Mazda South service

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Is somewhere south of acceptable.

How long does it take to fix a broken windshield wiper? Evidently a week, if you choose the wrong auto shop.

I've almost always brought my car to Mazda South on the motor mile for the recommended service intervals. It's where the car was originally purchased (I bought it used), it's within walking distance of my office, and they have generally finished the job quickly and for a fairly reasonable price. Not so this time.

My driver's side wiper stopped working about a month ago, and this week I brought the car in on Tuesday. I also wanted them to investigate the squeaky clutch pedal I had been annoyed by for the last few months.

They left me a voice mail stating that to fix the squeak, they would have to replace the clutch master cylinder, that my fuel filter needed to be replaced, my transmission fluid should be flushed, and that they would have to order a replacement wiper arm in order to fix the windshield wiper.

The first three issues spun me up for several reasons. They had just done a 90,000 mile service in the last month or two, why weren't the fuel filter and fluid issues resolved then? They were supposed to be on the checklist. And replacing the master cylinder for a squeak that is occuring the cab of the car? That's ludicrous.

Bear had a vet appointment Wednesday afternoon, so I scheduled the repair for Thursday. About two hours after I dropped the car off, I got a phone call to inform me that the wrong part had been ordered and it would be Friday before they could get the correct one. Would have been nice if they'd double-checked it on Wednesday instead of waiting for me to bring my car in again.

At this point I arranged for a loaner car. I was tired of having to sit around waiting for their shuttle and asking my co-workers for rides there to pick up my car at the end of the day. They didn't balk too much, which was the high point of this experience.

I called after lunch today to get an update in the hopes that I could come in before traffic got too bad. No good news. Apparently they didn't realize that a second wiper part was stripped out as well until after they replaced the wiper arm and reassembled everything. The replacement should be there on Monday. Now I'm stuck driving a Protege that has as much power as my lawnmower and hoping that they don't manage to screw anything else up before I get my car back.

From now on, all my repairs are going to Murphy's Garage. I've used them before and regret not going there this time.

2 Comments

Mom said:

Or bring it back home and take it to Service 1st in Edna. They are pretty awesome.

tkaspar said:

It ended up taking 8 days from when I dropped the car off until I got it back. I stopped by Monday on my way back into Austin from my fishing trip to check the status, and they were still waiting on the second part. They didn't call at all to update me Tuesday, and finally let me know Wednesday that it was ready to be picked up.

I got some small satisfaction from returning the rental bug-spattered and with an empty gas tank.

BTW, the clutch now works without a sound since the lubrication they put on it has had some time to work its way onto everything.

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This page contains a single entry by Travis published on October 17, 2003 3:30 PM.

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