my mind.
Have a look at the trade descriptions act "The Trade Descriptions Act 1968 makes it an offence for a trader to apply, by any means, false or misleading statements, or to knowingly or recklessly make such statements about services"
as they have tried to sell the car as brand new when it has clearly had paintwork restoration through theirs or someone else's fault.
I would definitely get an independant report and then explain to Mazda that you are seeking legal advice. perhaps sending them copies of the photos would help ?
Outrageous! I'd be livid.
The latest, Mazda UK has finally agreed to send a Technician to inspect this car. The inspection will be carried out by a Mazda Technician at the Watford dealership. Not ideal and we wonder how independent this report will be?
Not too bothered though as we now have a big stick to beat them with. Due to their delay and after the inspection I had Saturday it prompted us to get a written report from a totally independent Consulting Engineer/Assessor.
Well, this was carried out today. Waiting for the written report but the guy was disgusted too with the condition of the car and he confirmed all the problems I've mentioned plus a few more!!
Mazda UK have really shot themselves in the foot by dragging their heals and not listening to us, the customer, and taking far too long to send out someone and take this matter seriously. One major factor this guy said was that he considered the repairs that had been carried out to have de-valued the car by at least £2000 !! This, on a car that the dealer has admitted they would have been happy to let us drive away in on September the 1st.
All I can say is that now we have this report..................................bring it on Mazda :D
Christ, this is better than Corrie :) Bring it on Paul, £500 quid is far too little for comp... :eyebrows:
Christ, this is better than Corrie :) Bring it on Paul, £500 quid is far too little for comp... :eyebrows:
That's what we are thinking now, faced with how damaging this could be and the way they've carried on up to now I think they really need to come up with something better:)
At the moment the only offer on the table is a shitty Supagard treatment for free :blink: They flog it for about £300 for the full treatment, on a new car it's easy to apply and about £30 off Ebay. Told them to shove it:p
At the moment, lost time and the cost of the inspection and messing around with insurance etc. has cost us over £200 so I'm thinking it needs to be a good offer.
The ultimate point of this is to ensure that we get the car we ordered and not a damaged repaired wreck (don't remember the Mazda 'zoom zoom' ads showing these?).
Took the car over yesterday to the dealer for the inspection by the Mazda UK technician and also to inspect the new car that has now arrived there.
Firstly, the Mazda UK guy was very good, thorough check and seemed to really know his stuff. He checked the whole car, paint thickness, photos, the lot. Very professional in my opinion and actually came across as a decent bloke. He has to write up the report and didn't let anything out about what's going to be in it so I guess we just wait?
Me and him then took ages looking around the new one delivered to replace the original rejected one. I have to say this is more like we expected, couple of points to tidy up on the paint, small dull area and the lot needs a good going over with a clay bar as there is some contamination on the surface. One of the front tyres has a nasty tear in the sidewall so they are going to replace it. All in all, more like the quality we were expecting in the first place, few small points but if they carry out the correction of these properly then great, we will accept it.
So with that out of the way it was time for a chat, won't go into details but the dealer has now made a decent cash offer plus covering all our expenses including the cost of the engineers report, a more reasonable offer of compensation . This offer we are now considering.
I'd like to say that this situation should never have happend in our opinion and then when it did the dealer and Mazda UK should have acted differently. It would have been better if we, the customer, weren't made to feel like we were the underdog and had to struggle to get them to take us seriously. It has taken a hell of a lot of calls and time from us to get to this stage today, I do believe that the technician from Mazda seeing the car finally in the flesh was the key to getting somewhere with this and he was/is a credit to Mazda, not because he sided with anyone (he didn't let on anything prior to writing his report).
I hope this is now coming to an end, we should pick the new one up next week, all being well and hoping that they don't damage it in the meantime and correct the points spotted today.
Anyway, fingers crossed.
Paul
Glad you are finally getting this sorted mate :)
Sounds like you are getting there but after all this aggro I can't believe that there were such obvious faults with the replacement!
I'll never buy a brand new car again. I have had about 5 now and the novelty has now worn off.....:blink:
H.
The general manager of the dealership said yesterday that the original f*cked up car will go back to the paint shop they usedand will be stripped right back down and painted correctly.
The fact that they were so obvious and the struggle with Mazda UK to listen to us rather than the BS that the dealer was coming out with just added to the stress.
Yesterday the meeting with the general manager was calm but armed with my report and the fact that I believe the Mazda technician had come to a similar conclusion left him in a weak position. I made it clear we would take this all the way if need be, not good for them considering we are talking attempted deception in my view.
Still tainted the whole experience but I guess that's life these days, not the same standards of service that once were around?
I'm happy we have dealt with it correctly and the Engineers report was worth it's weight in gold, especially since we are claiming back the cost of that too as part of the deal:D
I'll never buy a brand new car again. I have had about 5 now and the novelty has now worn off.....:blink:
H.
I would normally agree but these estates are hard to find for much less a year or so old in good condition/good mileage.
The deal we struck in the first place was a cracking price anyway, add to that the compo we are now looking at and I doubt that there is much in it to a second hand one;)
vBulletin® v3.7.3, Copyright ©2000-2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.