Where do you Service your car?

[TM3]

Where do you take your car for servicing?

[mz3er]

Usually private garages are a better bet.. Especially if you have a mechanic that you can trust to bring back to time and time again.

Dealers will charge you a fixed rate for a service package even if it takes them half the time to do it.

However, new vehicles that are still under warranty.. you may want to look to a dealer.:sarc

[TOmz3]

It\'s better to take your 3 to the dealer. It\'s a new model and they\'re most familiar with it.

[bluntman]

I\'ve had my previous car serviced exclusively at the dealer, I\'ll do the same with this one. I read one horror story in another forum where the driver took it to one of those \"quick lube\" places and they put in the wrong oil filter. Well, a few miles later and the oil pan was completely empty. Obviously the engine seized. The dealer said that it would cost several thousand dollars to have a replacement engine shipped over from Japan, let alone several weeks. I\'m not sure if the quick lube shop agreed to pay some or all of the repair costs.

Supposedly, Mazda changed the oil filter design early into the model year so that\'s another thing the dealer would know about.

[Xenon]

I DOn\'t have my car yet, but no matter what car I have, I pretty sure I will bring it to a dealer. If I don\'t like the service department where I bought my car, I\'ll just go to another dealer.

The beauty of the GTA is that there is more than one dealer for the area :D Survival of the best!

[DJArum]

Well, Mazda mechanics should know your car the best. They take courses to be certified for specific mazda models. So, I would say dealer.

[Xenon]

Originally posted by DJArum


Well, Mazda mechanics should know your car the best. They take courses to be certified for specific mazda models. So, I would say dealer.

That\'s true too. I\'m not sure how good the people at Midas are... especially since the 3 is a newer model. If by chance I had an RX-8, there is no way I\'d let anyone other than Mazda touch my rotory.

[FLIPDADY]

Not to rip on small shops but I would rather pay more money knowing that the guy working on my car is trained to work on my car. Not some general repair guy who works on all makes. I do all my own services but I only use original parts.

[Xenon]

If you take it to small shops, is there a chance that the part they used could void the warrenty in any way?

[FLIPDADY]

Originally posted by Xenon


If you take it to small shops, is there a chance that the part they used could void the warrenty in any way?
As long as it\'s a Mazda part that they are installing, I don\'t see a problem with warranty.

[sw0rdfish]

Originally posted by FLIPSPEED

As long as it\'s a Mazda part that they are installing, I don\'t see a problem with warranty.

Until it breaks and Mazda blames it on the shitty install right?

I\'ma dealer guy as well... untill the Warranty is over, I\'m all about Mazda Dealerships

[Xenon]

Originally posted by sw0rdfish

Until it breaks and Mazda blames it on the shitty install right?

I\'ma dealer guy as well... untill the Warranty is over, I\'m all about Mazda Dealerships

I totally agree with that.

[bluntman]

I read that Mazda decided to change the type of oil filter to a conventional canister type filter early on in production. Imagine if you (unknowingly) have a 3 with the non-canister type filter go to a quick lube shop, drain your oil (fully or paritially) only to find out that they only stock the newer filters. Stick to a dealership for service.

[Xenon]

That\'s what I like about going to the dealership. They will always have the proper part for your car, and since their staff is certified, you know you are getting a good job.

[miggiddy]

Well since I bought (got suckered) into buying the extended warranty (7/160) I\'m pretty sure I\'ll be doing most of my service at a dealership. Any other car I\'ve had that was used I would take it where ever and did the oil changes myself. Except during winters, I didn\'t want to freeze my butt off.

[bluntman]

Originally posted by miggiddy


Well since I bought (got suckered) into buying the extended warranty (7/160) I\'m pretty sure I\'ll be doing most of my service at a dealership. Any other car I\'ve had that was used I would take it where ever and did the oil changes myself. Except during winters, I didn\'t want to freeze my butt off.

Don\'t think of it as being suckered into buying the extended warranty. Think of it this way, I\'m paying my car over 5 years. Since the standard warranty ends after 3 that\'s two years of being unprotected. Broken down the 7/160 MAP is cheaper than the 5 year MAP, hopefully you\'ll keep your car that long or make sure to tell whomever you sell you car to in several years that it\'s still covered under warranty (which means that you can ask for more money when selling it).

[miggiddy]

Originally posted by bluntman

Don\'t think of it as being suckered into buying the extended warranty. Think of it this way, I\'m paying my car over 5 years. Since the standard warranty ends after 3 that\'s two years of being unprotected. Broken down the 7/160 MAP is cheaper than the 5 year MAP, hopefully you\'ll keep your car that long or make sure to tell whomever you sell you car to in several years that it\'s still covered under warranty (which means that you can ask for more money when selling it).

I tried/try to convince myself of those very good points as I was buying it. The extra assurance of \"incase sh-t happens\" is nice I admit. The stupid part is that I hope I never have to bring the car in for any repair, damn Catch-22.

I plan on driving the car into the ground unless my needs change, or win the lottery :D

[Xenon]

You know what the weird thing is... I think I\'d still buy the 3 if I won the lottery... I\'d do al sorts of mods to it, but I think I\'d still have a three in my garage...

Next to my BMW M3 and my Mecedes-Benz SLR...

[MarkhamMazda3]

Well here is the thing about getting yoru car serviced at the dealer. You will rarely get yoru care serviced by an actual certified official or whatever you want to call it Mazda Mechanic. Most of the small work liek oil changes, grease jobs, tire rotations, stuff like that is often done by their regular mechanics and not by they certified mechanics. Even large jobs such as transmission changes are often done by the reular mechanics. The nly time you will probaby get your car serviced by a certified mechanic is when it is a job that will take the certified one 10 minutes and will take the regular one 1 hour. If you ever need to do any work on your car that is outside of warranty including body work, I suggest you get it done at New World. It is this shop on kennedy road near Big Al\'s aquarium and they do an amazing job on everything. the shop itself doesnt look that great buyt the people there really know what they are talking about and they won\'t charge you an arm and a leg.

[Xenon]

I always prefer going to the dealer, because if anything they do messes up, you can blame Mazda, There is no one to shift the blame to.

[Newlook]

You can blame them, but you still have to pay whatsoever.

I still remember I brought my Nissan to the dealer because the brakes had weird noises. For I think 3 times they did something to it but never solved the problem. They took it out for road tests but didn\'t hear anything like we described. But then you STILL HAVE TO PAY the damn fee but with the problem still exist!

If they charge me an arm and a leg they better get the problem fixed. This is one thing that I don\'t like the dealer. You pay so much but it doesn\'t mean your problem solved. And you don\'t get to see what they actually do to your car in the shop, while at a smaller garage you can. I\'ve heard quite a few horrific stories about service at dealerships...